When Mark Hatten purchased his first vaporizer, the pen-like device first came across as a sophisticated unit with a digital temperature readout. But when he tried to use it, it fell short. Most people would have left it at that, but Hatten, who lives in Montclair, New Jersey, instead put his skills as a computer scientist and inventor to work.
The result is Hatten’s patented JarHead vaporizer. As the flagship product of his cannabis equipment start-up JarVapor LLC, the device looks a bit like a blender, with hookah tubes coming out of the top. In addition to the upside-down jar and a pyramid shaped base, there’s a heating pipe and two caps in the middle to hold the cannabis. The base houses a retro looking LED screen and three buttons – green, yellow and red. At $245, it’s priced well below competitors like the Volcano.
"JarHead is perfect for tailoring the best temperature for your vaporizing experience."
In a recent demonstration, Hatten loaded about a quarter-gram of ground Sour Diesel flower in the heating cap, set the temperature by pressing the green button and set the length of the cooking period with the yellow button. The JarHead did the rest. The LED screen provides temperature readings from the heating stack, which reaches the target temperature in a couple of minutes to vaporize the flower at a range of 330˚ to 400˚. The whole point is to remove the essence of the plant without destroying some of the best flavors and ingredients by burning it. Plus, it delivers more potency-per-gram for your flower.
Different types of flower are better consumed at different temperatures, Hatten explains. Indica strains tend to be oilier and may require a higher temp than sativas. JarHead is perfect for tailoring the best temperature for your vaporizing experience.
Hatten fit sanitary plastic mouthpieces on the two vapor tubes and handed one to me. The Diesel tasted terrific.
For Hatten, JarHead represents the combination of some of his life passions: cars, electronics, software, 3D printing, designing circuit boards and writing code. While the word jarhead connotes the Marines and three soldier movies with that name, Hatten was not in the military and says the product is simply named for the jar or container and what the effect will be on one's head.
JarHead presents a bit of a learning curve to operate, but Hatten has posted detailed instructions on how to set the temperature and the timing. One other minor issue is you have to wait a few minutes for the heating stack to cool down before you can load another capful. But you can also order larger caps to hold more cannabis to reduce the need for quick reloads.
For cannabis connoisseurs, JarHead is a must-own.
