Hot Box Vaporizer Review

Hot Box The Hot Box is a very simple desktop vape, it only has one switch to turn it on and off.

It’s also one of the least expensive home units on the market, which makes it a model to consider for beginners who may not want to spend a lot of money to see if they like vaping.

I think it performs fairly well for what it is, the vapor production is definitely decent and it can be pretty potent.

Some of the drawbacks are that it takes a long time to heat up before you can use it (about 10 mins), the tubing (whip) is not very high quality and is a little too stiff or rigid, and it does buildup residue fairly quickly.

Overall I give it a good rating and I see no reason why it wouldn’t be worth the price.

Stay up!
-Bud

Video transcription:

Hey, what’s up? This video is my review of the Hot Box Vaporizer. The Hot Box is a desktop whip-style vape. It’s actually fairly inexpensive, the list price is only around $150. There’s actually a few different models you can get, and that changes the price a little bit, but I’ll explain more about that. This vape, the Hot Box is actually going to end up being one of the cheapest home desktop vapes that I’m going to recommend, or that I think is actually pretty decent.

As the name suggests, all this vape is, is a simple box. The outside is ceramic and the heating element inside is simple, but strong. There are not knobs or dials on this vape, at all. The only switch it has is on the cord, to turn it on and off. You don’t need to worry about setting a temperature or anything like that, which could be considered a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at that.

The reason that I have two of them here is because these are actually two slightly different versions. This one, in all black, is the standard, basic model, and this one has a standard glass connection. That means that the wand that they give you and the heater piece inside don’t really connect to each other and stay together. They do fit together while you’re taking a draw, but in between draws, you take it out. If you’ve seen my Silver Surfer review, it kind of works that way. This other one that I have is one of their custom ones with a custom graphic on it. It’s actually a little bit bigger than the standard one, also. This one happens to have a ground glass connection for the wand and heating element, meaning that these two pieces do fit together, and when you fit them in like that, this one kind of stays in. I’m going to talk more about that in a minute.

As I mentioned, even though this vape is very simple and inexpensive, I actually found that the vapor it produces is pretty good, and I think it’s a decent performer. Because of its simplicity and low price point, I would say that this is a pretty good starter vape for somebody who wants to see if they like vaping, but they don’t want to spend a lot of money, at all. That being said, though, there are a few drawbacks to this vape that you should be aware of. One thing is that it kind of has a long heat up time. When you first turn it on, you do have to let it heat up for like 10 minutes before you could really start vaping from it. That’s on the higher side, most vapes are around two or three minutes. As I mentioned before, it doesn’t have a temperature control, which can be looked at in a good or a bad way. I personally think that is just a neutral thing. One on hand it’s great to have the ability to adjust the intensity, or the heat, of your vape, but on the other hand, most of the vapes I’ve reviewed, once I found target temperature I like, I generally just leave it there; I really don’t change it that much. Luckily, this vape, out of the box, seems to be set in a good temp range. The way that you would really try to control what type of vapor you get with a vape like this, is how quickly you draw. The slower you draw, the hotter the air will be passing through will be material, and the faster you draw, the cooler the air will be.

Another thing to keep in mind is that after the vape has been on for a little while, the outside will get pretty hot. You don’t want to touch the top especially, that gets the hottest. Also, you need to be a little careful with the wand piece. If you hold it anywhere near the bottom where the tubing connects to it, it’s not really hot at all, but you just got to make sure that you don’t touch this part or this part, because this will be fairly hot. Lastly, I really wasn’t too thrilled with the tubing that it comes with, the quality of the tubing. It feels pretty cheap, but more importantly, it’s too stiff. Anytime I let it go it wants to coil up like this, it doesn’t really want to stay straight. It’s kind of rigid; it’s not really a super-flexible tube. I’m sure if you’re a hardcore vaper and you buy this thing, you could figure out how to attach better tubing. I’m just talking about the tubing that it comes with.

I just wanted to show you guys the glass chambers because they are actually pretty cool, I think, how they did it. Normally, you would put your material right in the top, and it’ll fall down to where there’s a screen. You really don’t need to use a lot of material with this vape, you really only need to fill it up a little bit. what I think is cool about this, which is different from a lot of other vapes, is that these two pieces come apart fairly easily. If you just pull the top piece off, you’ll see that they separate and the screen comes out, and it makes it really easy to clean this thing. Then all you do to put it back together is put it in, and this little O-ring that they include, when you push it up, that’s what holds the screen in place, inside the chamber. Even though it does get some buildup fairly quickly, you could see that I kind of have a lot in mine already, luckily, it’s very easy to clean this thing.

This is the ground glass chamber, and hopefully, you’ll be able to tell the difference on the camera; this is the standard glass one. You can see that the ground glass is the one that is sort of frosted, and when this piece connects to the heater piece, they actually stay together. With the standard glass piece, they don’t really stick together. When you put it over the heater cover, it doesn’t really get stuck there, so you would need to pull it off after each draw.

