- Tips when Shopping for eRigs Online
- Parts of a eRig
- How to Use a eRig
- Types of eRig Heating Elements
- Advanced eRig Technology
Tips when Shopping for eRigs Online
eRigs like High Five Duo have been dominating the vape industry for the past two years. That's because they offer the best experience when it comes to consuming your favorite materials.
It’s not uncommon to see eRigs to sport higher price tags than other varieties of vaporizers, that’s why it’s best to think and plan carefully before you splash the cash.
1. Check for Product Description.
When planning on buying a dab rig, you can view and check the product description to have a clear idea of the product you’re eyeing.
Here at VapeActive, we make sure that our product descriptions are curated by employees that test these products. People who know how these eRigs and portable dab rigs function and know how they are supposed to work. It's pretty much like having someone else try these products personally out for you. Reading these product descriptions give you more than what looking at the pictures will give you.
You get information that will help you decide in your decision making whether or not to invest in this eRig. We only want you to get the best device for your money and making an informed decision.
2. Check for Product Review.
Still not convinced with what our curators have to say? Check out the reviews of actual shoppers. Buyers who purchased the same eRigs who offer insight based on their experience with our online shop and their experience using the product.
eRig product reviews give you an idea of what others think about the dab rig you’ve been wanting to buy. Maybe someone else might share the same opinion as you have and you can get validation and confirmation of your hunches about the eRig you want. So, make it a habit to always check the product reviews that were submitted by our customers to see if the dab rig you’ve been wanting suits your needs.
3. View Pictures.
Last and not the least, check the pictures. Indeed, pictures posted in online vape shops can easily be edited. However, business owners who care about their customers will provide accurate pictures so the consumers and the prospective eRig buyers will have a clear idea of the devices they’re eyeing.
Here at VapeActive, we make sure that you make an informed decision even before you hit that add to cart button.
Parts of a eRig
Indeed, a eRigs were not built like the average vaporizer. It’s outfitted with different components you won’t see on other devices and gives the portable eRig its own unique character.
Let’s check the parts that define the eRig.
1. Glass Attachment.
Glass attachments aren’t unique to eRigs. In fact, almost all vaporizers in the industry will have a compatible glass attachment that allows it to have the capability to deliver water-filtered hits. The glass attachment of eRigs is commonly attached at the top of the device although some rigs put the glass attachment at the bottom and call it a glass base like that of the Pulsar RöK Portable Oil Rig. The Pulsar RöK Portable Oil Rig has a glass attachment located at the bottom of the unit.
Glass attachments do more than just add the element of water filtration and provide you with moisture-conditioned hits. They also serve as the mouthpiece of the eRig. Having glass mouthpieces allow these eRigs to achieve better flavor compared to its other counterparts. Glass won’t negatively affect your vapors. In fact, glass won’t have any adverse effects on both the vapor and the material being vaped on the eRig. Glass is known for its inert properties and will not chemically react even when heated. That’s why you can taste the unique flavors and the distinct taste native to your wax concentrates. While it's true that the extraction process that this wax concentrates undergo strip them of their flavonoids, you can still taste the terpenes from these extracts when you use glass-based components in these eRigs.
2. Heating Element for eRig.
Another component that separates eRigs from other vaporizer devices is the quality of their heating elements. Because these devices have heating elements that are optimized for heating wax concentrates, they produce the best quality vapors in the platform.
eRigs or portable dab rigs have various heating elements including heating cups. Containers that are designed and engineered to provide wax concentrates an environment where they can be completely vaporized in as fast as a few seconds. Furthermore, these cups are engineered to bring out the best flavors and the most potent vapors from your extracts. They use heating elements made from ceramic to facilitate the low and slow heating ceramic has been famous for. This is best when consuming wax concentrates, wax already carries a strong and potent amount of active ingredients. This means you do not exactly have to subject it to extreme temperature levels to experience that melt off your face buzz since the high concentration of the active ingredients in wax concentrates is enough to keep you lifted. So even if you heat it slowly, you’re still going to enjoy that knock off your sock session. When heated using ceramic heating elements, you can achieve the perfect balance of potency and flavor retention.
eRigs also use other kinds of heating attachments like quartz. Unlike ceramic, quarts will offer fast heating capabilities. While it’s natural for wax concentrates to have high concertation of potent active ingredients, it’s not natural for them to release or even produce dense clouds. Quarts will help you get to these dense vapors because they heat up faster than ceramic. Because they also heat up the extracts faster, they will have some kind of effect in the potency of the vapors.
So, depending on your preference, eRigs will have a heating element for you.
3. Base.
The base of the eRig houses the battery that powers the whole unit. Arguably the only drawback to using eRigs, the fact that it’s relying on a rechargeable power source means that it’s somehow bound to lose power like any other portable vaporizer.
