I know lots of others answered but I'll try to sum up some notes for you:

• Combustion releases a ton of extra stuff including a toxic cocktail of carcinogenics and carbon monoxide which are bad for your body. Some of these chemicals release the instant euphoric feeling followed by sedation. People who try dry vaporizing are expecting the same exact effects, when the reality is that it is cleaner and different.

• Different temperatures extract different active compounds from the herb. In general terms a Sativa vapes great at lower temps (300-385F) while Indica and CBD strains work better at higher temps to extract that sedation and pan relief you get from the herb. This means you can essentially "customize" your high to what you want/need at that time. If you have a hybrid for example you could cook out the low temperature sativa side in the morning, then cook the same herb at night to extract the indica side of the herb.

• Not all dry vaporizers cook at the same rate. They are essentially miniature ovens. Many people buy cheaper weaker underpowered devices preheat them and suck away like they're hitting a waterpipe - this drains all heat out of the oven faster than the shitty heater can recover temps. The secret here is to either get a higher powered device, OR learn how to slow your roll and take a gentle sip (filling your lungs over 20 seconds instead of filling them in 3 seconds). This is partially why you hear people say vaporizers suck - because they are not obtaining a full extraction before they think it's finished (since they're getting no more vapor it must be fully cooked!).

• Unlike smoking where you can "Green out" from smoking too much (due to excessive carbon monoxide poisoning which causes you to start vomiting if you smoke too much too frequently), dry vaporizing does not do this. You can essentially get MORE medicated than possible with combustion because you're not inhaling all that nasty toxic shit.

Dry vaporizers come in many shapes and sizes. Some cook faster, some produce tastier vapor for flavor-chasing snobs like myself, some produce bigger clouds, others better for social gatherings, or more stealthy, faster extraction, etc. Most of us true ents have multiple devices in our collection depending on our needs at the time.

LPT - you can pair almost any vaporizer with a waterpipe for some epic vaporbonging action. Price does not equate to performance, there are many other vaporizers besides "ball vapes" that can totally get you where you need to be. Hell on vacation when my preferred portable failed (bad battery), I bought a shitty no-name $85 vaporizer at a smoke shop and was able to make it work for my needs until I got back home lol.

If you let me know more about your budget and what you want to do I can probably set you on a better path than a ball vape - I'm personally not a fan of them for novice users for several reasons.

Neither, I prefer dry vaporizing to combusting these days - it's healthier, tastes better, and I can customize what the affects feel like (different temps cook out different medical benefits from the plant)

But I still enjoy combusting socially when someone is passing something around, but I absolutely prefer flavor chasing with a dry vape

Varies entirely from person to person. Many people have a hard time making the switch to dry flower vaporizing because their bodies are accustomed to the toxic cocktail of carcinogenics and carbon monoxide yielding an instant euphoric headrush and couch-lock.

Dry vaporizing takes time to hit you (5-10 minutes) so that can be hard for many people who expect a more instantaneous affect.

Additionally unlike smoking where you get everything at once, with dry vaporizing we use different temperatures to release different medical benefits from the flower.

I work in the industry over the past decade and have handled countless dry flower vaporizers (literally lost count around four dozen). While I enjoy the Volcano, I don't find it the most efficient vaporizer on the market.

For a novice beginner on a budget, I often suggest the Dynavap Vapcap - it can be tricky to use (so watch videos first!!) but it packs a hell of a good punch for the money, and it's a great transition for people who smoke regularly.

Depends entirely on how you're consuming your herb. As mentioned to another poster, there are different grades (hardness) of steel. Cheap grinders don't hold a sharp edge on the teeth for very long. Your grinder still "works" but is it as easy to turn? Does it gunk up with resin fast? That's due to tearing/mushing the herb as opposed to grinding.

Additionally not everyone simply smokes their herb. Dry herbal vaporizers are essentially mini ovens designed to cook the herb to release the active compounds (without combusting and inhaling a nasty toxic cocktail of carcinogenics and carbon monoxide) - the fun part is different temps release different effects from the herb (so I can skip the sedative/couch-locking affects of the herb when desired). Not all dry vaporizers "cook" the same way - some devices work best with an ultra-fine grind (almost powdered kief) for optimal heat-transfer, while other vaporizers benefit from a very fluffy "airy" grind.

So if you're loading up a waterpipe or joint, sure a medium grind is good enough. But if you're trying to get fancy, there are certainly plenty of ways to enhance your sesh experience.

