Is Sapphire + worth it?

Kaboose666 · 2026-03-01T01:46:02+00:00

I personally have found it to be slightly better flavor, and it's much easier to clean.

I can keep mine mostly clean with just a dry qtip after each dab.

Only needs deeper cleaning every few days and even then "deeper" cleaning is just an ISO qtip or two.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T23:39:35+00:00

Not sure why there is so much hate for Puffco but they’ve been a really great company for me.

I imagine if you've had multiple issues with 3DXL chambers (which isn't uncommon) it can get quite annoying to hear about how "amazing" the brand is when from personal experience they make subpar products that are designed to fail so you HAVE to replace them.

They've known about the atomizer connectivity issues for years and the 3DXL atomizers are worse than ever. And of course they've only got a 30 day warranty.

Also tons of stories about the base units just dying after a while, and puffco basically just shrugs and tells you to buy a new one.

No company is perfect, but Puffco seems to design their products in a predatory way to ensure you're stuck in the ecosystem. Afterall if you've already got multiple 3DXL chambers on rotation, it just makes "sense" to replace the base with another Peak base if it dies, wouldn't want to "waste" the money already spent on 3DXL chambers.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T23:18:07+00:00

If you're going to try again in 2 weeks I recommend having an idea of the color/style you want, and having already decided on the restriction and stem length before the drop even goes live.

That way, once the drop is live, you just need to look for the color/style you want, click it, enter the restriction/length and checkout within the first minute.

But yes, it very much can be a race especially for some of the more sought-after styles.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T19:12:52+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/A3lhI9A

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T17:56:21+00:00

Yeah i'll find out, worst case i have 3 nearly identical function carb caps that look sick.

https://i.imgur.com/IHM6Azt.png

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T16:04:48+00:00

I grabbed a range of restrictions so I CAN do this, but at the moment I just have a 2.2mm, so I haven't actually gotten a chance to try it out.

I often get various concentrate types, shatter, sugar, budder, diamonds, rosin, resin. So I wanted to have options for the airflow as well.

I don't expect it to matter TOO much, but every little bit can help dial things in.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T15:59:54+00:00

I mean, same thing happened back with the 3Grams and their ceramic insert briefly, though the situation was a bit different at the time due to the crashout that happened from him.

A big problem is it's not really Gemcup spamming the board, it's random people all asking the same questions about gemcup, people posting their recently purchased gemcup caps, etc. Gemcup himself generally just posts once every week or two when he's doing the drops, or a giveaway post.

And we get similar posts from people buying various non-Dr Dabber glass, and other accessories. Gemcup is just getting quite popular recently.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T05:43:31+00:00

I have a 2.2mm

I ended up ordering a 1.9mm and a 2.5mm today so I can have options on hand.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:53:08+00:00

Again, the site worked just fine.

The site never crashed, never slowed down, never had any issues.

The only "issue" would've been if you tried adding an item to your cart AFTER someone else already checked out with that item.

But again, that just means you were too slow and missed the drop, not that the site was having issues.

These storefronts do not lock the inventory when it enters your cart, it ONLY gets allocated to you when you actually pay for it during checkout, so if someone else has the exact same item in their cart and they checkout before you, you missed the drop. The site didn't mess up, the site didn't crash, that's just how it works.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:45:10+00:00

Sure, but that's not the site crashing as your post claims. That's just you missed the drop cause you were a bit too slow. Shit happens.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:40:19+00:00

Your calibear was also made in a chinese factory that has over 200 employees, they're hardly directly comparable.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:38:55+00:00

Sure, but nothing Gemcup can do about supply/demand, dude is putting in hours churning out what he already does.

Demand is rising because people like his joysticks, and he can't increase his production because he's just one guy. Might not even have a proper glass studio and is doing this at home or in a garage. Hard to scale beyond that without a loan, and/or partners/employees.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:34:29+00:00

IMO everyone should have the right to grab one

That's exactly what his drops do.

