Why Choose a Desktop Vaporizer?

The technology and design of portable vaporizers has improved dramatically over the years, bringing us greatly improved devices compared to what was available only a few years ago. But the only real advantage that portable vaporizers offer is the portability, there are no other inherent advantages. The best portables aim to emulate what a wall outlet powered desktop vaporizer can offer. The high-end portable Mighty+ has great battery life and almost desktop-level performance, but eventually you’re going to run into a dead battery, and that can be pretty annoying. If you don’t care about portability a desktop vaporizer is an excellent choice.

Because wall outlet power is so much more potent than a battery, desktop vaporizers are incredibly powerful and offer performance that portables have a very hard time matching. Desktop vapes also make it easy to have on-demand operation. Creating an on-demand portable is difficult because a fast heat-up time draws so much energy so quickly that it’s hard to maintain good battery life while also keeping the device reasonably small. There are a few portables that do a fantastic job, but they usually have drawbacks like short battery life or reliability issues since the technology is harder to pull off. On the other hand, most desktop vaporizers give you on-demand usage. You can even leave them on safely for long periods of time, so they are massively convenient because you can hit them instantly whenever you feel like it.

Desktop vaporizers are also a great choice for communal use, the larger bowl capacity of most desktop devices means you don’t need to refill so often, which can be a hassle when there are a lot of people using a vape. The option of having a whip attached as delivery method also means it’s extremely easy to share, making it just a matter of passing the whip to your left.

While some desktop units can be the most expensive ones on the market, like the Storz & Bickel Volcano for example, you can also get some that are tremendous value-for-money, like the Arizer Extreme Q. Desktops are usually super reliable daily drivers that will operate without issue for years. Because they are usually set somewhere and not moved around often, they tend to last much longer than a device that is going out into the weather and less than ideal environments where they are more prone to bumps and drops.

The Woodscents is made by Ed’s TNT, and Ed has been making the Woodscents for a long time now. He makes every single one by hand in his shop in Mississippi, and if you go to his website, you’ll see that he offers them in a tremendous variety of familiar and super exotic woods. Ed is a fantastic craftsman, and some of the more exotic models that he makes are absolutely stunning, for example the one made from 500-year-old bog Oak.

The Woodscents is a log vaporizer, which is a style of desktop vape that has been around for a long time. The body itself is lathed from a solid block of wood, and it is quite a compact unit at only 4 inches tall, and without the plug or any accessories it only weighs 72g. Inside the body is a ceramic rod heater, which is very common in desktop vaporizers, surrounded by a titanium sheath. Ed uses titanium instead of stainless steel because it has better heat dissipation properties which prevents the wooden bodies from cracking. The bottom of the unit has a leather patch, so it sits nice on any surface. The power cable, which plugs into the back, has a dial for controlling the power level, you’ll want to experiment with this to find the ideal level for you, where you’ll most likely leave it set for all future use.

When you look closely at the heater tip you’ll notice a DynaVap Titanium CCD, this is because the Woodscents system is designed to work with a Dynavap tip. You load your herb into a Dynavap tip, and then put that on a water pipe adapter, wooden stem, glass stem, DynaVap body, or third-party accessory. Then the Woodscents delivers desktop level heating to your setup. Utilising a DynaVap tip adds a lot of flexibility and value to the Woodscents since a lot of people have some DynaVap accessories already, this is also why we sell the Woodscents Lite Kit, which only includes the heater and the tip without any other accessories.

Although this is a desktop vaporizer, it has a relatively low power draw, and you can even find an accessory on Ed’s website that allows you to use it with a battery bank, turning it into a portable, which is pretty cool.

The MiniNail is a mainstay in my desktop setup. It comes on in the morning, it turns off at night, and I always have a killer desktop concentrate system at the ready. I’ve had my MiniNail operating in this manner for several years now, and it still works exactly like the day I got it. Whenever you intend to leave something like this turned on and unattended, you want confidence that it will be safe, the MiniNail is completely made in the United States and designed to be left on for a long period of time, so I have no qualms about leaving it running and ready to go.

It's available in two different varieties, the first is with the hybrid nail, which allows you to utilise either a quartz or titanium dish on top of the titanium multi-size nail, which will work on both female and male joints. The other variety comes with a traditional quartz banger, as well as a different carb cap. Both function in a very similar manner, but I prefer the hybrid nail, as I like the fact that you can simply replace the quartz dish to restore it to brand new looks and function. Neither system requires very much maintenance.