This clip is me having a short vape session with the Hot Box. The first draw you see me taking is as long as I would normally pull for, but each draw after the first, in this clip, I cut them shorter just to keep the time down. If you noticed, my chamber piece gets disconnected, that was from the tubing being a little stiff, like I just mentioned before. What happens is because it’s so stiff and rigid, you can just turn a certain way and you’ll inadvertently pull the chamber out a little bit. Even though, with the ground glass connection, you’re supposed to be able to leave it in there, it’s supposed to be hands-free; you actually have to watch it with this vape. I would actually recommend keeping one hand on it, just to make sure it doesn’t fall out.

I found that this vape, like most, does seem to perform better when you’re material is very finely ground up. I would say that the vapor quality and taste from this unit is decent or average. It’s not bad, by any means, but it’s not as good as some of the better models.

Alright, guys. That is the Hot Box. If you have any questions about it that I didn’t go over, feel free to let me know. I put a link in the description to where you can get one of these, if you want one. If you want to see how I rate it, or watch any of my other reviews, you can check out my website, VapeCritic.com. I appreciate you taking the time to watch, and stay up.



20 comments

  • My black hot box was a birthday gift when I turned 55. I’m now 68, and it still works great. Mind you, we do it all, from the new silicon wster pipes, medical oil vapes to this amazing home vap that can be used for a few formats/genres of substance. So in short, on the average, it gets used a few times a week. The “secret” to longevity is, in the first week, I bought a timer that keeps me from forgetting to turn it off. On rare occasion, it’s been left on overnight. So my advice is… for the money, you can’t go wrong. And just buy a timer… Period. End of story… VTLM Vote to legalize marijuana. …peace out!

  • I bought one in San Francisco couple years ago I really enjoyed it the few months I used it. Unfortunately it broke not long after. I had the receipt and tried to return it and they turned it down. So if possible can someone give me a hint on fixing it. I kinda got tookn on the deal.

  • Hey Vape Critic!
    I have been a hot box user for a long time, over 10 years. Last month, my hot box stopped heating up. I was wondering if you knew or had one I can buy. Do you know if there is anything comparable to it? I am so sad that it cannot be fixed.
    Thanks so much!

  • Why review this instead of the vaporbrothers VB1 which is solid and has been around for over a decade? Great customer service and they rarely break.

  • What happened to this company? This was like my first vaporizer. It really turned me on to the benefits of vaping. The company link no longer offers repairs?! Bud, very classy and professional as always.

    • Hey thanks for the heads up my man! I always thought the simplicity of this one was pretty cool, sad to see it go!

  • Just curious to know if anyone has had problems with the heating element NOT heating….. I LOVE my lil green HotBox, but the first one went back to Cally (from Colorado…. tick, tick, tick) 3 times because of this one problem….. then I requested the “new one” promised in the original warranty. After getting very sick for over a month that it took to actually get the new one, I was more than happy to receive it…. problem is a month later, the heating element just went out again…….

    • We are having the same issue with us. My friend had his returned twice until he asked for an upgrade. We just received a “second” one (I know it’s the same ones, it’s missing paint at the exact same spot as my other one”. We received it today and it does not work. I’m not quite impressed because I’m in Canada and it cost me $100 to ship it in Cali, ship it back here and then costums.

      I’m kind of glad to see that we’re not the only ones with this issue, but it’s seriously frustrating that it cost me almost the price of a new one to receive the same one, still not working.

  • Thanks for the review it really helped me decide on getting a hot box vapors vape. I am VERY happy with it. The temp is perfect and if you are someone who likes to take faster draws you should have no problem with this vape. This vape deserves more love than it gets. Thanks again

  • Hi. I recently bought my first vaporizer, a bliss bl-014 digital hot box model. It looks exactly like the smaller box in your video, only it has a digital interface.
    As i write this, i am trying it for the first time. When i turned it on and set it to 375○, a strange, burning plastic smell came out of it. Is this normal for a new unit?
    Also, you mentioned that the taste was not as good on these type models. Can you please elaborate? Thanks

  • ok so I’ve decide to either buy a hot box or du Buddha vaporizer, is there any big difference I should know about the two before I choose?
    Also if I do go with the hot box, which is the better whip for the hot box, the standard one or the ground glass.

  • I just got my black ground glass hot box yesterday, I opened my box like a kid at christmas! Plugged it in and got it going, i waited a good half hour to make sure it was up to temp. Loaded the whip and drew slowly,stirred and repeated, not long but the drool was drooling and I was hooked,the taste, the size of draws and the [effects] are amazing!!!!!! Highly recommend the Hot Box!!!
    American made to boot!

  • This is by far the sturdiest vaporizer on the market. I’ve had mine for 8 years and it still works! I use it daily, and I thought that the heating element would go out long ago, but this thing just keeps on ticking. Well worth the money I’ve spent on it

    • Only downside is that you have to change the screen on it fairly often to avoid it getting clogged, but screens are usually 10 for $1 so it’s not a big deal

      • I’ve used rubbing alcohol to clean mine out when I’m too lazy to go get more. Place it into a small tupperware container with the alcohol, shake the crap out of it, remove it, rinse it clean with warm/hot water. Repeat as necessary.

  • The HotBox is a workhorse. I’ve had mine for three years and it keeps working. Temp is always consistent. No dials or knobs to break.