The 12 Best Weed Vaporizers to Buy in 2023
Give up the smoke with a vape that's packing some serious (but subtle) tech.
Vaping weed doesn’t reek. There’s no smoke to tear up your throat. And unless you make a spectacle of it, dubbing yourself that asshole, it’s subtle. Those who vape their cannabis often do so because the dosage is easier to control—chalk that up to the wonders of technology—and the effects feel less jolting than more traditional means of getting high. (Although, folks who don’t regularly partake might find vaping to be more intense than smoking, according to one study.) To be fair, you do lose that transformative experience of coughing your esophagus out over an expertly wrapped joint or getting so high off of one rip from a communal bong that the stars fall to Earth and the moon waves hello. Hey, sacrifices must be made.
Vapes make dry herb, concentrate, or oil hot enough to activate the THC that sets you sailing, but not so hot the cannabis combusts into smoke, defeating the entire purpose of vaping. We figure you just want to vape, but vape smartly. Here are 12 best weed vaporizers you can get right now. Pair one with quality flower, concentrate, or oil, and get to it.
But if you do want to get into the nitty-gritty of your favorite recreation, we do have some helpful information below. Read on for them.
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Pros
- Quick heat-up time
- Patented precision temperature control
Cons
- Doesn't hit too big
PAX Vapor has the most name recognition among weed vapes, and for good reason: Its popular, conduction-based device is user-friendly, high-tech, and damn nice to look at. The Pax 3 heats up in 20 seconds, lasts for an hour and a half, and is easy to hide away. Or to show off—especially if you get it in one of its newer colorways, like Sage or Burgundy. Swing for the full Pax 3 kit at $250 if you want extra accessories like a concentrate insert, but the device only is $200.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: conduction
G Pen Elite Vaporizer
G Pen Elite Vaporizer
Pros
- Portable and easy to use
- Wide range of temperature
Cons
- Long charging time
This is an all-around great pen, like any G Pen vape. But the Elite isn't just any vape, it's a high-performance one with the largest ceramic chamber known to stoners, one that heats dry herb from all sides rapidly and evenly, one that allows you experiment with temperature between 200° and 428°F for different flavors, and one with a sleek LED interface giving you the what’s up—chamber temperature and battery. Taking a hit from it is like living through a whole new experience on its own—unrivaled, indelible.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: convection
Pros
- Beginner-friendly, affordable
- Heat-resistant mouthpiece
Cons
- Very basic
Pulsar's APX vape is suited for money-conscious users or newbies still on the fence. It takes 30 seconds to heat up the bud in its convection-style chamber, its battery lasts for multiple sessions, and it has five intensity settings. The vapor quality won't blow you away, but it'll more than get the job done. If concentrate is more your speed, the APX comes in a wax version, too.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: conduction
Pros
- Portable with big hits
- Uses pre-filled pods
Cons
- App is only on Android devices
It seems like Pax Labs took stock of the ever-growing confusion around vaping and did its best to address it with the Pax Era Pro. This diminutive pen is all things Pax—streamlined designed backed by powerful technology—but now with a smart sensor that reads the proprietary oil pod you insert and gives you the rundown on it via a Pax Android app: who made it, what strain it is, and what safety tests have been done on it. Beyond that, it has multiple temperature settings and an immediate draw time.
Takes: oil
Heating type: N/A
Pros
- Smart, precise temperature control
- Portable and discreet
Cons
- Short battery life
Further along on this list, you'll come across a DaVinci vaporizer that is a beast to behold—with features and craftsmanship to anchor it firmly in the "luxury" realm. This vape, the conduction-heated MIQRO, is the less-spendy downgrade. For a downgrade, it's still pretty upgraded itself, with a zirconium airflow system and ceramic pathway that preserve flavor, and controls that toggle between curated and manual pulls.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: conduction
X-Max Starry V3
X-Max Starry V3
Pros
- Cost effective, Simple to use
- Replaceable battery
Cons
- Won't get you too high
The X-max Starry V3 is a great sub-$100 vaporizer with a fast-working conduction oven. It isn’t too complicated to use, and improvements to the heating chamber, battery, and mouthpiece make it a quality option. Its digital screen is very small, but it’s better than nothing.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: conduction
Storz & Bickel Mighty
Storz & Bickel Mighty
Pros
- Delivers high-quality vape
- Wide, precise temperature controls
Cons
- Splurge, not beginner-friendly
The Mighty is the Cadillac of vaporizers. With a powerful dual conduction and convection system, it instantly produces a strong, flavorful vapor whose quality lasts as long as the battery—at least an hour and a half. You can thank German engineering for its reliability and durability; perhaps we should say it's the BMW of vaporizers. It's chunky, but again, you're here for the top-notch vapor quality. Besides, chunky is a vibe unto itself.
