I have a good reason to be excited for the Crafty. Storz & Bickel, the company that makes the Crafty has been making vaporizers for a long time and has one of the best known brands in vaporizers, the Volcano.

Their first entry into portable vaporizers saw a pair of twins. The Crafty and the Mighty.

Functionally they’re the same. The Crafty, smaller of the two, is more pocketable and supports temperature control via a smartphone app (using bluetooth). The larger Mighty houses an extra battery and a built in display for temperature control.

I consider the Crafty for all pockets and the Mighty for backpacks, bags, maybe large jacket pockets.

Hardware

The body of the Crafty is a flat black plastic. I find the use of plastic in vaporizers to be hit-or-miss, the Crafty lands a hit with tasteful use of plastic as the external housing and cooling unit. I would have preferred a more premium material in place of the plastic. I’m concerned the plastic may become brittle in the thin areas after dozens of cycles of heating and cooling.

The tapered shape makes the Crafty easy to grip. The wide end (where the heater is located) has raised ridges. These ridges provide a solid grip on the Crafty, keep the non-oven parts of the vaporizer cooler, and keep your hands from touching the HOT parts of the vaporizer.

The full break in the ridges in the middle of the Crafty is an added step to keeping the battery as cool as possible. Heat is bad for battery life.

The removable top piece on the Crafty is the cooling unit. It’s purpose is to cool the vapor down from the oven to the mouthpiece.

Inside the cooling unit is a maze of ridges that create a lot of surface area for heat to stick to while the vapor travels to the mouthpiece. True to its name the cooling unit does a excellent job cooling vapor. In fact, when running the Crafty above 395F I find that the cooling unit can become too hot to touch (note: sensitive fingers) directly after a long draw. It cools down very quickly, usually within a second. The mouthpiece never gets too hot, it usually doesn’t even get too warm.

The power button has a rubbery texture and a nice click to it. You can feel and hear the click.

Surrounding the power button are two indicator LED lights which can be disabled or have their intensity adjusted using the Crafty app. The lights display red, green, and blue to indicate heater status and battery status.

The pick is stored opposite the power button on the bottom of the Crafty. When stored, the pick covers and protects the Crafty’s charging port.

The built in battery can be charged via the micro USB port on the bottom of the unit. The Crafty CAN be used while charging, but requires at least a 20% charge to operate.

Vapor Quality

The vapor quality from the Crafty is outstanding. On lower temperatures, the taste of the herbs really popped. On higher temperatures, the desired clouds and high temp vaporizing sensations were present without any of the “burnt popcorn” cooked taste.

The vapor produced by the Crafty will rival that of most desktop vaporizers. This is the true selling point of this vaporizer. The few portables that come close to the taste of the Crafty’s vapor (e.g. Firefly, MiniVap) don’t keep up with the Crafty in portability, discretion, and ease-of-use.

Filling Aid

At first glance I underestimated the value of the filling aid. The Crafty can be loaded just as easily with a small set of measuring spoons I have at home. It was outside the house, however, that the filling aid had me doing something I did very rarely. Refilling my vaporizer on the go.

The filling aid design allows you to fill the Crafty without the need to touch the herbs. It attaches to the Crafty in place of the cooling unit. The entire procedure takes me about 30 seconds while I walk my dog.

App (iPhone)

The Crafty app is refined and well polished. I’m relieved to see the app was not an afterthought.

The app can be used to:

    • Adjust the standard and boost temperature
    • Adjust LED intensity
    • Toggle charging LED
    • Toggle Crafty vibration
  • Toggle smartphone vibration
  • Toggle smartphone audio alert

Turning on the audio/vibration notification on my phone drastically cut down on forgetting to use, or restart the Crafty.

Experience

Across the board I like almost everything about the Crafty.

The design is simple and well executed. First time users will have no trouble mastering the Crafty.

The smartphone app adds an entirely new layer of interaction between myself and my vape. I can check the battery without needing to turn the Crafty on, I can put the Crafty down and step away knowing my phone will notify me when it’s ready.

The filling aid turned me from a non-believer to a believer in one short walk. Warmup time is on the slower side at about two minutes, but I’m willing to wait for the Crafty’s incredible vapor quality.

Maintenance has been a snap so far. The cooling unit is the only part that needs regular cleaning. Approaching the end of a session, when the cooling unit is at its hottest, I open it up and rub a cotton swab around the inner ridges. This cleans up a lot of the resin before it has a chance to become sticky. I’ll do this once every three or four sessions to keep the Crafty running well and tasting good.

The battery life is a mixed bag, on one hand four sessions is adequate. But I only seem to get four sessions when I’m conscientious of the battery life. If I become absent minded and puff along on a finished or almost finished session (not difficult to do) I can cut four sessions down to two. Thankfully the Crafty has pass through charging and a USB micro charging port. Between the two I can carry around a spare battery pack to charge and/or use the Crafty with less concern about the battery. Not a graceful solution, but not difficult.

Value

The Crafty costs $279 which is on the high end for a portable vaporizer. That being said, the vapor quality from the Crafty matches that of $339+ desktop vaporizers.

If your focus is to get the best experience from your herbs, the Crafty offers an excellent value as a novice-friendly, pocketable, convection vaporizer.

If you’re looking to pick up the Crafty in the USA, I can highly recommend Vapor. com as the best place to get one.

 

 

 

 

   Buy for $279 from Vapor.com

Additional Crafty Specs

 

 

 

Height: 4.3in

Length: 2.2in

Width: 1.3in

Weight: 135g (.3lb)

Min Temp: 104F

Max Temp: 410F

Default Temp: 356F

Default Boost: 383F

Battery Life: ~45 min

Charge Time: ~2 Hours

In The Box

1x Crafty Vaporizer

1x Power Adapter with USB Cable

1x Filling Aid

1x Herb Mill

1x Cleaning Brush

1x Liquid Pad

3x Spare Screens

1x Spare Sealing Rings

1x Instructions

Features

Convection heat
Simple one button operation
Vibration feedback
USB-micro pass-through charging
User programable temperature via smartphone
Dimmable LED indicator
Built-in pick tool