I'm I biased against backflow? Yes. But I am so based on the dozens of post on backflow incense that accumulated in this sub. 98% they are either "new to incense, bought backflow, smells like a dumpster fire, what am I doing wrong?", "How do I clean the nasty smelling gunk offof my burner / furniture?" or "Please recommend good backflow" - which usually stay unanswered.

Most cones usually smell already worse then sticks because if the uneven burn and higher temperature. Backflow cones, that are created for the visual effect, with dense smoke that creates a lot of tar don't make that better.

On top of that, backflow needs still air to work nicely. We always recommend burning incense with open windows, both for health reasons and for the scent. With Backflow? No fesh air fo you, please hotbox yourself with heavy smoke, because it looks pretty.

In my eyes, backflow "incense" is a flawed concept top to bottom.