The Hippie Pipe Analog Dry Herb Vape – Not Too Hip

So, in our continued coverage of a million ways to vape cannabis, today we’re looking at The Hippie Pipe and the Double Jet Flame Torch Lighter. They are located at The Hippie Pipe website. For you kids who aren’t getting this reference, a “hippie” was a Boomer teenager of the more liberal, pro-drugs, beat generation persuasion, last current circa 1968. Using such an archaic term for their product is just one of many questionable decisions we will explore.

The Hippie Pipe retails for $79.99 and the double jet-flame torch goes for $29.99. Compared to the previously reviewed Vapman, another analog dry herb vape, this is an inexpensive price, so that’s a point in their favor.

Pros:

• economical
• easy load
• easy to clean
• attractive, compact design

Cons:

• the temperature indicator is faulty
• mouthpiece heats up
• difficult to use
• torch could easily burn your face off

Recommendations: I’m not sure where to start with this one, but (a) give it a better temperature indicator, (b) make it longer so it doesn’t transfer heat (c) include a mouthpiece (d) outsource the lighter design.

The Double Jet Flame Torch can burn your face off

Before we get to the Pipe, let’s talk about this torch. I don’t know what it is about torch design that is apparently so difficult, but those Dollar General torches they sell for ~$5 has so far beaten every manufacturer-supplied torch I’ve gotten. The Hippie Torch is a dual-flame jet lighter built Zippo-style, filled from a propane port on the bottom.

The Torch has an adjustable wheel on the bottom. In practice, it has a range from shut-off completely to “Burning Down the House” with little space in-between. Out of the two jets, one is stable while the other dances around wildly and sometimes shoots off a pyrotechnic display about two feet high. Furthermore, releasing the button does not shut off the flame right away. So use this carefully, if you use it at all.

Finally, the jet flame is better suited to a dab rig, while it is 10x overkill for The Hippie Pipe. Applying it to the Pipe’s small herb chamber makes it far too easy to burn the weed without ever stopping at the “vapor” stage.

The Hippie Pipe is tricky to use at best

First off, there is a tiny window on the business end of the Pipe which is supposed to tell you when the herb chamber is heated to the right temperature. It is so small as to be nearly impossible to see, especially when you’re busy surrounding it with flame. But even over that, by the time I saw so much as a fly’s eyelash showing up on the indicator, the herb was already burning. So I ended up ignoring that feature entirely and had better results using my instincts.

The load mechanism is one definite plus! It has a telescope design, extending a chamber opening that can hold, say, 0.15 grams of material. So you just depress the plunger and scoop ground herb into it. But you might want to give it a double-scoop and manually tamp down the pack, ensuring a load that is neither too sparse nor too dense.

Next, you heat the loaded end with the lighter. In the video, you can see that I try to do it their way the first time, and end up with burnt herb. The second time, I use a technique where I apply the flame for a count of five, back off for a second, re-apply for a count of five, etc. This lets the chamber heat more gradually.

Another problem is that the unit heats up, including the metal mouthpiece. So using it as anything more than a quick 1-2 hitter is inadvisable, or you could get burnt lips. When you DO get it loaded and heated just right, it has OK airflow and great flavor. Like all analog dry herb vapes, the flavor comes through very pure.

Usable if you work around design flaws

I should say that, like all analog vapes, this takes a lot of practice to use right. I still did manage to get some decent hits off the Pipe. But that was only after I disregarded the temperature indicator feature and ignored the instructions provided, heating it my own way. The Torch is to be used sparingly, if at all, in favor of one with a smaller flame.

The loading mechanism is definitely better than other analog dry herb vape experiences. As opposed to the fiddly funnel of the Vapman or the pen-and-cap design of the Dynavap, The Hippie’s spring-loaded plunger is a mere thumb-press and dip into your ground herb receptacle. But that’s about the only function where The Hippie Pipe comes in ahead of other analog dry herb vapes.

The Hippie Pipe gets only a qualified recommend

I wanted to like The Hippie Pipe more, because it is an ambitious design with some good ideas, but those ideas simply need more ironing out. It could use either a longer build or a separate mouthpiece, possibly even interchangeable mouthpieces, so it’s easier on the lips. The heating chamber could maybe stand to be thicker, to make burning the herb take longer. And the temperature indicator just needs a re-think.

The price, at $79.99, is very comparable to the Dynavap, so it’s a more economical choice than the Vapman, which is priced at €160, which translates to about $160 currently since the USD and Euro recently came into parity.

As for the Torch, at $29.99 I really expected better. It needs a better design so the dual jets fire evenly, and so that it shuts off when you shut it off.

HOWEVER, The Hippie Pipe might be suited to your use if you are an experienced dry herb vape user who is dedicated to sustainable vaping. When it comes to analog vapes, you get out of it what you put into it. I’m a bit of a klutz when it comes to analog vapes, so you might be more sure of yourself in applying flame to a little metal chamber.

Readers, share your dry herb vaping tips and experiences with using analog vapes here in the comments or in our sometimes-working forum.