Herbalizer Review

The Herbalizer is back and for those of you not in the know, we did another write up about the history of the company and coveted desktop vaporizer  prior to our official Herbalizer review. 

The Herbalizer is a high end luxury desktop vaporizer primarily for herbs. It comes with liquid pads and can accommodate both extracts and essential oils but for our Herbalizer review we are only going to review exclusively with dry herb. The Herbalizer can be great for essential oils and some extracts here and there but If you’re primarily looking to take down fat globs get a Puffco.

The Herbalizer comes in a sterile and minimalist packaging. If I was not already in the know of the company and the slow roll out of the Herbalizer vaporizer, I would have thought the packaging to be a little lacking in flair and pizzazz for such an expensive vaporizer. Herbalizer has stated the possibility of spicing up the the packaging a bit based on customer feedback once sales start ramping up. 

A plain white packaging shouldn’t get in your way if you are looking for the absolute best in vaporizer technology and some may in fact find the discretion and function a positive. 

The nifty thing about the packaging is it does double as a carry case and being a plain white box is very discrete and unassuming. Not like lugging around a Volcano in the original packaging showing the world you are just casually going to your friend’s house with a cannabis vaporizer. 

The packaging contains the foam insert which keep your Herbalizer device snug and safe and a little compartment underneath where you will locate the Herbalizer accessories.

• 2 x Herbalizer Squeeze Valve Balloons 
• 2 x Liquid pads 
• 2 x Spare Screens 
• 3’ Silicone Whip 
• 8’ power cable 
• Cleaning Brush
• Instructions

The Herbalizer comes in at $699 making it one of the most expensive desktop vaporizers out there. If you value what the Herbalizer has to offer, the price is justified given the quality of vapor it produces exceeding that of the Volcano Hybrid and doing so with much more ease and less set up. 

The Herbalizer is also made in the USA making it more expensive to produce than something like the Arizer XQ2 which is made in China. End of the day it is a luxury American made device with a price tag to accompany. 

The materials of the Herbalizer heat path are stainless steel, borosilicate glass and ceramic coating. The Herbalizer body is made of medical grade heat rated plastic and food grade silicone rubber for your whip and heat shields on the Herbalizer bowl. A halogen bulb is used to heat the herb. 

The Herbalizer is a medical grade device and one of the safest & healthiest vaporizers for herb. 

The Herbalizer uses convection heating where the heated air is inhaled or blown (fan mode) through your herb. It functions by placing your herb into the chamber and placing that over the halogen bulb which sits beneath the stainless steel magnetic chamber grate. The magnetic attachment makes it so you will never knock your filling chamber over like you would on the Classic Volcano and allows for easier storage allowing you to keep the chamber in place.

The Herbalizer’s dual use capability make it great for solo or group sessions. While the ideal session for myself is having the Herbalizer posted up on the coffee table and taking down some puffs on the whip after a long day’s work, it can easily be fired up with a bag and passed around at a party. 

Whip – the whip lets you get nearly instant vapor and coils perfectly in the Herbalizer’s mainframe. You can take it out and put it back with ease and add the fan assist for some extra umph. 

The whip is my favorite as the bags detract from the suave “sharper image” aesthetic which I love about the Herbalizer. Also the person who is buying this high end of a vaporizer I would assume would want to put the bags back after each use. Everyone is different however and there are plenty of users who enjoy a solo bag over the whip. For reference the Classic Volcano only comes with a bag delivery and that has been the best selling desktop vaporizer to date.  

Herbalizer bags –  Are placed over the filling chamber and filled by engaging the fan. A full bag provides a solid 3-4 hits per bag. If using it for a solo session you may only need one bag depending on your tolerance. And there is always the option to turn the fan off if you only want a half full bag. The Herbalizer fan takes about 45 to blow up the entire bag. 

The Herbalizer’s sessions are made easier by powering on upon simply opening the device’s top lid. This can also be manually powered on and off by pressing the power button. 

Heat up Time – From open to 425 °F it was about a 25 second heat up time. While the Herbalizer heats up quickly there still is some more time needed for the heat transfer to get into the herb. What I love about the fast heating time is I can turn this thing on and off while leaving the herb chamber and not waste any herb. 

Automatic Shut Off – The Herbalizer will go in standby mode after 20 minutes and totally shut off after 30 minutes. There is no need to close or reopen the shell as stated above you can keep it open and use the manual power button on the control panel to power on and off. 

Safety Shut off – The Herbalizer comes equipped with an tilt sensor and will shut down automatically if it recognizes a 30° or more tilt. 

