Atmos Rx Dry Herb Vaporizer Review – Is It Actually Good For Herb?

The Atmos Rx is a wax and dry herb vaporizer built for discretion and power. It contains a coil style heating element with a ceramic tank and single button operation so it couldn’t be easier to use. But while the Atmos RX is advertised as a dry herb vaporizer, it's more of a wax vaporizer and dry herb pipe. We’ll get into the details later in the post. For now, the quick and dirty is that it's a decent quality vape pen for the price with a few key points to know about before pulling the trigger.  

Quick Overview of the Atmos Rx

The Atmos RX has been around for several years so it's not new to the vape game. With that said, it's still holding its own as a quick and easy go-to vaporizer if you want something simple that gets the job done.

It's a discreet little unit measuring about 5.5 inches long and just 0.5 inches wide. You can easily conceal it in your hand, stash it in your pocket or cup it if someone surprises you.

While it's sold as a dry herb vaporizer, I found this isn’t really the case. For dry herb vaping, you need to place a tiny glass honeycomb screen in the bottom of the chamber to keep your weed off the heating element. Even with that glass screen it still combusts your weed a little though. 

The glass screen also doesn’t stay in place and falls out when you turn the pen over to dump out your used material - so it's easy to lose if you’re not paying attention.

With that in mind, when it comes to dry herb, it's more of an electric pipe than a vaporizer. So if you’re cool with burning a little herb, it should be fine for you. 

However, when it comes to wax, the Atmos Rx does very well. It gets plenty hot and does vape your material so, as a wax vaporizer, it deserves high marks. And at the current price ($69.00 on VapeWorld) it's a steal if you’re mostly vaping concentrates. 

Highlights and Key Features

• Works for both dry herb and concentrate but best with wax
• One button use makes it super simple to get started
• Chamber heats up to between 380-400 F almost immediately
• Ceramic chamber bowl holds heat well 
• Battery life lasts between 90-120 minutes from a full charge
• Discreet and easy to conceal

What's in The Kit

Design and Feel

The Atmos Rx has a simple and easy design you can start using right out of the box.

It feels good in your hand, it’s lightweight, and it has a scratch resistant exterior so you don’t have to worry about your keys scratching it up. The ceramic loading chamber is relatively small so you can only fit about 0.1 to 0.2 grams of herb which makes it hard to take the Atmos on longer trips since you have to reload it so often.

But if you’re solo vaping, this may be fine since it fits enough for a personal session.

A design flaw we’ve noted is the coil in the bottom. While I didn’t have any issues, I've talked with several people who broke the heating coil because they cleaned it too rough with the brush and scraper.

The best advice here is to just turn it over and tap you weed out - throw the tools away. If you do that, there’s no chance you’ll break the coil so you’ll be fine. When you’re vaping wax, use clean concentrates that don’t leave residue and you shouldn’t have to clean the coil so you’ll be fine there too. 

A benefit of the Atmos chamber is that you can vape both dry herb and concentrates without switching chambers. There were several  times that I felt like tossing some herb in after wax so it was super convenient. 

For a quick recap, there’s some things  I do and don’t like about the Atmos Rx design. I like the single chamber for wax and herb, the small and discreet size of the unit, the ceramic chamber, and one button use.

I don’t like that it's not a true vaporizer for dry herb, that the coil has a reputation for breaking, and the glass screen that’s tiny and easy to lose.

That being said, for a budget vape pen that's cheap to buy and easy to use, it's a decent design if you just need something to grab and go.

Battery Type & Quality

• Battery type: Lithium ion 650mAh

• Replaceable: No

• Charge duration:  1.5-2 hours

• Charge time: 1 hour

How to use the Atmos Rx vaporizer 

The Atmos Rx is very easy to use and since there’s only one button, it's hard to mess up. 

1. Grind your weed to a fine consistency
2. Unscrew the chamber and load the glass screen (for dry herb)
3. Load your material to the top and gently pack it down
4. Press the front button 5 times to turn the unit on
5. It’ll heat up in about 3 seconds and once it's on you can press the button and start drawing. 

Cleaning the Atmos Rx

Cleaning the Atmos is easy if you follow a few simple guidelines. If you’re vaping dry herb, we highly recommend that you don’t use the brush or pick since it could damage your heating coil. 

When you’re done vaping your material it's best to just turn the Atmos upside down and tap it a few times to empty the chamber.

With wax you want to stick with clean blends that don’t leave residue. If your blends leave a residue, this can stick to the coil and create a buildup that ruins the integrity of the coil.

Atmos says the chambers/atomizers last on average about 4-5 weeks before they need to be replaced. I got about 4 weeks out of it with moderate use. They’re somewhat pricey to replace though (around $15 bucks each).

You'll probably want to get a backup right away and avoid rough cleaning - otherwise you might get stuck with a vape pen you can’t use until your new atomizer arrives. 

Vapor Quality and Experience

The vapor quality from the Atmos Rx is decent but there’s a few things you can do to maximize the quality. First thing you can do is extend your draws to 8-9 seconds each.

For the first few seconds the coils getting your material up to vaping temperature. So extending the time you’re drawing ensures you’re maximizing the vapor quantity from each hit. 

When I increased the length of my draws it nearly doubled the thickness of the vape I was able to get.

Further, drawing slow (rather than pulling hard) makes a significant difference in your experience as well. By drawing slowly the coil stays hot and continues vaping for the duration of the pull. 

When pulling hard and fast I noticed that the vape was weak and thin because I was moving too much air over the coil and cooling it down. This caused the unit to barely hit vaping temperatures and made the vapor weak.

Conclusion

I’m not a huge fan of the Atmos Rx for dry herb but it does work well for a quick and easy wax pen that you’ll be happy with. 

The battery life is great so it's easy to grab and go without stressing if it's going to die. The wax vapor is decent so if you’re primarily vaping concentrates it's a good option.

For dry herb, it's more like an electric pipe so you’re basically smoking weed without the blunt wrap. It's also discreet and small so you can pull it out on the down low without drawing attention.

Overall, it's a decent vape pen for beginners who want something that's small, easy and inexpensive. That being said, I would probably spend the few extra bucks for the G Pro ($89.99 here). The main reason is because the Atmos Rx has atomizers that have to be replaced almost monthly which cost you around $15 bucks each. After a year, you'll have spent $180 on heating chambers alone (not including the original vape pen) And if you have $250 bucks, you should get the Mighty or Pax for a much better experience.