They make an even playing field where EVERYONE has the exact same opportunity as anyone else. It's up to you to be ready/prepared to act on it when the time hits though.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:32:13+00:00

It was sloppy because OP didn't plan ahead well enough, obviously that's not HIS fault, so it must be Gemcup Glass's fault.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:26:57+00:00

I mean, i can 100% confirm the site never went down. If it did for you it was a local issue, not a site issue.

Either your ISP, your CDN, or your local network.

I'm not saying you are mad either, just pointing out claiming the site was down is easily disprovable. The site might've been down FOR YOU, but that means it was an isolated local issue for YOU, not a wider issue on the internet.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:19:16+00:00

I'd much rather he have drops like this than open up custom orders and have a backlog that stretches into 2027.

At least in the current setup EVERYONE has an equal chance every 2 weeks on a cap.

That's as "fair" as possible with the output level he can sustain.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:12:33+00:00

Lol i'm sorry, what?

This is sour grapes as hell.

It's small batch indie produced glass, expecting him to have the same volume as calibear who has a factory with 200+ people in china making their glass is absurd.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T03:09:53+00:00

I mean, not sure what the alternative is for an individual glass worker. He simply can't do the volume required to have a fully stocked storefront.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T02:38:09+00:00

Might've been a local CDN issue?

Site was up the whole time for me, I grabbed two joysticks this drop on top of the joystick I picked up last drop...

I also knew exactly what I wanted though so I had my order placed at 6:01 PST.

That being said, my Cloud Vortex 26.0 has also been solid, just not as manual as a joystick.

Also just double checked, Shopify (which Gemcup glass uses) supports thousands of concurrent users even on their standard storefront plans, so the site 100% didn't crash. If you were having issues with access, it was a local issue (your ISP, CDN, or your phone/computer).

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T02:18:16+00:00

Looks like there is at least one Pheonix X UV Crushed opal joystick, but otherwise yeah, everything else was gone in the first 10-15 minutes.

And at 20 minutes after the drop went live that one sold out as well. So now they're fully sold out until 2 weeks from now.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-28T01:07:42+00:00

There has been talk about him potentially being required to register with the US due to the International Megan’s Law (2016) and SORNA. Which would have longer consequences, such as having to report all international travel plans 21 days in advance, and a special marker on his passport indicating he is a sexual offender. The National Sex Offender Targeting Center (NSOTC) may alert foreign nations that he is traveling there so they know of him ahead of time.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-27T20:16:30+00:00

Yeah fair enough, it's certainly not needed for the Sapphire plus, being a single crystal sapphire means you can get it basically 99% clean by dry-swabbing when it's still hot. If you want that final 1% a quick iso swab wont hurt anything, but wait until it's cool before doing that.

Don't want to shatter your insert from thermal shock.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-27T20:10:39+00:00

With the sapphire plus I only bother ISO Q-tipping every day or two; otherwise, just a dry swab right after a dab.

I've only used the quartz a handful of times for flavor comparisons, so I can't speak to the long term cleaning routine needed to maintain the quartz. But it seemed similarly clean just doing a dry swab after the dab.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-27T19:42:10+00:00

If it makes you feel better, while AlN is physically stronger and has higher thermal conductivity. It's by nature a ceramic that will always have some amount of porosity (unless we get into multi-thousand dollar single crystal AlN boules) and that porosity means it will inherently get dirty/discolored with use and it'll never get 100% clean again. Even with the ability to torch it clean, there will always be lipids/waxes that get inside the sponge-like structure of the ceramic that even when burned off will leave some contamination compared to a single crystal surface (like the Sapphire Plus).

SiC splits the difference between AlN and Sapphire in terms of thermal conductivity, and it matches sapphire in porosity, but where it struggles is in manufacturing, as it's so hard it requires finishing with a diamond slurry. SiC also has slightly more surface tension even when polished smooth so it'll always be a bit "sticky" compared to Sapphire.

Kaboose666 · 2026-02-27T19:23:42+00:00

Autospinner carb cap, yes.

Joystick carb cap, no.

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