Volcano Vaporizer – Tips n' Tricks

I’ve finally got my hands on a Kill-a-Watt to track my energy usage. Of course the first thing I plugged in was my Volcano Classic!

I tracked it’s power usage over 40 days. It gets used 3 times daily by two adults.

Usage:

• Heat Element Only – Draws .82 Amp or 100 Watts
• Fan Only – Draws .12 Amp or 11 Watts
• Fan and Heat Element – Draw .94 Amp or 111 Watts

Based on average residential electricity price for 2009 our Volcano costs us in electricity :

• $2.89 per Year
• $0.23 per Month
• $0.05 per Week
• Less than one penny per day!

At last here’s a complete video tutorial of taking apart, cleaning and re-assembling the complete Volcano Vaporizer. The video runs 9:45 and is available in full screen. You can also consult the Volcano Vaporizer cleaning photo guide for more detail. Continue reading to start watching the video.

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Well, it’s been 3 years of bliss since I first ordered my Volcano Vaporizer. After much internal debate I decided to get the Volcano Classic instead of the Volcano Digital. The decision was purely financial. Had I the extra cash, I definetely would have sprung the extra $ for the Digital Volcano. But the main reason is I think the LCD display is cool.

The classic Volcano is a very capable vaporizer. It warms up fast and produces consistent reliable heat. I use the Solid Valve System instead of the Easy Valve. I did this for economy as well – I can clean and replace the parts indefinetely. But there certainly are times I wish I had the luxury of the Easy Valve. Read the rest of this article »

Here’s a new improved photo gallery based on user requests. One of the most daunting tasks for the new Volcano Vaporizer owner is taking it apart and cleaning for the first time. Here’s a step by step photo illustration of how to disassemble all the parts of the Volcano Vaporizer and clean using rubbing alcohol and sea salt. If it’s your first time taking apart the inner workings of your Volcano, this will help make sense of it. You’ll need some simple supplies; rubbing alcohol, sea salt, a large freezer bag or wide mouth jar, a pair of pliers, some q-tips and paper towels. Remember – a clean Volcano Vaporizer works better and more efficiently and tastes better!

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As outlined in this article -
How To Take Apart and Clean the Volcano Vaporizer – Photo Illustrated – I’m a fan of using isopropyl rubbing alcohol and sea salt for cleaning my Volcano. I had no complaints about the process and thought it was pretty effective. Well they say necessity is the mother of invention…
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How often you take apart and clean your Volcano depends on frequency of use, and personal preference.

One often overlooked fact is that the parts dirty at different rates. For example the bottom screen of the filling chamber takes a long time to clog up, because the air is blowing through, not the vaporized plant material. Knowing this you can spread out some of your cleaning tasks to make it less of a burden.

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So I deviated from my own recipe and ruined a huge batch of volcano leftovers butter. Trying to keep the odors down, I thought I’d get smart and cover the pot with a lid…

DON’T COVER THE POT!

I ended up creating some sort of butter water emulsion simmering under pressure with the lid on. Because of this I didn’t get the neat and easy separation of butter from water after cooling. It was a total mess and almost a total loss. I even tried freezing the whole bowl to see if I could scrape the butter off the top. But no. Learned my lesson!

Loading the herb chamber on any vaporizer can be a tricky proposition. Using my fingers or credit/business cards can be messy with multiple tries to get it all in.

For all it’s amazing German engineering, the simple act of getting the material into the chamber was overlooked. I used to load my vaporizer with a business card… scrape it on, curl it up, dump in chamber. This works pretty well, but once in awhile the spring action of the card backfires and throws your goodies all over the place.

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For the enterprising do-it-yourselfer, all the components for building yourself a working Volcano-style vaporizer can be easily obtained for less than $200 – $300 online. All it takes is the proper heat gun and the real deal Volcano Vaporizer Solid Valve System. Obviously not everyone can afford the $539 price of the Volcano Classic set, so here’s a solution to enjoy the health benefits of vaporization without the expense.

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One frequent question when making the decision to buy a Volcano Vaporizer online is which model to get? The Classic or the Digit model?

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