Storz & Bickel – The Most Powerful Vaporizers Money Can Buy

by Matt Hampton

Storz & Bickel - The Most Powerful Vaporizers Money Can Buy

The backstory behind this German company is just as appealing as the vapes: from growing their business on their own without any investors to becoming the very first therapeutic-certified vaporizer, Storz and Bickel favor transparency and hard work, and you'll find these values in their well-crafted pieces too.

Storz & Bickel Vaporizers

  • Volcano Classic
  • Volcano Digital
  • The Mighty
  • The Crafty
  • The Plenty

The Desktop Vaporizer

Markus Storz, the founder of Storz & Bickel, started developing and creating vaporizers in 1996 as an alternative to cigarettes because he was dissatisfied with the available vaporizers. He filed a patent in 1998 for the popular Volcano vape balloon which hit the marketplace in 2000, permanently altering the cannabis industry at that time.

People were still using combustion to consume weed before this popular tabletop vaporizer came onto the scene. They would burn weed using water pipes or dry hand pipes for their smoke seshes. Vaping was not yet a thing when the Volcano was launched in U.S. and European markets. 

The Volcano changed not just how people consumed weed; it also helped change the image of stoners in our culture and shattered many of those old stereotypes, you know, about stoners being losers. Now, the association with cannabis was of innovation and style. And, the Volcano is still one of the most popular vapes you'll see in the movies.

About Storz and Bickel

Storz and Bickel established their factory and facilities in a town called Tuttlingen in Germany with more than 500 different device manufacturers where all aspects of production are overseen. 

One of Storz's first customers was a German worker in Peru who was attempting to stop smoking. His name was Jürgen Bickel. The two became friends and after using the Volcano for a year, Bickel joined the company. The business was renamed Storz and Bickel in 2002 to ensure their customers knew the process was transparent from start to finish. This was important to them because many vape manufacturers don't interact with their customers (they outsource their products and material from other countries). 

Many of the actions Storz and Bickel made were in response to problems found in vape production and why they take pride in their quality materials and openness both in their products (and even the fact that their workplaces are all glass).

You know that the Storz & Bickel vape feels heavy and sturdy if you've ever picked one up. It reminds some users of handmade smoking pipes made years earlier, which isn't a coincidence. Storz and Bickel make no compromises on the material quality or the production of their vapes, even in a time when many companies settle for subpar products by outsourcing parts and labor. This makes it so easy to understand why they offer a 2-year guarantee on all of their products. 

Regardless of their success in the cannabis industry, Storz and Bickel had no investors when they started the business using their own savings. Perhaps it's because there are no investors to report to that allows the company a whole lot of liberty to create ingenious products. However, it is amazing that one of the leading vape manufacturers began with no official financing.

The Digital Vaporizer

Storz & Bickel released a new version of the Volcano classic called the digital Volcano vaporizer after they opened their first U.S. facility in Oakland in 2005. Similar to the Volcano Classic, the Volcano digital lets you select an exact temperature to the degree of either Fahrenheit or Celsius. The classic Volcano has a knob to select temperature level, while the digital Volcano has an LED display with up or down arrows to select the precise degree you want to heat your flower or concentrate.

After they reached world domination with the desktop Volcano vape, the year for portable began in 2011 when Storz & Bickel launched the Plenty vaporizer, a handheld vaporizer that combines air and radiation to heat your weed. A metal coil helix, similar to some of the GRAV styles, increases the range the vapor travels prior to inhaling and cools the vapor to an ideal temperature level so you can take some big pulls with no overheating and still taste the flavor. An extra touch of this handheld vape is the wall power source option, which allows you to puff some major clouds that no other portable vape can provide.

The Portable Vaporizer

Absolutely nothing prepared the vaping world for what was to come from Storz & Bickel in 2014 when they launched the Might and Crafty vapes. These now-notorious shapes caused another revolution at the time– they were Storz & Bickel's first battery-operated handheld vapes. The Mighty vaporizer offers an LED screen to control the temperature of your concentrate or flower, providing vapor quality as high as the Volcano desktop vape. However, it offers the benefit of fitting into your hand without any bothersome cords.

You'll discover a comparable product with the Crafty vaporizer, but this is for the tech-savvy user. The main distinction between the Crafty and the Mighty is the app and Bluetooth pairing with your mobile phone. Download Storz & Bickel's Crafty app and control temperature levels, check battery level, lock your vape, and much more straight from your mobile phone.

Why we love Storz & Bickel

Storz & Bickel is passionate about making devices for the cannabis industry as they continue to drive innovation and move forward in their factory with facilities around the world. From the development of the original vape inhaler with the desktop Volcano vaporizer to the portable devices with the Mighty and the Crafty vapes, Storz & Bickel always designs with the end-user in mind. We are excited to see what's coming next from this dynamic company.


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