The DBV comes in a thickly padded bag with a faux hemp exterior. Seriously, this bag could double as a pillow, it's that thick. Inside the bag are the unit itself, the whip, and a very sharp pick. I pricked my finger pretty good, having forgotten it was an included accessory. The hose was coiled in a side pocket of the padded bag.

There's nothing to setting it up. The whip is not tapered, and the hose fits into the end of the whip, not over it. It does not come with a mouthpiece, but I won't be sharing it with strangers, so I didn't care. The unit itself is solid and heavy, a cylinder about 6" tall and 3.5" in diameter. There's a single control knob on the front with a positive "click" when you turn the unit on or off. After turning on, the knob goes from about 8 o'clock to 4 o'clock, so 12 o'clock is the middle position. There are no markings or settings. There's a small amber LED at the back, where the power cord enters the unit. The intensity of the light varies as you turn the knob up, but seems to serve no purpose. I was under the impression that the unit had some sort of auto shut-off. It does not, but it only draws 25W according to the label. The unit will get quite warm on the outside, almost hot, but it won't burn you if you pick it up with your bare hands.

I had been using a Vapor Genie for three months, so I wasn't new to vaporizing, but this was my first experience with a whip vaporizer. I cut the hose to only about 18" because the extra coils were cumbersome. Besides, the less air between me and my vapor, the better.

I like that the whip enters the unit horizontally instead of at an incline, so the herb doesn't fall so easily onto the heating element itself. But really, what's the technical obstacle to having the whip go UP into the unit, so no herb could possible fall out?

So, in summary, by all appearances the Da Buddha is solidly built. From the heft of the unit to the smooth turning knob and the clean heating element, everything about it looks to be high quality and good value.

I do have to remark on the low quality of the manual, however. It's just a one-sheet, poorly formatted and kind of faded xerox copy. These days, with the software and printers we have available so cheaply, there's really no excuse for a crappy manual. But this is a minor thing.

A bigger issue is how much heat I'm getting. I don't know if the unit is defective, but if I set it lower than about 1 o'clock, I'm just sucking air. At around 2 o'clock, I get the aromatic stuff, but for a real hit, I have to set it at 3 o'clock. I mean, it's sufficient, but I thought the unit would have more reserve power. What if I want to vaporize something else? I hear tobacco vaporizes at a much higher temperature than mariguana.

Comments, anybody?
BuzzBob Reviewed by BuzzBob on . Review of the Da Buddha vaporizer The DBV comes in a thickly padded bag with a faux hemp exterior. Seriously, this bag could double as a pillow, it's that thick. Inside the bag are the unit itself, the whip, and a very sharp pick. I pricked my finger pretty good, having forgotten it was an included accessory. The hose was coiled in a side pocket of the padded bag. There's nothing to setting it up. The whip is not tapered, and the hose fits into the end of the whip, not over it. It does not come with a mouthpiece, but I won't Rating: 5