The MiniNail consists of the banger type of your choice, and the coil wraps around that banger to provide the heat. The coil is connected to a long cable, which makes it easy to place anywhere you want, and that cable plugs into the back of the control box next to the power cable. There’s also a physical on and off switch on the back, which means you can use it with a smart plug, allowing you to automate its power-up and power-down times. On the front of the control box are up and down arrows for controlling the temperature, and the temperature control of the MiniNail is incredibly precise. One of the main reasons to get the MiniNail is that it’s built with a high degree of precision to measure the temperature of the banger itself, rather than the coil.

I have been really happy with my MiniNail, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who likes to use concentrate, it works well with tiny or massive hits, and you can use it effectively at a very low temperature because of its accuracy.

The Hot Rod by Old Head Trading Company makes an awesome daily driver, providing pure convection action in a super easy-to-use form factor. The wooden components on the Hot Rod are made by Sticky Brick, and they’ve done a fantastic job, it looks beautiful and not out of place at all when sitting on a desktop, I especially like the detail of the lighter coloured wood line that runs down the centre of the handle. If you properly care for this wood, it will remain beautiful for a long time.

On the handle is a titanium tip which holds a ceramic heating rod, and this is encased in a matrix of ruby terp pearls. This holds a ton of residual heat and distributes the heat evenly, meaning that your bowl vapes evenly. It has a long cord coming from the handle, which has remained flexible over a long period of time, and the handle sits on a magnetic base which is similar in appearance to an old school telephone.

On the back of the control box is an on and off switch, so this device works great with a smart plug for automation. Inside the box there is a very simple analogue electronic circuit which controls everything, and it has a very low power draw. Brian at Old Head designed the Hot Rod to be as simple as possible, without any complex circuit boards, so rather than a display screen it just has a rotary dial for controlling the temperature. I usually keep mine set at three o’clock, but sometimes I turn it up to four, which makes a big difference.

The set includes a wooden bowl, which is a great material choice due to wood’s insulating properties, it means the heat is directed more efficiently towards the flower, instead of being absorbed by the sides like with a glass bowl.

The Hot Rod gives exceptionally strong and tasty pure convection vapour. I find it to be an extremely convenient device since it’s always ready to go with my smart plug setup, you can complete a hit in under 10 seconds, and the wooden bowl is really easy to load, unload, and maintain. It’s not necessary, but if you are going to invest in a Hot Rod, I would highly recommend the Old Head Measuring Spoon as it is a perfect accompaniment for this system.

The Ditanium is one of the extremely few devices that I recommend for use with flower and concentrate. Many devices claim to be multi-purpose in this way, but very few do it well, the Ditanium is actually a viable purchase for use with either substance - and if you want to take things to the next level you can even use flower and concentrate at the same time with ease.

The Ditanium has a bamboo body, surrounding a ceramic rod heater that is encased in titanium. I like the design of this body because even if it is accidentally knocked over the heating element remains isolated, so it won’t make contact with the floor and become a fire hazard. At the top of the heater there’s a quartz nail, so when you’re vaping concentrate you’re using it off quartz, just like a traditional banger or the Mininail. I do fairly small dabs so I don’t find it necessary to use a carb cap, but if you want to do dabs at lower temperatures I would recommend picking up the carb cap.

On the other side of the heater is where you connect the glass handpiece which features a screen to hold your flower in position. You can fill it with as much or as little as you like, but I would recommend at least having the entire screen covered with flower. Coming from the glass handpiece you have the silicone whip with a titanium mouthpiece. This titanium mouthpiece is 14mm size, making it super easy to connect your Ditanium to a 14mm water pipe. You should spend a few minutes getting comfortable with the glass piece sitting on the heater and the whip in your water pipe, it stays there securely, but it is possible to twist it off accidentally.

The Ditanium is one of my favourite desktop vaporizers because you get such tasty and strong hits when you use it with flower. You also get to watch the herb being vaporized in the glass handpiece, which is not only fun, but also allows you to monitor the state of the herb. Add the fact that it would be a worthwhile purchase as a standalone concentrate system and the value offered by the Ditanium really starts to shine.