Yep, I have one - the teeth hold a strong point, and the strong magnetic core is handy to hold dosing capsules while loading individual ones for my Rogue/Edge capsules.

Mine has held up a LONG time and still looks great despite wear/tear. My Santa Cruz Shredder didn't hold up half as well

Howdy! My older bro around the same age is also in the same boat - they are still at the early stages of giving up the bottle. I really want to introduce them to this miracle plant - but I'm still holding off a bit longer before anything haha.

Smoking sucks anyway - it stinks, and it's terrible for your body. Dry vaporizing and edibles is the way to go. Fun part about dry vapes is that you can use different temps to choose what sort of affects you get from the plant.

Venture bros takes me back to a different era - I love it. I grew up watching Johnny Quest haha.

Coming from dry herbal vaporizing, no. I have found some concentrates are more "Full spectrum" than other concentrates.

A lot of it comes down to how it's extracted from the plant. Temperature and pressure can alter what gets extracted into the concentrate.

Personally I equate most concentrates to junk food - yes they taste great, but they don't give you the full nutritional content of a healthy salad.

Same with dry herbal vaporizing - it lets you extract everything you want from the plant, directly. Yes it's not as concentrated and for a dabber they probably won't get much enjoyment from dry vaporizing since it's a slower extraction. But after having "dabbled" with a bunch of different concentrates myself over the years, I'm perfectly content with dry herbal vaporizing.

Just my $0.02

Vapcap for the win. I'm about to enjoy my 2020 Vapcap-M which was personally gifted to me by George (founder and inventor of the Vapcap) - we go way back (both of us were founding our businesses in the same year and experienced challenges dealing with financial BS like Paypal suspending our accounts).

Woot! That's awesome, the Arizer extremeQ is one hell of a nice vaporizer. I actually use mine for conducting testing on strains - I preheat the vaporizer at a desired temperature for 20 minutes, the load a measured dose, and then slowly fill a balloon with vapor. Then I hold the vapor up to a light source and observe the opacity of the vapor. The more milky white, the higher the quality of herb at that temperature (so if I'm testing low temps, and try cooking a top-shelf indica, of course it won't produce much vapor at very low temps compared to high temps, but a high grade sativa would).

This lets me determine the quality of the herb, as well as what type of strain it is (if it's a hybrid, I can determine if it's sativa-leaning or indica-leaning based on vapor production.

Few pro tips from a seasoned EQ expert:

• PREHEAT!!! Some people buy mods to get the herb closer to the heater port. But instead the real secret is to just turn on your device for 30 minutes before loading and using it. This will let the glass oven fully "heat-soak" before use. This yields more optimal efficient extraction

• Try the nugget method - instead of grinding, break off a tiny nugget and toss it in the oven. Take a few puffs, then stir to break up the nugget and "Refresh" the flavor - this lets you flavor-chase throughout the whole session.

• Try the elbow-pack method. Some people like to stuff the tiny "elbow" screen (the one that holds back the herb) full with herb - this seems to yield a good extraction. But I'm not too impressed, although some people swear by it lol.

• Filling balloons with vapor? Check out the Camelbak Silicone "Bite-Valves" - the cheap silicone ones slide right over the mouthpiece of the balloons and traps the vapor - to get vapor you simply "bite" on the mouthpiece to open so you can suck out the vapor.

Keep in mind that 100% complete extraction (at one set temperature) results in 100% uniform color across every flake of herb in the oven. (the specific shade of brown varies depending on temp used) - just know that is what to look for. Not everyone wants to achieve 100% complete extraction (others dump/refill when they've extracted about 70-75% ish of the herb), but that's a key to remember.

Let me know if you need any more help with that device!

Dry herbal vaporizing is easier than smoking for most non-smokers. I'd look into getting a cheap dry herbal vape personally so you and they can savor the flavor of some different strains.

Look into dry herbal vaporizing instead of using concentrates for more consistent results. Different temperatures cook out different active compounds from the flower.

This lets you select your favorite temperatures depending on time of day or mood/strain. For example if you only have indica-leaning hybrids but want the uplifting euphoric affects of sativa, you can vape the hybrid at lower temps to extract the sativa side. You won't get as much vapor but it will only release that side of the herb.

If you desire sleep, I'd be focused on higher temp vaporizing with a CBD or indica dominate strain.