A BIG problem when going to purchase a new device, especially as a new person, is figuring out which reviews to trust. Many reviewers, what ever crap vape they are testing is ALWAYS the best vape around, other hawk associated brands and ignore everyone else. A glowing review of the DaVinci suckered me into buying one, and I’ll swear they edited out the guy inhaling from a Mighty+ before the exhale, because the IQC can NOT generate the clouds they showed!
We need a cheap simple way to objectively evaluate factors that can be objectified. Cloud density, vapor temperature, speed / completeness of extraction, etc. It needs to be cheap and simple so anyone can easily set it up so that hopefully it would get adopted.
Using a pump at a set speed, vacuum, and volume you could standardize the draw, using a photo sensor at the exhaust you can quantify cloud density, a temperature probe will measure vapor temperature. Extraction speed could be measured by counting pump cycles until the vapor density drops below a fixed point, or by weighing the flower before loading and after a set number of pump cycles.
We’d at least have some HARD data to make choices from. My background is science so the idea and evaluation part I can come up with, but I’m no engineer. Anyone have ideas for how to build something like this easy enough anyone could build their own and get comparable results? Of more trouble than it’s worth.
I agree that consistency and reliability of a narrative any reviewer is putting out is important.
There’s another side to this that might help long term.
When I was growing up in the music scene, I had a subscription to a specific music magazine that had a fairly consistent stable of reviewers. Over the months and years of reading those reviews and cross referencing my own opinion with theirs, I got a deep sense of their perspective’s origin.
In other words, by determining the writers’ preferences and biases, it made it much easier to frame their opinions in relation to what mine would probably be, making the experience better.
This leaves the question: how do we replicate that here?
Maybe one thing we can control is having a questionnaire on each reviewer’s profile about their perspective:
What vapes have they tried?
What vapes do they own and use consistently?
What are their expectations of a vape?
Do they use vapes with a bubbler or other rig? Which ones?
Do they pack tight bowls / use dosing capsules?
What strains are they using?
While still not a razor sharp list of immutable factors, it could go a long way to establishing some degree of predictably of a reviewer’s voice.
This is really key looking at reviews with similar preferences. I know if you like slow sippers im not the guy to watch. As far as testing methods those all sound like good ways to test but for me personally if its not enjoyable im not doing it. Biggest problem with reviews is finding the motivation for the content if the motivation is coming from a store its probably bs. Realistically in my opinion the lack of back bone in reviewers is the most glaring issue. Got a mix of store promotional reviews, positivity only ones, another group that I call post purchase affirmation reviewers who try to make people feel good about their purchases and a whole lot of people that don’t want to fuck up a free hookup. I give 0 fucks about any of this. I’ve considered reviewing reviewers a few times. Maybe hold them accountable instead of showering them with positive comments to me it looks like most people enable this behavior
Although I completely understand where you’re coming from, I think a better way to approach this is individual vetting.
In other words, it night matter to you if the reviewer is a sipper or a ripper, whereas that might not matter to someone else. Neither perspective makes one writer a better reviewer over another objectively, but it does inform the bias framework of that person, relative to your perspective.
If we were to post reviews of reviewers, I think we’d run the risk of alienating people unintentionally or discouraging some to even post a review once.
Me personally im ok tossing the trash out. For the most part its a preference thing if your preferences dont align the reviews not gonna fit you well. Whole reason I started was the shenanigans that go on in reviews
When I’m buying a DHV I mainly just wanna see videos of people using the devices in some sort of realistic way filmed in a way I can actually see what’s going on. Loading, hitting, emptying, cleaning.
I’ve found the rest is so subjective that it can be a bit like reading music or art reviews, where the reviews become more about the reviewer. I like those too with DHV stuff but I don’t find them particularly helpful when shopping. I prefer to go with things my friends recommend or just take a punt on a cool looking device.
i got so sick of watching weedtubers and underqualified influencers unbox a vape and call it the best thing ever after 9 seconds of not-even-figuring-it-out
Objective comparisons are difficult when everyone uses each vape slightly differently.
For example - I can pull fatass clouds with my IQ-C. Hopefully i’m not the reviewer that sold the OP on it though
I’ve always tried to be as thorough as possible with the “how I’m using it” part because before I started making review videos NO ONE was showing the full experience.
Interesting conversation, with as many reviewers as not in here!
@Charles I have dreamed of standardized rigs like you speak of. I would want to do temp curves throughout sessions, etc. Those things can really tell the story of a session if one knows how to read them. The most standardized thing I’ve done through the years is keep all my battery tests at 390F, so we at least know the consumer demand on the battery is consistent.
A quality reviewer can step outside of their opinions and put themselves in other people’s shoes so they can speak to their needs. I grew up from an opinioner to a reviewer when I first took content assignments from potv years ago. I found myself reviewing vapes I had no personal interest in, but couldn’t deny the overwhelmingly positive reviews from real users.
I think the first challenge was the PAX 2. I had pooped on PAX on forums for years without ever owning one, and now I had to review one objectively. I read every customer review on the potv website (hundreds of them) to find out why someone would like it. I already knew what not to like about it - that section of the review would be easy. But I had to get up out of my “convection only” vapor snob chair and see it from different perspectives. I was always a “vapor first” guy, and I found a lot of people weren’t. They cared about size and convenience and cost.
I try to be the kind of reviewer that can objectively determine what is good and bad about a product, and then steer the right person to or away from it. Most of us on these forums can translate tech and specs into an experience for ourselves. But most of the market can’t, and it does them no good if I report on a vape like the Starry from the perspective of a ball vape user.
It would be great to see vaporizer reviews from a panel of say 5 people who are all different users, from a young woman who vape at moderate temps to a hardcore vapor who only vape at max temps. With water pieces and without. That would be very interesting
I’ve explored this idea with 4 people before but it’s hard finding 3 others that will set aside a consistent time to make this a worthwhile effort. Still something I have in the works that is the biggest complication I’ve run across with doing this. Really about the only way id consider live streaming otherwise streams seem to use the chat to farm their talking points.
@stickstones - and T&J is one of the reviewers I watch. But you can only tell so much by looking at the vapor on video, especially since the clouds are almost always thicker on camera than in real life. By now, I think I can generally tell how you and T are feeling about the hit you just took, but that took hours of video and I still guess wrong from time to time.
@Sabina That would help! The thing is that it’s a safe bet that the reviewers that are raving about that $40 dispensary trash, will make sure the whole panel raves about it. Objective measurements for vapes are limited to battery life and size, everything else is subjective.
@420vapezone - You were NOT the reviewer that stuck me with the DaVinci, I had yet to discover you at that point. Besides, I pay much more attention to @stickstones , my lungs are too old and frail to hit like you. I have to cough after of some of your bong rips.
lot of the thickness on camera comes from lighting being used highlights the cloud a lot more why I prefer shooting outside if I can. Yeah being controlled would for sure be a thing if it was done by a retail outlet or heavily sponsored my plan was more for say whatever you want im pretty against moderation in any form though
almost went back to combustion.