Dr Dabber Switch Review

The Dr Dabber Switch has been on our review to-do list for a while now. This thing is a remarkable feat of engineering. The Dr Dabber Switch offers you a fantastic quality vaporizer, with more features than you can poke a dab stick at.

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Switch

The Dr Dabber Switch gets its name from having a switch on the front, allowing you to switch between flower and concentrates. We’ll explain more below, but there’s different calibrated temperatures for these two different consumption methods. Both modes work in a really similar way, allowing you to choose between flavor or vapor density. Or, as I personally prefer, choosing a temperature in the middle, getting a nice balance between the two.

Like any flower vaporizer, you can keep your already vaped buds (AVB) to use in edibles later. Selecting the higher temperatures will turn your flower completely black, making it look like ash. Don’t just throw it away though. Even on the highest temperature setting for flower, it still kept its integrity and shape after use (e.g. doesn’t crumble into ash when touched). Unless it crumbles in your fingertips, it can be used again as AVB.

Vapor Quality

Probably one of the most, if not THE most important aspects of a vaporizer is indeed the vapor quality. Whether you have it set to oil or flower, the vapor quality is amazing. The wide range of temperature control (more on that later) means you can fine tune your vapor preferences too.

My first use of this was with flower. I set it to medium heat, and was surprised with how little vapor it produced. I honestly thought that I didn’t heat it to a high enough temperature. Rather than taking a second hit, I turned to the instructions manual like the rule-follower that I am. Sure enough, before I could even locate the temperature section it started to hit me. Although there may be little vapor (at least at low to medium heats), there’s no shortage of quality high.

Size

Don’t be fooled with the pictures. The Dabber Switch is huge. That’s not a bad thing, but just don’t expect this to fit into your pockets during your normal day to day. The Switch is 10 inches tall and 4 inches wide. And that’s just the unit itself. With the glass percolator attached it’s even larger. With the big size comes some big features though, or more specifically, a big battery.

Battery

This review would be pointless without mentioning the Dr Dabber Switch battery size. From the Dr Dabber website, they claim the battery can last 150+ cycles on full charge. Now, we failed to count the number of uses we got out of this, but it lasted us days of heavy usage. We tried counting, but lost count around the 15 mark (not our fault, the Switch got us very high).

It also has pass through charging, which basically means you can use it while charging. So whether you leave the power cord connected like a typical desktop vaporizer, or treat it more like a portable one is up to you. The main thing is you can do both. From empty to full, charging the Switch takes around an hour, which is super fast considering how big the battery is.

Temperature Control

There’s 5 lights on the front of the Switch. 5 lights for 5 different temperature settings. These 5 preset temperature settings are different for flower and oil, so they’re calibrated to suit your method. If you want even more control over the temperature though, you can press the middle button (the one with the Dr Dabber logo).

You should then see the 5 lights turn rainbow, indicating “advanced mode”. You can then scroll through the 5 temperatures like normal. Unlike normal mode though, on the sixth button press, the colors will change, giving you another 5 setting to choose from. There’s five different colors, with each color having 5 different levels of temperature control, or 25 temperatures total.

The first color is purple, being the lowest temperature, and giving you the best flavor. The next three are blue, cyan and green. The last color is yellow, giving you the highest temperature and the densest vapor.

The temperatures vary from 300°F to 800°F (149°C to 427°C), so I’d guess each temperature increment would be an even 20°F, but I’m not entirely sure. Depending on whether you have it switched to oil or flower, these ranges would likely differ.

Lighting Effects

The Switch has a crazy amount of different lighting effects. Apart from the 5 front lights, the heating element also lights up. Changing from red to green means the Dr Dabber Switch is heated and ready to go.

You can change the stand-by lighting, or fully turn off all lights so it operates in stealth mode. In total there’s 25 light show options to choose from. I’m not even sure if I’ve gone through all the options yet. The default stand-by option cycles through the different lights, with a cool spinning effect. Turn off all the lights in your room and you’ll feel like you’re experiencing the Aurora Borealis. Ok, it’s not actually THAT great, but it’s still pretty cool for a vaporizer.

