Ploom Pax won't turn on?
Halibutboy Flatfish stashed this in Eat drink party
Recently after a regular cleaning my Pax would not turn on any more! If I put it on the charger it would blink green rather than showing a solid orange or green. After several days of frustration, filing a support ticket, and finally doing online chat with a technical support person at Ploom, I learned the following things:
* Putting any sort of liquid -- including the cleaner or mouthpiece lube they include with the unit -- near the small white light inside the mouthpiece housing can potentially cause the unit to short out. It may also void the warranty! Seems like a bit of a design flaw to require two liquids that must be applied a couple millimeters away from an area that causes an automatic short... but that's what happens when you let a bunch of San Francisco hipsters design a piece of hardware.
* The recommended fix is to put the unit into a bag of white rice for 48 hours! I tried it and it worked like a charm. Apparently shoving your expensive vaporizer into a bag of rice does NOT void the warranty. I don't know why this info doesn't appear in the Pax FAQ considering it seems to be a very common issue... but maybe they don't want to call attention to how common it is?
* Speaking of voiding the warranty... if you bought your Pax from an authorized dealer, they seem very amenable to helping you with the unit if the rice trick doesn't work. But if you bought your Pax from a reseller or a friend, you are SCREWED. That 10-year warranty you figured would make the premium price worthwhile? Null and void unless purchased from authorized dealer!
* Ploom tech support via chat is FAR more responsive than email. Unfortunately it only operates Tu - Fri 9AM - 5PM Pacific time. So you have a maximum window of 32 hours per week to try to get help if something goes wrong with a Ploom unit.
Happy vaping!
Stashed in: Recommended Products!, Marijuana, RTFM!, Real Talk
The reason rice works is that it is a dessicant -- it removes moisture.
I have heard that Rice Krispies work well, too.
UPDATE: so after 18 months or so, my Pax would no longer turn green. It "turned on" in the sense that electricity was flowing through the unit as shown by the red light... but it was never "on" in the sense that it could be used to vape.
I checked the FAQs and painstakingly cleaned the unit several times including soaking the mouthpiece and applying lube. Then I contacted customer support and after a few days -- these ARE stoners, ya know -- they cheerfully told me to soak the mouthpiece AND sent me some more lube! After a few MORE days, they cheerfully agreed that I should send the unit in for service. After a few MORE days they cheerfully agreed that the damn thing did not work no mo' and they would send me a replacement. After a few MORE days I got the replacement unit and things have been OK ever since.
So as I surmised in the original post, the first-generation Ploom Pax just has a design flaw that makes it a pain for users AND ultimately for the company. Their customer service is stoneriffic! Friendly, warm, and generous... but seemingly unconcerned with the passage of time, and prone to a bit of magical thinking. For a true medical marijuana user it's actually kind of dangerous to be without the CBD for the better part of three weeks... and I'm notoriously bad at smoking, it always seems to end with me inhaling cinders or some shit.
I kind of suspect now that the new model Pax 2 has fixed some the issues with the original Pax -- all of which were located in the pop-out mouthpiece -- by trading them off for some usability. I will report back if/when I try the new product though.
5:10 PM Mar 05 2014