Never before has so much thought and effort been put into a vaporizer but then again never before have vaporizers been so popular. The Wispr following its recent launch seems to be a hit and not only looks like taking a big chunk of the vaporizer market but also expanding the size of the market along the way.
Picture credit: iolite.com
The Wispr by Oglesby and Butler, who create Iolite vaporizers, is a masterpiece of modern design and is incredibly usable while still looking fantastic.
If you didn’t know any better and perhaps didn’t even know what a vaporizer was the Wispr vaporizer might seem to you to be a small portable radio. You may well in fact want those who don’t fully understand vaporizers to think this: there is still a misconception where many don’t realize that vaporizers are mainly used with tobacco and many other legal and health giving herbs.
The Wispr vaporizer comes in a number of colors and all have the same mouthpiece that folds down. With the mouthpiece folded the Wispr is not obviously a vaporizer or anything to do with smoking and it is easy to put away in a bag, a drawer or even a pocket so it doesn’t ever need to be noticed.
Previous portable vaporizers have always had one flaw or another; there are those that take rechargeable batteries: these don’t exactly last long. There are portable vaporizers which need to be plugged in: this means they aren’t truly potable and you can’t use them outside, which if you need to go outside at work to use them makes them completely useless. Then there are those portable vaporizers that are butane powered, as is the Wispr, the problem with these has been the heat they create making gloves necessary to hold them if using them for more than a few minutes. For the Wispr the butane options was chosen but the heat dispersion in the Wispr is very good making it always comfortable to hold with no hot patches.
The metal parts of the Wispr vaporizer that disperse heat are behind a plastic grill, designed expertly to be able to allow heat out without getting hot and without compromising on style. The pattern for the plastic grill, as well as the final shape and look of the Wispr vaporizer as a whole, was designed by Thing Tank of San Francisco.
Features that Thing Tank created specifically for the Wispr included a much simpler on and off switch than on previous Iolite vaporizers, it has one big switch and a light that comes on when the vaporizer is on. A clear fuel level gauge is also a useful feature to have on the vaporizer; both the switch and gauge came from feedback on the Iolite vaporizers before.
The mouthpiece on the vaporizer is perhaps most impressive though, at first the idea of a folding mouthpiece seems very simple and to make perfect sense. The problem though is coming up with a way to fold the mouthpiece so it firmly locks in place and whether up or down vapors won’t leak out from the joint. The solution was to have a continuous bending mouthpiece that was simply made out of silicone so it can be bent up and down almost unlimited numbers of times and also silicone doesn’t conduct heat: meaning burnt lips are no longer a hazard.
