Vape-test

• Latest version (2026.07)
• Visual gauge with three heat marks
• Grade 5 titanium core, 46 g
• Three bowl sizes: 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 g
• Five ball materials, swapped by hand
• Ready in 30 to 40 seconds on induction
• Built-in adapter fits 10, 14, 18 mm joints
• No battery, no electronics, nothing to charge

The Tempest 2 is a pocket-sized vaporizer with no battery at all: a heater warms its cap from the outside, and the metal balls inside the cap do the rest. Made by small-batch specialists Mad Heaters, it is consistently rated among the best battery-free vapes, and it is unusually sparing with material: small bowls, fully extracted.

The Tempest 2 costs more than many battery-powered portables, and the heat source is a separate purchase on top. That money buys grade 5 titanium and a vaporizer with no battery or electronics inside. It suits long walks and days in the woods, with no charger to think about.

The Tempest 2 measures 122 mm long and 18.5 mm across, and it weighs 46 g. That puts it closer to a cigar than a pen, and it sits comfortably in one hand.

The core is grade 5 titanium, the alloy used in aerospace and medical implants, and it runs the whole length of the vapour path: chamber, stem and head. Over it sits an anodised aluminium heat shield.

The heat shield never touches the tube inside it, so the outside stays cool in the hand while the core does the work. The stem itself comes apart into four parts and one O-ring, with threads holding everything together.

The titanium head is strongly magnetic. You can unscrew it and lift it on a magnet while it is still far too hot to touch.

You can also replace the aluminium heat shield with a wood sleeve in stabilised maple burl, sold separately, which brings the total weight to 43 g.

Heat lives in the cap, which holds roughly fifty 3 mm balls. They work like the stones in a sauna: the balls store the heat, and the air you pull through them comes out superheated.

That superheated air travels down into the herbs, and side holes in the chamber feed the bed from the sides as well. Extraction comes out even from wall to wall, with no stirring needed.

Mad Heaters state that a single heat cycle clears a full bowl. Used herbs come out evenly roasted, with no charred patches.

A bright green pointer sits on the cap and travels along three graduation marks as the vape heats. The first mark is the flavour setting, the second is the all-round sweet spot, and the third gives maximum output and darker used herbs.

Consistency has always been the weak point of battery-free vapes, and this is the answer. Stop the heat at the same mark and you get near-identical results every cycle, with no electronics involved.

The gauge also works in loud rooms where a click is easy to miss. A disc inside the cap also gives an audible click as it heats, as a backup cue. The click tends to come a little early, and it becomes more accurate once the vape has warmed through a few times.

The Tempest 2 arrives with zirconia balls fitted, plus a few spares; every other ball material is sold separately. A twist-to-lock stainless steel screen holds the balls in the cap, so a change takes moments.

Each material gives a session its own character. Quartz is the lightest of the five and warms up fastest, while stainless steel is the heaviest and holds heat the longest for slow, gradual extraction.

Silicon carbide passes heat into the air faster than any of them, for the strongest extraction. Ruby warms faster than the stock zirconia and is the most popular upgrade, with punchier draws and clear flavour.

The retaining screen is small and loose balls scatter easily, so it pays to lift the screen off over a tray.

You can add ruby balls, silicon carbide balls, quartz balls or stainless steel balls, each available as its own set.

Inside the tube you draw through sits a titanium cooling spiral. Vapour swirls along that long path before it reaches your lips, so it arrives cool even when extraction is running hard.

Ball vapes usually ask for a water pipe. The Tempest 2 stays comfortable dry, so water is a choice rather than a requirement.

The tapered mouthpiece end is a water pipe adapter in its own right, and it fits 10 mm, 14 mm and 18 mm joints with no extra parts. At the largest bowl setting and the third mark, water still smooths things out.

The cooling spiral comes in three lengths and the medium one is fitted as standard. The longest version, sold separately as the High cooling unit, is the pick for dry sessions.

Two independent airflow controls work mechanically and lock where you set them. A sleeve on the cap turns to open or close four air slots, from fully closed to fully open, and you set it by loosening a small screw with the included C-tool.

