The Vaporizer Buyer's Guide: 4 Things to Consider | Leafly

As the cannabis industry grows, more and more ingestion methods pop up with increasing quality and product diversity. One of them is vaping, which has gained popularity over the years. If you’re thinking of purchasing a vaporizer, there are four important considerations to keep in mind. Fortunately, we’ve highlighted them below to help you make a more informed purchasing decision. Good luck!

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Flower vs. Concentrate

This is probably the number one question you’ll want to ask yourself: “Do I want to refill with cannabis flower or concentrate?” If you enjoy smoking and are planning on splitting time between your vaporizer and, say, rolling papers, you will probably want a vaporizer that takes loose leaf so you don’t have to purchase both flower and concentrates. If you are planning on ditching smoking for vaporizing (perhaps due to health concerns associated with smoking), you can commit full-time to concentrates unabashedly.

From an economic standpoint, the two are different beasts. Concentrate cartridges run at about $40 a pop and provide anywhere from 100 to 200 pulls from the pen, whereas flower vapes operate by the traditional “bowl” system: the chamber is comparable to an average-sized bowl, with the cost of filling dependent upon the cannabis strain, quality, provider, etc.

Keep in mind that in terms of strain selection, in today’s market, flowers offer a much greater variety than concentrates. So if you’re a connoisseur of sorts, a loose leaf vaporizer will still provide you with that exploration/experience. However, market growth is expected to be vast and fast, so the future is bright for concentrate fans.

Efficiency

Didn’t think you’d ever need to recall the difference between conduction and convection, did you? Turns out Chem 101 was useful for, if nothing else, making an informed loose leaf vaporizer purchase. Conduction and convection describe heat transfer: conduction is motionless (think metal against metal), whereas convection requires liquid or gas to move the energy (think steam).

A good example of a conduction vaporizer is the Pax by Ploom, which uses a metal chamber to heat ground flower. Alternatively, the Firefly is a convection vaporizer that heats the flower with hot air. Convective vaporizers are — in theory — more efficient; conductive heating (using a metal chamber) is often uneven (flower touching the chamber walls will receive more heat than flower in the center of the chamber) and inefficient (they heat continuously, even when you aren’t inhaling, which can waste flower).

Depending on how tightly you pack the conduction vape chamber, you may have to stir the flower after a couple pulls to achieve even heating. However, this point is moot if you’re going with concentrates, which have already eliminated the need to decarboxylate (or “activate”) the cannabinoids. If environmental stewardship is of importance, loose leaf vapes are clearly superior with less plastic waste and without the chemical extraction process.

Convenience

This comes down to how you want to use your vaporizer. If it’s a quick, on-the-go, one-two puff you prefer, concentrates make a lot of sense: there is no heating time, and vape pens are usually small and inconspicuous. Alternatively, if you’re looking to hold group sessions or only vape at home, a loose leaf flower vape that requires heating time makes a lot of sense.

Preparing the device is an important consideration: for loose leaf vaporizers, the chamber must be loaded before every use with ground flower (don’t forget your grinder), and the vape should be cleaned regularly. Concentrates can go either way: some take screw-in, disposable cartridges while others require loading (that can be messy), although refills are needed infrequently.

Battery life and recharge time are also important considerations; battery-run loose leaf vaporizers have an on-off switch and continuously drain power while they’re on, with a charge life comparable to a laptop. Alternatively, most vape pens do not have an on-off switch and only use power when you are vaping, reducing the frequency of recharging.

Along those same lines, if portability isn’t a factor, an entire subset of plug-in, stationary vaporizers become viable options.

Experience

This one is for the connoisseurs. If the experience of smoking is a great joy for you, it’s likely you have a large interest in the taste and smell of the plant. Each vaporizer on the market today comes with an added unavoidable taste and smell that will factor into your experience. As with smoking methods, trial and error is the best method for finding the vape that fits your palate, but in general, loose leaf vapes provide a stronger taste than concentrates.

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Further, the smell of flower that has already been vaped is potent and often objectionable, meaning you’ll want to empty your loose leaf chamber shortly after each use, which is not a concern for concentrates. Lastly, many people covet the headiness that comes with smoking. Vaping, aligning with the cleaner method it is, produces lighter effects. This can be good or bad depending on what you’re looking for — for some this means clearer effects; for others it means weaker effects.

