Arizer Extreme-Q.. better than the Volcano??

[DaveS]

Hey guys..

I need a bit of advice here - I'm looking to buy a vaporiser for home use and I have my eye on the Arizer Extreme-Q...

My only experience with vapes in the past has been the old faithful Volcano, both in Amsterdam and also at home - for the last couple of years I was kind of half-owner of a Classic Volcano, puchased with a friend to ease the cost. This however is no longer available to me, and having read up on what seems to be the main competitor - the Extreme-Q - I'm sorely tempted to hit the Buy-it-Now button!

Now just to put this in perspective - I have only ever used bag/balloon type units (with the exception of a Verdamper in Katsu many, many years ago!) and I'm quite happy with the ease of use from this arrangement and would quite like to continue much in the same vein. I've only ever smoked herbs pure, won't touch tobacco in any form, but found that using the Volcano seemed to be a lot more economical than rolling spliffs all the time... I've done a bit of research on the Extreme-Q and it seems to tick all the right boxes - plus it's a damn sight cheaper than buying another Volcano for myself! Money is tight at the moment and the cost saving of using a vaporiser is almost as much of a major attraction as the health advantages!

I've been through all 20 pages of the post here - viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13852 - and read with great interest ALL the many informative post on the subject - including the views of the converts to this cool piece of kit - I know Cisco raves about it, amongst others - some of whom I've met from time to time over the years - and their views and requirements seem to be very similar to my own...

But here's the question - am I missing something?

Is there something better out there?

Price, sadly IS an important consideration these days, which is why I've ruled out another Volcano, and I know that the Arizer V-Tower seems to be essentially the same unit but without the fan and therefore the option to use balloons and bags for about £20 less...

I'm not really looking for a handheld, portable device - desktop seems to be the way to go for me, and since I can get the Extreme-Q for under £140 (£110 cheaper than the Classic Volcano), this would seem to be the direction to go in...

Thoughts? Suggestions? Alternatives that still have the same performance and options?

C'mon you guys - help an old toker out here!

[RoMoney]

I've an Arizer V Tower which is similar but without the bag and remote. I love it, good vape quality and I have it since 2015 and it has never given me a problem. I think Arizer have a reputation in general for good build quality. The Volcano I think is better but the Arizer is much better value.

For the price of a Volcano, I would look at a Cloud Evo instead.

[TwoCanucks]

Well, I have both. Arizer XQ was my first vape. i liked the balloon or straight tube options. it also seemed very effective in maxing out the high. Then i bought a volcano because i wanted something easier to use with a group of people. the Volcano is perfect for that. i find with the smaller window of airflow through the arizer elbow makes the vape mist a thinker more impactful high. the larger face surface of the volcano can accept more herb, and with the bags it's a little easier to judge how much has been consumed.

anyhow, not dissappointed with either, but i will say this... when we bought the volcano, ive never had the urge to dig out the Arizer, even with it's remote control.

happy highs

[RoMoney]

Well, I have both.

Nice Only really used the Volcano in coffeeshops in the Dam before.

[DaveS]

Thank you for the swift replies, guys!

If I had the money, I would probably go with another Volcano, but at the moment it's just too far out of my reach, pricewise...

A lot of folks seem to recommend using the elbow to fill with herbs rather than the bowl lower down - I'm sure it's going to be down to a bit of experimentation as to which works best for the individual...

RoMoney - yeah, heard good things about the Cloud, but it's gonna have to stay right up there in the clouds for now! I've got to economise as much as I can right now - if it wasn't for the sale of an item on Ebay today, I wouldn't be looking at a vaporiser at all, but I also have to think about the associated smell of burning spliffs in my flat.. I know from experience with the Volcano that the vapour doesn't ring the same alarm bells, so I can happily sit down with a nice bag (or two) of vapour and not have to worry about the neighbours too much! Plus, on the economy side of things again, I hate wasting perfectly good weed if I can help it - if I light a spliff, I'm very aware of the amount that I'm actually taking advantage of, as opposed to having it just sitting there burning away. I've been to Dam with friends before and having passed a nice fat spliff of something very nice (and often expensive), it can be frustrating watching them sitting there with it just burning away instead of taking a hit and passing it back... Maybe I'm just getting old, but that to me is just such a waste - they might as well just take that gram of ECSD or Dr Grinspoon or whatever and set light to it in the ashtray! With the vaporiser, practically no wastage...