Heating Time

Half a minute heating time is pretty standard for a vaporizer. The Switch is perfect for the impatient stoner, with a heating time of 4 – 6 seconds stated on their website. I didn’t believe this to be possible, but it is. I don’t know how, and given they have a patent pending on the technology, I’m guessing that’s how they want it to stay. All their website says is induction technology.

The downside to this insane heating time is that this will ruin all other vapes for you. You’ll never want to have to wait half a minute again. But then again, if half a minute is too long to wait, you probably don’t have time to get high in the first place. Regardless, this is a seriously impressive feature.

What’s In The Box?

You’ll get all the essentials you need within the box. There’s the unit itself (obviously), along with the following:

• glass percolator attachment (borosilicate glass)
• white ceramic induction cup (best for concentrates)
• black ceramic induction cup (best for flower)
• dab stick / carb cap
• silicone wax container
• tweezers (the reverse kind, to remove the induction cups)
• ceramic flower filter
• charger

Cleaning Mode

The ceramic cups that come with the Dabber Switch can get a bit dirty and built up. Luckily though there’s a cleaning mode, and it works really well. All you need to do is insert the induction cup, press once and then hold the plus button, and cleaning mode will be activated. If activated correctly the lights should turn red. This heats the induction cup to a really high temperature, vaporizing all the remaining bits.

It’s an excellent and necessary feature, but just try to use it only when needed, as the high temperature cleaning uses a lot of battery.

Sturdiness

As mentioned earlier, the Switch is 10 inches tall and has a 4 inch wide base. It’s also reasonably bottom heavy, however not completely knock-proof. With the glass percolator attached it can make it more easy to knock over, but it’d still need to be a decent knock.

I haven’t knocked mine over yet, but still try to keep the glass perc separated when not in use. From the feel of the glass perc, I’d assume it wouldn’t break from being knocked over, but better to be safe than sorry. The Dr Dabber website does sell replacement perc’s, if you do have a breakage. They’re $100 however, but the option is at least there should you be unlucky and break it.

The Dabber Switch Dab Stick

The dab stick doubles as a carb cap. When you stick your carb cap on top, it makes sense not to have a really sharp end sticking out at you. Luckily, the dab stick doesn’t have a sharp end at all.

Unluckily as well, the dab stick doesn’t have a sharp end. This is one of the biggest downsides in our opinion. Trying to cut apart concentrate with this is fairly difficult. Like trying to cut watermelon with a butter knife. Ok, it’s not actually that bad, but this review of the Dr Dabber Switch wouldn’t be complete without mentioning it. It works, but I often find myself having to use my fingers.

Related:
FireFly 2 Plus Vs Pax 3

Unless this is your first dab rig though, you’ll likely have a metal dab stick already (or something functional). If not, you can buy one for cheap from any head shop. Just don’t put your metal stick into the vaporizer. Use it only for cutting. Metal and induction heating apparently don’t go together.

Price

With all these cool features, surely they must sell for a high price? Yep, unfortunately they do. Our Dr Dabber Switch review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the biggest downside – price. There are a tonne of cheaper options out there for vaporizers that essentially give you the same result. By same result, we mean other vaporizers that can take both flower and concentrates. What you’re paying for with the Switch is the quality, but even more so, the experience.

Dr Dabber Switch Review Summary

With the Dr Dabber Switch, it very much feels like a case of “you get what you pay for”. The hits are smooth, the battery is incredible, and the light shows add a nice touch. It can be used as both a desktop or portable vaporizer, and doesn’t squarely fall into either category.

If you’ve read this entire review, I’m sure your main question would be:

Q: Is it worth the money?
A: Yes – if you’re looking for a medium to high-end vaporizer. No – if you’re looking for a cheaper vaporizer.

If you’re looking for something a bit cheaper, have a read of our top picks from Grasscity. Or our head to head review of the Pax 3 vs FireFly 2 Plus. Have you tried the Dr Dabber Switch yet? What was your experience like with it?