How To Get More Dry Herb Vapor

How To Get More Vapor from Dry Herb Vaporizers

When you first start vaping, you might notice that you're not getting a great amount of vapor. It might be too thin and tasteless or you might get huge clouds, but the vapor is harsh and doesn’t taste great. We’ll outline how to get the best vapor production from your portable dry herb vaporizer.

Vaporizers have become incredibly popular, and for good reason - vaping is healthier and more efficient than smoking (combustion). However, to get the best results from your dry herb vaporizer, you need to follow a few important steps.

Whether you're using a high-end, true portable vaporizer, a less expensive vape pen, or simply doing vape pen tricks, here's what you need to do to get the best vapor production from your dry herb vaporizer.

1. Dry Your Herbs Before Vaping

This one is very important. These devices are commonly called "dry herb vaporizers" for a reason, after all. You will get much better vapor production if your herbs are properly dried before you begin vaping.

In general, you want to buy dry herbs that are properly cured and dried to begin with for various reasons. First, there’s less chance of mold growth on properly cured herbs. Additionally, you’ll get better flavor and smoother vapor. However, if your herbs are not already dried, you can do so by following the steps below. While there are other methods and shortcuts you can take, the more time you take to properly dry your herbs, the more the herbs will retain their smoothness, flavor and aroma, and potency.

Depending on how wet your herbs are, you may need to perform one of these methods for several hours, overnight, or 1-2 days.

How To Use a Glass Jar to Dry Your Herbs?

First off, if your herbs are so wet that the stems bend forever without snapping, you’ll need to first dry them slightly in a paper bag before transferring them to a glass jar. Simply pour your dry herbs into a paper bag and loosely close the top. Unless your herbs are sopping wet, the stems should start to snap after 12-24 hours. As soon as you can snap some stems, transfer your dry herbs into a glass jar.

Now you can start the real curing process. This slowly releases moisture from your herbs, providing the best flavor, aroma and vapor quality. Start by leaving the lid off for 12 hours. Then simply divide this time in half each day. So the second day, leave the lid off for 6 hours, then 3 and so on. Don’t worry about being too exact on these times, the most important thing is that you are exchanging the air in your jar. Also, give the jar a good shake every time you open it to move the herbs around. After a few days, just leaving the lid off for 10 minutes twice a day will do the trick. The longer the cure, the better quality herb you’ll have. A good cure can take 2-4 weeks from harvest.

What If I Don't Have A Glass Jar?

Glass really provides the best cure but if you don’t want to buy a mason jar, you can use a plastic bag and follow the same steps as above. If you do this, use the thickest bag you can. Tupperware and oven bags work best, followed by freezer bags. Try to avoid using anything thinner as your herb won’t retain moisture as well and there’s a higher chance of it tasting like plastic.

How To Use an Oven To Dry Your Herbs?

If you really need to dry your herbs in a pinch, you can get the job done using your oven. We really don’t recommend this method and you can always vape your dry herbs during the curing process. However, if you really want them dry immediately, here’s how you do it -

Spread the herbs out evenly on a cookie sheet and place them in the oven between 100 and 150 degrees Fahrenheit (no higher, or you may lose potency). Let them heat for about 10 minutes, then remove. If your herbs are still a little moist, turn them over and repeat for another 10 minutes.

2. Use An Herb Grinder to Grind Your Dry Herbs

Using an herb grinder to grind herbs helps heat transfer between them more efficiently and effectively. This helps provide more even heating of your herbs and tobacco and can help with producing thicker clouds of vapor.

You may have many sharp tools and appliances laying around your kitchen that can help with grinding your herbs, but using a proper herb grinder will grind herbs easily and effectively. Additionally, a 4-piece herb grinder will catch your pollens for later use.

3. Don't Overpack the Dry Herb Atomizer

This one sounds a little counterintuitive at first but bear with us. First and foremost, vapor is coming from the dry herbs. So you would think the more you pack, the more vapor your device will produce. However, different vaporizers have different designs -- many of which require that you do not over-pack the dry herb atomizer. A good rule of thumb is to pack your herbs loosely but fill the chamber completely. You can pack them down just slightly to where they stick together.

