Are Portable Vape Pens Better Than Desktop Vaporizers?

Desktop Vaporizers were the first type of electronic vaporizer that came out in the 1990s. To heat up a desktop vaporizer, it needs to be plugged into an outlet and the device needs to be placed on a table. You’re only able to vape dry herbs with a desktop vaporizer. Over the past 5 years, portable vaporizers have become even more popular because they’re battery operated and you can easily take them out to the movies, restaurants, concerts, and sports events. The convenience of these vape pens has made vaporizers one of the top-selling consumer electronics products in the US. Both desktop vaporizers and portable vapes are great products to own, but they’re very different from one another.  Read this comparison article below so you can understand the similarities and differences between desktop and portable vaporizer devices.

Best Desktop Vaporizers in 2018

What is a Desktop Vaporizer

A Desktop Vaporizer is an electronic device that’s plugged into a power outlet and then used to vape and consume dry herbs. Most people use desktop vaporizers at home since they can’t easily transport the device. Desktop vaporizers are generally sold in head shops and online vape shops. Prices range from $100-$500.

Best Portable Vaporizers in 2018

What is a Portable Vaporizer

A Portable Vaporizer is an electronic device that’s battery operated and can be used to vape dry herbs, wax, ejuice, or oil. Each substance cannot be vaped by one portable vaporizer.  If you want to vape a specific substance, such as shatter or wax, you would need to buy a certain vaporizer, such as a wax pen.  If you want to vape dry herbs, then you’ll need to buy a dry herb vaporizer. Vaporizers for oil and e-juice are similar, but the more powerful vaporizers for e-juice are not used with oil.  This type of powerful vaporizer is called a box mod vaporizer. Box Mod Vapes are more commonly used with both E-juice and Wax, but you need a wax atomizer to vape wax and an e-lqiuid atomizer to vape e-juice.

You have so many options for using portable vaporizer devices, it gets very confusing. You can buy a portable vaporizer at any head shop or smoke shop, but it’s best to buy portable vaporizers online because you can read vape reviews and compare all the different vaporizers out there.  Then you can buy at an online vape shop and receive your order within a couple days.  It’s a seamless process and convenient because you don’t have to go to a shop and feel awkward walking out.

Desktop Vaporizers vs Vape Pens

Desktop vaporizers can be very similar to portable dry herb vaporizers because they are both convection style vaping products. While portable dry herb vaporizers heat up faster than desktop vaporizers, the vaping taste that comes from both devices is almost exactly the same. There are some price similarities too. There are portable dry herb vaporizers that can cost as much as $300, which comes close to the price of some desktop vaporizers. The only big difference is that one is battery operated and portable and the other needs to be plugged in and used on a table top.

Portable Vaporizers vs Desktop Vaporizers

While dry herb vaporizers and desktop have some similarities, vape pens for wax and oil vaporizers are very different than desktop vaporizers.  The first key difference is that the substance being vaped is different. For desktop vaporizers, dry herbs are typically ground up in an herb grinder and then filled into a convection oven heating chamber. When using a wax pen (aka dab pen), a very small ball of shatter or wax is placed inside a heating chamber that’s equipped with a ceramic rod or quartz rod vape coil. Some wax pens are equipped with dual quartz coils too!

Oil vaporizers are usually simple vape pens that are equipped with a battery and pre-filled oil cartridge. If you’re vaping e-juice, then you’ll be filling an e-liquid tank and screwing it on a box mod.  All of these portable vaporizers function differently than a desktop vaporizers because different substances are being vaped.

Lastly, the only other clear difference is that portable vaporizers can be a lot less expensive than desktop vaporizers.  You can buy dry herb vaporizers for as little as $30 and as much as $300. Wax Pen vaporizers are between $20 and $80. Box Mod vape kits are between $40 and $90.

Volcano Vaporizer is the Best Desktop Vaporizer

What is the Best Desktop Vaporizer?

The Volcano Vaporizer is hands down the best desktop vaporizer and is well worth the $600 retail price. It’s very easy to use and you can inhale vapor without a single cough. On top of that, the Volcano will last a lifetime.  It’s made in Germany and the best possible components are used to make this perfect convection vaporizer. If you prefer vaping over smoking or you’re just looking for the best vaporizer device to keep at home, then invest in a Volcano Vaporizer. It’s very easy to share with your friends too.

Best Portable Vape Pens for Sale in 2018

What is the Best Portable Vaporizer?

That’s a very difficult question to answer because a portable vaporizer can be broken down into 4 types of vaporizers.  So to answer the question more accurately, we will list the best portable vaporizer for each substance.

The best dry herb vaporizer is the E-CLIPSE because it’s super small, portable and heats up in 20 seconds. In terms of price, it lists at $139, which is great value, especially when you compare it to one of the more expensive dry herb vaporizers such as the Pax or DaVinci.

The Best Wax Pen vaporizer is the Saber Vape Pen. It is a fully magnetic wax pen that has variable voltage, auto-heat functionality, and it can bake the shatter or wax at lower temperatures, allowing you to get the most optimal flavoring.

The Best Oil vape pen is the SteamCloud Mini vape mod. It’s a 650mah lithium-ion battery shaped like a tiny box mod. It comes with a magnetic adapter that can screw onto any 510 thread oil cartridge and then magnetically connect to the SteamCloud mini battery. It’s considered the best oil vape pen because it’s super small and very discreet.  When it comes to vaping oil in public, people prefer to have the smallest vaporizer device with them so that nobody can see what they’re vaping.

The Best box mod vape is the SteamCloud Box Mod.  Its very small, sleek and can reach as high as 40 watts. You can use any type of e-liquid tank with it and you can use wax atomizers, such as the Yocan Cerum with it too. For those who like using combustion vaporizers, you can attach a Yocan 94F dry herb atomizer with the SteamCloud. It’ll hit like a champ!

What’s the Final Verdict?

Overall we hope you learned that a desktop vaporizer is very different than a portable vaporizer.  We can give you a great reason to own any of these vaporizers, but at the end of the day, everyone has their own needs and preferences. If you’re in the market for a desktop vaporizer, get yourself a Volcano and you’ll be very happy.  If you want something more portable, you have a ton of choices and will need to consider a few things such as which substance you want to vape, how much money you want to spend on a portable vaporizer, and what type of vaping functionality are you looking for.

Visit the Vape Vet Store Learning Center and you should be able to find all kinds of product reviews and buyers guides so you can make the most informed purchasing decision.

Related Desktop Vaporizer Blog Posts

What are the Best Desktop Vaporizers?

How to Use a Portable Vaporizer

The Best Portable Dry Herb Vaporizers in 2020


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