My Cart
You have no items in your shopping cart.
Storz & Bickel Dosing Capsules vs Zeus ArcPods Comparison
By
Alex Karakatsanis
Storz & Bickel Dosing Capsules vs Zeus ArcPods Comparison
October 6, 2023
on
Portable Showdown, Showdowns
Updated: October 6, 2023
We’ve seen two awesome releases towards the close of last year, namely the Mighty+ and the Zeus Arc GTS Hub. While both vaporizers are well capable of doing a bang up job of fully extracting dry herb, where they truly shine is when factoring in the pods or ArcPods that these two are compatible with. We’ve been getting a lot of questions in regards to how these two pod systems differ and where they intersect so we’re here to give you the complete lowdown on everything. May this information guide you well!
Storz & Bickel Dosing Capsules vs Zeus ArcPods Comparison
Table of contents
How it Works
While the Zeus ArcPod system might look like it shares a lot in common with the dosing capsules offered by Storz & Bickel, there are a few key differences in how both are setup which vastly affects the preparation time and work involved.
The filling set for Storz & Bickel’s dosing capsules is a simple but very practical solution for preparing large amounts of dosing capsules at a time (40 of them to be exact!). The filling set consists of a filling tray, an extra large herb mill, a spatula, plunger, and a scale.
The filling tray holds 40 dosing capsules which are manually slotted into place. You then measure out and grind up 6 grams of dry herb with included herb mill and scale and use the spatula to spread the dry herb evenly over the tray which allows the flower to fill up each and every dosing capsule that’s been inserted. The plunger is then used to precisely apply the lid onto each of the dosing capsules securely.
While the process is very simple, it does come with its fair share of caveats. For starters, most of the convenience goes out of the window when trying to pre-fill anything less than 40 dosing capsules. The empty slots on the tray end up catching dry herb which is ideally measured and allocated for your dosing capsules.
Filling up each dosing capsule evenly with approximately the same amount of dry herb is close to impossible unless you really take your time with the process (which defeats the whole point really).
In contrast, the Zeus ArcPod system involves fewer parts to work with. All that’s needed is the Zeus Xtruder and an ArcPod to get things underway. Getting each ArcPod filled up with a precise 0.3 grams of dry herb is exceedingly easy thanks to the precision grinding and loading of the Xtruder which slots directly onto the ArcPod itself.
While it might not be the best solution for loading up 40 pods at a time, we’ve found that loading up to 20 ArcPods or less takes up less time than loading up 20 dosing capsules with Storz & Bickel’s solution so it really comes down to how one uses their device and their own personal preference at this point.
Ease of Use
Another shortcoming of Storz & Bickel’s filling solution is that it limits the user to filling up a large amount of dosing capsules with only 1 strain.While this might not be a problem for some, most connoisseurs who like to switch things up with multiple indica and sativa strains will have issues with this.
Another downside with S&B’s dosing capsules is that they don’t come with the requisite stickers for marking down which strain a capsule is being filled up with. In contrast, the ArcPods have these straight out of the box which are really helpful especially when working with multiple strains.
When it comes to reusing the ArcPods, these also have the slight upper hand as they are a bit easier to open compared to their Storz & Bickel counterparts.The paper lids on the ArcPods are also a much better indicator of a pods longevity vs the regular aluminum lids found on Storz’s dosing capsules.
Accessibility
One thing that needs to be reiterated when it comes to the Zeus ArcPods is just how easy they are to set up. If you can operate a pepper mill or grinder, then the ArcPods will be no problem to use. This says a lot about its accessibility, especially for those who have impaired motor skills or dexterity.
The S&B Dosing capsules in comparison, take a bit of finesse to be able to use properly and those with shaky hands, wrist pain, or other forms of arthritis might experience difficulties when trying to use it. This applies especially when trying to open the flimsy lids on the dosing capsules which easily bend when force is applied.
Vapor Quality
With regards to flavor and overall cloud production, both pod options perform remarkably similar to each other. They don’t hamper the experience at all compared to when loading dry herb directly into the chamber.
Removing either pod from their respective chamber is quick and hassle-free not to mention they both do an excellent job of keeping either the Mighty or the Arc GTS chamber clean and gunk-free.
Final Thoughts
Performance-wise, these are two of the top best pods and capsules you can hope to use with your vaporizer, but we’re going to have to give it to the Zeus ArcPods for their superior ease of use, especially when it comes to the average use-case scenario. It’s not often that we foresee the average joe (ourselves included) loading 6 grams of dry herb at a time and while the dosing capsules excel at this, they become remarkably less efficient when trying to load up just a gram or 3 of botanical.
Another quality of the ArcPods that make it a more suitable purchase is its sheer bang for buck. With every purchase of the Zeus Arc GTS Hub, you already get the Zeus Hub, Xtruder, and a 3 pack of ArcPods to get your started. The Filling Set on the other hand is a separate purchase.
Share.
