Quote Originally Posted by ebl333
Thank you guys, HerbalAir seems to have the most votes, and it looks like Volcano. My only concern is the built. Since it's mostly made of plastic, is it well built? how is it cleaned? is it heated with conduction?
Conduction is not used by any quality vapes. Those are 'hot plate vapes', where the herb sits on a hot metal surface and only the part in contact with the hot metal gets cooked. These are your dome, globe looking vapes-like a gumball dispenser. This type was my first vape and believe me, it doesn't compare to even the cheapest convection vape.

Been using my herbalAire for going on 2 years. It's very well built. It's not made of plastic. The shell is is a very tough material that's a mixture of glass and nylon. Very easy to clean. You just have to be careful when cleaning the heat chamber. Clean with an alcohol soaked cotton swab but turn it upside down to make sure no liquid gets down below the chamber into the guts of the unit. The mouthpiece and stem are teflon, quite safe at the temps used, and also cleaned with alcohol. It's much, much easier to clean than the Volcano, which has more parts in the vapor path.

You can use it for direct draw hits as well, but it doesn't compare to a good whip vape in this mode. Great for a quick one hit, since it heats up fast, but hits are thin compared to the rich hits you can get from a vape like the SSV.

IMO there is no 2nd best vape, because there is no 'best vape' period. Although herbalAire is just as efficient as the Volcano, if not more so, neither one is the best vape if you don't want your vapor from a bag. A vape like the SSV (or even a basic box like the Vaporwarez) is just as efficient at getting all the good stuff vaped, it just takes more care and effort. There's definitely a learning curve for the direct draw method. And the $500 digital whip vapes give even more consistency and temp control than the analog whip units. I know people who have owned the Volcano and Super Vapezilla or Vaporfection, and some prefer the whip unit while others prefer the cano. I don't like to compare a bag vape to a whip vape. It's apples and oranges. The big difference is the convenience and ease of filling bags vs. the thick vapor you can get from a good whip unit. Sure not every hit is thick vapor. But the ones that are can be very satisfying. And yeah you can get very dense vapor in a bag, but the vapor to air ratio is still higher with a lot of whip units. Personally, I'm hooked on both methods, so I'm glad I can afford both types of vaporizer.