PAX Plus Review: an easier way to vape
Vape your way with the PAX Plus dry herb vaporizer. Tasty or cloudy sessions are just a button press away. PAX programmed four very different vape styles to enjoy no matter what your mood, without a deep dive into custom settings like the PAX 3 required!
In this review, we will first see how the PAX Plus performs on its own without concern for any other PAX products. Then we’ll see how it fits into the PAX family, and which PAX vape is best for your needs.
Quick Summary
The PAX Plus simplifies itself with four preset Experience Modes, controlled only by a single button. Its stylish, versatile, and a great option for users that want a carefully tailored experience without too many buttons or confusing settings to sift through.
PAX Plus Pros and Cons
| Pros 👍 | Cons 👎 |
| Ultra-pocketable | No new tech |
| Fast heat-up time | Taste disappears early in session |
| Thick, punchy vapor | Not good for two sessions on one bowl |
| Easy to use and share | |
| Stylish look and feel | |
| Big oven for big appetites | |
| Four distinct experience modes | |
| 10-year warranty | |
Bottom lineThe PAX Plus dry herb vaporizer is a simplified PAX 3. It keeps the best features and loses the programming clutter. This is the PAX for people who just want to vape without confusing custom features. |
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Why trust my review?
My name is Jerry, and I’m a vapaholic. I started vaporizing dry herbs daily in 2008 after my first hit from a Volcano Classic hooked me. Since then I have beta tested and reviewed vapes for various manufacturers and Planet of the Vapes since 2016.
Today I co-host the Troy and Jerry ThinkDank, a weekly YouTube livestream about vaporizers, and love to match the right vape to the right person.
Little vape, big vapor
Don’t be fooled by its size - the PAX Plus is a tiny monster that can hide anywhere. I can pack a whopping half gram in its oven, yet still conceal the entire vape in my hand! With a bowl that size, the PAX Plus can pack a serious punch.
In fact, I preferred to pack less during the day and made a lot of use out of the included Half-Pack Oven lid.
But at night when it was time for bed, I’d pack a full load and use the highest setting to meet the Sandman. Nighty-nite!
PAX Plus sessions start out tasty but end poorly. Most of my sessions were around six minutes long. The vapor tasted good for the first two minutes, tasteless for the next two, and like burnt popcorn for the final two. Shorter draws are tastier than longer draws.
Pro Tip: Upgrade your sessions with the POTV Glass Accessory for PAX
Upgrade your PAX sessions with the POTV Glass Accessory Adapter for PAX dry herb vaporizers. This adapter replaces the original mouthpiece and opens the doors to our collection of glass accessories for smoother, tastier vapor.
Take small, microdose-friendly sips or push the limits and go for the biggest draws with our glass accessories - only accessible with our Glass Accessory Adapter. Each accessory maximizes the performance of your PAX with broader, more versatile airflow that caters to both big hitters and easy-going sippers.
Read more about the Accessory Adapter for PAX here.
Personalize your setup with our colored Glass Accessories
If you’re in the market for some new glass accessories for your PAX, consider personalizing your setup with one of our colored glass stems and bubblers. Enjoy a calming, sky Blue or an Earthy, Green edition of our Bent Glass Mouthpiece, Waterpipe Adapter, Mini Bubbler, and Curved Mini Bubbler. (Glass Accessory Adapter for PAX required)
New vape experience modes
PAX has made dry herb vaporizing brainless with the PAX Plus. Instead of manually choosing your temperature to vape, PAX has installed four unique experience modes on the Plus, and each one feels like a different ride.
Whether you want it tasty or cloudy, fast or slow, it’s easy to dial up with the PAX Plus. Heat throughout the sessions is adjusted on the fly based on the mode and your draw style. Once the PAX Plus is on, press and hold the button until the lights change to choose the experience mode.
