Dab Pens: Best Alternative to Vape Pens for Oil Cartridges
Posted by Craig Jones on Sep 25, 2019
Oil vape cartridges have become perhaps the most common way to vape or consume your medicine. But recent discoveries have found that many of the most popular vape cartridge brands are counterfeit. This brought into question the health and safety of this practice. Many people began to search for discrete alternatives and found dab pens and atomizer attachments to be the best way to dab concentrates on the go. So in this article we will be discussing what is a dab pen and why it's a good alternative to vape pens for oil cartridges.
Dank Brand, Smart Carts, and other oil cartridges are being knocked off every day. The packaging looks 100% legitimate. The cartridges look almost identical and people are being fooled. Sometimes harmful substances are used in the production of these fake cartridges, including thinning agents and thickening agents like vitamin E acetate and others. Smoking these fake carts can harm you and cause damage to your lungs, including a dangerous condition often called vape pen lung disease or “popcorn lung.”
Luckily you can replace those cartridges with a discrete way of smoking your pure dabs, like bho or rosin for medical and legal recreational users. Dab pens, also known as wax pens, are the best way to vape wax and other legal cannabis concentrates on the go and replace your oil pen and questionable pre filled cartridges. Most of these pens come with a dab tool and other parts of a full dab kit, so you won’t have to buy a lot of other new accessories. Further most dab pens have a very compact design and great functionality with temperature control to get the best hit from your wax or other type of concentrates.
So we will look at some of the best dab pens and atomizers for dabbing discreetly.
Top of the Line Dab Pens
The Puffco Plus is basically the cream of the crop when it comes to dabs. Like most of the high quality pens on the market, the Puffco plus has three temperature setting capabilities. Multi-level temperature is almost essential if you want to enjoy the delicious flavor of high quality dabs provided by the terpenes which are preserved with low temperature settings. The high temperature setting allows you to get the most out of your dabs and provides much bigger hits with thicker clouds.
Just like the Puffco Peak, it seems as though Puffco has thought of everything that you need for the perfect dabbing user experience. That is because it combines a loading tool, splash guard, and carb cap all in one compact device. The Puffco Plus also has a ceramic bowl rather than the typical coil, so it provides a more even heat distribution. This effectively keeps your dabs from scorching like they sometimes can with a normal coil. Finally, the Plus allows you to really get the most out of your dabs without having to hold down the button with a 12 second continuous heat, called sesh mode. This can allow you to take bigger hits or back to back hits or even perhaps have a more social session by passing amongst your friends without losing the heat on your dab. If at anytime you decide you want to use this pen for oil cartridges or put on a different atomizer, this is made possible by 510 threading. Finally, since puffco knows you will need to clean your pen, it also comes with some cleaning swabs.
Dr. Dabber is another top company and they have done it again with the Aurora. The coolest thing about the Aurora is that it comes with three different coils. Two of the coils are ceramic and one is the industry gold standard quartz, just like you would want from the highest quality quartz banger. The quartz rod coil and the ceramic rod coil are better than typical rod coils because they are dual coils meaning they have two rods which provides better coverage and more even heating. The final coil is a quite unique ceramic halo coil. The different materials used for the coils provide very different flavors and and allow you to enjoys different qualities in your dabs. All three of the coils are set in a high quality quartz dish. Finally as a pen, the plus also has a 510 thread which allows for added versatility. This is definitely a top of the line dab pen that provides multiple options for the dab connoisseur.
The randy’s pilot is a little different in that it is technically not a pen, but a dab vape or concentrate vape. This means that it has a dish instead of a coil and does not have a 510 thread so it is not capable of being used with cartridges. However, the ceramic dish method does allow for a no-splash hit and what many believe is a more even heating experience similar to the Puffco Plus. The ceramic dish heats to 480° F in just 4 seconds and can reach a maximum temperature of 840° F in approximately 10 seconds. One advantage is that the Randy’s Pilot does come with two different mouthpieces, a glass mouthpiece and an open mouthpiece. As a dab vape rather than a pen, the Pilot is a bit thicker than a pen and is about the size of a thick permanent marker. While it s about 5 inches and a bit thicker, it is still quite discreet and portable just like a pen. Finally, one super cool aspect of the Randy’s pilot is that you can always purchase a separate water attachment and turn it in to an e-rig like the Randy’s Aqua Pilot.
Low Priced Dab Pens
Nox Variable Voltage Concentrate Pen
This is a great low priced option because it has three different heat settings. It has a 2.6V setting, 3.3V setting, and a 4.0V setting. The battery is 400mAh It also has a preheat function that you can use to either clean the chamber or to make sure your dab will be ready as soon as you put it to your lips and pull. Additionally you get a dual quartz coil. With the Nox you get all of this for only $15.99 .
The Airis Quaser, like the Nox, has 3 heat settings but they more powerful than the Nox even though it has a it lower capacity at 350mAh. The three temperature settings are 3.4V, 3.7V, and 4.2V.
The innovation of the Airis Quaser is the Q-cell. This is a fritted quarts chamber with an internal coil rather than a coil with something wrapped around it. This gives a more even heating and dab experience to reduce scorching. Additionally it has a built in dab tool that effectively cleans itself as drips down onto the coil as you take a hit.
The Wulf SLK Concentrate Vape Pen is another variable voltage dab pen. The three temperatures are 2.8V, 3.4V, and 4.0V. It also has a convenient preheat function. The Wulf is a more typical low priced dab pen with only a single coil. However, Wulf is generally known for its quality so might be more durable. All three of the low priced dab pens have a 510 thread and are compatible with cartridges as well.
Atomizers
Another option is to turn your existing vape pen battery into a dab pen by using a wax atomizer. This is a cheaper option that achieves virtually the same thing. Also, in addition to a wax atomizer, you can purchase a dry herb atomizer that will allow you to vape both dry herb and wax with the same pen battery merely by changing atomizers. This provides a very discreet, versatile option that allows you to turn any 510 vape pen battery into a dab pen.
We hope this article can give you some ideas for an alternative to your vape pen battery if you are looking to avoid oil cartridges. While not all cartridges are bad, this controversy of counterfeit cartridges is really shaking the faith of many vape pen cartridge users. In this midst of this controversy, we hope that this can provide a good way to discreetly consume your medicine.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
**The beliefs and opinions expressed in this blog are not those of Waterbeds ‘n’ Stuff.