As mentioned in our VaporGenie review, the VaporBuddy is a knockoff of the Genie and was thought to be of questionable quality.

As it turns out, some (maybe all) models of the VaporBuddy are coated with, get this, lead paint. Yes, lead paint, used to coat a pipe. Doesn’t get much worse than that.

Here’s the email Dan sent me, the pdf with the lab results is at the bottom.

Thanks again for your well written, thorough and honest review of the vaporgenie.

Recently, we bought a few vapor buddy pipes (the VG knockoff), and had the paint on them tested for lead. We scraped the paint, and sent it to a laboratory for testing. The paint contained 7500ppm lead, which exceeds the federal limit for toys and consumer items. The lab test result is attached. There is also a page on our website about this.

So, the paint on the vapor buddy pipe contains a significant amount of lead. Also, in the pipes we tested, there was lead paint *inside* the pipe. Outrageous.

Anyway, you should know that there are TWO versions of the vapor buddy on the market: an “original” knockoff, and a super-cheap ($10) absolute piece of junk knockoff (that doesnt even work). They are difficult to tell apart. We tested the $10 junk knockoff, because at the time we were not aware of the difference. So, the cheap junk VB contains lead for sure, but we dont yet know about the the “original” VB. We have ordered some of the “original” VB pipes so that we can test them for lead. We will post the results, and send them to you when we get them.

The guys at GotVape.com sell the “original” VB. They insist that it does NOT contain lead, and that it is anodized, not painted (anodized coatings do not contain lead). However, they have not done the testing, and I am skeptical of their claim. We will know for sure once we get the lab results.

Anyway, I thought I would let you know whats happening with the Vapor Buddy. People need to know that these pipes contain lead and are therefore a health hazard.
cheers

Dan

Lab results PDF or image.

More on this story.

I will update with the findings of the next test when it’s available to me.

seriously though i talked with the manufacture of the filter they use on the vaporgenie, its made out of silicon carbide, and he said that it releases known cancer causing carcigons.
He said they had a material that would work much better, and was safe and completely inert and did would not off gas, he was going to hook me up with a sample but they only do runs of it when someone orders it, and there was a pretty big minimum order.

It looked like someone trying to hurt VG sales, the poster couldn’t even spell “carcinogens”. Nonetheless, I had to get answers. Dan, the inventor of the VaporGenie was nice enough to shoot down the libel and refute some fallacious statements.

****************************************************
Hi,

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this stuff.

I assume you are talking about this, primarily:

A steep dose-response relationship for tumors was reported after application of 0.05 to 25 mg of whiskers of SiC in 1991 in a chronic intraperitoneal injection study in rats. In contrast, doses of 250 and 1000 mg of granular SiC did not cause tumors. The whiskers contained 107,000,000 fibers longer… Continued (3rd post down)

VaporGenie’s response:

The VaporGenie filter is made of monolithic silicon carbide that absolutely does not produce particles. “Monolithic” means that it is a single piece of continuous silicon carbide, not a collection of sintered-together particles. It is monolithic because it is made by chemical vapor deposition, which deposits continuous crystals of SiC. The SiC is semiconductor-grade, which means it is 99.999% pure. Particles would indeed be a concern with sintered materials, since particles can break off from sintered materials. We did not use sintered materials for this reason.

With the VaporGenie filter, pieces can break off of the filter if its crushed or something, but these pieces will be much larger than the micron-size dust particles typically associated with lung damage from other kinds of particles. Pieces broken off the filter would not be whisker-shaped and would be visible to the eye, most likely. Whiskers are dangerous, whereas particles are not. It is common for whiskers to be dangerous and particles to be relatively safer.

The VaporGenie filter weighs about 500mg and does not lose material after months/years of use.

“Intraperitoneal” means inside the abdominal cavity. They injected SiC whiskers into the abdominal cavity of rats. I dont think this is very relevant to inhalation.

I believe that inhaled SiC particles are likely not very dangerous unless you are inhaling a lot of dust. The VaporGenie filter does not produce dust.

The VaporGenie filter is completely inert under the conditions in the pipe. The SiC does not react chemically, outgas or release anything.

So, in my view the VaporGenie filter is absolutely not hazardous. I would be more concerned about tars etc. coming from the vaped herb.

More Answers

I like the concept of the VaporGenie immensely, but I’ll take no chances with potentially carcinogenic stuff. I figure I get enough just from the air and preservatives that I’m exposed to that any tiny bit could hoist me over some threshold.

The VaporGenie filter is completely inert and doesnt release anything-no particles, gases chemicals etc. Using the VaporGenie will expose the user to far less carcinogens than smoking. The VaporGenie isnt perfectly clean, of course. I dont think any form of vaporization can be. But its a vast improvement over smoking.

I heard using a torch lighter with the vaporgenie burns out the filter too fast its only designed for a bic lighter so beware!

This is not true. Torch lighters are fine.

Ideally that would be true, but it never burns completely. I do use a torch lighter and it seems to work pretty well, but you can still taste some butane when you do a dry run. Not that I’m really worried; I doubt butane is as bad as all the stuff in smoke.

I agree. Lighter exhaust is cleanest (and quite clean) when the flame is undisturbed, and does not touch solid surfaces. So keep the flame away from the metal parts and away from the ceramic filter.

Thank you for the opportunity to dispel myths and provide feedback. I wish people would just ask us questions or check out our website instead of posting nonsense like this.

cheers

dan
****************************************************

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Dan. It looks like VaporGenie owners can vaporize in peace.

The herbal vapor was a nice pick up and helped energize me. There’s a certain feeling you get after totally exerting yourself, called a runner’s high. Basically it’s the feeling of endorphins coursing through your body and it feels awesome. Anyway, if I didn’t quit smoking when I did I probably wouldn’t be writing this post. It is possible, keep that in mind.

Breathe easy.