Stealth mode, or one lit petal, is for incognito sessions. It starts at 360°F (182°C) and the lit petals dim to a barely-noticeable purple. The vapor has minimal clouds to keep things inconspicuous. For the record, my favorite sessions were with this mode and a tightly packed load using the Half-Pack Oven Lid.
Efficiency mode, or two lit petals, is for slow, relaxed sessions. The lights turn green/turquoise and it lengthens the session to extend the flavor. Sessions start out light and tasty but finish strong. I got some good ten minute sessions out of this setting.
Flavor mode, or three lit petals, delivered the strongest taste of all the settings. The lights are yellow/green, and the taste was so strong on some of these sessions that the first two hits burned (terp burn).
Boost mode, or four lit petals, is for strong, fast sessions that get to the point. The lights turn orange/red and it extracts everything quicker than at lower settings. The taste turned south sooner than with other experience modes, but the strong effects balanced it well. This is the mode to use with the Concentrate Insert.
While the PAX 3 offered all these experience modes with much greater flexibility, you were then left to fumble through all the options yourself to find the sweet spot.
With the Plus, everything is programmed out for you so you can just go for the ride. I think this is part of a greater industry trend towards simpler dry herb vaping.
Quick heat-up time
The PAX Plus is one of the fastest session vaporizers I’ve come across. The vapor flows as soon as it hits temperature in 30-40 seconds, depending on the heat setting and the battery level. In fact, it’s usually ready so fast that I get distracted by something and miss it. The PAX Plus vibrates when ready, which is great when you hold it, but I didn’t feel it go off in my pocket.
Intelligent, relaxing sessions
The PAX Plus is one of my most relaxing vapes to use. It combines long battery life with an ingenious shut-off timer, and I found myself chilling into some really long sessions that would have been cut short on other vapes.
While most dry herb vaporizers time your sessions for five minutes before they quit, the PAX Plus uses an accelerometer and lip-sensing technology to keep the sessions rolling until you’re done, and quits when you do.
If you’re done and forget to turn it off, the PAX Plus will enter standby mode (blue pulsing lights) and disengage the heater after one minute, and will turn off after two more minutes of inactivity. It’s the best shut-off timer in the industry, and I have never had a PAX session cut short.
Ten full sessions per charge
As you can imagine, the PAX Plus makes it hard to directly compare its battery life against other vaporizers, thanks to its personalized session length. PAX reports up to two hours of runtime on a single charge. While this might be possible on just the lowest heat setting, I only got a little more than half that in normal use with different heat settings.
On average, I got 75 minutes of runtime through ten sessions before the battery died. The PAX battery level is shown with four petals, and I typically had almost half a battery left when it showed just one petal. When I finally hit that last petal, I had three or four sessions left before I had to charge up.
Easy controls after the first try
The PAX interface isn’t intuitive, but is easy to use once you figure it out. All you do is pack the oven, press the button, wait a little bit and inhale. But first you have to find the oven and button!
Neither the button nor oven stand out, but once found are easy to use. The magnetic oven lid on the bottom falls out if you push in on one of its edges, and the barely noticeable power button on top starts things up.
Session vape everything - dry herbs or concentrates
The PAX Plus was designed to vape dry herbs, but also comes with a decent dry concentrate insert for the occasional extract session. Vaporizing extracts with the PAX Plus is nothing like an all-at-once concentrate hit. Instead, the extracts vaporize in the Concentrate Insert over the course of a full session, just like dry herbs. If you like the PAX herb sessions, try it with extracts - sessions are cleaner and stronger, and never reach that end-of-bowl taste that many avoid.
I wouldn’t recommend the concentrate insert to heavy users that regularly use extracts, but it’s great for the PAX fan that only wants to occasionally vaporize concentrates.
The insert doesn’t sit flush against the bottom of the PAX - it has a gap by design. It might look weird, but it won’t work without the gap, so leave it alone!
