Classed as ‘budget entry’, the Black Mamba dry herb vaporizer is sleek and stylish in appearance and comes with five temperature settings.
It’s powered by an internal 1600mAH battery which suggests plenty of vape time – as to if that’s the case we shall see. It’s available in either the black version I received or two other snazzy camo styles.
The dry herb vaporizer industry is taking off big time at the moment and can maybe be viewed as a little top heavy in that many of the better performers are incredibly expensive compared to say a normal vape device. The industry can only grow even more given the amount of countries now legalizing cannabis and not just for medicinal purposes but also for those who use it for recreation.
And as I always say in vaporizer reviews IF cannabis is illegal in your country then please follow local laws. And for the record there are very many legal herbs such as mint – lavender and even cat nip that can be vaped on all giving differing effects…Google is your friend as to what herb does what;)
OK the BLK Black Mamba dry herb vaporizer was sent to me free of charge for the purpose of this review – thank you – and as always my thoughts and opinions are my own.
Inside the Box
Classy box with cut-outs for easy opening and inside you’ll find:
- 1 x Black Mamba Vaporizer
- 2 x Glass Mouthpieces
- 1 x Packing Tool
- 1 x Cleaning Brush
- 1 x Tweezer
- 1 x USB Charger
- 1 x User Guide
Black Mamba Vaporizer Specs
- Capacity: .65 g
- Dimensions: 145 – 46 – 26.5mm
- Heating Time: 20-30 seconds
- Battery: 1600 mAh built-in battery
- Working voltage: 3.3-4.2 V
- Charging time: 2 hours
BLK Black Mamba Quick Start Guide
- X5 clicks of the power button turns device on and off
- Battery level = green light full power – purple half power – red low power
- Click power button for 1.5 seconds to scroll through temperature settings:
- 428f – 220c
- 410f – 210c
- 392f – 200c
- 374f – 190c
- 356f – 180c
- Lights red whilst baking and green is good to go
- Device will power of automatically after 5 minutes of ‘no use’
Key Features
Powered by an internal 1600mAH battery the Black Mamba features conduction style heating within the ceramic chamber. This in effect means the herb is heated from the plate below.
The heating chamber is accessed by removing the mouthpiece and you’ll see the glass tube the vapour travels through. It’s thought glass helps with the flavour and is something I can attest to after using the awesome Firefly 2.
Baking of the herb is pretty quick with around 20 seconds on the lower settings and 30 seconds on the higher and there are five temperature settings. As shown earlier the lights glow red whilst baking and turn green when its reached your selected temp and ready to vape.
It is quite a large chamber given the size of the device which may have issues for single users and something I’ll touch on later.
The glass tube comes apart for cleaning and it’s good to see there are plenty of tools with the kit such as the tweezers – brush and the all-important packing tool, as well as there being a spare glass tube should one break.
Design and Build Quality
Straight off the bat I have to say I love the design of this one – even if it could, at first glance, be compared with a certain sex toy lol. However and I might be completely wrong here…but it does look like the head of that deadly Black Mamba snake…or is that my fertile imagination lol.
It’s definitely elegant to look at and certainly stands out from the crowd. It’s ergonomic as well especially if you’re used to using a pipe. It’s light as a feather and that rubberized finish has a nice grippy touch – tactile too – however it is a bit of a fingerprint and lint magnet…
Build wise and given this is classed as a budget dry herb vaporizer I’m pretty impressed. Despite being light it feels chunky and well built in the hand and the mouthpiece and glass chamber come apart easily and clip back together well.
So…great design and well built…so how does this one vape?
How Does the Black Mamba Dry Herb Vaporizer Perform?
I touched on the size of the chamber earlier and trust me this may be a major gripe for some folk – you really have to put a lot of herb in there!
I’ve said before when it comes to a session I can be a greedy sod and some of the smaller chambers can and have left me cursing at having to refill halfway through. However it’s the opposite with the Black Mamba – or at least that’s how it felt to me.
Under pack and even if you really tamp the material down the flavour even at my preferred setting is a little washed out…fill it to the brim and wow it was too much.
This meant returning to a pre-baked fill and the further loss of flavour – or emptying out and starting again meaning an expensive ‘sesh’ to say the least. But hey that’s just me as a singleton user – with a friend or in a group it will/should hit the spot 😉
Testing Out the 5 temperature Settings
I’ve taken this through all the temperatures settings…been a busy Christmas and New Year – call me a ‘seasonal stoner’ lol…and found the flavour and vapour off the lowest two was not up to par at all. Very muted flavour and a willow the wisp rather than a cloud – not that vaporizers are designed for chucking clouds of course, however some cloudage would be good 🙂
The highest setting whilst giving off more vapour saw a not quite burning taste but close to it. I did try a few fills some packed down tight others looser etc etc to see if that helped.
However, after using this for a few days I finally settled at 410f/210c. This gave me a decent flavour – not the best I’ve had but passable for the price range – and the vapour whilst not amazing was OK.
Pros
- Good price
- 5 temperature settings
- Dead simple to use
- Heats pretty quickly
- Smart design
- Glass vapour trail
- Light
- Plenty of tools
- Spare glass
Cons
- Flavour a little muted
- High temp feels a little too high
- Very large chamber which could also be a pro!
- Battery life nowhere near an hour even on low settings
Final Review Verdict
I have to say again this is a very sexy looking dry herb vaporizer and feels great in the hand.
It bakes evenly [on the whole] for a conduction style and even when that green light comes on I’ve only had to stir the material a couple of times – mainly down to an uneven grind I think.
And yeah it’s a decent price making it a good budget entry to vaporizers however the temperature settings are a little hit and miss – or at least that’s what I found. The lower two are pretty pointless as I got literally no flavour or vapour or indeed any kind of hit.
At the max setting things got a little ‘singed’ for want of a better word – maybe those extra 8 degrees from 420f made the difference or of course it could be down to my chosen material and packing – however like I said I did try at least 3 fills if my mellowed out memory can recall lol. I also wonder is the super quick heat time with the large chamber meaning things cook a little too quickly? Hey I’m no scientist – just thinking out loud.
Speaking of the chamber size maybe an adapter of some sort could be made to halve it – that might help not only with the bake but also the sheer amount of material you need for a single session!
I’m a little on the fence with the Black Mamba dry herb vaporizer – looks great but vapes just OK – so given the prices are pretty low right now it might be a good entry point given its almost a quarter of the cost of some of the best vaporizers out there.
