Not a month goes by where I don’t see one new wax pen or another, and July is no exception. The folks over at Ald Amaze were kind enough to send me their pen the Waxbone for review and I gave it a run around the block.
In The Box
- Waxbone Pen (Battery, Atomizer, Glass Chamber, Mouthpiece)
- Spare Glass Chamber
- Dab Tool
- Short USB Cord
An interesting thing to note about the USB cord. The large USB end doesn’t universally fit into all of my USB batteries, some are too narrow for it.
Battery
At first the Waxbone battery looks like a straightforward EVOD style battery. The bottom features a micro-USB charging port. The button on the front is a stylish black-on-black color scheme with a white LED indicator around the button. On top of the battery the atomizer attaches via a custom threaded connection, not accepting the standard 510 threads. A pair of o-rings at the top of the battery seal the vapor chamber.
I have noticed a kind-of auto locking feature on the Waxbone. I’m always finding the battery is locked when I haven’t been handling it. This is the first time I’ve seen something like this on a pen before.
Atomizer
The atomizer is designed to allow air to flow from beneath the ceramic disk. If you pull hard enough it’s possible to suck any wax that makes it below the heater back up into the ceramic disk while you’re drawing. The disk itself is a great size for the chamber and almost completely fills it up without touching the walls.
I measured the temperatures of the ceramic disk with a thermocouple while running it dry to find a sweet spot. In order to keep the pen between 625F and 700F I found the following rhythm worked best:
(Starting from cold)
- Hold the button for 7 seconds then release
- Wait 1 second
- Hold the button for 3 seconds then release
- wait 1 second
- Hold the button for 2 seconds then release
- Wait 1 second
- Repeat at 2 seconds until done
Special “pre-heat” Mode
If you tap the button twice quickly while the Waxbone is unlocked it’ll go into a 10 second pre-heat mode. I’m not 100% sure the reason this mode exists, because all it does is lock the button in the on position until you press it again, or for 10 seconds, whichever comes first.
The stated purpose of this mode is to melt your wax onto the dish. I prefer to have much more control over how that happens by holding down he button and releasing it when my wax begins to melt.
I would much rather see the pre-heat mod run the disk at a very low temperature, close to 200F to let the wax melt slowly.
Mouthpiece/Vapor Chamber
The top of the Waxbone is a plastic mouthpiece atop a glass vapor chamber. The glass means you get a clear view of what’s happening inside your pen when you’re using it, it’s also the weak link in the durability department. Ald Amaze addresses this by including a spare vapor chamber in the box. I’m always happy to have a window into my pen, it gives me much more accurate control over the temperature and quality of my hits. Although it can be brittle and less durable, glass – in my opinion, is always the best option.
The bottom of the mouthpiece features a small screen, I’m not sure what purpose this screen serves, unless there are herbal atomizer attachments for the Waxbone in the future.
Vapor Quality
Vapor quality is arguably the most important part of any review. Sticking with the technique outlined above I was able to get tasty low-temp style kits from the Waxbone. If I ran the pen for 10 seconds continuously without releasing the button I found that it overcooked the wax and the taste and quality of the vapor went down quickly and stayed pretty bad for the rest of the session.
Verdict
Overall the Waxbone is a decent value at $34.99 from Amaze Vapor. It packs sporty features such as built-in charging while keeping the overall length relatively short, coming in at 131mm.
I have not been able to find replacement Waxbone atomizers available from Ald Amaze or anywhere else online yet. The manufacturer makes 5-packs of their other atomizer styles available for purchase for about eight bucks, so it may just be a matter of waiting for the Waxbone atomizers to be made available.