TwoCanucks - thanks for the input as well - it's always nice to find someone who actually has both units to compare! I'm probably going to be more of a solo user of the vape at home, so the Volcano's ease of use for social groups isn't necessarily going to be a problem for me...

I too, first came across the Vaporisers in Amsterdam's coffeeshops - first of all I think in Amnesia or perhaps 420/De Kuil (hard to remember now!), and I can see the advantage of something so robust in the hands of a myriad of semi or unskilled users in a coffeeshop environment - the last time I was in Amnesia I noticed that the chambers/valves were in quite a state, with the o rings missing for the most part - losing a lot of that tasty vapour in the process. I also remember in a few of the places (Anyday??) where the Verdamper was in use, you had to pay a hefty deposit in order to make use of the rather fragile (in comparison to the Volcano) apparatus...

Definitely something to think about - I need to give myself a little cooling off time before I rush into spending a chunk of money just like that, but I'm trying to justify its purchase by telling myself how much I will save in the long term!

BTW - I don't really use hash these days (mainly due to the lack of decent stuff hereabouts), so my usage will no doubt be exclusively pure bud in this machine, not that I think that will sway my decision at all, but just in case the question comes up at all...

Thanks again for the quick and helpful replies, you guys... If anyone else would care to weigh in with any advice or suggestions - please feel free!

[RoMoney]

A lot of folks seem to recommend using the elbow to fill with herbs rather than the bowl lower down - I'm sure it's going to be down to a bit of experimentation as to which works best for the individual...

I put it in the lower bowl, but I use a normal pipe screen to halve the size of the bowl and then I don't use their screen they put in the tube as it's terrible, gets blocked too easily and means the bowl is massive and you need a compact bowl for a good vape. Easy enough workaround and normal screens are also cheaper than the useless custom one they put in the tube anyway!

[DaveS]

Nice one RoMoney...

Well - my cooling off period didn't last long.

Just bought one off Amazon. £130 inc free shipping. I was watching a couple on Ebay for £139.99, but I thought - tenner off! That's an extra bowl or two right there...

What the hell... I need something to improve my mood - haven't had a schmoke for over a month now!!!

I'll be solving that problem next week as well I hope...

[RoMoney]

Cool, let us know how you get on with the purchase!

[DaveS]

Will do RoMoney!

It's due to be delivered tomorrow, so if I'm still capable, I'll report on my findings!!

[DaveS]

Well...

Package arrived! Super slow delivery from Amazon, but right after I had this one for £130 (Last One!), the same sellers were selling the same thing again for £149! Ordered last Saturday - arrived Friday. Oh well - I'm still in the win zone here...

Well, it's smaller than I expected somehow... I know I've been used to the familiar solid, sturdy bulk of the Volcano, but it's not a bad thing. Not at all. It can sit in the front room in its sleek silky blackness and with the aromatherapy bowl they supply in the top, it looks a lot less "apparatus-y", if you know what I mean? The Volcano will often raise the eye of a casual observer because of its amazing metal clad design and imposing build quality, but it would probably raise more questions as to its purpose, than the Extreme-Q.

I did the recommended 20 minute sterilisation process with the main unit and the two cyclone bowls, then removed the cyclone and gave it a 1/3 fill of some reasonable but un-named weed and set the temp up for the first bag to 230C, knowing that the temp in the bowl will be a little lower than indicated lower down... I set the fan speed to 1 and sat back, remote control in hand watching the impressively thick vapour fill the bag. Not as fast as the Volcano, sure, but if I had to judge, I'd say the vapour was much thicker than its more expensive opponent and was very smooth and tasty. Before I knew it, the bag was empty and I was trying to get off the couch to fill it once again, but much as the mind was willing, the body was temporarily weak! Moved too fast - I thought to myself as I sat back down and switched "Ivor (The Engine)" back on with the remote control.

It took a minute to get back up in a less comical fashion and I put the bag (I'm so glad it came with a mouthpiece already fitted!) back into the angled elbow connector. This wasn't the right angled miniwhip connector that's shown in the instructions, with the plastic hose and the anecdotally fragile glass 90degree joints. It has a maybe 30 degree angle on this all glass piece, which although it means the bag is being filled up at a higher angle than I've seen on a few of the videos, doesn't seem to phase the Arizer at all and it will happily and securely hold the bag with no apparent signs of stress on any of the component glassware. Also, because the elbow and the glass mouth piece fit right into each other, glass to glass, you don't get the additional annoyance Ive seen reported on the earlier versions of struggling to get the mouthpiece securely into the hose - and a few people breaking the fragile 90 degree elbow whilst struggling with the hose...

