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We all love dry herb vaporizers, but have you ever wondered how they work? From desktop vaporizer units to portable devices, dry herb vaporizers combine simple principles with advanced technology to deliver tasty and robust clouds of vapor. We’re going to break down the construction of dry herb vaporizers as well as what heating styles are utilized, and spotlight a few of our favorite vapes currently out.
Components of a Dry Herb Vape and How They Work
Although there is a wide selection of Dry Herb Vaporizers, they can be broken down into four crucial components. If you’re looking for a dry herb vaporizer you’ll want to keep an eye out for labels like “lab grade glass” and “premium grade ceramic” to ensure you’re buying a top tier device. Let’s take a look at the main components of dry herb vaporizers and how they affect your session.
Energy Source
This is what provides your device with power. Dry herb desktop vaporizers will be most likely be powered by a plug-in due to their greater power consumption than portable devices. Portable dry herb vapes will be powered via rechargeable batteries. Elite portable dry herb vaporizers will have swappable batteries to make for extended sessions.
If you hate being unable to vape during charging look for a vaporizer that features “pass-through” charging. These types of vaporizers can be used while the unit is being charged.
Chamber
While your device’s battery choice might not be at the forefront of your mind, the heating chamber should be. This is where you’ll place your dry herb for vaporization. Concentrate vaporizers rely on coils for heating the material, but dry herb vapes use more of an “oven” style housing system. Usually made from ceramic, the chamber will be housed away from the coil (or whatever heating element is used) to ensure your dry herb is not combusted. Your dry herb vaporizer will use either conduction or convection heating, we’ll get more in depth on that later but for now, it best to think of conduction as the quick heating system and convection as the slow and steady method.
Delivery System
More geared towards desktop dry herb vapes, the delivery system is what transfers your vapor from the chamber to your lips. Desktop vaporizers will use balloons filled with vapor or whip tubing to deliver vapor, while portable and pen style dry herb vaporizers deliver vapor directly from the mouthpiece attached to the unit.
Dry Herb Vaporizer Heating Elements
Dry herb vaporizers will use either convection or conduction heating to vaporize your dry herb. The best desktop units will use convection heating, while most pen style dry herb vapes us conduction heating.
Conduction heating lends itself to vape pens due to the quick heat up time this heating style is capable of. Dry herb is placed directly onto the heating element and vaporized from there. If you’re a beginner vape user this style of heating is the easiest to use and units that use it tend to cost less than those that use convection heating. It is a little harder to regulate the temperature of your device with conduction heating, and the risk of combustion is greater compared to that of a convection vaporizer.
Convection heating is the process of vaporizing your dry herb by coating it in hot air. Your material never comes in contact with the heating element, ensuring absolutely no combustion takes place. Most desktop vaporizers use this method and elite portable dry herb vaporizers will as well. This is the best form of heating for someone who wants to experience the full flavor of their material since there is not a heat source touching your dry herb it can’t be sullied by “hot spots” during the vaping process.
Final Thoughts
Understanding how a device works and can fit into your routine goes a long way to making any purchase, hopefully, you’ve learned a little more about how your dry herb vaporizer works and can make your next buy a successful one. Drop a comment below and tell us about your favorite dry herb vaporizer!
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