Details

The Volta™ is a battery powered vaporizer manufactured in the USA by VaporGenie. The Volta ™ has a powerful LiFePO battery that provides power to a heating chamber. Herbs in the chamber are heated to vaporization temperature in seconds. Heat application is controlled by a manual pushbutton switch.

Construction:

The Volta™ body is made of waxed hard maple wood. Electrical contacts and switch are bronze. Cover is bamboo and has a rare earth magnet attachment. Screws, battery holder and spring are stainless steel. LED indicator circuit is potted in silicone rubber and is lead-free. Battery caps are silicone.

Battery is an 18650-size lithium-iron phosphate (LiFePO) battery. It must be charged with a LiFePO charger (do NOT use a Lithium-ION battery charger; doing so can cause fire!). Batteries are rated for 300 charge-discharge cycles @ 1300mAH, and about 1000 charge-discharge cycles @1250mah. The batteries will last a very long time, provided they are not completely discharged (i.e. to zero volts). You must stop using a battery when LED indicator turns RED (happens at about 2.2 volts). A completely discharged battery will take a little under 2 hours to fully recharge.

Cold batteries: Battery output voltage is lower when the batteries are cold. The LED indicator will light up RED with a cold battery (below about 40F), even if its fully charged. The batteries are warmed by discharge, so this lasts only a few seconds (about 10-20 seconds). A battery at 5F can require a 60 seconds of discharge to warm up enough to turn the LED green. It is best to warm the batteries in your pocket or something before use. A room-temp battery (70F) works fine. If you are using the battery in the extreme cold, and the battery never has a chance to warm up, it will not last for the 7-8 minutes we promise.

Battery specs:

Max charge voltage: 3.6V

Max charge current: 1.3A.

Max discharge current: 10A.

If you want to use your own LiFePO batteries, thats fine. Just make sure they have a max continuous discharge current of 10A. The Volta draws about 8-9 Amperes.

New Version Changes

We are now shipping the improved, re-launched Volta. We have made several upgrades compared to the original "beta version" Voltas sold during summer 2013:

1) A replaceable mouthpiece screen has been added. This screen will prevent plant matter bits from being inhaled. These screens will cost $2 for 10 screens.

2) Mica insulators (3 pieces) have been added between the heating element and wood body. These insulators improve energy efficiency and almost completely eliminate wood charring.The mica pieces are designed for use at extreme high temperature and will not outgas or produce inhalable particles. These mica insulators are user replaceable and are cheap ($1 per set).

3) New cover is made of bamboo, instead of glass (magnetic attachment mechanism is the same). This bamboo cover is essentially unbreakable and retains heat better than the glass (which increases battery life). All customers said the transparent glass was unnecessary anyway, because viewing the chamber is not necessary.

4) New battery indicator has separate, spaced-apart red and green LEDs. This makes is easier to understand the indicator, and is usable by colorblind people.

5) Edges and corners are rounded with 1/8" radius. (April 2014).

New Charger (January 2015)

We developed an improved high quality charger for the Volta LFP batteries. This unit charges batteries about 25% faster than the old version and is much better quality then the original charger. This charger will charge a completely discharged battery in 1.3 hours (80 minutes). Charger plugs into the wall or a vehicle 12V outlet.

Whats In the Box:

1 Volta vaporizer (with mouthpiece)

2 18650 LiFePO batteries

2 silicone battery caps

1 Protective Plastic Waterproof Battery Case with Gasket

1 two-battery LiFePO charger

1 maple wood mouthpiece

Features:

18650 LiFePO battery delivers over 200 watt-minutes of energy to heating chamber (about 8 minutes of power). Volta provides up to 25-35 draws from a single battery charge. By comparison, the MFLB delivers only about 90 watt-minutes.

Spring-loaded electrical switch is comfortable to use and provides precise manual heat control.

Magnetically-retained bamboo cover does not rotate, so it cannot spill in your pocket.

LED battery indicator shows when battery needs to be recharged (turns RED).

Unbreakable bamboo cover.

All parts are user-replaceable. If the body becomes worn-out or damaged, just replace it.

Replacement parts are available at the VaporGenie.com website. All screws are T-7 Torx drive.

