Anatomy of a Vaporizer Arsenal : Consumer Survey Report

Updated: March 27, 2024

Vaporizer Accessory Survey

clemence Picture

by: Clemens Tscheka

Chief Research Officer
April 3rd, 2017

The vaporizer culture is booming, perceptions surrounding the industry are shifting faster than ever, and with these changes comes opportunities. Not only are companies pouring time and effort into designing the latest and greatest vaporizer, they are also focusing their attention on designing tools, gadgets, and gear to meet the demands of a vape-centric culture.

We can look to the cell phone market to see just how big the potential for accessories for electronic gadgets can be. According to an article from ResearchandMarkets.com, the Global Mobile Phones Accessories Market is looking at a growth of 6.17% during 2016 – 2020. It is also projected to be worth an estimated $70.4 billion by 2022.

Cellphones and vaporizer accessories share a few overlaps, with consumers always looking for device protection, chargers, batteries, power banks, and cleaning supplies for each respective device. With the rise in popularity of vaporizers and a growth that is nowhere near its peak, it’s easy to see the potential value in creating accessories to meet the customer’s growing needs, with cell phone accessories being the proof in the pudding.

In our latest survey, we wanted to take a closer look at what accessories people have currently in their arsenal and what gadgets they want to add to their collection in the future.  At the time of writing, we received over 350 responses and some of the results were quite interesting, so let’s take a closer look!

Average Age of Respondents

First, we will take a look at the average age of those who responded to our survey. The largest majority of respondents are over the age of 50, making up nearly 38% of all who responded. The next largest response is split between 19 – 29-year-olds and 30 – 39-year-olds, each at 24% of total respondents. Lastly, those between the ages of 40 – 49 make up the final 14%.

Average Age of Respondents

We found it a bit interesting that our largest response demographic is over the age of 50 and that those who are 40 – 49 make up the smallest response demographic. Our only thought is that as people enter their 50’s they look to vaporizing as a delivery method for their medicine.

If you split up the demographics in a slightly different way, drawing the dividing line at the age of 40, the split becomes a bit evener. With those 40+ making up 52% of respondents and with those between the ages of 19 – 39 making up 48% of respondents.

This even split goes to show that the perceptions of who vapes may not be what you think. While many assume the younger generation would be more apt to pick up a vaporizer, it appears that the older generation is actually slightly more inclined to vaporize.

Home Storage

We first asked users how they stored their herbs when they were at home. 43% responded that they store their herbs in glass jars. While 18% said that the stored their herbs in a plastic bag.

Home Herb Storage

It does not surprise us to see so many people lean towards glass jars as a means of storage for their herbs. They are clean, usually air tight and you can buy cheap ones from any dollar store.

While the idea of a glass jar seems like a good one for preserving your herbs, when it comes to using your herbs in conjunction with a vaporizer, it is actually important to dry your herbs first.

This is why we found it interesting that only 4% of users use a wood box and only 3% of users use some kind of humidor.

Zeus Temple Box

Zeus Arsenal has actually created their “Zeus Temple Herb Box” for this very reason. The purpose of The Temple is to extract the moisture of your herbs prior to vaporization. This will help you achieve vapor production more quickly because your vaporizer no longer needs to extract the moisture before starting the vaporization process. As one respondent attests, “I really like the Zeus temple. Very classy and eye catching. It dramatically reduces moisture content resulting in a better vaping experience.” (Respondent 314).

It also helps keep your vaporizer cleaner for longer. When your herbs have not been dried, oils can build up more quickly on your unit because of the added moisture. With your herbs dried there will be less moisture for the oils to cling to and the result is a much easier cleanup.

Vaporizer Home Storage

Next, we asked people how they stored their vaporizers when at home. Surprisingly, 48% of respondents say they just leave their vaporizer out. While 20% of respondents said they use a dedicated vaporizer case like the Zeus Armor Case. 17% of those surveyed said that they store their vaporizer in a drawer.

We honestly thought people would be a bit more diligent with the storage of their vaporizers while at home. Units like the Arizer Air contain fragile glass parts that can be easily broken if left out. But one respondent sheds some light on this result, “My desktop stays out, my portable is stored in a case” (Respondent 251). So it would seem that perhaps the reason why people are not storing their vaporizers is because they own desktops, which are not as easy to store and thus people tend to leave them out. While for units like portables, people are more likely to pop in a vaporizer case.