The second control is a small vent hole in the body, known as a carb. Loosen the mouthpiece, rotate until the hole lines up or closes off, then tighten to lock the setting. A finger over the hole during a draw changes the strength as you go.

The draw itself is exceptionally open, which is part of why it suits anyone with limited lung power. Wide open at home it gives long, easy draws; tapered down outdoors it gives a tight, controlled draw.

One tip while you are dialling it in: keep the body carb closed while you tune the cap slots. With a densely packed bowl, an open carb lets air take the shortcut.

The titanium bowl holds roughly 0.1 g, 0.15 g or 0.2 g, depending on where the stainless steel screen sits. Loosely packed, real loads come in nearer 0.07 g, 0.12 g and 0.15 g.

Changing the size takes the included screen-setting tube: slide it on, pop the screen off and place it at the position you want. The screen can also stay at the bottom with a smaller load, which keeps microdosing simple.

The chamber is wide and shallow, so one or two taps empty it completely. Loading works best loose: cover the air port and draw ground herbs up through the stem like a straw, then level the top off. Packing hard blocks the side air holes.

There is no capsule system here. The workflow answer is small pots pre-packed at home, using the Reload 3 or the Tempest Case, both sold separately.

An induction heater is the pairing we recommend. You set the watts and the seconds once, and every cycle repeats: 80 W for roughly 30 to 40 seconds from cold, and about 20 seconds when the vape is already warm.

The YLL Induction Heater 3.0 shows watts and seconds on its screen, which is what makes the same heat cycle repeatable every time. It is sold separately, as is every heat source on this page.

A torch is the off-grid fallback, and the official manual recommends a dual, triple or medium-sized single-flame torch. Heat-up lands around 20 to 35 seconds. Outdoors, wind thins the flame, so the click can arrive before the cap is properly up to temperature.

The Tempest 2 has no battery of its own, so the full setup comes together from a few separate parts. The heating half is the YLL Induction Heater 3.0 with a pair of Reliance RS50 21700 batteries and the Xtar X2 charger.

Storage and hot handling come from the Reload 3 and the Tempest Case. All of these are sold separately.

The parts settle into a single routine: pots pre-packed at home, the heater taking the cap to the same mark every time, the hot cap parked on a cooling magnet while you swap pots, and everything riding in the Case.

The heater ships without cells, so the batteries belong on the same order, and the charger tops them up outside the heater, which is the kinder way to treat 21700 cells.

Two smaller additions round the kit out: the funnel for spill-free pot filling, and a set of ruby balls.

There are no buttons to learn, only a gauge to read and two airflow settings to choose. On the first load of the day, heat the empty cold vape to the click once and let it cool back down; that first warm-through makes everything afterwards more predictable.

1. Loading: Grind medium to medium-coarse, cover the air port and draw herbs up into the chamber through the stem like a straw, then level the top. Full but not tight.
2. Airflow: Start with the cap slots open and the body carb closed. Fit the bowl with a twisting motion as you screw it on.
3. Heating: Place the head into the induction heater and run your set cycle, around 80 W for 30 to 40 seconds from cold, or about 20 seconds when warm. With a torch, keep the flame moving around the cap and let the gauge tell you when to stop.
4. Reading the gauge: Pull the heat just before your target mark, because the pointer keeps climbing for a moment afterwards. The second mark is the all-round sweet spot.
5. Drawing: Draw long and open, or take shorter, tighter sips. Covering and releasing the carb mid-draw changes the strength.
6. Topping up: Add heat in 5-second steps as vapour thins, or give it 15 seconds when it has cooled off between bowls. Under-heating is easy to correct.
7. Finishing: Unscrew the cap using a magnet while it is hot, then tap the bowl once or twice into a pot for used herbs. Park the hot cap on a cooling magnet.
8. Cooling down: Nothing switches off, because nothing is on. Expect several minutes before the next bowl, as the click will not work again until the cap cools.

Day to day there is very little to do. The wide bowl taps out while still warm, and the head collects surprisingly little residue.

