What Are Desktop Vaporizers?
Desktop vaporizers are just what their name implies. In contrast, a portable vaporizer can fit in your pocket and offer you bite-sized puffs throughout the day. But a desktop vaporizer is a larger unit that fits on top of your desk, table, counter, or shelf.
They are also great options for smokers who want to take larger hits throughout the day, especially when they aren’t on the go.
In this modern world, where people increasingly work from home, we have more and more time to spend around the house—and this means we don’t have to rely on portable vaporizers to take hits of our favorite herb.
With their substantial size and even larger hits, there is no substitute for a tabletop vaporizer in a home environment.
While they won’t replace your portable vaporizer when you’re on the go, your portable vaporizer can’t match up to your desktop vaporizer machine at home, either. Check out our comparison of the two to learn more!
How Do They Work?
If you’ve spent a sizable amount of time with the bakers and chefs in your family, or if you've spent any time in the kitchen yourself, you might be familiar with a convection oven—and the concept of convection.
If you’re a longtime smoker who has used portable vaporizers before, you may recognize convection, as many portable vaporizers also operate with this upwards flow of heat and vapor.
In essence, convection heating is the tendency of heat to rise; in a convection oven, this flow means your food will bake thoroughly throughout its body as heat enters it from above as well as below.
In a desktop vaporizer, this harnessing of convection means that your desktop vape machine will intake and propel air from your heating element to get an even burn on your herbs.
This convection lets you take a healthier, more sizable hit of your favorite herbs and flower while continuing to provide the smooth, vapor-quality hits that you know and love.
Are Desktop Vaporizers Good?
In the world of smoking, there are hundreds of ways to light up and smoke your favorite herb. With so many options available, it can be hard to know where to start and what to pick.
You may wonder if desktop or tabletop vaporizers are good, but a better question would be if they are a good choice for you.
Everybody likes to smoke their favorite herb uniquely, so no one smoking appliance works for everybody.
As a smoker, you have to discover what you like on your own—not that any of us will give up an excuse to take a hit off of our favorite flower.
If you are fond of portable vaporizers, you will certainly love desktop vaporizers just as much, if not more.
These vaporizing machines offer all of the benefits of their pocket-sized counterparts, with the benefits of more sizable hits and a sturdier design, along with extra features that can help boost your smoking experience to the next level.
Are Dry Herb Vaporizers Worth It?
If you prefer to smoke dry herb over any other substitutes, you may wonder if dry herb vaporizers are worth the investment.
After all, desktop vapes are normally higher end than a water pipe or some blunt wraps.
However, this price point is not undeserved. With their increased price, a tabletop vaporizer may come with many more features and options that more traditional smoking appliances lack.
If you want to buy a desktop vaporizer for your dry herbs, you have plenty of options—many vaporizers cater to more than one method of smoking.
While some, particularly the higher-end ones, may focus on being the best appliance to smoke one form of herb or resin, others feature a wide variety of options that ensure you can get plenty of use out of your tabletop vaporizer.
If the price point of some higher-end models turns you off, you don’t need to worry—there are plenty of high-quality desktop vaporizers for sale that you can purchase for just about the same price as your favorite water pipe or bong.
Overall, if you want to know if buying a dry herb vaporizer is worth the cost, then the answer is a resounding yes for any vape enjoyers!
You will love the smoking experience that this vaporizer provides.
Where Can I Buy Desktop Vaporizers?
If you want to quickly purchase a desktop vaporizer, you might be able to buy one from any local smoke shop in your city.
However, when you shop at these smoke shops, you open yourself up to the risk of not receiving a quality product.
Perhaps your new tabletop vaporizer from your local smoke shop is secondhand and has electrical issues that can result in a poor smoking experience or worse.
You can easily rectify these issues by shopping at a qualified, reputable online dealer—such as SMOKEA®.
At SMOKEA®, we have a collection of the most high-quality, feature-packed, aesthetically pleasing, and popular vaporizers available for consumer purchase.
If you want the best names and products, from the latest in high-quality silicone dab rigs to a retro-styled desktop vaporizing machine, look no further than the collection from SMOKEA®.
With our collection, you can rest assured that you will receive only the finest vaporizing machines.
What Kinds of Desktop Vaporizers Are There?
Much like any other smoking device on the market, there are several variations available that you may purchase.
The two main varieties of desk vaporizers that you may choose between are whip-style and forced air.
While these both utilize convection heating to some degree, they have significant differences that set them apart from each other and make them ideal for certain smokers.
There are other variations with differences that may set them apart from the main whip-style or forced air variations.
For example, some may feature both whip-style and forced air capabilities. Many smokers refer to these as multifunctional desktop vaporizers.