Classy, durable, smart design
The PAX Plus looks like you want a vape to look - classy, inconspicuous, and small enough to be in your pocket everyday. PAX labs vaporizers have been called the Apple of vapes. But the PAX Plus not just attractive, it’s also durable.
I can toss the PAX Plus into any pocket, purse or bag without worry, because the materials are tough - no easily-breakable glass or ceramic parts. That’s why they can offer a ten-year warranty.
PAX Plus vapor is cool and comfy thanks to its smart design. Most vapes deliver hot vapor through a mouthpiece located right above the oven. The PAX Plus has an internal stainless steel vapor tube that cools the vapor as it travels from the oven end to the mouthpiece end. And it vibrates when it turns on and off, or when it reaches the heat setting.
| PAX Plus Technical Specifications |
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Price |
$250 |
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Size |
Ultra-pocketable |
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Session Settings |
Four Experience Modes |
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Oven Size |
0 3 - 0.5g |
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Heat Up Time |
30 to 40 Seconds |
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Battery Life |
75 Minutes |
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Charge Time |
2-3 Hours |
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Smartphone App |
No |
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Haptic Feedback |
Yes |
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Warranty |
10-year warranty |
👉 Shop PAX Plus Now
Easy-to-clean oven screen
The new oven screens for the PAX Plus increase air flow and are easy to remove. A lot of people had problems with previous PAX oven screens. They were hard to remove and easy to clog, diminishing taste and air flow. I won’t have to deep clean as often now that I can remove the screen easily for regular maintenance.
Advanced tech, easy controls
There’s a lot of technology under the PAX Plus hood, but you’d never know it from its easy controls. Each experience mode watches how you vape and what’s going on in the oven, and adjusts on the fly to deliver a unique session.
All you do, however, is press a single button. Normally you’d tweak settings and vape herbs for hours to find the unique vape styles the PAX Plus has put at your fingertips.
Different PAX packs for different styles
How you pack the PAX matters. You may have heard PAX vaporizers like a fine grind and a tight pack. This is true for a certain style, but the PAX can work with other packs, too.
If you want a short session with taste all the way through, pack it loosely and don’t tamp the herbs down. If you want a longer session with stronger taste, pack it tightly - but get ready for the taste to turn south about half way through the session.
My favorite style was a tightly packed oven with the Half-Pack Oven Lid. The sessions were still thick and tasty, and the air flow was just a little more open than a full oven.
👉Read PAX Plus Quickstart Guide
Extras included for smaller loads and concentrates
The PAX Plus comes with around $100 worth of very useful accessories that I used all the time. Here are my favorites:
- The Multi-tool is a fantastic oven packer, and the metal scrape tool is good to empty the bowl. I used this to pack every dry herb session.
- The Concentrate Insert works better than I expected. It’s not great for regular concentrate users, but perfect for occasional use.
- The Half-Pack Oven Lid is a must-have that deserves its own section. Read more below!
The Half-Pack Oven Lid - your new best friend!
Do you see that oven lid in the picture above that looks like it has a big blister on it? That’s the Half-Pack Oven Lid. I use it all the time, and it comes with your PAX Plus!
A lot of times I don’t want to vaporize a full oven (half a gram!) of herbs, but I like to pack the oven tightly for tastier vapor. The Half-Pack Oven Lid fills the rest of the rest of the oven for me so I can pack half loads tightly and get that thick, tasty vapor.
What’s in the box
| PAX Plus Box Contents |
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Pax Plus Vaporizer |
Flat & Raised Mouthpiece |
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Oven Lid |
Half-Pack Oven Lid |
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Concentrate Insert |
3D Oven Screens |
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Multi-Tool (New) |
USB Charger |
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Wire Brush |
Add the Loading Funnel - easy and clean
While I’m on the subject of good accessories, one of my favorite third-party accessories loads the PAX Plus easier and cleaner. The PAX Plus has a lip around the oven to hold the lid that can catch little herb bits as you load it.