Volta Parts Page



Maintenance:

It is necessary to occasionally clean your Volta. Do not use liquids to clean wood or bamboo parts. Heating chamber can be cleaned by brushing. Flicking the heating element (corrugated metal foil) is helpful for cleaning.

LiFePO batteries are damaged by complete discharge. So do not discharge the battery all the way. The LED indicator turns RED when a battery is about 95% discharged. Stop using (and recharge) a battery when the LED indicator turns RED. Batteries will be damaged if discharged below 2.0V. Replacement batteries cost $8 per pair (including silicone caps).

The interior copper contacts should be cleaned occasionally. Dirty contacts will cause the indicator light to illuminate RED when it should be GREEN (i.e. with a fresh battery).



The contacts are easily cleaned with an alcohol swab (as illustrated below). If they are really dirty, they can be cleaned by gentle scraping (with a screwdriver tip for example).





Warnings - Please Read

• Keep silicone battery caps on batteries at all times (charged or not). Even discharged batteries have energy. Batteries can dangerously short circuit causing fire or injury if they touch a metallic object (like keys in your pocket or bag).

• Use only the included LiFePO4 battery charger to recharge batteries. Do NOT use IMR/LMO or ICR/LCO chargers to charge Volta batteries. Inserting the Volta's LiFePO4 batteries in a IMR/LMO or ICR/LCO charger can cause battery venting, explosion or fire. Max charging voltage for LiFePO4 batteries is 3.6V.

• Use only High-Discharge (10A minimum constant discharge rate) 3.2V 18650 LiFePO4 (also called IFR or LFP) batteries in the Volta. Do NOT use IMR/LMO or ICR/LCO batteries in the Volta. Using the wrong batteries in the Volta can cause battery venting, explosion or fire.

If you unsure of the battery type, capacity, or voltage of a battery (or charger) purchased from a 3rd party DON’T USE IT.



How to Use the VaporGenie Volta™ Vaporizer

1) Fill bowl area about 1/4-1/2 full with shredded herbs. Do not completely fill bowl.

2) Orient Volta so that the bamboo cover is vertical, and herbs are resting on top of metal heating element (not resting on the wood).

3) Press and hold switch. LED light will turn GREEN, which indicates that heating element is getting hot.

4) SHAKE WHILE HEATING! Shaking circulates air and herbs, and assures uniform heating. Shake every few seconds while holding switch. It will take about 5-15 seconds for chamber to heat to vaporization temperature.

Do not inhale while the chamber is heating. Constantly drawing cold air into the Volta will prevent the chamber from heating to vaporization temperature, unless you inhale VERY slowly. Some people like to do this, but we do not recommend it.

Using the Volta is an alternating process: heat for several seconds then inhale, heat then inhale.

Keep an eye on the LED battery indicator. When the indicator turns RED, stop using the battery. A fully-charged battery will provide about 8 minutes of power.

Volta™ User Guide





About the MagicFlight vaporizer

Some have claimed that the Volta is a "ripoff" of the MagicFlight vaporizer. This is absolutely wrong and objectively not true. Here are the reasons why:

1) The MagicFlight is distinguished by its unique wire cloth heating element. The MagicFlight patent is directed toward the wire cloth. The Volta does not infringe on the MagicFlight patent because it has a metal foil heating element, not a wire cloth. We think the foil heating element is better because it does not clog with material, is more durable, and is replaceable.

2) The MagicFlight requires pressing the battery to apply heating power. The Volta has a spring-loaded switch.

3) The MagicFlight has a plastic swivel door. The Volta has a bamboo magnetic door closure.

4) The MagicFlight uses nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. NiMH is required for voltage-resistance compatibility with the wire cloth heating element. The Volta uses lithium iron phosphate batteries (LiFePO).

5) The MagicFlight cannot be disassembled. The Volta can be disassembled and all parts are replaceable.

6) Other differences include the steel battery clip and the two-color LED indicator in the Volta.

In view of the above differences, we think its not reasonable to describe the Volta as a "ripoff" of the MagicFlight. The only similarities are superficial and generic: both devices are wooden, box-shaped, battery-powered, manually controlled vaporizers.



Volta™ User Guide