However, they tend to be more similar to one than the other, and you may simply consider them outliers of their particular mechanism.
Let’s go over what the key differences are between these whip-style and forced air, as well as how to use them.
Whip-Style
Many smokers consider the whip-style to be “old school,” a thought which gives these vaporizers a reputation as “old reliable” for many home-bound smokers.
Whip-style smokers are named for their whip attachment—a length of tubing, typically some form of silicone, with a glass mouthpiece and a glass to store your herb.
When using a whip-style vaporizer, your inhalations draw hot air and vapor over your herb via a form of manual convection rather than utilizing a mechanical fan.
With the hands-free connection that many whip-style desktop vaporizers offer, you can take a strong hit of your favorite herb without ever needing to pause your favorite video game, book, or channel-flipping.
With an affordable price point and efficient, reliable operation, smokers looking for a simple and reliable way to vaporize their favorite herb will love the features and massive hits that a whip-style vaporizer offers.
Forced Air
The second type of desktop vaporizer is a newer invention known as "forced air".
With an advance in modern technology comes a push in the art of smoking and the design of smoking devices. This advance in the world of smoking has resulted in devices such as the forced air tabletop vaporizer, among others.
These extremely efficient vaporizers utilize a forced-air system, similar to a traditional convection oven.
Forced air vaporizers feature an internal fan that pushes hot air over your herbs, rather than requiring the use of a smoker’s lungs.
This convection creates a perfect vapor stream which you may inhale via one of two attachments.
Some forced air vaporizers will come with a whip attachment, similar to a whip-style vaporizer. Others come with a balloon bag that allows you to store your vapor for far longer.
As forced air vaporizers are a very recent invention in the world of smoking, they feature many state-of-the-art features, such as an adjustable fan speed or LED lighting.
While many smokers enjoy the quick usage of a whip-style vaporizer, the consensus is that forced air vaporizers are the more modern and higher-end option.
How To Use A Desktop Vaporizer
These types of vaporizers can be intimidating when you first encounter one, no matter your smoking experience level.
Many of these desktop/large tabletop vaporizers are sizable chunks of metal or silicone—some even look like advanced cookware, such as a state-of-the-art air fryer you may find in your grandmother’s kitchen.
Despite what your first impressions may be, smoking out of one is easier than you might think.
The experience of smoking out of a desktop vaporizing machine is very similar to smoking out of your favorite portable vaporizer or even something like an electric bong.
If you are not aware of how to take effective hits from your new vaporizer, read on. You will be drawing in sizable hits of vapor in no time!
Grind Your Herbs
Similarly to other smoking devices, the first step to using your new vaporizer is grinding your herb of choice.
You don’t want to add whole herbs into it; large selections of herbs can result in blockage and, ultimately, internal damage to your favorite vaporizing machine.
There is a key to grinding herb for any smoking implement, and this includes your tabletop vaporizers.
You don’t want to grind it too fine, or else your vaporizer will incinerate your herb far too quickly, and you may draw in ash with each hit.
On the other hand, grinding too large can restrict airflow, preventing you from drawing any vapor at all and ruining your smoking experience.
When grinding up your herbs for use in a desktop vaporizer, you want to aim for a light, fluffy consistency.
Try using a new, clean, high-quality grinder to grind your herb to the proper consistency.
Turn On Your Desktop Vaporizer
Your next step will be to turn it on. This step may seem glaringly obvious—after all, you can’t smoke out of a disabled vaporizer—but it is vital in smoking your herb out of a vaporizer.
Many desktop vaporizers, especially older models, may take a significant amount of time to turn on and heat up to a desirable temperature.
As this heating time varies wildly between makes and models, you should consult the guide that comes with your vaporizer for an estimated timeframe.
Some older models may take as long as five minutes to heat up, while modern models, such as the Puffco Peak Pro, can heat up in as little as thirty seconds.
Additionally, you must ensure that your vaporizer has a charge. Some vaporizers do not contain batteries and must remain plugged into an outlet, in which case, you can skip the battery step.
However, others—particularly more modern and higher-end models—may utilize a chargeable battery so that you can easily move your vaporizer around your home.
In the case of these battery-enabled vaporizers, you must ensure that your device has sufficient battery life to heat up and take a draw.
Load Your Materials
Tabletop vaporizers may support a variety of different smokeable materials. For example, some may take your dry herb, while others may take liquids or extracts.
Some higher-end models, or even some more modern ones, may support smoking multiple varieties.
You may not be able to smoke resin and herb at the same time, but you have the option of smoking either whenever you’d like!
