In Cann Junction’s mission for superior cannabis vape products for a great price, we headed to Shenzhen China where almost all of your weed vaporizer mods are made. Shenzhen was hosting the 2018 eCig Expo (or IECIE) and is the heart of China’s most western-ish/capitalist province that borders Hong Kong and with the Bao’an district to the west where all the factories are. So it was a perfect time to go and see the latest and greatest cannabis vape pen products. As you can see by all vape in the air from the photo for this news article, China loves to vape – and no it is not the pollution that you see in all the news feeds (we have been getting that every time we show someone the pics). Now, the US leads the way in setting the trend, design and innovation behind the technology, but China is quick to adopt our culture, and then take it one step further. A lot of people smoke in China and when they do, they use one form or another of electronic cigarette technology.

We’ll be posting more info from the show over the next couple of months as we receive the test results from the new product samples and orders that come back. But there is some interesting perspectives from the manufacturing that we’ll mention in this article that has to do with the lack of cannabis product in China (although CBD is manufactured in northern China at a very low and controlled level) and the inability to test product ideas in the Chinese manufacturing process. So they rely heavily on feedback from the American and foreign markets in order to know if the product design actually works with the viscosity of the oil or concentrate. Although the Chinese have access to eCig liquids, the eCig liquid is like salt water versus a CBD oil that is like honey and THC that is much more viscid than CBD. So all those leaky cartridges – this is where it all stems from.

There are a few companies that are catching on to the issues, but believe it or not, there still is a ways to go in 510 cartridge technology. There are still manufactures that are making cotton and plastic cartridges, which are extremely unhealthy, so for those of you that want the health benefits of CBD or don’t want to poison yourselves getting baked watching movies on your couch, keep reading the articles as we put them out there. Because there are alternatives that are extremely healthy and have a really low leak rate. Jomo was one of the first manufacturers that we visited and they have a cartridge (the review is coming in the next month, please contact us to sample it) made entirely of ceramic and glass. Probably the healthiest of the cartridges that we saw there, but we have still to conclude on how well it will stand up to our leak tests. And I am sure we’ll get the “CCell is great” rebuttal, but there are other companies out there that have comparable products that don’t have quite the branding and a better price. But not to take away from CCell. They do make some great products, but we will be introducing other products that have bettered a lot of their features in the coming reviews.

Another interesting take away was that idea that we, in the USA, fill our own cartridges as a consumer, as eCig consumers do. That leads to two issues with the future thought process of oil based hardware for cannabis vaping that we’ll briefly cover here:

1) Single Voltage Temperature Mods – being that our oils are of different viscosity from cultivator to cultivator and strain to strain, and we get them pre-filled when we buy our 510 cartridges from our favorite dispensaries, this doesn’t quite work for that design model. So when you get a cartridge that doesn’t quite produce a cloud, or it tastes burnt – this is where the mistake happens. Some of the feedback from the states from the companies here, they are telling the manufacturers the wrong info on it. Why? No idea, but with new products coming out and less reliance on the exclusivity of PAX there will be shift down the road as cultivators have access to their own non-proprietary pod battery mods.

2) Pod centered products that are not universal – There also will be a lot of PODs available soon to compete with the PAX model. This goes back to the idea that we all fill our own cartridges from syringes for cannabis. I can’t tell you how many times I sat with the manufacturers in Shenzhen and told them that, “No! We are the American consumer and everyone wants their pot handed to them conveniently.” So I further explained that the only way into the market with their POD products is to make an easier fill system that cultivators can fill using the same equipment as they do with a 510 cartridge and partner up. If any of you cultivators reading this are interested, please contact us! And then what happens… We’ll see how this all boils down over the next year or so. But they are definitely not slowing down in the 510 cartridge manufacturing and innovation area.

This was definitely a great trip and please stay tuned for more info on the Shenzhen 2018 eCig Expo and our visit to manufacturers in Bao’an. We’ll be doing a ton of product reviews and more news from the other side of the world with our friends in China.