If you have a portable dry herb vaporizer that uses convection, hot air is passed through the chamber to produce a vapor. Overpacking the chamber can restrict airflow, producing a weak vapor. There will also be less surface area of herbs that touch the passing hot air, also resulting in less vapor production.

Overpacking is most likely to be an issue if the dry herb atomizer for your device is right below the mouthpiece. This type of design usually means that you're breathing all the vapor directly from the chamber, and the airflow from the chamber to the mouthpiece could get blocked by herbs. If the airflow is blocked, then the vapor is blocked, and you will not get the best hits you could be getting. Vaporizers, where the heating chamber is at the bottom of the device (and the mouthpiece is at the top), tend to not suffer as much from airflow restriction. However, you will get a better vapor and all your herb will be vaporized completely if you do not overpack the chamber.

If you have a combustion vape, you usually want to start with a nice, light pack as well. As you vape, you’ll need to mix your herbs and repack them down in order to use all the herbs.

4. Take Long Slow Pulls When Inhaling Vapor From Your Dry Herb Vaporizer

The method which you inhale vapor makes a huge difference on how much vapor you will get. Take a slow, deep inhale (read: yoga breaths) to get the most vapor out of your dry herb vaporizer. Going back to tip #3, if your device's mouthpiece is directly above the dry herbs, then inhaling too forcefully could suck the herbs up to the filter and block airflow, preventing you from getting the most vapor from each hit.

But aside from airflow, inhaling slowly also keeps the heating chamber and dry herbs at the desired temperature. If you inhale too rapidly or too frequently, you may cool the chamber off, limiting how much vapor you get from each hit.

Finally, you have to remember that it takes time for the vapor to cook up. If you are constantly taking huge, strong pulls, you're probably getting a bit of vapor (that's been produced), and then a lot of excess air. A device can only produce so much vapor per second, and if you're taking in a lot of air, then you're not giving your vaporizer enough time to do its job. You will constantly be outpacing your vaporizer, and it will always be playing catch-up.

It's best to give the dry herb atomizer time to heat up before you start taking hits, and pace the hits out appropriately if you're not getting enough vapor. While you could wait an even longer period of time in between hits and still take forceful, deep inhales, you're likely to get overwhelmed from breathing in too much vapor at once. It's definitely best to take slow and steady pulls.

5. Use Glass Screens or Mesh Filters in a Combustion Vape Pen

Finally, if you're using a combustion vape pen (one of the many vaporizer pens on the market that have exposed heating coils inside the chamber), you must use something to prevent direct contact between the heating coil and your herbs if you want vaporization to occur rather than combustion. Using glass screen filters is the most popular method to accomplish this. Glass will not alter the flavor of your vapor and, most importantly, does not conduct electricity -- so the glass screen won't run the risk of creating a short-circuit with the battery (something mesh filters have been known to do).

You can see our detailed tutorial on using glass screen filters here.

And you can purchase glass screen filters for your vape pens here.

6. Set your vape to the right temperature

Having the right temperature set is crucial to getting the most out of a dry herb vaporizer. We recommend setting your vape between 375°F and 430°F. A lower temperature will result in smooth, tasty vapor whereas a higher temperature will result in massive, thick clouds. Avoid going over 430°F as the vapor will become harsh and lose its flavor. The ideal temperature is different for everyone and the moisture of your dry herbs will affect this as well. Play around with your vape until you find the perfect temp for you.

Try these tips and techniques out to get more vapor and better vapor from your portable dry herb vaporizers and vape pens. If you have any tips of your own, please let us know in the comments.

Dry Herb Vaporizer Recommendations

Titan 2 Dry Herb Vaporizer - $59.99

Titan 2 Dry Herb Vaporizer For Sale

The Titan 2 is the newer, improved version of the Titan 1 below. The Titan 2 gives you much more temperature control. While the Titan 1 only has three settings, you can tune in the Titan 2 to the exact degree using the digital display. This is a great choice for the connoisseur. The Titan 2 can be used with oil and wax using special canisters. You can package it with a grinder or with these canisters using the dropdown menu.

Titan 1 Dry Herb Vaporizer - $49.95

Titan 1 Dry Herb Vaporizer For Sale

The Titan 1 vaporizer was one of the first true dry herb vaporizers sold in our store.  It's a great vape pen that won't let you down. The stainless steel heating chamber holds a respectable amount of herbs and the vape heats up to your desired temperature setting within 45-90 seconds. There are only three temperature settings to choose from.