Zeus Armor Case

Once again, we turn to a company like Zeus Arsenal, who is the only manufacturer to offer a full line of vaporizer-centric accessories. Their Armor Case which we previously mentioned offers a perfect solution for home storage, with enough space to fit almost every portable vaporizer and its respective accessories. It even comes with a custom cut-out slot for a herb grinder.

On-The-Go Storage

Now that we have a sense for how people store their herbs and vaporizers while at home, we turn our attention to how people store their herbs and vaporizers when on-the-go.

Herb TransportationWe first focused in on how people transported their herbs when out and about. Results were surprisingly split, with the largest majority at 27% stating that they use plastic bags to transport herbs. Pill bottles and glass jars follow behind neck and neck at 22% and 21% respectively.

The “Other” category interestingly makes up 19% of respondents, with most of those filled in responses referencing users’ Licensed Producer (LP) Bottles that they receive their medicinal herbs in.

We originally intended for our “Pill Bottle” selection to accommodate for this, but LP bottles can vary so perhaps people don’t consider an LP bottle a “Pill bottle”. Regardless, if we lump these 2 results together, an impressive 46% of those who responded use some sort of pill bottle or LP bottle to transport herbs. As one respondent remarks, “I keep different herbs in different pill bottles for easy access to pre-ground herbs.  Can’t have too many pill bottles or too many types of herb. “ (Respondent 43).

While 27% still use the old, reliable, plastic bags, despite the fact that plastic bags are one of the worst ways to transport herbs. This is mostly due to the static electricity that can build up in plastic bags and can cause the pollen on your herbs to stick to the bag rather than staying on the plant.

Vaporizer Transportation

Next, we turn our attention to how people store their vaporizers and accessories for transport. 28% of those who responded stated they just put their vaporizers and accessories directly into their bag. 23% of users said that they just stuff their vaporizer and accessories in their pockets, while 22% use a dedicated vaporizer case.

It is also interesting to point out that 16% of respondents said that they use a makeshift or repurposed case to transport their vaporizer. This leads us to believe that people do have an interest in a dedicated vaporizer case and may have turned to creating their own to meet their needs.  As one respondent points out, he personally needs, “a carrying case large enough for the vaporizer, some herb, and a spare battery”. (Respondent 296).

Unfortunately, the current vaporizer case market is quite bleak with not many companies offering a viable solution that will work with most vaporizers. One sad respondent remarked that all he wanted was, “a case that holds my vaporizer better than the one I have.” (Respondent 139).

Zeus Armor Case Open

Luckily Zeus Arsenal stepped up to the challenge creating The Armor case, which was released just before Christmas 2016. This case is specifically designed for vaporizer users and looks to meet the needs of those who constantly find themselves on-the-go. It provides enough space to fit almost any portable vaporizer and offers enough additional storage to fit your grinder, herbs, and accessories.

The Daily Grind

Our next section will focus on how people prepare their herbs for use. Most people choose to break up their herbs prior to vaporization but what exactly are they using to do this? We asked our customers just this:

Herb Preparation

An impressive 88% of people use a herb grinder to prepare their herbs for use. While only 4% of people use a coffee grinder, 3% use their fingers and 2% use a pair of scissors.

With these results we can easily conclude that most people who use vaporizers prefer to grind their herbs with a dedicated herb grinder, with one respondent remarking, “keeping a grinder (like the Zeus Grinder) around is always key for quick consistent grinding, I’ve used fingers and scissors in the past” (Respondent 98).

But what about the consistency of the grind? This can directly affect your vapor production and different grinds can produce different results depending on the unit.

Herb Consistency

We found that 71% of respondents preferred a medium grind, while 23% prefer a fine grind. This result is somewhat expected as most vaporizers tend to work best with somewhere between a medium to fine grind. As one respondent replied, “I like having a grinder that gives me a medium grind by default but that can also be used to make the herbs finer.” (Respondent 344).

Conduction vaporizers tend to work best with a grind that is a bit on the finer side because it increases the surface area of herbs coming in contact with the heat source. Convection vaporizers actually work better with a grind that is closer to a medium consistency because it promotes better airflow.

Zeus Bolt Grinders

The Zeus Bolt 2 has been a staple of people’s vaporizer arsenals for years now. The reason the Bolt grinder is so popular for vaporizers is because it is one of the only grinders available that is actually calibrated to provide that perfect consistency for vaporization. Zeus also just released the Zeus Bolt XL, a perfect home grinder that provides a large amount of herb storage and superior shredding power.

