The Firefly 2 is built for flavor but it definitely takes some technique and best practices to unleash all of it's potential. Follow our tips below and you'll come out on top.
do you have any Firefly 2 tips?
Expectations
The most important thing with any vape is to get your expectations in order. With the Firefly vaporizer, taste is great almost all the way through the bowl, but vapor clouds will only be there in the middle of it. Early draws are pure taste while later hits are going to thin out until it is done.
Coarse grind
Unlike most convection vapes, the Firefly 2 performs best with a coarse grind or even just hand torn material. The top of the bowl has no screen between it and the cooling path, so if you grind too finely the bits will get sucked away from the heater whereas coarser material will stay put and vape better in this one.
Tight pack
Again a bit counter-intuitive for a convection vape, the Firefly 2 needs the herbs packed tightly to stay in place and not sucked away from the heat.
Filling the bowl less than full doesn’t work well either, because the air stream will push the herbs to the sides and flow right by, producing no vapor.
Firefly suggests gently tamping a full bowl, and I have found it works well even with a tighter pack.
Draw | slow → whistle
Draw slowly at first, increasing speed during the draw. Play with your draw speed to get the results you want.
I like to start slowly, and ramp it up, and at some point the unit will start to lightly whistle. The whistle is a nice indicator of where I am in the draw speed. I like to get it whistling or higher for the last part of the draw when the oven temp has increased a bit.
Should I stir?
Stirring is a necessary evil of convection vapes, and you will want to stir the Firefly 2 once vapor production drops. I do so by dumping my material into my palm and then back onto the unit. I then push the herbs into the bowl with my finger and put the lid back on.
If you’re into rituals in your routine, this can become a fun one and I find it relaxing.
Auto-shutoff
The unit will auto-shutoff after 30 seconds, and if it happens during your draw and you want to keep going, just give one of the buttons a quick release to restart the timer. (The light will go out when you let go of the button and will come right back on after you touch it again. If you do it quickly enough the temperature of the bowl won’t drop.)
Troubleshooting
If you’re following the grind and pack suggestions but not getting good vapor, the two most likely culprits are the lid and the mouthpiece.
The lid needs to be seated evenly. If it’s not on there properly, air will leak into the vapor stream and thin it out.
If the mouthpiece is not installed correctly, usually you can see that it's off a bit, but not always. Gently, push the mouthpiece straight into the unit and see if it clicks into place a little better. If it isn’t installed correctly, vapor production will come to a halt.
Finally, make sure your batteries are fully charged!
The full Stickstones method
Some people find the Firefly 2 a little finicky, but for me, it seems to have been designed for how I love to vape!
I don’t like using grinders because I think they take some of the taste away, and I love the wispy, ultra-flavorful first hits I get using whole herbs. So when I heard this was a convection vape that liked to be packed I figured it might work well with whole, unground herbs...turns out it does!
Here’s how I do it:
- Start by cramming some unground herbs into the bowl. I like it to be tight, but still have some room between the herbs and the glass window. Most of all, I don’t want any air gaps between the herbs and the sides of the bowl. I want the hot air to be forced into the herbs, not around them.
- Set the temp to where you want it. I start on Med-High.
- Hold both buttons (assuming you didn’t change the settings to use one button) and wait for the green light to stop blinking, and you’ll see the distinctive orange Firefly glow of the bowl.
- Now start to draw slowly, increasing speed during the draw. The unit will auto-shutoff after 30 seconds, and if it happens during your draw and you want to keep going, just give one of the buttons a quick release to restart the timer. (The light will go out when you let go of the button and will come right back on after you touch it again.) All of your hits will be wispy and tasty until you crumble up the herbs.
- Take two or three hits, depending on the moisture content of your herbs, and then open the unit up and flip the unground herbs. Cram them back down in there and close the lid and get back to it.
- Take one to three more hits, again depending on moisture content.
- Then open it up again and crumble up your herbs. I like to dump it into my palm and crush it with my fingers. If done right, you won’t get any sticky residue on your fingers. If you do, then you need to give it a couple more hits to dry it out more before ‘the crumble’. After crumbling, pour the herbs back onto the unit and push them into the bowl.
- If you left a little space between the herbs and the window when you started, your crumbled herbs will fill the bowl more than when they were unground. Just tamp them down into the bowl. A light to medium tamp will work fine. If you got aggressive and filled the bowl to the top with unground herbs, it will probably be a little too full after the crumble.
- After repacking, go back to hitting it like before, but be ready for some thicker vapor!
- Use it until the vapor production fades and then open it up and stir the bowl contents (again, I just dump it onto my palm and then back into the Firefly). You should be able to get a few more good hits after stirring. Repeat until your herbs are depleted.