Dazzvape Acus Review – Budget buyers beware
The Dazzvape Acus is a beginner-friendly nectar collector style wax pen often found for less than $50. With an appealing aesthetic, quartz atomizer, 350mAh battery and pen shaped design, it seems like a good choice for an entry level device. Does it perform any well, or does it leave a bit to be desired?
If this is your first wax vaporizer, head on over to our Wax Pen Buyers Guide for some handy information to help you get started!
Review: Dazzvape Acus
How it Works
If youre not familiar with nectar collectors or wax pens in general, theyre quite straightforward to use. The Acus can be used either way by dipping the hot tip into your concentrated material, or by loading it into the wax atomizer.
After clicking the button twice, the device will start to pre-heat. After around 10 seconds, holding down the power button will bring you up to full temp in a few more seconds, at which point you should inhale your vapor!
Temperature Flexibility
The Acus comes with one temperature/voltage preset of 3.6V. This is below average in every way as most budget devices nowadays such as the Ember wax pen come with at least three temperature settings.
Itll work, but not give you any flexibility or ability to dial in your favorite temperature setting for the material youre using.
Vapor Quality
I wouldnt consider the vapor quality to come even close to average. The quartz atomizer in wax pen mode scorches and leaves your concentrates tasting poor while delivering underwhelming cloud size. The tip for the nectar collector function leaves you with poor quality, underwhelming vapor as well in every regard. From all the units weve tried out with concentrated material, this one actually feels like were completely wasting what were using.
To add to that the vapor path is not isolated, which presents a risk in itself. When hot air is passing over electronics that were soldered or glued, you have a great chance of inhaling fumes which can pose a variety of risks.
For this reason alone, we highly recommend against the Dazzvape Acus; a better and safe option within the budget would be Kandypens Elite.
Manufacturing Quality
As with most budget devices manufactured in China, weve not very trusting of the device. It looks and feels good in the hand for sure, however, we doubt itll late through many heat cycles before the atomizers need to be replaced, costing more in the long run. The magnetic mouthpiece snaps on well and it a convenient feature.
In the box, you get a basic kit with the unit itself, the two atomizers, a basic manual, a dab tool, a cleaning brush, and a charger. This is pretty average for these budget devices and we have no real complaints aside from everything that is really cheap feeling.
Another thing we most warn against is the fritted glass material that the atomizers are made from, scraping the fritted glass can cause glass shavings, some extremely tiny. If these glass shavings are ever inhaled by mistake it could poise quite the risk.
Users that prefer something better and safe usually tend to prefer units like the Utillian 5 (V3) that is premium built and capable of producing huge vapors.
Battery Life
At 350mAh, the battery life is only barely above the poor. Itll definitely last for a good amount of sessions, but weve seen cheaper devices pack in more battery life in a smaller form factor. Clearly, this was a big cut to production costs, and we wonder where else they cheaped out on.
To add to that, its a proprietary charger which feels rather flimsy. If it breaks youre completely out of luck.
Many users tend to prefer units like the Source Orb 4 Premium Kit that comes with the 650 mAh battery and the best thing – it’s removable.
Portability
As its around the size of an actual large pen unlike the Puffco Peak, its incredibly portable! Itll store away nicely into any pocket or garbage bag without any problem at all.
Ease of Use
As with most budget wax pen vaporizers, the Acus is excessively easy to use and after a couple of sessions, youll have practically mastered it. Friends and strangers will have no problem at all getting poor results easily!
Cleaning is a tragedy. The atomizers are very easy to clean, however, the internal vapor path is extremely annoying and frustrating to try and swab out entirely. After the first few sessions, performance will start to drop off as the vapor path begins getting clogged up and airflow reduces drastically.
Many users usually tend to prefer the Utillian 2 that is both easy to use and clean due to its magnetic connections making it easy to separate for cleaning.
Discreetness
As it looks like a pen, its one of the stealthier units available on the market. In fact, no one will be seeing you using it because youll probably be using a different unit entirely.
Users looking for devices producing serious flavors usually tend to prefer devices such as the Linx Blaze.
Overall Experience
Of all the budget, made-in-China wax vaporizers on the market, we couldnt warn you enough about this one. If youre looking for a serious recommendation for a budget wax pen vaporizer, check out the Yocan Evolve Plus it wont leave you inhaling toxic fumes. For a quality electric nectar collector, check out our review on the Ares Honey Straw or the Dipstick Dipper.
The best thing about this vaporizer is that serves as a template for other manufacturers to take inspiration on in terms of design and function. Wed love to see a high-quality 2-in-1 nectar collector/wax pen hit the market soon, this one isnt it, however.
If you have questions about our review or just want to let us know what you think, feel free to drop us a comment below! Thanks for reading and as always, keep vapin