Stoner Joe Dry Herb Vaporizer - $99.99

Stoner Joe Dry Herb Vaporizer

The Stoner Joe Vaporizer Kit is definitely a step up from the Titan 2 vaporizer. It comes with an OLED screen that lets you set the temperature to the degree just like the Titan 2.  Not only can you set the temperature very precisely, but it heats up within 30-45 seconds.  The major difference is that the heating chamber is fully ceramic instead of stainless steel. This provides the best flavor possible.

E-Clipse Vaporizer - $139.99

E-Clipse Dry Herb Vaporizer For Sale

The E-Clipse is by far the best dry herb vaporizer sold in our store. It's super compact, portable and heats up within 30-35 seconds. It has a built in ceramic heating chamber providing excellent flavor. The vaporizer starter kit comes with both a regular mouthpiece and a glass tube mouthpiece for better tasting vape hits.  Lastly, the batteries in the vaporizer device are top of the line LG batteries. It's a higher price for a reason. That being said, if you join our loyalty program and earn points before making a purchase, you'll get a $5-$10 discount (This depends on how many loyalty activities you do for us).

Flowermate v5.0 Pro - $129.95

Flowermate V5 0S Pro Vaporizer

The Flowermate V5 Pro is an outstanding portable dry herb vaporizer, but a lot bulkier than the E-Clipse. Flowermate is known for long-term quality and this vaporizer goes a step further with complete temperature control on an OLED screen.  You'll never have problems with a Flowermate Vaporizer. 

Flowermate V5 PRO Mini - $109.99

Flowermate Mini V5 PRO Vape For Sale

This dry herb vaporizer is just as good as it’s older brother above, but in a pocket-friendly size. As with the larger version, it features digital temperature settings that you can set to the exact degree and heats up in just 30 seconds. Now the Mini comes with an external chamber that you can use to vaporize e-liquid, oil, wax or other concentrates. It also comes with an external stainless-steel loading chamber.

DaVinci IQ Vaporizer - $274.95

DaVinci IQ Vaporizer For Sale

The DaVinci IQ is the smartest vaporizer yet. You can use the app on your iPhone or Android to set the temperature, monitor battery life and many more smart controls. It also features a fully-ceramic airway which provides excellent flavor and vapor production. It’s also compact and fits in the palm of your hand for discreet vaping. Some users might not want a compact vape because they want a longer battery life. Not a problem with the DaVinci IQ as you can remove the 18650 battery so just bring an extra battery for a long road trip. It also comes with a 10 year warranty so you won’t be buying another dry herb vape for a long time.

FireFly 2 - $329.95

FireFly 2 Portable Vaporizer For Sale

The FireFly 2 is another top-quality handheld vaporizer. This vape is perfect for those wanting a premium dry herb vaporizer that also want to vape concentrates. Most multipurpose vaporizers vape either dry herbs or concentrates better than the other, but the FireFly 2 provides one of the best vape experiences for both. It comes with two rechargeable batteries so you won’t have to worry about running out of battery life. Unlike many dry herb vaporizers, the FireFly 2 heats up in just 3 seconds so no more waiting to vape.

Arizer Air 2 - $179.99

Arizer Air 2 Vaporizer For Sale

If the Davinci IQ and FireFly 2 are out of your price range, but you still want a top-quality dry herb vaporizer, the Arizer Air 2 is the perfect vape. This vaporizer stands out by featuring wide-open airflow. Its powerful heating element can support even the most massive draws. The Arizer Air 2 stands out among dry herb vapes as one of the only pen-style vaporizers. While it’s thicker than a standard oil-vape battery, its pen shape fits easily in your pocket and feels just right in your hand.

Final thoughts: It's important to pay attention to the temperature you're setting the dry herb vaporizer so that you get the most vapor out of your vape pen while still enjoying the premium flavor. If you want to learn more about vaporizers or read our guides and reviews, check out our Vaporizer Learning Center.

Related Blog Posts

E-CLIPSE Dry Herb Vape Review

What are FireFly Vaporizers and How are They Different?

What is Vapor?

Ultimate List of Dry Herb Vaporizers 

How To Choose The Best Wax Pen

Who Is Davinci Vaporizer

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