How does it perform?

When I received the VG Bat by mail the first thing I noticed was the weight. At 153 grams, it is most definitely the heaviest pipe I have ever attempted to carry. This however is not the case for the bulkiness, but I’ll come back to that.
The second detail that crossed my mind was the packaging in which it came. The Vapor Genie was hand wrapped in nice wax paper with instructions and a Vapor Genie Logo Sticker. Granted these items were also shoved in a bubble wrap envelope and not a box. Even still, it felt nice that a human being hand packed and took the time to send everything with care and thought.

What is it?

The Vapor Genie steel bat is 4.5 inches long and 7/8 inches in diameter at the widest point. The VG unthreads into two smaller pieces by simply unscrewing. Like I said before, the pipe is very heavy (since we opted for the Steel version). However, it is very sleek and low profile. It certainly fits in you pocket better than some of your misshapen glass pieces.
For those of you who do not know. VG style pipes are famous for being truly portable vapes that require nothing more than a household lighter. This is accomplished through some of VG’s patented technology. On the top piece of the VG you will find a side facing hole that runs a tube through Patented Vapor Genie ceramic filter. Immediately fallowing the ceramic filter is the inside thread/herb holder. The second piece is essentially a mouthpiece with a filter at the end of the female side of the thread. The herb is trapped between the 2 filters and this is how the VG turns a flame into vapor. When you hold the lighter to the open hole in the side of the VG. What you essentially do is transfer it’s heat when you breath in by heating up the ceramic filter and baking the herb between the 2 filters.

The Good.

The VG works as advertised. It will vape your herbs with nothing but a lighter.
It’s portable and does not require butane filling or batteries.
The vape as you can imagine has less of a smell than traditional bowls.

The MEH.

Vaping the herb takes a bit of skill.
You need to,
A) breath just right.
B) Hold the lighter just right.
C) Take extremely long breaths.
The Detailed instructions for using the vape can be found here.
Basically what this means is that it takes you a few times before you get the hang of using the Vapor Genie. It’s not terribly hard, but hard enough that it’s not something that you can really share with others, especially if others have no concept of vaping. Also, the bowl it’s self cannot hold much herb, making this more of a personal health conscience smoking device.

The Bad.

The VG gets hot!!! On the Vapor Genie site it clearly states that the stainless steel version is much cooler than the aluminum. Well the steel version gets damn hot too. The main reason you cannot share your lovely vape (beside having a small bowl and being kind of hard to use) is because this thing will become way to fucking hot with more than one person hitting it. This is my biggest gripe with the pipe. I wrapped mine in some custom duck tape to help alleviate the issue. It helps, but I should not have had to do this.

I wanted it to be perfect, and it does do the trick. But its hard to give the Vapor Genie Stainless Steel Bat anything more than 3 leafs out of 5. Which is not to say there there are any better portable vapes out there. But to say that there really are no good portable vaporizing devices at all. Especially when you consider the competition require batteries or butane constantly.

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