The Loading Funnel for PAX vaporizers is a game changer, only costs $6.50, and I use it with every pack. Just place the funnel in the oven, pour the herbs in, and mash them down with the Multi-Tool. That’s it - a clean and perfect pack every time!
I use the PAX Plus with friends, for relaxation and sleep
PAX vaporizers have proven to be good enough for most uses for most people. But what about for a heavy user like myself? I have all the vaporizers and use them every day, so a dry herb vape has to do something very well to wiggle its way into my regular routine.
I chose the PAX Plus over other vapes when I wanted slow, relaxing, portable sessions without end. The unique auto-shutoff programming is the best I have and lets me take down a full oven at my own pace.
I also grabbed it when I wanted to share with a small group of friends while out and about. It’s small enough to go anywhere, carries a group-sized oven, and doesn’t need explanation when passed around the circle. Sometimes it’s a challenge to share other vapes with small bowls, but I’m happy to pass the PAX Plus around with its half-gram bowl.
Finally, the PAX Plus packs a potent nightcap. A full oven on Boost mode (the highest heat setting) can flat out put me to sleep. If you like to vaporize dry herbs for sleep, there’s nothing like a big conduction oven to get the job done!
My gripes
No vape is perfect, and neither is the PAX Plus. I’ve never been a fan of the PAX proprietary charger. It works well, but your PAX vaporizer will be useless if you lose it.
Most of my complaints about the PAX Plus are about what the vape isn’t. PAX has been around a long time and we all wanted new technology from them. When a company crushes it like PAX did with the PAX 2 and 3, we want to see what else they can do. Instead, we got an update with the PAX Plus. Looks the same. Vapes the same. Has fewer features. Some update!
I would love to see a more universal charge solution with this release.
Warranty
PAX covers any workmanship and defect issues for 10 years. Like all of our products, the PAX Plus is covered by our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
Size specifications
Height: 3.87 in / 9.83 cm
Width: 1.21 in / 3.07 cm
Depth: .085 in / 2.16 cm
Weight: 3.21 oz / 91 g
For best results
Our Tips and Tricks article is coming soon, but here are some tips in the meantime.
- Buy the Loading Funnel and pack the oven with the included Multi-Tool. Once you use these together, you’ll never go without.
- Relax into your sessions with the unique PAX session timer. Some vapes rush you through a session. Not the PAX Plus. Use your sessions to slow things down and enjoy some “me time”.
- Play around with different oven packs - loose, tight and in-between. It makes a difference, so find your favorite style.
Easy regular maintenance
Our Cleaning and Maintenance Guide is on the way, but until then, make sure to empty out the bowl and wipe off the oven lid after it’s spent. The PAX Plus is easy to clean up while it’s still warm. Every time I stained the oven and had a big mess, it was when I finished a session and didn’t clean it until the next day.
Vapes well, but mostly the same as the PAX 3
The PAX Plus fits the bill for a lot of people with its ultra-pocketable size, classy looks, and smooth, punchy vapor, even if it’s incredibly similar to the popular PAX 3. There are some improvements, like an easier to clean oven screen and more accessible experience modes, but at the end of the day the PAX Plus has fewer features than the PAX 3. The Plus has no bluetooth, nor any of the custom features that came with it for the PAX 3.
While I like the level of customization offered with smartphone apps that come with vapes like the PAX 3, I’d rather not bother with my phone when I want to vape. Smartphone apps bring a lot of flexibility to vape sessions, but they also make it a two-handed venture. My favorite vapes have all the controls on the vape itself.
The PAX Plus is simpler and easier to use than the PAX 3, which I think it will eventually replace. But the PAX Plus isn’t better or worse - it’s just different.
It assembles the best and most frequently used features of the PAX 3 and lifts them to the surface so we can use them without the smartphone app.
The tradeoff is fewer features and less customization.