Luckily, these devices are outfitted with powerful batteries. While these batteries give eRigs decent power and battery life, they’re still far from being perfect. While most of today’s eRig bases still use micro USB charging cables, others look into the future of vaporization and use USB-C charging cables to deliver more power and faster charging times. This ensures that your wait time in recharging your eRig will greatly be reduced to help you enjoy more time vaping rather than you spending more time charging. One of these eRigs is the Leaf Buddi Wukkah Electronic Rig Vaporizer. By using USB-C technology, this new eRig can deliver fast recharge time at reliable speeds.
The base of a eRig is also the part where the internal circuitry of the device is located. This means that the computer that gives the eRig its unique heat settings and intelligent temperature profiles are located inside this base. It’s common for eRigs not to have precision temperature control. In fact, precision temperature settings have not been introduced into the platform until the technology that allowed eRigs to have a Bluetooth companion app was made possible. For those who have been following the eRig segment for a while now will know that it’s common for eRigs to have only three to four temperature settings. For a while, this satisfied many consumers since it also made the selection of temperature profiles easier. However, the level of personalization that precise temperature settings gave consumers is simply beyond compare.
That said, the standard eRig is made with only three essential parts and made what was once a daunting experience in dabbing a simple and straightforward means of consuming wax concentrates.
How to Use a eRig
Dab rigs essentially made the process of dabbing easy for many consumers.
Instead of having to use a device that required you to use a blowtorch, eRigs revolutionized the landscape as they introduced a new way of heating your select extracts. eRigs made way for the new generation of devices that focused on the healthier effects of vaporization over the adverse effects of inhaling smoke from burnt wax concentrates. Without the means to properly heat your wax concentrates they may end up burning and you may have to inhale the burnt residue from a banger that overheated.
eRigs ensured that this was not so.
When attempting to use a eRig, here are some detailed steps to help you decide if vaping with an eRig is best for you.
1. Make sure to secure a fully charged battery when using your eRig. Follow the charging instructions on the manual of the unit. A fully charged battery will ensure you get the best results when using the portable vape rig.
2. Prepare your materials. You can set them aside in a container so you can easily access them once you begin your dab session.
3. Make sure to fill the glass chamber with water. As a guideline, make sure not to fill the glass attachment with water more than half of the glass attachment. Other eRigs will also have a marker for the recommended water level to be filled in. Going beyond the recommended water content of the glass attachment may cause the water to bubble up and make its way outside of the glass attachment.
When this happens, the water may make its way into the base and find its way into the electrical circuitry and cause unwanted and irreversible damage. Make sure to maintain the ideal water level as this will leave a balanced output of vapor.
4. Once the glass attachment is filled with water, connect it to the base.
5. Once the attachment is securely planted to the base, you may now load your materials into the heating element. Place the wax into the heating element using a dab tool.
6. Once the dab is loaded into the heating element, you cover it up using a carb cap. The carb cap allows you to modify the airflow of the chamber so you can adjust it to your liking.
An open chamber will allow large quantities of air into the chamber. This will affect how the heating element heats the wax concentrates. Generally, the more air you have on the chamber or on the cup, the longer it will take to heat the wax up because cold air affects the speed the heating element produces heat. Moreover, the more air you add into the mixture, the more watered-down the vapors feel. So, depending on your preference, you may or may not want to have more air in your vapor.
By capping your dabs, you essentially restrict the airflow and you trap the actual vapors produced by the heating element. These vapors are extremely potent and adding air will decrease the potency. Consequentially, inhaling pure vapor can still make you cough because it will be warm even after passing through the water in the glass attachment. So, allowing a bit of air will help – regulated air.
7. Inhale the vapors produced by the heating element and depending on your needs, lift the carb cap or keep it down to trap the vapors inside.
Types of eRig Heating Elements
The vaporizer industry is a big sandbox of ideas. That said, many companies have played around the idea of the heating element used in eRigs. So, before we begin to talk about the varieties of the heating elements used on eRigs, let’s first talk about the technology used in heating these heating elements.
Dab rigs and eRigs rely on the heating process called conduction. Conduction heating involves the use of a heated surface to transfer the heat to the wax concentrate to vaporize it. This is why the heating elements in eRigs are almost always in the form of cups. These cups are then heated and the heat from the cups is then transferred to the wax concentrates that vaporizes it in turn.
However, in other eRigs like the Dr. Dabber Switch, the heating process used is induction. The Dr. Dabber Switch Vaporizer is arguably the first induction vaporizer in the world. Induction heating involves the use of eddy currents to heat an electrically conducting object. While the process of conduction requires the heating element to be in direct contact with the source of heat to transfer the heat to the wax concentrate. Induction heating instead allows the object to generate the heat from itself. When there’s less contact on the heating element from an external source, there is more likely that the wax concentrates will be preserved.
