As with computer technology, vaporizers seem to get smaller each year, evolving from desktop models like the Volcano — the original gold standard — to the increasingly popular and widely available portable vaporizers, many of which are based on electronic cigarette technology.
O.penVape is one of the smallest vape pens on the market. The size of a standard writing pen and twice as heavy, the vaporizer isn’t just based on e-cigarettes — it is the same exact product. The bottom half of the pen is a battery that screws onto a cartomizer — a heating element and a tube of hash oil.
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The pen is super easy to use and has no buttons. Just draw air through the mouthpiece, and the unit automatically heats up to release hash oil vapor. An LED in the tip of the pen lights up during use, and the heating element will stay on for up to eight seconds of sucking. It is extremely discreet, and it doubles as a computer stylus — which, like fax machines, some people still use these days.
O.penVape uses pre-filled cartridges that contain hash oil and propylene glycol to keep the oil flowing. The company has official vendors in Colorado, Washington and California who produce replacement cartridges. One downside of this arrangement is that replacement cartridge options are limited by what your local distributor has in stock. But for vape pen users that don’t want to load their own, the ease of buying disposable refill cartridges — like we do with shaving razors — will likely ensure significant market share for these pens as the legal cannabis industry evolves.
Read more Cannabist gear reviews on products from VaporGenie, Sasquatch Glass, Pax Ploom and others.
Prices range from $25-$60, for both pens and cartridges. O.penVape is an “open source” vaporizer, since it’s really just a standard e-cigarette. Empty refill cartridges are cheap and easily obtained, and several vendors now produce their own replacements and sell their own e-cigarette batteries. Standardization is a definite plus for cannabis consumers, who will have increasing options for hash oil replacement cartridges as recreational pot businesses come online in Colorado and Washington state.