Lock and Load

So now that we know that users prefer their herbs to be a medium grind, we wanted to know how people loaded their herbs into the heating chambers of their vaporizers. Some heating chambers are quite deep and narrow and can present a bit of a challenge when loading, others offer a much wider opening but a shallower dish.

Loading

From our results, we found that 45% are just fine using the tools that god gave them, their fingers. 32% of people use a scoop to aid them with filling and only 7% of people surveyed use a dedicated loading tool.

For most, it’s probably easiest to use your fingers during the loading process. Not to mention if you are out and about you may not have brought any type of loading tool with you.

Zeus Bolt with Zeus Scoop

Each Bolt Grinder comes equipped with a scoop to help with the loading of your herbs. While you do have to remember to keep the scoop handy, it really does improve the loading experience over using one’s fingers. It’s much more precise and there is way less chance or spilling or missing the target completely.

Empty Vaporizer

So now that we know how people get their herbs into their chamber, how do they get them out?

29% of users turn to their cleaning brush to empty out the chamber of their vaporizer after use, while 28% use a packing tool and 21% of users just shake the unit.

The mentioned tools are pretty much included with every vaporizer package, so it really doesn’t surprise us to see so many people using them. It actually makes us happy to see that people are using these included tools, as they can be quite easy to misplace. And with 10% of people saying they use a toothpick, we can only assume these are the people who have misplaced their brush or packing tool.

Smooth Operator

One thing that can be irritating (literally) about vaporizers is the vapor itself, especially with units that have a short vapor path or when vaping at higher temperatures. In fact, an earlier survey we conducted found that hot vapor is a vapers number 1 pet peeve.  We were curious how people combatted this irritation and how users achieved smooth draws.

Smoother Draws

40% of respondents reported that they simply inhale air while drawing to cool vapor and achieve a smoother draw. 14% of users stated that they use a longer mouthpiece to cool down vapor and 10% said that they use an ice filter like the Zeus Iceborn.

The “other” option accounts for 23% of results, with responses varying from, “Lower the temp” (Respondent 301) to “My vaporizer is smooth right out of the box” (Respondent 153).

Lowering the temperature is certainly an option to reduce irritation, but vaporizing at a lower temperature also won’t extract your herbs fully and will require higher temperatures for better extraction.

This is the reason why Zeus Arsenal created the Iceborn, it allows you to vaporize at higher temperatures for maximum extraction while providing an unrivaled cooling experience.

Zeus Iceborn

We were surprised to see only 5% of respondents turn to water-pipes as a means of cooling down their vapor, something that their smoking counterparts tend to use frequently.

What Is The Main Downside Of Using A Water Filter

We decided to dig a bit deeper and ask people what they thought the downsides to using a water pipe might be.

24% said that they found cleaning glass a bit of a hassle, while 15% raise the issue that there is no adapter available to connect their vaporizer to a water pipe. Tied at 10% is the risk of potential spills and the need to constantly change water.

Once again the “Other” category makes up a large percentage of responses. These responses range from, “it’s complicated” (Respondent 78) to “It is an added step, and doesn’t work that much better than not using one.” (Respondent 213), to “No need to use one” (Respondent 172).

One respondent actually brings up an excellent point factoring in the, “absorption of terpenes” (Respondent 217), to the negatives of using a water pipe. This is probably the biggest downside to using a water pipe with a vaporizer, terpenes are water soluble and can easily be lost when vaping through a water pipe, making using a water pipe far less efficient.

What Are The Added Benefits Of Using An Ice Filter

We then asked users what the benefits of an alternate style of vapor cooling, like an ice filter, would be.

40% of users responded that an ice-filter would dramatically cool down the vapor, while 10% added that it allows you to vaporize at a higher temperature like we previously mentioned.

9% recognized that using ice filtration maintains vapor efficiency, which was the driving idea behind the Iceborn. The Iceborn was created with the intention of aggressively cooling vapor before inhalation, which will allow users to vaporize at higher temperatures while maintaining the terpenes and thus the efficiency of their vaporizer.

The 23% that make up “Other” are mostly comprised of those who have yet to experience Ice Filtration and could not speak to its benefits.

Dressed to Impress

Your vaporizer is an excellent talking piece when you have friends over. You’re always excited to show them your new toy and are more than happy to let them experience it for themselves. But what accessories get you excited enough to show your friends? We asked our customers exactly that.

What Accessory do you show off?

45% of those who responded said that their grinder is the one vaporizer accessory they show their friends the most. Followed by a unique mouthpiece at 11%, a balloon attachment at 10%, herb box at 8% and ice filter at 6%.

