The best vaporizers to use while playing video games

The fact that you’re reading this means you’ve already made, or are about to make, the decision to stop smoking and switch to the much healthier form of consuming your beloved dry herb: vaping.    

With so many different types of dry herb and concentrate vaporizers on the market, you may find it a little difficult to find your way through the myriad of choices, and decide which one is best suited to your preferred type of games and play style. To make the search for your ideal vape a bit easier, whether it is a flower or extract vaporizer, we’ve narrowed the playing field down to two major areas of distinction: ‘on-demand’ and ‘session’ vaporizers. Both have their pro’s and con’s, and in this article, we’ll take you through all of them to help you on your way to finding the best vaporizer to fit your playstyle. 

The main difference between these two ways of vaping is in the time the device needs to get to the correct temperature and the number of hits you can take before the device starts to cool down again. Do you prefer long sessions or are a few hits all you need? This is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself. 

What is a session vaporizer?

Session vaporizers are by far the most common type of dry herb or extract vaporizers out there. These vapes generally use the conduction method of heating the material and are referred to as session vapes mostly because the herbs packed in the chamber oven need to be consumed in one continuous session. So, during an online match of FIFA, NBA LIVE, or Call Of Duty or any kind of game where you’ll have little time to pause the gameplay, a session vape would not be such a good idea because you won’t have time for a full “sesh”.

With the session vape’s conduction method of vaporisation, the herbs will continue to ‘bake’ in between draws. This means that your vaporizer will still be heating your material while you are in the heat of battle, and that, dear reader, is just plain wasteful. Especially if you run your session vape through a heating-cycle while you only have time to take one or two puffs. 

Session vapes like the Crafty+ or Mighty by Storz & Bickel can also take a while to heat up to operating temperature (30-60 seconds), so you’ll have to take that into account as well before you fire up your device. Starting a session right before a match might make you miss your window for a good sesh, and that is just as wasteful.

It’s safe to say that by now we can conclude that a session vaporizer isn’t the best choice if you predominately play online games, like first-person shooters or sports games. Session vapes are better suited for those solo moments, where you can pause the game whenever you feel the need to draw-in some lovely vapour. 

Session vapes are usually more budget-friendly and can cost considerably less than their on-demand counterparts — but not always. The DaVinci IQ2 vaporizer is a good session model that costs around €229.-. You can also get a reliable session vape for under €100,- like the Boundless CFX.

Note: There are dry herb vaporizers that use a hybrid method of both convection and conduction heating. Most of these are generally considered session vaporizers and may sound like a good alternative to use during online games because some of these vapes have the option to pause the session in between. But, in our experience, these pauses still don’t prevent you from “roasting” your herb while you have both hands on the controller or keyboard. But more on that later.

What is an on-demand vaporizer?

An on-demand (9 out of 10 times a convection) vaporizer is basically the type of vape that doesn’t require you to vape all the material in the chamber in one session. In other words, the hits are just when you (demand) want them and you can take a break in between hits without wasting the contents of the chamber.

You have the luxury of choosing to consume as much or as little of material as you want, turn the device off and then pick it up later. This makes on-demand vaporizers perfect for gamers who may need to focus on their games and as a result, may only have the time to take quick hits during respawn moments or during loading screens. 

On-demand vapes like the Firefly 2+ use convection heating technology, however not all convection vaporizers are considered to be ‘on-demand’, like the Boundless TERA for instance. Some convection vapes can take up to 20 seconds to heat up, while a true on-demand convection vape is ready to use within a couple of seconds of turning it on. This can be very useful in those 5-10 seconds when an online game session is loading and you really want to take a hit, with no time to waste.

The ultimate on-demand vaping setup during your gaming-session

Now, when it comes to on-demand vaping, there is one, may we say, ‘ultimate’ setup. That is the combination of the 2020 “M” or OmniVap and the Apollo 2 induction heater by DynaVap. With this setup, you can get a hit ready in under 5 seconds! The Dynavap vaporizers already take little time to heat up, but with the induction heater, you can do it without putting down the controller because you need only one hand to do it. Just have the DynaVap loaded up beforehand and when you need a puff, push the vape down in the hole and wait for the ‘click’. That’s all you need. 

Desktop vaporizers during gaming sessions

Why haven’t talked about desktop vaporizers in this article? Well, that’s because most (if not all) home vaporizers like the Volcano Classic are essentially session vaporizers and we foresee that they will present the same “problems” you’ll have with portable session vapes. And yet, there are exceptions to this rule. With this we mean desktop vapes that also work with a “whip” or “tube” setup, like the Volcano Hybrid or the less costly Arizer V-Tower. If you can find a way to have these vaporizers placed at arm’s length somewhere in your gaming area, you can put the mouthpiece of the tube in or close to your mouth and take continuous hits all session long. It just takes a bit more effort and ingenuity.

Have you ever tried gaming with a desktop vaporizer? Photo by Antoine Maignan.