Another benefit to induction technology is that it heats up faster even when compared to conduction heating. Induction heating is considered to be an advanced heating technology and vaporizers using this technology may even be more expensive to produce than vaporizers using conduction heating. While there are only a few vaporizers utilizing this technology, there will soon be many others to follow this trend.
Now that you have an idea of the heating technologies used on heating elements, let’s talk about the heating elements themselves.
1. Ceramic Heating Elements
Like what we’ve discussed earlier, ceramic is often used in heating elements because of their unique properties. They are selected especially for use with wax concentrates because most ceramic heating elements are porous in nature. They will have smaller pores on their surfaces which will accept small portions of the melted wax. Once the porous surface of the ceramic heating element sucks up the wax, it will produce a more fragrant and flavorful vapor, that’s why many connoisseurs prefer to use ceramic heating elements.
Ceramic heating elements in themselves have different varieties. In the case of the Dr. Dabber Switch Vaporizer, their ceramic cups come in black and white colors. The white ceramic induction cups are designed and engineered for use with oils and other wax concentrates while the black ceramic induction cups are used for herbs. Ceramic heating elements are also known for their durability and longevity even when compared to other varieties of heating elements.
2. Quartz Heating Elements.
Quartz is the exact opposite of ceramic when it comes to heating. While ceramic heating elements are slow to build up heat, quartz does it super-fast. It has been known as a good conductor of heat and energy, that’s why it’s been one of the best heating elements the industry has to offer.
While it’s true that speed is its strongest suit, quarts are also known for being an inert heating element. It’s hard and it’s more hard-wearing. Because of this, you will experience less likelihood of it chipping and the chipped fragments actually getting into the mixture of the wax concentrates inconsequentially being inhaled in the process. That said, quartz heating elements have their drawbacks. One is that as fast as it transfers heat, it also cools down as easily. So, it does not really help with conserving battery life. It will require very little power to fire it up but you will require the same amount of power to fire it up again because it will cool down fast. Another is that quartz is expensive. Even more expensive than ceramic so be prepared to spend more.
In exchange for a higher price tag, quartz will give you a cleaner burn. You will see and feel that the vapor will be lighter and will taste better. It’s a good example that in life and in vaporizers, you’re going to get what you pay for.
3. Titanium Heating Elements.
Last but definitely not the least is titanium heating elements.
Titanium, like all the other heating elements in this list, is durable. It’s also lightweight. Moreover, titanium has high tensile strength and resistance to heat. This means that no matter how much you reuse it; it will still be like as good as when it first came out of the box. Titanium heating elements first gained popularity amongst dabbers who use blowtorches to heat their nails. So, they required a heating element that can withstand the wear and tear of constant heating and cooling during sessions and they’ve found that in titanium.
Like all devices made from titanium, titanium heating elements boast superior durability. You can expect titanium heating elements to outlast other varieties.
That said, all heating elements have their own unique properties allowing you to customize your sessions without having to use the preset temperature settings that your eRig has to offer.
Advanced eRig Technology
eRigs are a giant leap for the vaporizer industry in terms of technology. It’s the closest thing we can get to the true power of a desktop rig and the convenience of a portable vaporizer.
Moreover, eRigs are getting smarter by the day. Because of the advancement in technology, many manufacturers now think of features they can cram into the small bodies of these compact eRigs. One of the latest and most advanced technology to be applied in eRigs is Bluetooth connectivity.
Bluetooth Apps
Bluetooth applications have been used on other vaporizer platforms before it was introduced to eRigs. Bluetooth applications offer a wide range of features from precision temperature control to session tracking. With the use of your smartphone, you can easily have a companion application to go with your eRig. Some of the eRigs on our collection is the Focus V Carta Vape Rig, the Bluetooth application allows you to control the temperature and keep track of your sessions. The device in itself offers four preset temperature profiles and with the Bluetooth application, the Focus V Carta Vape Rig can give as much as 37 temperature settings allowing you to find that sweet spot when vaping your favorite wax concentrates.
The Bluetooth application also counts how often you’ve been dabbing so you know how far you’ve gone with the eRig.
Large HUDs
HUDs or heads up display is a screen that displays information about your device. Pretty much like how your Bluetooth applications function in recording the details and showing you the information of the actual eRig.
Large and crisp displays have always eluded eRigs. Even the most expensive varieties will often just sport LED displays that you need to decode or get used to. Moreover, these LED lights may cause annoyance as they light up during your sessions. It all changed when the Leaf Buddi Wuukah Electronic Rig Vaporizer entered the industry. It offered a crisp display with time and puff counter so you’re always in the know about what’s happening in your vape sessions.
Remember, the next time you’re shopping online for eRigs, make sure to always go and shop with VapeActive and get the best eRigs on the market for the best price.
