Nearly everything we do, see, or touch today is somehow tied to technology. And, if you vape, that includes how you consume cannabis. 

As a consumption method, vaping has undergone some controversy,  but Sespe Creek Collective stands by all of its products as reputable and safe. Yet, despite their efficacy, not all vapes are created equal. 

Vaping uses hot air, rather than fire, to extract THC and other compounds from cannabis. With each inhalation, these compounds are delivered to your lungs in the form of vapor. 

You can vape either cannabis flower or concentrates.  Flower requires a dry herb vaporizer such as the PAX 3 Dry Herb & Concentrate Vaporizer kit or the Mini Desktop Air Vaporizer. Concentrates can be in a liquid form such as a vape pen cartridge, or solid forms as in shatter or wax. These solid forms require dab rigs or our newest product The Puffco Peak Smart Rig. (However, this post won’t be covering dabbing as a vape option.) 

To vape concentrates, oil pens are convenient, discrete, and typically pre-packed in half or full gram quantities. Oil vape pens are comprised of four major components: the cartridge, the atomizer, the battery, and the electronics. All of these components need to work together for a flawless experience.  

The battery stores and sends power to the atomizer, which is a wire coil or ceramic element that heats and vaporizes the oil in your cartridge. How these components connect is among their major difference. 

The most popular connection is the 510 thread. In the most simplistic terms, this means the female connection on the vape pen battery is widely compatible with the male 510 thread on the cartridge itself. Sespe Creek Collective carries a large selection of 510 thread cartridges and batteries from a host of vendors including ABX, Bloom Farms, Care by Design, Chemistry, Eel River Organics, Loud+Clear, and Raw Garden enabling lots interoperability.

The battery contains the internal electronic circuitry that controls the amount of power transferred, the LED or power level display, and other features that optimize your experience such as voltage adjustments.

Vape pen batteries come in a range of voltages and also in variable voltage styles.  The common range that you will expect to find is between 3.3v and 4.8v.  In general, many stylus or slim pen voltages will be in the range of 3.0v to 3.3v. Lower voltage means more pure vapor, but a lighter hit. Ceramic or wickless ceramic carts typically require a higher voltage to properly heat the oil. Voltage numbers don’t tell you whether it’s a better product, they just tell you whether it is the right product for your cartridge and vice versa. 

Controlling temperature in the vaporizer is critical. It will affect the boiling point of the cannabinoids and terpenes that affect your experience (of course, along with the strain type). Some vape pens come with preconfigured settings such as low, medium, or high. Others have a variable range that you can choose from using a dial, buttons, or even a touch screen. For example, the Alpha Pen from Brnr Labs uses SmartPulse Technology to prevent overheating the device and variable temperature control for flavor and hit optimization. 

The PAX Era collection allows you to control the temperature. The Era’s precision temperature control is achieved by checking the temperature dozens of times every second. When the temperature is too high, it stops sending power to the heater, when it’s too low, it increases the heating energy. The Era, with its slim shape and small size, is also designed to offer a reliable method to deliver extracts on the go, delivering predictable control over flavor, potency, and temperature.

Over time, as cannabis oils became more sticky and viscous, new solutions needed to be created as vaporizing these thick liquids became more challenging. CCELL technology was introduced to address this issue. CCELL’s core technology is its patented, proprietary ceramic coil element. It can absorb and distribute heat evenly and regularly which makes vaporizing distillates, concentrates and oils better than wick-based devices. CCELL claims 10% – 20% more vapor production than other brands on the market. 

The Palm CCELL utilizes this advanced technology while integrating seamlessly with 510 thread cartridges. Conversely, the CCELL Dart battery has a slightly heavier and more luxurious feel compared to traditional 510 CCell cartridges but is compatible only with Dart Pods. Sespe Creek carries three varieties from ABX. Potentially the coolest feature of a Dart is that its pods attach to the battery with a magnetic connection that purports to deter leakage better.

In the end, we can’t tell you what the best way for you to consume cannabis is… how you smoke or vape marijuana is completely up to your personal method of preference, what you enjoy, and feel most comfortable with. But we can advise you to be safe, responsible, learn about your products beforehand and dose cautiously, especially when you vape.