G Pen Dash Review | A Perfect Portable Vaporizer for the Price

The G-Pen Dash is a portable herb-only vaporizer manufactured by Grenco Science. It vaporizes via conduction with a  a glass-coated stainless steel heating heating element  and is the smallest and least expensive of Grenco Science herb vaporizer line up, retailing for under $70. 

At that price point, the  build quality of the Dash Vaporizer does come as a shock. With a housing made from an aluminum alloy the unit  feels rugged and rock-solid in your hands. The G Pen Dash is alot like the Atomic 9 in size and build, both budget vaporizers which serve well as an economical substitute for the pricier PAX 3. 

The G Pen Dash Comes in a no frills circular package, while it is stylish it’s not anything worth noting. Lately we have seen Grenco include some pretty nice hemp carrying cases with their latest concentrate vaporizers the G Pen Roam and G Pen Connect.

The box itself is a minimal cylinder shape emblazoned with their logos and  information about the Dash, and when you break the safety seal and remove the top sheath, you’re met with the same minimalist style that somehow manages to feel more expensive that $70. 

                  Comes With

• The G Pen Dash Vaporizer 
• micro USB charging cable
• Stainless Steel stirring tool with keyring
• User Manual 

The G Pen Dash comes with only the essentials. The trade off here is that Grenco can really save on production costs and provide a good  vaporizer at a lower cost,  but you are not getting a plethora of bonus items or a noteworthy unboxing experience. Whereas with some of their other vaporizers like the G Pen Roam , the case is most certainly included in the $249 price point.

The G Pen Dash  is  intended to be a solo session vape and not something you are going to pass around to multiple friends on a night out. At 3.6 inches tall and only 3 ounces in weight , however, I don’t think anyone expected this to be rocking the party like the Volcano. 

Besides providing a great intro to what herbal vaporization can be like the G Pen Dash Vaporizer is ultra portable and would be a perfect travel or second vaporizer for the office. At only $70 you can  save some money picking up a premium vaporizer like the refurbished Mighty and use your savings to buy the Dash for secondary use.

If you are familiar with vaporizers the G Pen Dash is relatively easy to use, and even if this is your first vaporizer the design is intuitive enough. To prepare, simply grind up your herbs of choice, remove the magnetic mouthpiece, light pack your herbs in the oven chamber, replace the mouthpiece and you are ready for liftoff.

Where this single button operation vaporizers become a tad confusing is in the button sequence you must use to power on, change temperatures or check battery life. The Dash powers on with 5 pushes of the home button and immediately lets you know it is heating up with a small haptic buzz that would be a welcome addition for a stealthy boot up in your pocket someplace where discretion is mandatory.

The G Pen Dash performs more than decently for the price point. The vapor output is on par with what you would expect in the  $100 range. The flavor is better in the beginning and can get hot through the session.  One thing I wish Grenco did was add a temperature below 375° F , like say 360 °F. With these entry level vaporizers there is not much cooling distance between the heating element and mouthpiece and the G Pen Dash does have some high heat settings for an herb vape. 

I was impressed overall with the  abundance and ease of vapor produced whether I was pulling long and fast or low and slow. The Dash removes the guess work from getting consistent vapor. I would say the PAX 3 Vaporizer  is the luxury version of the G Pen Dash and that vape is harder for first time users to get these results from without having to fiddle with and dial in.

The  G Pen Dash is not a direct competitor with the more premium portable vapes on the market. I would see it as an adventure vape – something you’d toss in your bag or your jacket and head out somewhere you might not want to bring a more expensive unit. Mountain biking sesh? Snowboarding? A concert where you might get frisked on entry? Bring this bad boy and you’re good to go.

If somehow you manage to break the aluminum alloy casing on this rugged device, snowboarding or hiking you are definitely going to be more worried about your broken bones than breaking the Dash casing; this thing is that solid. 

In over a week of use, I put the Dash through its paces, and was thoroughly pleased with the even heating of my material, with consistently golden brown AVB every time, even at the highest temperature setting.

For some contrast, I have a Firefly 2+ , a high end premium vaporizer known as the best vaporizer for tasting your terps. I need to monitor it closely at the higher temperature settings or risk some gnarly combustion.  That was never an issue with the Dash.

The G Pen Dash has a 950 mAh internal battery that charges full via a micro USB in a tad over an hour.  The battery life is displayed with LED lights on the front of the device which give an approximation letting you know when you are about to run out of juice.

I was getting roughly 6 sessions on average from the Dash on a single charge. With each session providing 8- 10 good draws. However the later draws not being as good in vapor quality as the earlier ones. 

While the G Pen Dash can fit up to .25 grams in the oven, it is recommended to not max it out and go with .15 – .2 grams to ensure proper airflow. This is on the smaller side for herb chambers, but does the trick especially given the Dash is only 3.6″ (inches) tall. with vaporizers like these you want to make sure you pack the chamber full but with a loser pack.

Because the G Pen Dash is so minimal in its design, it is also remarkably easy to keep clean.

After every few sessions, I gave both the oven and mouthpiece screen a quick brushing and things looked pretty good. When the device did start to get a little grimed up , I just dipped a Q-Tip in 91% isopropyl alcohol and swabbed out the oven and mouthpiece screen for a fresh vaping experience with minimal effort.

Would you want to break this thing all the way down for a more extensive clean after a few weeks use ? Yes, but I am happy to report that the mouthpiece comes apart quite easily by separating the silicone grommet that also holds the screen, and a quick soak and swab with isopropyl would leave it squeaky clean. The mouthpiece’s inside helix swivel piece works to cool the vapor by make it travel a greater distance. Disassembling and reassembling this is going to be the hardest part of deep cleaning the G Pen Dash and that is not hard at all. 

At the end of the day, The G Pen Dash impresses for the price. It outperforms all the budget vaporizers I have tried and the only better value you could find would be purchasing a premium refurbished vaporizer. Grenco has a reputation for being one of the best in the economical dry herb vape market, with Grenco’s more high end products being concentrate vaporizers.  

Will the Dash blow you away with heat-up times? No

Is the vapor mind-meltingly good? No

Is it going to impress your vape snob friends who only use Storz & Bickel vapes? Not likely.

With that said, the vaporizer  is only $70.00 and it will do everything you need it to do. It makes a killer little unit to pack up and head out for the day with, and if you don’t have a huge tolerance, one pack should get you to the moon.

Overall, I would highly recommend the G Pen Dash to anyone who is in the market for an inexpensive and efficient vape, but more specifically I think this device would be great for outdoorsy folks who love a good flower session after some physical activity, the concert goer in your life who won’t touch the wax pen  or a microdoser who doesn’t need a giant oven for a quick puff.