Are there any vaporizers you’ve grown to love and would like to recommend? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

On July 31, , the GMP Collective, an organization comprised of industry professionals advancing the science and safety of cannabis, presented their latest webinar, “Vaporizer Vigilance: Navigating Standards, Risks, and Common Issues in Cannabis Vaporizers.” Moderated by Bethany Moore, Director of Content Strategy and Market Growth for the GMP Collective, the webinar featured perspectives from three guest speakers: Darwin Millard, Technical Director at Cannabis Safety & Quality (CSQ); Shawna Vreeke, Head of Research and Toxicology at True Terpenes; and Audra Horridge, Vice President of Technical Solutions at ACTIVE.

The first question in the webinar addressed the current state of the vaporizer marketplace in terms of safety standards and regulations and how they're evolving. Shawna Vreeke noted the practice of adding non-cannabis ingredients to vaporizers and her work on developing a standard designed to protect the safety of the consumer from these exogenous ingredients.

The speakers then discussed common issues with design and functionality associated with vaporizer devices along with steps that both manufacturers and consumers could take to prevent risks. Darwin Millard explained that clogging and leaking are top concerns with vaporizer hardware, and he and Audra Horridge further elaborated on all the variables, including the consumer, that can cause a device to fail. “There rarely is one finger to point at one particular cause; we all need to be mindful about how we manufacture, fill, and handle these devices for the best performance,” Horridge stated.

The webinar also discussed the health and safety risks of poorly manufactured vaporizers. Horridge identified overuse of adhesives, the ohm of the coil, and ceramic mouthpieces as potential for risks, and Millard agreed that the industry needs to ask more questions, conduct more research, and develop more standards in this area to assess their health implications. One action Vreeke suggested consumers take is checking labels for cannabinoid percentages—low cannabinoid content could possibly indicate the presence of toxic dilutants. Millard also pointed out that legitimate cartridges will have serial numbers that consumers can look up.

A significant real-life example of health and safety risks is the e-vaping product-use-associated lung injury (EVALI) outbreak that resulted from dangerous compounds inhaled from the devices. “Vitamin E acetate during the EVALI crisis is the best example that we have, and I think it was really important for the industry to get that wake up call and realize that we can't just put whatever we want in these products,” Vreeke stated. She and Millard also discussed the capping of terpene concentrations, as higher concentrations of terpenes can cause irritation and inflammation. 

Vapes: What Are You Actually Inhaling?

A review of a study on vapes found four major factors related to the production of vape cartridges that warrant additional attention: cutting agents, temperature, flavoring, and hardware and heavy metals.

In offering suggestions for consumer education, Horridge recommended more consumer outreach from brands. She stated, “I don't want to go as far as to say regulation for notices or pamphlets or labeling, but maybe some very minimal regulations on what is printed on these boxes in terms of best use…tips and tricks on their social media and other marketing and at the dispensary level with literature, is what I would love to see.” To this, Millard added, “consumers are really their first and last source of protection of for themselves. So the more they can arm themselves with education, the better and the more that the industry can help generate those resources.” Vreeke noted that the more information a consumer has, the more they are able to weigh risks for themselves and make informed choices.

The speakers also discussed regulatory challenges faced by manufacturers and retailers in ensuring vaporizer safety. Millard explained the proposed standards from the Vape Device Safety and Testing Initiative from ASTM International’s D37 Committee on Cannabis and how they are going to help regulators, manufacturers, and consumers. Horridge provided more specifics on the toxicology tests on aerosols and puff topography studies being conducted. “We need this research and this data,” explained David Vaillencourt, CEO and founder of the GMP collective. “Science is always evolving, so it's really exciting. Trying to keep up with the regulations and the safety parameters based on the latest research is just part of the part of the equation. The industry evolves and we get more mature as more states come online.”

Live questions from attendees included topics such as vape hardware originating in China, health concerns and or improvements to all-in-one vapes, and heavy metal testing.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Industrial Vaporizer.