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.
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
Here’s an email I sent Planet of the Vapes, where I bought the crafty, Planet of the Vapes are a great company, they are concerned how I make out with be & B. The crafty which in my opinion is junk, and Storz and Bickel has the worst customer support, I have ever encountered Today Planet of the Vapes Support 1 message No attachment 8:02 AM Re: New customer message on August 14, 2021 at 9:47 am Update Here it is August 21 2021, and I still haven’t had my original problem (broken plastic on Crafty, which I originally wrote… Read more »
I’m looking at the Crafty as a replacement for my original Pax. Having purchased Storz & Bickel products in the past, I know their build quality is top notch but I am having a hard time getting over the plastic material. Not only do I share the concern of the plastic becoming brittle over time, I also think a dropped Crafty could take a chunk out of the ribbing if it landed wrong. S&B offers a 2 year warranty but it doesn’t cover normal wear and tear (like me being medicated and dropping it). Is your review unit still holding… Read more »
I would highly recommend the Crafty over the Pax, especially if you’re not relying on the discretion of the Pax. The vapor quality alone makes a world of difference. I haven’t dropped my Crafty (yet…) and share the same concerns you have. Nothing broken, but I also baby it and treat it like a >$300 device. My long term experience with S&B makes me confident that they’ll be taking care of their customers, and out of warranty customers for years. That’s how they’ve been treating their Volcano customers for over a decade. Although you might have to shell out some… Read more »
I can confirm a certain ruggedness in the plastic as I’ve dropped mine several times. It had more to do with living in a very small studio and having too much stuff for that size abode.
Each time I was worried that I’d broken it. Not even a scratch. Makes me wonder if they are not using some micro carbon fiber in that plastic.
Thanks for taking one for the team Sean! I certainly don’t want to drop mine, although I’ve had some dangerously close fumbles.
Something to think about, regarding the use of plastics in vaporizers, the VapeXhale Cloud Evo (which looks plastic) uses a glass resin, nylon filled polycarbonate-based shell. So it’s not a straight plastic. It can withstand much higher temperatures than traditional plastics.