u know the thing that vaporizes the actives in herbs you would otherwise smoke, so that you won’t have to inhale the bi-products of combustion like tar, carcinogens, whatever.
anyway anybody can report positive experience from their use ? there seem to be many different models on the market, even portable ones ( battery powered ).
so are they any good and which one should i get ?
Well I have had the good fortune to try various vapourizers on the market and can give you some advice. Now first things first you want to avoid like the plague any vapourizer that looks like this:
http://www.1percent.com/store/cart/VP1.html
These so called ‘fish bowl’ vaps work by conduction not convection and can often be a lot worse for you than smoking normally as they partially burn the herb without full access to air resulting in greater levels of monoxides etc.
The same goes for the handheld ones that you light with a lighter or whatever, too imprecise and unreliable.
The point of a vapourizer ought to be to heat the mixture at precisely the right temperature range that the active ingredients vapourize and do not burn, as I have said the standard fish bowl type and those various hand held ones are not good for this purpose. If you are realyl serious about vapourizing then you have to be willing to invest a lot in it. This means going for a vap that works by the process of convection. Now I have had the pleasure of using this fine machine in Amsterdam and also at a rally last year and can tell you it is absolutely outstanding:
http://www.1percent.com/store/cart/VPVOLCANO.html
there are various others on the market that have differing prices and levels of quality, try searching on vapir and also aromazap, I have heard very good things about the aromazap and it is quite a bit cheaper than many other models plus it doubles as a handy aromatherapy oil diffuser!
If you have any more questions on this subject please feel free to ask.
thanks, i almost bought a conduction one 
so it looks like either aromazap or
http://www.inavap.com/small/main.html
i am kinda suspicious why aromazap is so cheap, given that its made out of wood ?
never mind, found a discussion on inavap versus aromazap
matter of preference, really
Yeah think about the aromazap’s cheapness in this way, its pretty much a one-person device, you cant really pass it round to your mates, the equivalent of a small one-hitter pipe I guess but that volcano…man the bag on that will take a good few hardened stoners out in one go I kid you not.
but from what i read the worst defect of conduction type evaporators (aside from poor temperature control) is that they lose THC to condensation on the sides of the glass. volcano would be subject to some of the same problems.
aromazap or inavap are both designs ( in fact they are near identical ) that deliver the THC laden air directly without storing it (thus not giving it a chance to condense) in fact people complained the air from inavap is quite hot, but then so is the air when you smoke it and we deal with that.
Couldn’t you just run a heat-resistant hose from your oven, at 350 degrees, into your aromatherapy device? It seems too simple, but it sure would be cheaper.
my aromatherapy device ? i dont have any.
Solution: Purchase aromatherapy device?
They’re probably cheaper than vaporizers, although I wouldn’t know.
My own somewhat-related question for vaporizer folks (never vaporized, myself, although I had a dealer once who offered to let me use hers…haven’t talked to her in a while, now that I think about it): how is a “tobacco” ( 
) vaporizer different from an aromatherapy-type vaporizer? One of my friends (really) was wondering this because her mom has an aromatherapy sort of vaporizer and she (my friend, not her mom!) was hoping she could invite Mary J. for a therapy session with it sometime. I’ve never seen either kind of vaporizer up close and personal, and I’ve only seen pictures of the tobacco kind.
BTW: Do you still get the taste when you vaporize?
The expensive part of these devices is the regulated heater. Most of us have a fine regulated heater in the kitchen. If you could draw 350-degree air from the oven into a chamber where the aromatic herb is, you could get the benefits much more cheaply. The 350-degree heat, as I’ve read, is enough to release essential oils and active ingredients, but not hot enough to produce smoke. The vapor is reportedly kinder to the throat and lungs than smoke is. So, if you want to release the vapors of, say :rolleyes: lavender or peppermint, you can do so with less irritation.
And, Fetus, the taste is dramatically different.
i dont think these devices have any expensive parts. the high price probably has to do with low volume of sales. i mean you can’t expect to sell as many vaporizers as you can sell toasters, so a toaster goes for $12 and vaporizer for $85