What would you get if you wanted a vaporizer that didn’t look like a vaporizer? No, let’s try that again.
How about a stealthy portable vaporizer that fits in your pocket and is practically armor-plated? What if I told you it would also let you load two different strains and switch between them? Indica and sativa, for night and day use…or maybe one high THC and one high CBD. How about one with wax and one with bud? How about two of almost anything you might want to vape, including e-juice?
Impossible, you say? Haze says “Ha!” And it comes in an assortment of interesting colors, too:
The Haze company has been making its vapes for several years now, and this is “V3”, so the third generation. They’ve clearly found a lot of things that people want. One of them is extremely easy operation, and another is very accurate temperature sensing and control. I can actually take a big hit off this and see it start reheating automatically, because I cooled the chamber with a huge volume of air intake!
How easy and stealthy is the Haze? As you can see, it’s palm-sized (and like Donald Trump, I have small hands) and doesn’t look anything like a vaporizer, even if you know what they look like! To use the Haze, you load the chamber, then flip the cleverly disguised switch either way to turn the unit on. Each direction is marked to correspond with the chamber that will be activated, and while it’s heating up, the hidden mouthpiece is revealed. Pull it up with your fingers and you can start inhaling; there’s plenty of vapor even before it’s up to temperature. The temperature is set by pressing another hidden button to one of four useful heat ranges, and indicated by a row of hidden LEDs.
What’s In the Box, Man
OK, I admit it. I screwed up the unboxing video I made somehow. But it was too long and boring anyway. Here’s the official one, done by the very fellow I talked with. Scott is the Director of Product Innovation at Haze Technologies, and he really knows all about the internal design, as I can attest after some good back-and-forth conversations with him.
The Haze V3 comes with both a stainless steel and glass mouthpiece, a number of assorted screens, separate loadable cans for herb and concentrate/e-juice, a cleaning brush, tweezers, two 2600 mAh type 18650 batteries, and lists for $250.
And a 10 year warranty. That’s pretty awesome for an electronic portable vaporizer.
The Haze V3 also comes with a fairly large, but not overly heavy, charger that can handle two 18650 batteries at once. This charger not only plugs into the wall like any other charger, but also directly into a car’s 12VDC socket (AKA “cigarette lighter”) with an optional cable, and you can even hook it up “backwards” by plugging a USB cable into it and charging your phone from the 18650 batteries!
With all the “fiddly bits” and extra tools and such, the Haze is great for people who are fussy about doing things exactly their way…but also works fine if you just want to grind and go.
Battery Power
I tracked the warmup time over a period of several days’ use with a stopwatch to see how long you might expect a single battery to last. It took 1 minute and 8 seconds to heat to the lowest temperature LED, but only 1 minute 20 seconds to get to the same temperature while taking continuous hits. Then I proceeded to use the Haze normally.
On the second day, I did the same thing and got the same time…twice! The third day was where I started seeing some slowdown: 2 minutes 30 seconds to get to temperature.
So it seems that after 3 or 4 warmups from a complete cold start, times start going up significantly. Of course, you can switch batteries in seconds, and you can also buy XL batteries that Haze says last 30% longer if you need it, so this is not necessarily a big deal, depending on how you use your unit. One battery can easily last a full day’s normal use at this rate. If you regularly have “sessions”, where you heat it up and pass it around, or just use it yourself, this is probably not a problem at all.
Using the Haze V3
In this type of vaporizer, the temperature is measured inside the unit, and it’s the heated air drawn past and through the “can” that really heats the contents. It doesn’t take long to heat up…about 68 seconds to go from room temperature to 365F (the lowest setting), but it’s heating the goodies anyway: roasting begins even before the unit signals that it’s up to temperature (by showing a steady LED).
So as to not waste all those good vapors, I found that the best technique was to just take slow hits until the light stops blinking. If you’re microdosing or want to take it easy, you can actually stop right there, because in about 4.20 minutes, you’re going to feel it. However, if you want to get high af, or you need extra pain relief or have to conk out for the night, just take one or two more hits (won’t take many) and soon you should be smiling like the piano player from Reefer Madness. The Haze makes loads of vapor!
Let me be clear. This is a vaporizer all right, but it is the closest thing to smoking I’ve tried, at least as far as how high you get and how fast it works. The AVB comes out quite a bit darker than I’m used to with other vapes, but nowhere near “black” or burned. When I first got the Haze, I thought it might be near combusting because of the heat and sheer volume and taste of the vapor, but a conversation with Scott (the factory expert) convinced me that I hadn’t given it enough time to break in, and he was right. After about 10 or 12 uses, the taste settled down and it was clear that all was indeed well.
I put the Haze V3 through its paces with ground weed, nugs, and oil, and it worked like a champ. The included screens actually let you choose between vaping via convection or conduction (as well as just skipping the screens altogether if these details aren’t important), so you can tailor the experience the way you like.
The Haze V3 vaporizer is the closest thing to smoking I’ve tried, at least as far as how high you get and how fast it works.
— Old Hippie
The dedicated concentrate can has some absorbent material in the bottom for use with e-juice, which I pulled out because I don’t really use e-juice, and it comes with a little rubber cover to help keep the oil in the can. As long as you don’t make the mistake I did and overfill the can with oil in sheer giddy enthusiasm, which can cause it to leak inside the tubes and stick on the top cover, you’ll be fine (just a thin layer on the bottom is good).
Some people may not do well with all the loose pieces like the screens and covers and cans and such (especially if they lose fine motor control in their fingers after using it too much), but this is not a fault with the unit itself 🙂 It’s probably a good idea to carry a small box with you to hold all these accessories for portable sessions.
I really can’t say enough about the ability to pack two different strains at once; this is an amazingly powerful and useful tool for medical patients. For instance, I regularly need a sativa strain during the day for depression and ADHD, and a heavy indica at night to fall asleep. With the Haze, I can carry both with me, with either one ready to go at a moment’s notice!
