Top 5 Flame-Powered Vaporizers

Vaping has become highly popular in the last decade, but it’s a practice that’s been around for a lot longer than that. Vaporizing herb using a flame alongside metal or glass is simple, time-tested, and very effective.

With several benefits over more modern methods, flame-powered vaping is worth considering for those who are new to vaping and don’t want to spend too much, or those who just want more simplicity and less digital interference in their cannabis-consuming lives.

Here we give the lowdown on our top five flame-powered vaporizers!

What is a flame-powered vaporizer?

Flame-powered vaporizers are just that; vapes that use a naked flame as their heat source. However, the herb or concentrate to be vaped is encased in metal or borosilicate glass, which means it has no direct contact with the flame from the lighter or torch.

Why? By keeping the flame and the cannabis separate, it means that the herb doesn’t combust. Instead, the flame heats the air in the chamber, which in turn vaporizes the cannabis material. Then, as with all vaporizers, the vapor passes up through the device, out of the mouthpiece, and into your lungs.

They are not as high-tech as modern vapes, but this is exactly their strength. Cheap and simple, there’s little to go wrong with flame-vapes.

Pros and cons of flame-powered vaporizers

If reliability and simplicity are what you’re after, a flame-powered vape is sure to fit the bill. If, on the other hand, you want accuracy and perfection, and the price tag is not an issue for you, then perhaps consider a more modern, digital model.

Pros

There are several pros to flame-powered vaporizers:

• Very cheap

• Do not require batteries or charging

• Little can go wrong with them

• Highly reliable

Cons

Of course, depending on the order of your preferences, the above features are not always worthwhile. That said, the drawbacks of flame-powered vapes are:

• Always require a torch or lighter

• Fewer features than modern devices

• Cannot heat to a precise temperature

• Perhaps not as sexy as a super modern vape pen

Top 5 flame-powered vaporizers

With that out of the way, if a flame-powered vape sounds like something that would suit you, here are our five favourite devices for the job.

1. DynaVap VapCap M

The DynaVap VapCap M is one of the most popular vaporizers available. Known for their commitment to simple perfection, DynaVap are leaders in the arena of flame-powered vapes. Slim, elegant, and highly portable, the VapCap M can slip in and out of a pocket with ease.

Beyond the simplicity and elegance of this product, there are a few features that earn it a place on this list. First, temperature indication. By means of a small clicking sound, the VapCap M will let you know when it’s hit the optimal temperature. This simple feature is hard to overstate. One of the main drawbacks of flame-vapes is the lack of control over temperature. This brings some of that back. Second, it can handle both herbs and concentrates, giving it versatility. Simply fill the chamber with your material of choice, heat it, and wait for the click!

This product is known for delivering great flavours. Given that extracting the best of a strain’s terpene profile is one of the major joys of vaping cannabis, then a device that is known for facilitating this must not be overlooked.

DynaVap VapCap 'M' 2021

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DynaVap VapCap 'M' 2021

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2. Vape-Lifter

The Vape-Lifter from Black Leaf manages to be about as simple as a piece of smoking paraphernalia can get, while simultaneously fulfilling two distinct functions.

If you light it from the front and use a mesh screen, it functions as a one-hitter pipe. Ideal for swift, on-the-go smoking, this may not be the most elegant method around, but it’s certainly functional. And if you fancy indulging a little more, you can use it as a vape if you instead heat it from below, through the borosilicate glass.

Using this method, you can vaporize the contents instead of combusting them. Of course, as it also functions as a one-hitter, it’s not going to make the most efficient vaporizer in the world—the accuracy of the temperature will be a gamble. However, the small size and versatility make up for this. Just be sure to give it a wash if you’ve been smoking with it before vaping!

Vape-Lifter

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Vape-Lifter

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3. DynaVap Omni

The Omni by DynaVap is an all-titanium, 92mm flame-vaporizer similar to the VapCap M. It comes with an adjustable mouthpiece that allows you to regulate the airflow to your desire. Fancy big, open hits? Feel free. Otherwise, toke away at little ones and savour it.

The condenser, which makes DynaVap products so special, gets the very most out of the material being vaporized. Enhancing flavour and concentrating potency, investing in this product will also improve the quality of the cannabis you consume!

Sleek, beautifully manufactured, and well-loved already, this is one of the best flame-vapes available.

DynaVap Omni 2021

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DynaVap Omni 2021

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4. Eagle Bill

The Eagle Bill vape pipe is a strange object whose lineage can actually be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. A mesh screen sits atop a rounded vaping chamber. But what’s going on? Do you smoke with it, or vape?

Despite having a bowl and mesh screen, this product is not designed to be used for smoking, though surely it could be. Instead, you heat the chamber from the bottom, and this slowly heats up the air inside and vaporizes the herb sitting on the mesh. Then, once the chamber's full of delicious vapor, you take your hit.

Simple, but designed well enough that it functions effectively, this is a great product. The distance between the heat source and your cannabis ensures there’s no combustion, and therefore you’ll get only the very best flavours from your weed! Plus, the removable screen makes it easy to keep clean and fresh.

Eagle Bill

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Eagle Bill

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5. DynaVap VonG

The VonG is yet another superb vaporizer from DynaVap. It might be their sexiest, too. With all the features as the others on this list, it’s guaranteed to deliver a truly delicious hit and extract the best from your weed. But that’s not all this device can do.

The chamber into which you load your herb also doubles as a little grinder. This means that you can just throw your nuggets in whole, grind them up, and start heating immediately! And, while this product is good enough to be used alone, it also fits into many water pipes. So if you’re after the smoothest experience possible, rig this up with a water chamber and get vaping!

Beautiful and highly effective, the VonG falls right at the premium end of flame-powered vaporizers.

DynaVap VonG (i) Titanium

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DynaVap VonG (i) Titanium

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How to heat your vaporizer easily indoors

As these are all flame-powered vapes, you might think that you’re limited to heating them with a flame to get them working. And with most flame-powered vapes, this is indeed the case. With the DynaVap products, however, you have a second option.

All of the aforementioned DynaVap vapes fit into DynaVap’s induction heater. This device is pretty bulky, so it is best used in the home (although a battery-powered version is available). The induction heater means you’re able to heat your herb to the optimal temperature in just 5–8 seconds, and get the very best out of it.

With a DynaVap product, you can enjoy the ease and simplicity of a flame-powered vaporizer while on the move, and the precision of an electric one when you’re at home.

Apollo 2 Rover VapCap Induction Heater (DynaTec)

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Apollo 2 Rover VapCap Induction Heater (DynaTec)

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Flame-powered vaporizers: Are they worth it?

Ultimately, it comes down to your desires. If price is not an issue and you just want to pull something out of your pocket, press a button, and get the perfect hit time after time, then go for an electric one.

However, for those on a budget, or those who want to keep cannabis consumption simple, flame-powered vapes offer a fantastic alternative. Highly functional, unless you properly break these objects, they’re not going to fail you. And the modern world has pimped them out enough that, despite their simplicity, they’re still capable of offering functionality and versatility.

In short, we’d say that they are certainly worth it.

Max Sargent

Max has been writing for over a decade, and has come into cannabis and psychedelic journalism in the last few years. Writing for companies such as Zamnesia, Royal Queen Seeds, Cannaconnection, Gorilla Seeds, MushMagic and more, he has experience in a broad spectrum of the industry.

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