It’s hard to find a better value than the Vapcap M.
Priced at $50 it’s affordable enough to be a part of any collection and can deliver big hits in a small form factor.
The Basics
The Vapcap M is a portable dry herb vaporizer built in the shape of a one-hitter, or bat. The vape is made entirely from stainless steel with a pair of O rings holding the airpath inside the outer body. The more I use it the more impressed I am with the simple design of the Vapcap body.
The cap is a whole different story it’s a clever modern take on analog vaporizing. The cap will give a noticable CLICK when the Vapcap has reached vaping temps. Then as you’re drawing it’ll click again to let you know it’s ready to be heated up again.
How do you heat the Vapcap M? Traditionally, you can use a small torch lighter, single or multi-flame. Or you can use pretty much anything else. Rest the vapcap against some coals by the fire, that’ll work. Stove burner will do it too. Heck I’ve even seen some pretty cool aftermarket induction heaters built for the vapcap series of vapes.
Heatup Times
On it’s highest setting my Blazer Pocket Micro Torch takes about 20 seconds to heat up to the click the Vapcap from a cold start. I can get the click earlier or later by focusing the heat towards the front or back of the cap. Generally I stick with an even heating pattern and don’t try to control the cook too much, the cap seems very well calibrated.
Pricing
The pricing of the Vapcap M isn’t entirely straightforward. Yes it’s only 50 bucks, that much is true. But for that 50 bucks you’re getting a Vapcam M in a little green carrying tube. Missing from this setup is the torch lighter or any way to store or handle the Vapcap while it’s hot.
Dynavap has a handy solution to this problem with their Dynakit: Light or Flight bundle which includes a Dynastash, torch lighter, and a water pipe adapter. You can pick up the kit for another 50 dollar bill, bringing the cost of the whole Vapcap M experience to around 100. Still fairly inexpensive, but it’s a cost to consider.
If this is your first vaporizer and you’re going to rely on it for all of your vaporizing needs, I’d say the Dynakit is a must-have addition to the Vapcap M. If you’re looking at the Vapcap M to scratch an itch and add a fun new vaporizer to your collection, you can skip the kit if you already have a lighter you can use with the Vapcap.
Vapor Quality
If you follow the direction, wait for the click – don’t overheat it, you’re guaranteed success every time. If you act foolishly and try to heat the very very butt end of the cap and see how hot you can get it before you hear the click, you run the risk of combusting. It’s happened to me, but then again it’s my job to get silly with this thing and see where it’s limits are. Overall the cap and more importantly the click are calibrated very well. Impressively well. The whole Vapcap M experience feels very well engineered.
All that being said, there are some notable drawbacks to using the Vapcap as your vaporizer of choice. What you gain in it’s small durable form factor you lose in general vapor taste. The vapor is dense, and strong. You’ll be exhaling vaporous clouds, no questions there. If you’re a season vaporizer user, you may be surprised by the thickness of the vapor you can get from such a small device, but any draws part the first are guaranteed to be the toastiest of the toasty tasting, and it’s not very tasty.
Luckily, the Vapcap really only had two good thick long draws (each with it’s own heatup cycle) in each chamber, you can probably stretch a third out if you’re feeling tight fisted.
Maintenance
Durability and maintenance go hand in hand with the Vapcap M. It’s easy to clean because there aren’t many parts to it. The few pieces left are solid stainless steel or rubber o-rings. The most fragile part of the entire kit is the cap itself which can be replaced for 20 bucks. To clean, give the stainless steel parts a soak in isopropyl alcohol and a pipe cleaner down the airpath.
Blazer Torch
For the purpose of this review I used a single flame torch lighter made by Blazer. This is a lighter that I’ve owned for a few years now and used frequently with my Lotus vaporizer and Vapman. While it may not be the most powerful torch lighter I can use, it is the lighter I use because it’s been the most reliable. The Vapcap can also be heated with multi-flame torch lighters, unlike the Lotus and Vapman which can be damaged by the intensity of those lighters. The benefit of using a mutli-flame torch lighter is faster heatup times.
