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I have owned and extensively used the Arizer Solo 1, Solo 2, and now, the Solo 3 among their other units.
The Solo 1 was a simple, rugged, reliable workhorse. The Solo 2 a nice evolution of such. Now, the Solo 3 – a complete revolution of the tried and true form factor. Lets hop into this review and see what the Solo 3 is all about.
Make sure to open my complete best dry herb vaporisers of all time list (opens in new tab)!
Note: Arizer sent me the Solo 3 for free in exchange for an unbiased review. All of these thoughts and opinions and not paid for, but may be influenced due to the fact I received the unit free of charge.
While I’m a heavily experienced user and can speak to that, I actually ended up giving this unit to my father – a relative newbie to the scene, who exclusively uses CBD medically to help with his sleep. He was previously using the Tafée Bowle and VapBong he he has loved, but gave this one a whirl – so I will include his opinion too.
Lets get right into it now!
Table of Contents
Build quality
Arizer has bulletproof quality since I can remember. Simple, effective design – isolated airpath, high-quality batteries, simple software.
Glass vapor path, aluminum all-around, and just a nice, comfortable, classy looking build. There is not so much difference from the Solo II, which in my opinion was one of the nicer looking vaporizers on the market, especially in the Mystic Blue.
Unfortunately no Mystic Blue here, but it still looks nice and sleek, and feels equally so. I give it a 10/10 in build quality since Arizer reliability has been pretty much untouched throughout the years – something Storz & Bickel dreams of…
Dad opinion: Sleek, strong, feels like a premium tool.
Performance
The Arizer lineup of portables have always been known as ‘session’ vapes – long, 5-15 minute sessions which extract your bud slowly. For many this is sufficient, but experienced users love ‘on-demand’ types which extracts a bowl quickly with a powerful heater.
Now, Arizer has added “On-demand” mode to the Solo 3, so now it can do both. Only the Airvape Legacy Pro previously had this dual-purpose mode before. It uses 80:20 convection:conduction heating – IMO the best heating style there is.
And well, in session mode, the Solo 3 performs very similar to previously; delicious clean vapor, quite smooth, and an enjoyable experience. For my father he found hits form the native stem to make him cough quite a bit, so I bought him a universal 14mm curved water bubbler, which he absolutely loves!
In on-demand mode, I would say it’s great – but not getting quite the performance as the TinyMight or Tafée Bowle does – but those are dedicated on-demand monsters. It’s certainly a great feature to have which I end up using half the time. My father exclusively uses it in session mode.
Dad opinion: Prefer it over the Bowle, but the hits are a bit hot from native stem. Love it with the water filter!
Portability
It’s not too big, neither is it so small. It’s good for taking around the block or for hikes, but it feels better at home, sharing with friends. I wouldn’t want to drop it on pavement by mistake by any means, and I have broken many glass stems over my lifetime.
The end caps work nice to pre-load a session in some glass stems and putting it in the holster before going for a walk – but it’s significantly bigger and heavier than smaller portable units out there. I’ve always considered it as an “at-home portable” – fine for taking on a dog walk, but not on a ski slope!
Dad opinion: Small enough to take the dog for a walk or in my big jacket pockets.
Battery life
Outstanding – around 3 hours in session mode, or ~100 hits with on-demand mode. This can translate to dozens of stems per charge, depending on your usage habits. Absolutely more than enough pretty much always.
USB-C charging which is nice to see, but it does take a hefty 4 hrs to charge – not such a problem since recharging is so few and far between in general.
I personally prefer 18650 batteries since I always have some laying around, so lets see if an Arizer Air 3 can sort me out..
Dad opinion: Easy! Hardly have to charge the thing!
Ease of use
My father has osteoarthritis and struggles with fine movements. The Arizer Solo 3 is about the easiest there is for him to use.
I’ve always enjoyed the simplicity of Arizer units – they have a good understanding on how to make a solid UI for a good user experience. Even for my dad with his fiddly thumbs, bad vision, and tech-aversion, he figured it out quite easily after watching a quick tutorial and gets reliably excellent results.
Cleaning is particularly amazing on Arizer vaporizers: drop the stem in isopropanol alcohol, swirl it around, rinse and done. Compare that to the annoyingly tedious process of cleaning a Storz & Bickel unit…
Loading, cleaning, using, hitting – the Solo 3 is so nice and refreshing to use – no pods, complicated doodads, or annoyances.
My only gripe is that throughout the years I have broken dozens of Arizer glass stems, and expect to break a few more here…
Dad opinion: Really easy to use with my crappy thumbs!
Overall
The third Solo I’ve owned by Arizer and I can confidently say it’s the best. It just feels right. So pleasant to use, simple to operate, and has very good vapour quality above all!
Would I prefer an 18650 battery? Yes! Is that a dealbreaker? Not at all.
I think it’s a fantastic all-rounder vaporiser which shines at home as equally as it does outside. It’s not hyper-portable for say a ski trip or an absolute heavy-hitter like a desktop unit, but it’s comfortably in-between and does everything very well. I consider it the Lexus of vaporisers – reliability of a Toyota, but a bit of elegant charm on top.
My father absolutely loves it and I’ve given it to him full-time as his daily use medical device. Highly recommend and can’t go wrong!
Make sure to check out my absolute best dry herb vaporisers of all time list to see how it stacks up against some of the GOATs!
Questions? Drop em down below! 🙂