Chamber Capacity  –  The Herbalizer can accommodate about .35 grams of herb. This is a good medium between a portable vaporizer and the Volcano.  Off a full chamber you can get about 16  – 24 solid draws depending on length of draw, temperature and if using the whip or bag.  

The best sessions with vaporizers are generally when they are packed full. This more reasonable chamber size makes it so you can pack it full and finish with relative ease in the course of  1-2 sessions compared to something like the Arizer XQ2 bowl which can fit over a gram of herb. Of course you can always leave a full pack in there and go back to it over the course of the night or even the next day.

Temperature Range – The Herbalizer’s temperature range runs from 290°F to 445°F. So while I did say you get more of a suave vapor there is still the option to turn it up to 445°F for thicker vapor. I do not like vapor at this temperature, it’s a bit much like smoke but if you want to get every last drop out of your herb or get huge lung busting hits, the option is there. 

There are also 4 preset temperatures you can cycle through with the smoke icon button on the right side of the Herbalizer control panel. The presets are 290°F, 330°F, 390°F, 445°F. I’m not exactly a fan of these presets as 290°F is far too low and 445°F much too high. There is not the option to customize my presets like you can do with alot of vaporizer apps. On a personal level I am not a fan of presets as I can dial in my exact temperature with ease especially on something like the Herbalizer. 

This is why it costs $699. The nearly instant vapor produced via convection halogen heating (bulb) is silky and flavorful. The vapor is certainly more on the flavorful and lighter textured notes. And while this is not the best device for those who want to take down huge rips, you can 100% crank up the heat for thick bags of vapor or turn on the fan while using the whip to mitigate the need to inhale. 

The only herb vapor I have had better would have been from a ball vape and those are like setting up a chemistry lab which do not carry the refined and sleek look of an Herbalizer. For an all encompassing device there is nothing out there to give you the same level of vapor quality as you get from the Herbalizer. 

The consistency throughout the session remains rather good. Obviously all vaporizers will give you lesser quality flavor when the herb is nearing spent but the Herbalizer does a great job with consistency in vapor quality throughout the session.

Herbalizer’s ease of use is two pronged. The user interface makes it easy to operate and the fast heat up time and intuitive design make it easy to use and session with. This is definitely the easiest desktop out there to open up out of the box and figure out without screwing around with set up and figuring out accessories and controls.   

The Herbalizer is built well but its durability does not stack up against metal alloyed shell vaporizers like the portable vaporizers of Arizer or Storz & Bickel Volcano. Many people still have their original Herbalizer Vaporizers from 8 years ago, so as long as you do not drop it repeatedly and take good care of the device there is no need to worry. 

The halogen bulb is rated for 2000 hours of continuous use which means you could have the thing on for a tad shy of 90 days straight. While the Herbalizer is not going to be a vaporizer you want to keep out in your woodshop or a frat house it certainly will go the distance in more subtle settings. Its aesthetics and build lend itself to being a living room or night stand vape for the tasteful and mature connoisseur. 

The Herbalizer’s Feng Shui is a main selling point that we generally would not cover in a vaporizer review. Every other desktop vaporizer would have guests questioning “what the hell is that on your coffee table”.  The Herbalizer boasts a sleek and stylish design that could easily be mistaken for a high-end potpourri warmer. Its elegant aesthetics blend seamlessly into any modern decor, making it a discreet, sleek and attractive addition to any homely space. 

The Herbie does need more cleaning than the usual desktop vaporizer. The herb tends to stick to the silicone grips on the herb chamber and when you clean you need to replace the bags and clean the outside and the inside of the whip. If you are trying to eat and use the device, minor finger grease is more apparent on the Herbalizer shell and screen than other vaporizers.  

The bags need to be swapped out about every 40 sessions. If you do not want to buy new bags, you can always replace them using our tutorial here.

While cleaning the Herbalizer is very easy and straight forward if you do forget to do so, it shows more on the Herbalizer than other desktop vaporizers.

Currently the Herbalizer is only rated for 120 V US outlets and the warranty is not valid outside the United States. We learned the hard way selling Herbalizer’s abroad in 2016 that UK and other 220 V power outlets had the potential to fry the device. If you are going to purchase an Herbalizer and use it abroad please take note and purchase a step down converter so you are running 120 volts.

The Herbalizer is promising to be a very welcomed comeback in a vaporizer industry that is seeing somewhat of a resurgence in 2024 after a few lackluster years of few menial releases. The Herbalizer commanded a top spot during its initial run and should slowly start to gain steam through word of mouth. If you are looking for a luxury vaporizer that boasts the best vapor quality one can obtain with ease, the Herbalizer is the vaporizer for you.