Many vaporizers that support dry herbs, such as traditional whip-style, function similarly to loading a pipe or a bong.
After you have grounded up your herb of choice, pack the appropriate amount in your wand. You want to have plenty to smoke, but you do not want your wand or bowl to overflow.
This step will help prove whether you have ground your herb to the proper size for those who are inexperienced in grinding.
You must ensure that your herbs are thick enough not to fall into the stem while remaining thin enough to burn with ease.
Desktop vaporizers that smoke resin or wax will operate similarly to a traditional dab rig. Using a specialized device such as a dabber, place the wax or resin inside any provided banger.
In a vaporizer, this banger will heat itself; you merely have to wait for the appropriate time to apply your smokable substances.
Take Your Vapor Draws
With this final step, you have finally reached the fun part.
Once you have loaded your smokeable of choice and your vaporizer has reached the required temperature, you are ready to take a draw from your vaporizing machine.
At his point, you may draw from the mouthpiece, whether it is at the end of a whip or a bag. If using a bag system, you may need to detach your bag from your vaporizer to take a hit. In this case, you should do so now.
Hits from desktop vaporizers are notoriously sizable and potent. If you are a new smoker in the world of these vaporizers, you may want to start with smaller draws so you do not overwhelm yourself.
Great Desktop Vaporizers To Choose From
Anybody in the market for tabletop vaporizers will have plenty of options they may select from.
When you shop our SMOKEA® collection, you are perusing our curated list of the best and most high-quality vaporizers for sale.
You will surely find one that speaks to you!
We know that you have plenty of options for vaporizers out there, whether desktop or portable—thankfully, we provide plenty of options so that you can find just what you need.
If you are in the market for the best desktop vaporizers, check out some highlights from our desktop vaporizers collection!
Puffco Peak Pro Smart Rig
The Puffco Peak Pro Smart Rig is one of the foremost advances in the world of vaporizers.
With a 30-second heating time, customizable LED lights, and wireless charging, the Puffco Peak Pro Smart Rig is an excellent and convenient option for both beginner and experienced smokers alike.
With four pre-programmed heat settings, the Peak Pro Smart Rig from Puffco is a dab rig vaporizer that works with just about all of your favorite dabbing materials.
If none of the pre-programmed heat settings stick out for you, no worries—you can customize both your lighting and heating via the Peak Pro app!
With an included carrying case, AC adapter, and USB-C cable, the Puffco Peak Pro is an excellent vaporizer for smokers at home and on the go.
Puffco Peak Smart Rig
If you aren’t ready to jump straight into the Puffco Peak Pro, the innovative people at Puffco have more affordable options as well.
Introducing the Puffco Peak. Unlike its premium cousin, the Puffco Peak lacks some of the high-end customization features in heat and lighting.
Despite this more basic setup, the Puffco Peak is an excellent vaporizer with a 20-second average heat time—a full ten seconds shorter than the Peak Pro. If you’re looking for a quick hit, you can’t beat the Puffco Peak!
With four heat settings, water filtration, and an included carrying case, the Puffco Peak Pro offers hits that are just as strong and portable as the Pro model.
Retro Vapes The El Camino
El Camino is more than just a movie or an album—Retro Vapes The El Camino Desktop Vaporizer helps bring a retro, 60s-style flair to whip-style vaporizing machines.
While the El Camino from Retro Vapes may not win any innovation awards, it’s certainly one of the more stylish options for vaporizers. Additionally, it’s a great option for its price.
If you don’t want any bells and whistles, just a simple smoking experience with style, the El Camino and its digital temperature display is an excellent option.
However, if you want a dab rig or a vaporizer compatible with resins and waxes, the El Camino might not tickle your fancy—this vape is only compatible with dry herbs.
Retro Vapes Thunderbird
Another stylish beauty from Retro Vapes, the Thunderbird Desktop Vaporizer is a seven-inch desktop vape that harkens back to the old sci-fi shows popular in the 1950s.
This space age-styled, retrofuturistic desktop vape fits Retro Vapes’ niche of simple yet reliable vaporizers; however, with a borosilicate glass insulator, temperature control, and an LCD, the Thunderbird has everything you need for a comfortable smoking session.
Volcano Hybrid
If you’re looking for the ultimate name in tabletop vaporizers, look no further than the Volcano Hybrid Desktop Vaporizer. Coming in at a higher-end price, the Volcano Hybrid from Storz & Bickel is worth every penny.
With a heat time between one and two minutes, the Volcano Hybrid works with either balloon or whip kits to give you the best options for smoking.
Its large display and highly-visible control panel make the Volcano Hybrid easy to use for anybody, and integration with the Storz & Bickel App allows for a high degree of customizability.