So I've used portables for years and desktops a few times. The last couple years I've kept reading about ball vapes and they sounded cool but honestly I got intimidated and stopped looking into it. There are so many options and components and you have to worry about compatibility etc.... Well I hope to make a series of posts addressing all of this to help other people be more comfortable approaching getting a ball vape!
At a glance, what is a ball vape? Simply put a ball vape heats up an e-nail, that then heats up a metal or glass housing, that houses hundreds of 2-4mm balls (where the name comes from). These balls are made from materials that have good heat retention properties, silicon carbide(SiC), ruby (corundum), alumina, zirconia, and many more. These balls heat up as well and when you draw air though the balls the air heats up and passes though the herb vaporizering it.
What's the benefits? The reason small 2-4mm balls or jewels(lil diamond shapes) are used is because they have a large surface area compared to larger (5+mm) shapes and you can get a higher packing density(more balls/volume). This heats the air passing though very uniformly, leading to a much more uniform extraction (less green and black ABV). It also allows for a very open airpath, while being able to maintain temperature. The housing and balls (often referred to as a head assembly) have a huge thermal mass so you can rip the hell out of a ball vape and the heat will keep up! A ball vape offers a one hit extraction from flower, kinda like dabbing flower if that makes sense.
There are three main components you need to start a ball vape setup:
-PID controller
-a coil that is compatible with the PID
-a head assembly that fits the above coil and balls
The rest is a bowl, bong, and any adapters you want. These depend on injector vs difussion style but that goes past the scope of this post.
All of this is just a very general picture of a ball vape written as succinctly as possible. I will dive much deeper into the setups, parts, and adapters in future posts.
Image from tools420 site in comments, I just wrote over it.
That's totally fair, they are not consumer friendly right now for a couple reasons. There are also safety concerns that people should consider with these, I'll probably mention that in the next write. They are pretty new conceptually, maybe in the next 5 years they will be in a better spot but right I view this as more of a hobbyist/ I want the bleeding edge of cannabis tech.
All that being said I personally think they are cool as hell but I wouldn't recommend it for 2/3rds of cannabis users, maybe even more like 3/4ths. I would say get a mighty in some cases, TM2 in some cases, or something that fits another niche. Ball vapes are kinda on the fringe of the vaporizer space right now.
Most do have exposed heating elements, but cannabis hardware does have a covered heating element I'm pretty sure. Not all of them, I think it's one of their upgraded pieces.
You are correct! I believe the b2 and b1 are shielded, crossing core (known for the core 2.0 e-rig) also sells a basically universal heat shield for like $15 I think.