With our previous results, that 88% of users use a herb grinder to prepare their herbs for vaporization, it should not come as much of a surprise that that same grinder is what users tend to show their friends when vaping together. A grinder seems to be a staple of the vaporizer arsenal and having a high-quality grinder like the Bolt, is always an attention grabber.

We were surprised to see the ice filter so low on the list, perhaps people just have not had the time to try one for themselves, but I know that when I have friends over for the night it is the first thing that I pull out and it is usually met with awe and wonder. It makes a perfect accessory for both parties and solo sessions and is sure to be a cool experience every time.

We will note that 18% of respondents selected “Other” but a majority of fill in responses were that they either showed their friends everything in their arsenal or did not share their arsenal with friends (boring!).

Most Wanted

Our last question asked people what accessories they will eventually acquire to complete their arsenal. We allowed users to select as many as applied to them. We will look at the top 5 responses.

Most Wanted Accessories

The most popular accessory people are looking to purchase in the near future is something for “Herb Storage”, with 139 total selections.

2nd and 3rd place are pretty close with the “Ice Filter” at 113 selections, just in front of a “Vaporizer Case” at 112 selections.

Zeus Purify Cleaning Kit

The 4th place belongs to vaporizer cleaning tools, which is always a necessity for the general maintenance of vaporizers. Once again Zeus Arsenal has a whole cleaning line geared towards keeping your vaporizers and accessories in tip top shape. The Purify cleaning kit comes complete with a bottle of earth safe Purify Cleaner, a pack of grime wipes (alcohol soaked towelettes) and grime sticks (alcohol filled q-tips), and a pack of pipe cleaners for those hard to reach places.

Finally in 5th place is “Vaporizer Arsenal Storage”, which would make sense. As people’s collections grow they need a place to store all the little accessories they have collected over the years. Once again the Armor Case is a great storage solution for all these little accessories and makes it super easy to take with you.

The Vaporizer Utility Belt

So if a vaporizer user was a superhero, what would his utility belt be made up of?

VaporMan!

By looking at the most popular answers given, we can conclude that the average vaporizer arsenal contains:

  • A grinder
  • A vaporizer case (either dedicated or makeshift)
  • A glass jar for at home herb storage
  • A plastic bag or pill (LP) bottle for herb transportation.
  • A scoop for loading
  • A cleaning brush or packing tool for emptying chambers
  • Longer mouthpieces to cooling vapor

Final Thoughts

While this may be the average user’s current vaporizer arsenal, it is missing a few key accessories to that would truly perfect any user’s arsenal.

If you are serious about vaporizing we highly recommend investing in a de-humidor herb storage box like the Zeus Temple. As we previously mentioned, this boxes ability to pull moisture from your herbs results in a more potent and efficient vaporizer session.

An ice filter is another accessory we believe every arsenal should have, especially for those who find themselves always reaching for a glass of water to soothe their throat mid-session. The Zeus Iceborn does an amazing job at providing icy smooth draws, allowing you to use your vaporizer at higher temperatures and increase your draw duration without the irritation that can come with vaporization.

Both of these accessories appear at the top of the “Most Wanted” accessory list and will dramatically change your vaporization experience for the better.

As the vaporizer culture continues to grow we are excited to see what sorts of innovations will be made when it comes to vaporizing accessories. The opportunities are endless and there will always be the need for new, revolutionary accessories to help supplement a great vapor experience.

One thing we do know is to keep an eye on Zeus Arsenal, who are the industry leaders of vape-centric accessories and are constantly striving to make each vaporizing experience unique and hassle-free.

We’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment letting us know what is the one accessory that is a “must-have” for anyone’s arsenal? And what sorts of makeshift tools and accessories have you used in your arsenal in the past?

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About Author
Avatar for Clemens Tscheka

Clever Clemens is a Project Management master and holds a doctorate degree in pharmaceutical technology with experience in medical inhalation devices. When he’s not busy watching Netflix and eating as much sushi as possible he can be found hiking or hitting the slopes. His medical expertise and passion for helping patients will push forward our future endeavours. Clemens is especially involved in compliance of 3rd party brands and the quality of our exclusive brands

The reviews and ratings are based on personal and decade-plus of industry experience. Such content is based on the opinion of the Editor/Author. They are solely provided as a basis for research and should be used only as guidance. We encourage thorough research by all visitors to attain the most objective viewpoint before purchasing.