Vapman Portable Butane Vaporizer

The first time you have a Vapman in your hand you’ll realize that this is a special device, it has a true artisanal quality to it that is immediately apparent. Handmade and with many intricate components, the fit and finish of everything is beautiful, it feels like a top quality piece of equipment. It’s also absolutely tiny, only about 2 1/2 inches tall, and it weighs in at just under 25 g with the plastic mouthpiece. It includes all the accessories you need to get started, including the butane torch used to heat it up, and it stores nicely in the optional hemp Vapman storage egg.

The Vapman gives you on-demand performance, depending on how dense you like your vapour you can get a hit in about 10 to 15 seconds, which is pretty impressive. You’re getting conduction heating from your flower making contact with the heating chamber, and convection action from the warm air getting pulled in through the nozzles.

The device is made from wood and metal, and it consists of three main components. The bottom section is called the heart piece, the section that twists off is called the middle piece, and at the top is the mouthpiece. The Vapman is available in two different models, the Classic and the Pure. On the Pure, the heart piece is made from olive wood only, over time some carbonization will occur on the surface layer of the wood and this will essentially seal the wood. The Classic adds a layer of mica, which is a natural mineral, to the interior surface of the olive wood. This is going to greatly reduce the carbonization taking place, and also act as heat insulation to increase the efficiency. Aside from the layer of mica the two models are the same, with the Pure being the less expensive of the two.

Looking closer at the heart piece, the engine of the operation is the heating chamber, and this is made from 24 karat gold plated copper. If you saw my coverage on the Vestratto then you heard me talk about copper being 25 times more efficient than stainless steel at heat transfer, and adding gold plating to it will only boost that heat efficiency further. When you turn it upside down you will see three brass nozzles, these are the intakes which deliver hot air into the heating chamber. Inside the chamber there is a heating pin in the middle, this helps to evenly vape the herb without needing to stir it.

The middle piece has a metal filter on the bottom which keeps the flower from entering your mouth.It has two extruding arms on the sides which lock the middle piece in place on the heating chamber, but they can also be used for stirring or making sure your herb sits within the boundaries of the heating chamber and doesn’t stick out. The middle piece also has three air holes which mix fresh air in with the warm vapour. If you want a thicker vapour, just cover up one, two, or even all three of these to stop the addition of air and increase the vapour density.

The mouthpiece is available in a variety of different material options. You can get it in plastic, titanium, wood, or even an extended glass option which helps cool the vapour down. The glass mouthpiece has been my favourite one so far.

I have found the Vapman an incredibly enjoyable device to use. There’s a certain tactile nature that makes you feel like you’re really participating in the process, but it’s also really easy to use. I did combust one time, on my second bowl, but I haven’t combusted since and I really don’t think it’s going to happen again, now that I know how to use it.

To fill the Vapman, they include a super handy little funnel, it drops right over the heating chamber, making it easy to load your flower without spilling it. You’ll want to grind your flower finely for this one, and you shouldn’t overfill it. Make sure that the flower stays completely within the edges of the heating chamber, if you have any flower that’s sticking out it can get burned by the torch flame while you’re heating. Keep in mind that the Vapman is designed to be a microdoser, so resist the urge to stuff the bowl. Start with a much smaller amount and then work your way up, you’ll be surprised at how well it works with a small load. After you’ve filled the chamber, take out the funnel, and align the centre hole of the middle piece onto the pin of the heating chamber. Then simply rotate it until the arms lock under the springs and you’re ready to heat it up.

They recommend setting the flame size of the torch lighter to be the same size as the metal filter on the bottom of the middle piece, and I think that’s a pretty good recommendation to start with. When you look at the bottom of the heating chamber, you’ll notice that it comes to a conical point, you need to direct the tip of your lighter directly onto that. Try to hit it straight on, avoid going to the side and hitting the edge.

If you’re experienced with heating a Sticky Brick, DynaVap, Vestratto, or pretty much any butane vape, you’ll be used to heating continuously until it is ready. With the Vapman however, you need to heat it up over a number of torch cycles. If you try to do one long heat-up per inhalation you’ll end up scorching your flower. So you should hold the flame on there for about three seconds, turn it off and let it rest for two or three seconds, flame on for three seconds, rest for another two or three seconds, then flame on for a final three seconds before you can go ahead and inhale.

That might sound sort of complicated, but essentially you’re just going three seconds on, two/three seconds off, and doing it three times. When you inhale I would recommend doing a little cigar puff at first to get a sense of what the vapour production is like, and if you find it too light go back and do one more heat session before hitting it again. If you find that the vapour is pretty thick and you think you overdid it, just inhale really fast and hard to pull the heat away from that chamber and you should be fine. If you want to denser vapour simply cover one, two, or all three of the air holes on the middle piece. The surprising thing to me was how quickly I picked up the technique. It has a really quick reaction from when you are heating to when you are inhaling, so you really get a sense as to what the device is going to need if you want to achieve a certain sort of a hit.

I don’t find it necessary to stir the chamber, when you are done simply empty the chamber out. It’s a good idea to use the brush to clean any stubborn little bits out, and then rub the metal filter on a napkin while it is warm, that way you won’t have to do a ton of other maintenance.

I can definitely see why the Vapman has been experiencing a renaissance lately, this is an incredibly enjoyable to use butane-powered microdoser which outputs crazy pure flavour. The design is ingenious and highly functional, and if properly maintained it’s going to be one of those devices that lasts you indefinitely. It wouldn’t be my top recommendation to a cloud chaser, but this incredibly well-made, beautiful, absolutely tiny vaporizer is one of the best microdosers in my stable and definitely one I will pull out for some tasty flower in the future.