So I dropped this in a couple of threads on here and on reddit and never got a clear answer, so I figured I'd dedicate a post to this.

A couple years ago I bought an Arizer Solo, which according to everyone at the time was one of the top vapes for flower on the market. I really enjoyed my time with it, but over a period of a little over 6 months, the chamber in which you slip the glass tube in ended up getting gunked. As soon as it began, my vape started tasting really bad, so I figured I'd clean it up.

I used alcohol and q-tips for a first pass, spent a lot of time rubbing until the q-tips were coming out clean. Despite this, that gunk smell was still there. I then tried a Dremel tool with one of those felt ends, figured I could "grind" the gunk away, did this for a long time but the results weren't any better, still tasted like ass.

As a last resort, I contacted the company. They told me the chamber could not be replaced on that model, but that a new model was coming up that would have a replaceable chamber because they had several similar complaints. I threw my Arizer in the trash, figured I'd wait for the new model but I never really checked back.

Does anyone know if ANY of their models have a chamber that can be changed? I would very much like to buy another one eventually, but if a 300$ vape is going to go bad on me after 6 months again, I might as well buy disposable vape pens, might end up cheaper.

I have an original solo that was my daily driver for over 5 years. Chamber doesn't have any gunked shit in it. I did removed the o-ring that makes it tight to put the stem into the vape body. Been through 3 battery packs and multiple steam breaks. Even fell outta the truck a few times and hitting the step. It's to bad you trashed it so quickly. Pictures would have helped. Someone might have even bought it off ya for a discounted price. Even 20 bucks better then trashed.

SunReal wrote: Wed Apr 18, 2018 7:18 pm I have an original solo that was my daily driver for over 5 years. Chamber doesn't have any gunked shit in it. I did removed the o-ring that makes it tight to put the stem into the vape body. Been through 3 battery packs and multiple steam breaks. Even fell outta the truck a few times and hitting the step. It's to bad you trashed it so quickly. Pictures would have helped. Someone might have even bought it off ya for a discounted price. Even 20 bucks better then trashed.

Well damn, I'm surprised you didn't get the same issue. Do you ever wash the chamber part at all???

Nope. I'll take a pic for you tomorrow show you how it looks. First few hits always the best of course. I don't even clean the stem till its really bad then make some hot chocolate outta a few of them.

I bought my Solo used on Craigslist a year ago (for 20 bucks! best deal of my life). The only thing I've noticed after a year is that there is black residue on the bottom of the chamber that is hard to scrape out. Hasn't affected taste so I don't really care.

Also very satisfied with my EQ that I got off Amazon. Arizer makes some seriously good products, so I'm surprised to hear you had trouble.

Yeah they say you are supposed to clean it regularly.. I've had an air (first one) for a while but didn't clean it that regularly but mine is still fine. But you're supposed to wipe it out with some ISO and a q-tip regularly, at least that is what I remember reading when I bought mine.

That really sucks though man I've never looked into replacing the chamber.

xsinx wrote: Wed Apr 18, 2018 6:21 pmthe chamber in which you slip the glass tube in ended up getting gunked.

I do not remember how old my Solo is, as I bought it 2nd hand from a guy that said he owned it for about 3 years.
So far i have had it for 4 years, original battery and original chamber.
I give it a wipe with a q-tip when hot every now and then, definitely not regular maintenance on my side!
Still even has the rubber stopper thingy on top! Still a good little vape!

Just snapped a pic of it for you.

lazylathe wrote: Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:57 pm

xsinx wrote: Wed Apr 18, 2018 6:21 pmthe chamber in which you slip the glass tube in ended up getting gunked.

I do not remember how old my Solo is, as I bought it 2nd hand from a guy that said he owned it for about 3 years.
So far i have had it for 4 years, original battery and original chamber.
I give it a wipe with a q-tip when hot every now and then, definitely not regular maintenance on my side!
Still even has the rubber stopper thingy on top! Still a good little vape!

Definitely not the same chamber I had. I had no rubber ring on mine ever (bought it brand new) and the chamber wasn't metal like yours. Not sure what it was made of, but it looked like some form of ceramic/rock or perhaps even some form of high heat plastic? It definitely black and even after scrapping it with the dremel it never showed any color, so it wasn't just paint. The rest of it looks exactly like mine though, so it was the same "model", perhaps just an older variant of it.

It was a while ago, perhaps 4, maybe even 5 years ago when I bought it.

Thanks for taking time to take and post the pic! I suppose if it had been metal like that it would have been pretty easy to clean... Mine was slightly porous..

I have a Solo that was gifted to me by my bro-in-law after 3 years of heavy use. My chamber looks very close (a little more heat discoloration) to the one lazylathe has. It sounds like you may have ended up with a counterfeit Solo. It happens a lot, which is why most manufacturers now use a verification code or similar system to validate that it's an authentic product.

In addition to the Solo, I bought a brand new ArGo late last year (the day the local headshop got them in for the first time). I've since dealt with Arizer directly on a number of questions and their support has been fantastic. I've ordered replacement parts (mostly the vapor tubes and stem caps) and had no problems with either the Solo or ArGo.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. In my opinion, you really can't go wrong with a vaporizer from Arizer or Storz & Bickel.

Just digged through my email. Heck it's been longer than I thought, it was in 2011. Bought on ebay from myrubberneck.com.... are counterfeit Arizers really a thing???

Pretty sure it's just an older model.

Thinking back on the texture of the bowl it might have been that cheap white metal thing, I dunno how they call it.. looks like pressed particules of metal, we often see that cheap metal in toys, like toy cars...

Anyways.. looks like the new ones are different, what's done is done.. had got it for 159$ US back when the exhange rate was actually on our side, so no biggie.

xsinx wrote: Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:30 pm Just digged through my email. Heck it's been longer than I thought, it was in 2011. Bought on ebay from myrubberneck.com.... are counterfeit Arizers really a thing???

Pretty sure it's just an older model.

Thinking back on the texture of the bowl it might have been that cheap white metal thing, I dunno how they call it.. looks like pressed particules of metal, we often see that cheap metal in toys, like toy cars...

Anyways.. looks like the new ones are different, what's done is done.. had got it for 159$ US back when the exhange rate was actually on our side, so no biggie.

I managed to find this thread on FC:
http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/fake-solo.22345/

This is what he had to say about the heating chamber:
"Now lets take a look at the heating chamber, right away I noticed a color difference between the two with the fake Solo having a yellowish tint to it where the real Solo is silver. Another difference to note is the coloring of the heat shroud, the fake is black and the real is a greyish color."

Looks like a fake. Sorry bro! Try and get your money back from Paypal if you still can.

Damn yeah I see what you mean now, those are some pretty solid copies. Mine had neither of these chambers, could have been another fake model. Well shiiit.

xsinx wrote: Tue Apr 24, 2018 12:55 am Damn yeah I see what you mean now, those are some pretty solid copies. Mine had neither of these chambers, could have been another fake model. Well shiiit.

Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news bro...
I try and always buy from reputable online vape stores or directly from the manufacturer.
This way I know what I am getting and am covered adequately.

I hardly ever use my Solo but it still functions like new and it came from Arizer.
A few stems and water pipe adapters but they mostly just sit in a drawer. Moved onto bigger desktops!

Unfortunately, I have heard of fake solos, volcanos and paxs. I think Pax had a big lawsuit a couple of years ago against a Chinese company that was cloning the pax 2