Vapor Brothers EZ Change Whip Kit

[rob feature]

Does anybody have any experience with the Vapor Brothers EZ Change Whip Kit? It looks like a vast improvement over the original hands-free, but at $60 retail I'm wondering if it's worth the cost. Err, of course it's worth the cost if it works well. Anybody know how well it works? Calling a screen change on the stocker frustrating would be the world's biggest understatement.

Anybody?

 

[stoned-trout]

I had an old vap bros setup with the glass whip..changing screens wasn't that hard at all...cleaning it was worse...I am done with vaps so its now a bowl...sorry no help...curious myself tho

 

[rob feature]

I think part of my problem was the way these screens were cut, as they had a slight indent from a dull die on the edge making the screens slightly smaller in diameter. But even on a good day it's a pain in the ass. Glad you found it not so bad, but it was getting to be a deal breaker for me.

Might as well be the guinea pig. I found one for $43 shipped so I'll do a little writeup once it gets here.

 

[stoned-trout]

yeah let us know .. I will be waiting at the van down by the river....

 

[rob feature]

From every perspective this is an improvement on the original whip. I have the original, which I just discovered after cleaning is cracked, so this is good timing. I couldn’t stand to use it anyway anymore. I’d been sort of trying to work out fixes on my own for the old design & nothing seemed to work. The hose was constantly coming off, the mouthpiece broke very early on because it’s (err, was) super thin, screen changes require the patience of a brain surgeon, and the minimum bowl is way more than I want to consume in one sitting. Oh, and since it’s glass, you can see right through it when it gets good & gross.

So let’s start with the packaging

Nothing to see here really – just an easily-opened package. There’s no packing around any of the ceramic parts, so maybe that means they’re pretty tough.

If you were to buy one of these off the shelf, you’d be able to see what you’re buying.

Let’s have a look inside shall we?

It comes with everything I need to get vaping again! There are some inconsistencies in packaging however regarding the website where I bought the whip. I’ll talk more about this later in the interest of staying on topic.

I’d spoken with Vapor Brothers some time ago about the whip design and how it didn’t like to hold on to an oily tapered hose. Someone listened!

As you can see – a much-improved design over the standard whip.

I’ve always had 3 major complaints about this whip. The tendency of the whip to separate from the hose more than it stayed put made the original piece a major pain in the ass. While I don’t have many miles on it yet, this new one appears to be a vastly superior design.


..........

.

 

[rob feature]

The other 2 major complaints came from here

The first is the bowl size. This new bowl will stay packed with much less material than the glass version! And that’s huge for me. I’ve always thought the glass bowl was too large for one sitting & have taken my concerns to many head shops (including where I got my vape) with no luck. Obviously none of them knew about this piece. I was even considering having a custom piece made before I discovered this kit.

The other complaint has been addressed here as well as this design allows for rapid and easy screen changes.

This video illustrates the speed & ease with which the change can be done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62F5ZKBOKtY

The problem with the glass whip I have is it’s picky. It wants a specific diameter screen and anything else simply will not do. There are 2 big issues with that. First of all, it needs to be a snug fit, so getting it into place without creasing or otherwise damaging it is a challenge (I’m being nice here). And 2nd of all, it needs to be a snug fit. If it isn’t air flows around the screen instead of through it and the efficiency of the machine is greatly reduced. This kit addresses all that in one swoop.

You can see here that the screen isn’t perfectly flat – affecting air flow.

The hose is softer & more pliable as well. This is a good thing as before it tended to sort of boss the whip around. With this more flexible hose, it seems less likely that you’ll accidentally pull the whip out of the vape. Below my vape lives a marble chess board & I think the marble will win in a fight.

Now I’d mentioned before that there were some hangups. Here’s how that goes. I’m going to take the high road for now & avoid mentioning the retailer until tomorrow. If you’re about to order stuff & would like to know, I’ll gladly tell you over PM. Because here’s the deal.

The retailer’s website and the contents don’t match. The website is offering the kit in its unadulterated form just like Vapor Brothers advertises it. But what I found is a makeshift version of that.

You can see in the picture that there have been alterations to the packaging.

Holding it to the light you can see that 3 ceramic screens has been changed to 2 ceramic screens & regular whip tip has been covered with white-out. That’s because that’s what’s in the package. That part is accurate. But according to the website, you also get the regular tip & one other ceramic screen (as they’re part of the standard kit which is being advertised). As this was done with whiteout & pen, I’m assuming it wasn’t done by the manufacturer.