A full teardown is toolless and quick: four parts and one O-ring, then a 15 to 30 minute soak in isopropyl alcohol for the screens and metal parts. Reassembly takes two or three minutes, and the O-rings can stay in place.

Screens go back in flat. The O-rings prefer to stay dry, with no lubricants, and fitting the bowl with a twisting motion is kinder to the ring than a straight push.

The only wear parts in the whole vape are the screens and the O-rings. Replacement bowl screens and ball retaining screens are inexpensive and sold separately.

The Tinymight 2 is an enthusiast favourite that runs on its own battery and heats the moment you draw. It is smaller, simpler to operate and entirely self-contained, with an adjustable chamber covering 0.05 g to 0.25 g.

Nothing to charge and nothing to degrade is the Tempest 2's counter-argument: no cells, no electronics, and only stainless steel screens and O-rings as wear parts. It also lets you change ball media to shift the extraction character, and its mouthpiece end drops straight onto 10, 14 and 18 mm water pipe joints.

The trade is a simple one. The Tinymight 2 asks you to remember a charger; the Tempest 2 asks you to bring a heat source and gives you a vaporizer with nothing inside to wear out.

The Frolic is a premium performance portable of conventional design, with a battery, a display for precise temperature setting and adjustable airflow. It is the plug-and-play option at this performance tier.

Ball vape extraction you can hold is what the Tempest 2 offers in return: superheated air through a bed of hot balls, even and char-free browning, and a built-in water pipe adapter. Swappable ball media and swappable cooling units let you tune the character of a session, not only its temperature.

If a temperature readout and a battery you simply charge are what you want, the Frolic covers that ground well. For someone who enjoys adjusting a session by hand, the Tempest 2 has far more to play with.

Right now we offer a 25% discount on all accessories when you buy any vaporizer here at MagicVaporizers. The Tempest 2 needs a heat source to work, so the list starts there and then follows the workflow around it.

YLL Induction Heater 3.0: The heater we recommend. Its watts-and-seconds display makes every heat cycle repeat exactly, and it ships without cells, so batteries belong on the same order.

Reliance RS50 - 5000 mAh 21700 Battery: The YLL runs on two of these at once, so add a pair.

Xtar X2 - Battery Charger: Refills the cells of either heater outside the device, which is kinder to the batteries than built-in charging.

Tempest Case: Solves the one real handling problem. The lid magnet holds the hot cap, a socket tool unscrews it, and a still-warm Tempest 2 can go straight into a pocket.

Reload 3: Pre-pack pots at home, lift the hot cap off with the lid magnet and tip used herbs into their own pot. It turns reloading into a routine you barely think about.

Ruby Balls: The most popular character change from stock, with quicker warm-up and punchier draws.

Silicon Carbide Balls: The strongest heat transfer of the range, for the most intense extraction character.

Quartz Balls: The lightest fill and quickest warm-up, for short, snappy sessions.

Stainless Steel Balls: Holds heat the longest, so a session stretches out with a gentler climb.

Funnel: Fills small herb pots from a grinder without scattering ground herbs across the table.

Ispire - The Wand: The alternative heater, running a set-and-forget cycle with its two batteries included. It needs the adapter below for the Tempest 2.

Wand Adapter: The glass sleeve that positions the Tempest 2 in the Ispire Wand, required for that pairing. The glass also lets you watch the pointer climb.

Wand Stand: Keeps the hot glass adapter clear of your desk after a cycle and steadies the Wand upright.

Cooling Unit (High): The longest spiral available, and the choice for dry sessions where the coolest vapour matters.

Wood Sleeve: A warmer grip than metal, with grain unique to each piece, and 3 g lighter.

TightVac MiniVac: An airtight pocket container that seals in odour, and a handy home for used herbs you want to keep for later.

Bowl Screens: Three screens, so bowl size changes stay easy once the originals soften up with use.

Ball Retaining Screens: Fit a new one when the old screen loosens, and the balls stay where they belong.

All Tempest 2 vaporizers we sell are authentic Mad Heaters products, covered by the manufacturer's warranty. The warranty covers manufacturing faults and material defects; the stainless steel screens and FKM O-rings are wear parts and are replaced as consumables.