So. Thumbs up again for the Arizer R&D team - they've clearly listened to a few things their customer base had fed back to them.

The lack of a valve in the mouthpiece vis a vis the Volcano is a minor irritance at most. If I've had too much that I cant keep my thumb or any other free digit over the end of the mouthpiece, then I've had enough anyway. Thank you, good night... I'm sure I've got some little plastic doo-hickey cap-type device knocking about somewhere that'll do the trick anyway...

I didn't pack the elbow, as some folks have suggested, but popped it into the cyclone bowl as per the instructions - purely for a reference point. If I notice any big difference in elbow packing, I'll let you know.

Two bags down and I'm flying... I love this little thing! I don't seem to have the same heavy cloud in the room with anything like the smell a spliff will produce either. Another plus point to keep the neighbours off the scent, as it were.

I've seen some interesting add-ons like water bubblers and the like, I was looking at the SSV elbows as an alternative to the stock elbow/short whip, but since they've swapped it out for this litte glass piece, I'll hold on for now and see how I get on.

So far, so good. Very impressed with the results. First bag at 230, second at 220 and back up to 230 for the next...
Just on my third bag now.. Not anything like as cloudy as the first two, but still doing the job. But I think my herb's done, judging by the colour of the poo...

Oh yes, my friends.. This is a great piece of kit for the money. In some very small ways I prefer the Volcano, but for the vast majority of everything else I've considered and compared, this wins hands down.

There was even a little slip inside saying that they're selling rechargeable power packs now, so you can really take them on the move.. Imagine walking into your favourite coffeeshop with your own vape? Or failing to activate the smoke alarms in your hotel rooms with this little beauty? The only thing I'd probably need do before departure is clean the glassware out with a few alcohol wipes and just leave the bag behind before flying back.

10/10 for the Arizer Extreme-Q. Very quiet too!

[Willjay]

OK DaveS, now get your self some "oxygen nose tubes" like the ones they use in hospitals and such, do a google search
Now hook up a pair to the vaporizer on lo speed to feed a constant supply of vape to your nose then do some bong hits great way to watch TV

[RoMoney]

Nice review DaveS, glad you're happy with you are back in business and happy with your purchase!

[DaveS]

Lol Willjay! Don't tempt me! I can get hold of that stuff fairly easily, but I think it might be a little more "Extreme" than the Extreme-Q needs to be for me!

3 days in, and I cannot find a fault with this thing. It produces an astonishing amount of vapour for such a relatively smaller load and it still seems to find some left in the browned off remains that would have been removed from the Volcano's combustion chamber because it was no longer producing anything! And that surprised me. I had a couple of toasted bowls left over from last night, and when I added the remains to one single cyclone bowl and popped the heat upto 250C, I couldn't believe how much I got off the "poo" I was about to dispose of! I ran it again one more time at 250C, just to be sure, but that was its last little gift.. Not the tastiest, but still with a fair punch behind the velvet glove..

And back to another fresh bowl at 210C - this seems to give the best THC high for this particular weed without the heavier overtones from the higher temps changing the flavour. I was going to say 'spoiled', but it doesn't spoil the flavour on reflection, it just changes the mood a little!

I'm most impressed by the speed it takes to get up to operating temperature.. I've never seen a unit heat up so fast. So much quicker than the Volcano and much, much quieter in operation. Having seen the results using the fan on speed setting 1, I see no reason to generate a thinner stream of vapour for the sake of a minute or so of faster inflation time. I'm never in that much of a hurry! Even on the highest fan setting, it's still a whole level of noise reduction compared to the Volcano...

So, yes, RoMoney - I'm VERY happy with my new purchase! I can see why coffeeshops would buy the more expensive Volcano tho.. I don't know if the Arizer could withstand the heavy-handedness of hundreds of stoned individuals dropping the various glass pieces onto tabletops, and those bowls get very hot as well. That's why I've already started using the second cyclone they supply - I can keep the slightly browner bowlful for later and hit a nice fresh bowl with virtually no turnaround time. Awesome.

I think even if I had the xtra money, I'd stick with Arizer now... I'm loving this thing!

[Willjay]

Glad your happy with your new “toy”

Forgot to mention you make the tubing for two

[TwoCanucks]

Another happy customer. i forgot how much stronger the bags from the Q vs V were.

Happy highs, enjoy!