That’s irrelevant to me however. Customer service offered 2 remedies. They said they’d try, but could not promise anything, to scrounge up one of these from somewhere & send it over. That would be lovely. However the other option in the case they couldn’t come up with one was to give me some sort of in-store points supposedly worth $5. The tips cost $10, but he offered me $5. And not money – only some sort points to use on my next order which at this point will never happen. I mentioned I’d only be interested in an actual refund and not points if they couldn’t round up a part & was shot down. They also said that finding a part may be difficult even though they sell them. I’m not sure what that’s all about. The whole thing seems a bit shady. If I had to guess, I’d say they’re pulling out the extra tip & one of the ceramic screens & selling them separately and hoping people won’t notice.

Oh, and the kit did come with 3 metal screens which weren’t on any list, but those grow on trees around here.

So to be clear, the kit that I have is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s the retailer that concerns me. And if the powers that be around here don’t mind, I’ll likely out the offender soon so that maybe it will spare someone here the trouble of dealing with a shady retailer.

 

[rob feature]

So I felt the need to quantify the difference between these bowls because it seems significant on first glance. I can't be super-precise as quantifying the curve of the glass is beyond something I can do with my set of tools. But I can get close & don't even need calculus. Well, I need first day calculus theory that talks about estimating the area of little rectangles under the curve, so no problem mon.

I'm figuring the average inner diameter of the glass bowl (where I pack it) to be about 16mm. The new ceramic bowl is a perfect or near perfect 12mm cylinder. That may not sound significant, but when you calculate area, the difference becomes more obvious.

The glass bowl has an average useful (to me) area of about 201.1mm² where the ceramic version comes in at around 113.1mm². They both need to be packed to about the same height to maintain cohesion.

In other words, this will cut my consumption almost by half

 

[rob feature]

I just wanted to post a follow-up since I've had a couple of weeks to use the vape.

But first I want to start by mentioning the retailer who sold it. This was purchased from Vapornation.com. As they never contacted me when they said they would, I wound up contacting them six times. The first was to let them know the part was missing. The 2nd was after I never got a call later that day as promised to let me know how things were going. The other 4 were about the same thing. Each time they told me they'd need to contact Vapor Brothers. Not that they'd contacted them and had some answer for me but they still needed to contact Vapor Brothers. I realize it may sound like I was being a little too persistent but they missed every deadline they gave me, never kept me informed & just basically gave the impression that they could care less.

They're still refusing to offer any type of refund for the missing part and are only interested in kicking the can down the road and giving excuses like 'the manager is out of town'. No remedy has yet been provided nor offered beside the offer of five 'points'. I have dealt with poor businesses before, but this is the first online retailer who has ever stonewalled me. At least they're consistent. I've contacted them for the last time and turned the matter over to my credit card company who was more than willing to help.

I hate that I even felt the need to go there, but there it is.

Moving on.

I'm changing the screens far more often than on the old whip. The most uses I've gotten out of it is 10 without a screen change. Yesterday I had to change after 2 uses. I guess it varies among strains. The good thing about this is they're easy to clean after just a few uses. It only takes a few seconds and a little isopropyl.

I've moved completely away from the ceramic screens & use the metal ones only. The ceramic supposedly gets better with time, but they let too much air through for me.

I've found that I need to use higher temperatures now as the screen is further away - not sure of the distance but it's obvious. I'm thinking maybe 20% more dial is needed. So it uses a little more electricity because of this, but it saves the whip.

I think that's all for now. I'll post up if I think of anything else. Happy vaping!

 

[gekolite]

I do not use a hands free , so they make a mini whip that uses a smaller amount , I get about 4 good hits or more

 

[rob feature]

I've seen that. It's all one piece though right? Or are they making a small modular whip now?

Either way, I'm good now. I can get away with little enough for 2-3 good hits. I'd love to find a way to get just one good one, but have designs on getting my Ego-C Twist to do that trick. They sell a flower attachment which I understand will make things even more efficient & hella portable. Ima try to get my hands on one very soon.

Speaking of - I need to review that vape. I've had 5 months with it now & it has good stories. Now if I can just remember to get that started. What was I saying again?