For instance, my favorite experience mode on the PAX 3 required me to open the phone, pair the app with the vape, and drill down to my favorite temperature and mode. With the PAX Plus, all of those settings are loaded on-board into mode 2, and I can access it anytime with the on-board button.
While we lost all the customization options of the PAX 3 (brightness, loudness, light color changes, exact temperatures and user-selectable modes, etc.), with the Plus we can now access each experience mode with the single button. I think this will make PAX features more accessible to everyone. In fact, the PAX Plus modes each offer something more distinct than I ever used on my PAX 3, simply because I found the app a little cumbersome.
The PAX Plus isn’t the technical revolution we wanted from PAX, but it’s a logical update to their product line. The PAX 3 was actually more robust with custom settings out the wazoo, but I didn’t use them very often. The PAX Plus offers four noticeably different heat profiles that are easily accessible through its single button. It’s so simple that I changed things up more often than I would have with the PAX 3. Yes, I’m disappointed we didn’t get amazing new heater tech from PAX, but I think the PAX Plus is a good vape for the masses.
Who is the PAX Plus for?
The PAX Plus is an effective, consistent, and easy-to-use portable dry herb vaporizer, with tasty and potent vapor. It works well for the light to typical dry herb user who wants to enjoy different vaporizing styles without learning how to use all the tech. There is nothing here that wasn’t in the PAX 3, but now it’s streamlined and more accessible.
Who is the PAX Plus not for?
I wouldn’t recommend the PAX Plus to heavy users or vapor connoisseurs. While the big bowl will satisfy larger appetites, it lacks a lot of the finer points, like taste and efficiency, that you’ll want if you vape a lot. Vape connoisseurs will long for better taste, more air flow, and custom features to nerd out on.
PAX Plus vs PAX 3
When you drive, do you like automatic or manual transmissions? Grab the PAX Plus (automatic) if you want the full PAX experience but don’t want to mess with custom settings, configurations, and smartphone apps. Grab the PAX 3 Complete Kit (manual) if you like to tinker and want to dial in your personal sweet spot. Otherwise, they’re the same vape at the same price with the same great accessories.
👉Read PAX Plus vs PAX 3 Vaporizer Comparison
PAX Plus vs PAX 2
This is a budget question, because the PAX Plus is more enjoyable than the PAX 2 and includes great accessories, but is $100 more. If you can stretch for the PAX Plus, you’ll have accessories I use every session and enjoy four distinct experience modes instead of one.
PAX Plus vs PAX Mini
If the PAX Plus is within your reach, it’s well worth the extra $100. The PAX Mini is a one-trick pony that only has one experience mode, and doesn’t include all those accessories I love. I don’t always want the same style of session, and I appreciate the four distinct ways the PAX Plus gives me to enjoy my herbs. Don’t be fooled by the PAX Mini’s smaller size - it’s barely noticeable, except in the oven.
👉Read PAX Plus vs PAX Mini Vaporizer Comparison
Conclusion
The PAX Plus takes a risk and presents us with a new way to vape. No more temperature settings, just different experience modes. It has four different vape profiles to ride, from slow and tasty to fast and furious, with a couple options in between. Best of all, it’s easy to use! I think most people will find a couple modes they like and use regularly, without a trip to the user manual. The PAX Plus has style, versatility, and simplicity to go along with the right set of accessories to arm you for any situation.
PAX Plus FAQs
Q: Is the PAX Plus better than the PAX 3?
A: The PAX Plus is better for people who want to change up their vape styles without a dive into the settings. The PAX 3 is for the tinkerers out there!
Q: Is the PAX Plus better than the PAX Mini?
A: Yes. The PAX Plus has more vape options and includes accessories you will use. But it’s $100 more.
Q: Does the PAX Plus have temperature control?
A: No. You have no control over the temperature in the PAX Plus. Instead, you choose one of four distinct heat profiles that ebbs and flows throughout the session based on the programming and your hit style.
