Released in ≈ March 2017 to reviewers, the Arizer Solo2 is still today a powerhouse heater and the most powerful portable from Arizer. It's also been contentiously debated over the airpath since it's release and tear downs from respected members of the dry herb vape community. PuffItUp did a tear down in June of 2017, almost 3 years to this date. Referenced in this tear down was OF, a well respected member of the FuckCombustion community, who also did a tear down photo documenting the innards of the Solo2 just a few weeks prior the the PIU blog post.
This information has been heavily relied on for those debating the airpath and it's lack of isolation from the electronics. For the purists out there, air that flows over the electronics that is turned to aroma is scrutinized for impurity due to this occurrence. Over the past few months, we've addressed this concern to the community on Reddit and have been pointed back to the 2017 PIU/OF photos in some instances.
We'll be the first to admit that Arizer hasn't always advertised the Solo2's air path as isolated. When 420EDC initially carried the Solo2, we didn't list that the air path was isolated as Arizer didn't have it listed as such on their website. 420EDC initially only carried the Arizer ArGo as we consider it the perfect EDC device. In July of 2018, we broke the ArGo that was our sample from January earlier that year that we initially evaluated and fell head over heals for. Luckily Arizer covered the device under warranty for us and it was less than a week turn around from when we sent the unit to the Arizer service center in Washington State for us to get a new working ArGo returned to us in Maine, which we considered outstanding warranty support service. In that shipment, we received some free glass as a courtesy (2 x 90mm Aroma Tubes).
The Arizer ArGo was our 1st Arizer device, but we also evaluated the Air2 in that initial shipment as it had a removable 18650 battery, which was our focus way back when. Long story short, the two stems included with the Air2 are 70mm, one with a plastic tip, the other all glass. Unfortunately we weren't aware of the fact that there were two different variants of the 70mm stem in the package, at a quick glance of clear glass on a black background, the two stems look nearly identical. Getting the 90mm stems from Arizer's US service center gave us some incentive to break out the Air2 again, and give it a try with the longer glass that was more free flowing and cooler aroma compared to the plastic tipped glass which was the only piece we used with the Air2 when we evaluated it. Low and behold, the experience was vastly improved in our opinion over the plastic tipped 70mm. Looking deeper into the Air2 box at this point, we also realized the other stem was not identical to the plastic tipped aroma tube we used initially.
We threw a sale in July of 2018 on the ArGo in an effort to offer the best value on the internet for the device. It worked out well for us. Since also getting a better experience out of the Air2, we asked Arizer for a Solo2 to evaluate after researching that the battery was replaceable, just not by the end user (it's quite the task breaking down a Solo2 easily vs. the OG Solo). Our evaluation of the Solo2 was superb as our 3rd Arizer portable used. By September of 2018, we had our order in for both the Solo2 and Air2 to expand 420EDCs offering.
As time progressed, we noticed in the marketing material that the Solo2s air path was not listed as isolated in the catalog we received from Arizer as an authorized retailer/wholesaler. Then suddenly it was listed as isolated on Arizer's website but still not in the marketing material. We reached out to Arizer on this and on the next quarters catalog, the correction was made and the air path was advertised as isolated. So what happened over the 3+ years since the release of the Solo2?
As early as October of 2018, this became an issue for 420EDC as we had customers inquiring about the air path. The response we had from Arizer was that air path was isolated. We didn't give it much thought with that reassurance and didn't research the issue much further. August of last year, we had a unit that arrived with a customer DOA (dead on arrival). This unit was returned to us and we decided to open it up. It sits on a shelf here in the shoppe disassembled as our efforts to remove some of the screws in the baseplate stripped while we were trying to take it apart. Luckily we removed enough of the screws in order to disassemble the Solo2 without removing the baseplate.
In the past few months, this issue has come up time and time again on Reddit. With some time to research the old 2017 tear downs and the tear down we did last August, we were able to identify parts that were added to the Solo2 that we didn't see in OFs post or PIU's blog post. We decided to contact Arizer's General Manager and this is what we've heard back:
The Solo II has an isolated airpath as advertised. From a historical perspective I can give you a bit more insight into why there still might be some confusion about this. After the Solo II was released in May 2017, we received feedback from the online communities expressing concerns about the airpath. Of course, even if air could flow from the battery & circuitry compartment into the airflow, this is of no concern because all the components are safe, non-toxic, and heat-rated to temperatures much higher than the unit will ever reach. That said, we take quality and safety very seriously, so to give our customers the peace of mind they expect and deserve, we promptly made changes to isolate the airpath from the circuitry & battery compartment with the components shown in your photo.
So there you have it folks. The 3+ year mystery of the Arizer Solo2 air path riddle has finally been documented with a newer device. Thanks for reading this far!
Stay safe & healthy!
