I guess you could search my post history for advice on "the machine" for more machine ramblings, but I will save you some time with these:
- 1l bottle is to big IMO and hard to use, from my experience 0.3l Heineken beer botle works the best. Towards the end I was using 100-150ml "shooter" liquor bottles but it requires some skill to melt over an vape big doses with small neck bottle.
- What do you mean by top hole? What does your machine looks like? There should be just one hole at the (center) bottom of the bottle and another bottle opening where metal mesh is stuffed. So two holes in total for air in and vapor out.
- Use torch ligher with strong flame but do not touch spice/mesh with direct flame, keep it sideways/almost perpendicular to the mesh surface, so that when you inhale thought the bottom hole, torch flame bends towards the mesh. This way spice is vapourized via hot air and not burnt with direct flame.
- Pre-heat mesh and pre-melt spice into the mesh
- When vaping keep bottle nose pointed slightly downwards, so that less spice escapes deep inside of mesh/bottle neck
- Long slow pulls are the key, like 5-10 seconds draw to inhale, count, exhale.
Disclaimer: I don't claim any authority over machine use, just some decent experience with smoking various stuff, if your experience differs then feel free to share