Takes: dry herb, wax
Heating type: conduction and convection
Pros
- Long battery life, efficient heating
- Precision temperature control
Cons
- Very pricey
This sleek conduction vape has futuristic LED lights and an accompanying app for optimal setting experimentation. It also boasts a zirconia pathway that preserves the pure flavor of the vapor—a.k.a. the "flavor chamber"—so it doesn’t get trapped in the device, and an airflow dial to control the vapor and dosage. It is pocket-sized, but it has some comforting heft to it that only further establishes its significant gadgetry. Plus, it just looks really, really good. "DaVinci" is a lot of name to live up to. This complex device does not disappoint.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: conduction
Pros
- 3 second heat-up time
- High-quality vapor flavor
Cons
- Pricey, not beginner friendly
The FireFly is the “coolest” cool kid of vapes; you’ll probably see it on the sands of Burning Man or a Cali surf bar. It’s a piece of machinery meant for the luxe life, with convection heating that gives every single inhale its own heating and cooling cycle. That’s a hyper-specific draw. And even though it is convection-based, it only takes three seconds to heat up. It’s big, though—not a vape meant to be hidden.
Takes: dry herb, wax
Heating type: convection
Puffco The Plus Pen
Puffco The Plus Pen
Pros
- Coil-free heating chamber
- Built-in loading tool
Cons
- Not the best battery
Big points awarded for form here. That thin barrel and metallic sheen lend Puffco's Plus the air of a 23rd century tool we'll one day use in spaceflight. Back in the 21st century, it's built particularly for en route usage. It has three heat settings, a 12-second draw mode, and a ceramic, conduction heating chamber without heating coils. Most intriguing is its mouthpiece, which doubles as a loading tool.
Takes: oil
Heating type: conduction
Arizer Solo II
Arizer Solo II
Pros
- Fully personalized vaping
- Digital temperature control
Cons
- Small bowl, small doses
The Arizer Solo II ditches the understated mouthpiece of most vapes and opts for a more distinctive look. Where it excels is customization: It comes with two tube sizes for different vapor paths, and has impressive temperature range. The digital screen can be adjusted for brightness and gives you all the info you’ll need about temperature, session length, and more. It also heats quickly and evenly, thanks to a hybrid system.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: convection and conduction
Magic Flight Launch Box
Magic Flight Launch Box
Pros
- Fast heat-up time
- Easy to use, value purcahse
Cons
- Risk of combustion
If shiny and metallic isn't your vibe, go for Magic Flight's handcrafted wooden vaporizer. It's straight-up old-school. And there's benefit to that: It heats up very quickly and quietly, it's dead simple to operate, and it won't require you to take out loans. But, like any creative pursuit, it does take some practice to get the right burn.
Takes: dry herb
Heating type: conduction
Conduction vs. Convection Heating
To broadly summarize the tech of vaping in the least boring way possible, there are two kinds of vaporizer heating systems used to extract high-making chemicals and flavor from cannabis: one that uses conduction heating and one that uses convection heating.
Conduction heating puts your weed in direct contact with the vape’s heating element—like its coils—often getting you a faster heat time. However, if your product is too close to the heating element for too long, it’ll burn. (Simply shifting it around in the vape’s chamber is an easy fix.) Convection vapes tend to be more finicky and more expensive, but oftentimes are worth it for the vapor alone, especially if you prefer using dry herb. With these, the weed product doesn’t come into direct contact with the heating element. Instead, very hot air from the heating element circulates through the vape with every pull, indirectly vaporizing the product. On one hand, your product won’t combust, and the vapor is more even and flavorful. On the other, convection vapes can take longer to fire up, so patience is a virtue. These days, vapes can stick to one type of heating system or the other, but many market themselves as neither or both.
Vaping vs. Smoking
If you’re here, you’re likely already sold on vaping cannabis in one of its forms. But we’d be negligent to not quickly run through the science of weed vaping. On the brighter side, going the smoke-free route with a vaporizer is considered “likely less harmful than smoking” marijuana. Michael Blaha, director of clinical research at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease, says, "There’s almost no doubt that vaping exposes you to fewer toxic chemicals than smoking traditional cigarettes." However, smoking itself is still bad for your heart and lungs. “People need to understand that e-cigarettes are potentially dangerous to your health,” warns Blaha. “You’re exposing yourself to all kinds of chemicals that we don’t yet understand and that are probably not safe.”
Not to mention the whole Joe Camel thing, if you still remember. The CDC has linked lung illness and some deaths to vape products with THC—remember the vape outcry of 2019?—but the big asterisk is that the THC products to blame were for the most part acquired from bootleg, black market sources. The lesson here is: Don’t be an idiot about where you get your oil. And because, annoyingly, marijuana is still illegal under federal law, hard-hitting research about vaping it remains scarce in these early days of legalization.
Vaping and Social Justice Reform
Speaking of legalization, getting high continues to be something of a political act, not just in terms of fighting for legality, but in terms of fighting for social justice in the cannabis industry. Even as it booms, the industry is rife with inequality, serving the well-funded startups and venture capitalists more than it does the grassroots efforts that made cannabis legit. Buy a real nice vape for yourself, then make the effort to purchase product from dispensaries and companies that fight for incarcerated people locked up for nonviolent drug offenses, invest in the BIPOC communities that are being boxed out of the industry, or fund political initiatives to end the so-called war on drugs, which has long given police an excuse to target people of color.
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