Has anyone had trouble with the ceramic discs many of us use in the GVG becoming gunked up and somehow producing more smoke than vapor? This is my only idea what is going wrong...

A few months ago when I started using the GVG with ceramic disc it seemed nearly foolproof. Even if I was rather aggressive with the torch I would still get a smooth vapor with no visible smoke on exhale.

The past several weeks something has changed though. All I get is a huge lung full of thick smoke and only mild effect from the DMT. I've tried moving the torch farther away and going about it very slowly but still smoke is all I get. I've tried a smaller torch, a regular lighter even- all smoke smoke smoke. The smoke is still active or contains some vapor, but I'm clearly losing spice as it's not sending me near where I would expect. Another interesting thing is that the smoke is not at all harsh like burnt spice. Still, on exhale I see a huge plume of thick smoke and little effect.

I'm baffled what is going on. I have literally changed nothing (that I'm aware of) and it's gone to complete crap. All I can think is that after many many uses the ceramic disc is not functioning like it once did. Or maybe too the ceramic filter in the cap has gunk in it? I've cleaned all these parts repeatedly with no change so I don't know.

Anyone else run into a problem like this with the discs? I suppose the next logical thing to do is order another disc and see if that fixes it.

Take a blowtorch to the disc. That should do it. If that doesn't work. Get a new disk.

Have you tried steel liquid pad or muliple steel screens just to test whether the ceramic filter works as it should?

Maybe some vapor got in the ceramic filter and got burnt. Just a wild guess based on the fact the my GVG ceramic filter strongly smells by DMT just after 2 uses (the vapor should get in it when I took fresh breath when preparing to take a toke).

This is what I typically did in between uses and has seemed to work okay. I wondered if some scorched material was slowly being left behind and had just built up with long term use.


I don't have a liquid pad but I do have some screens I could throw down. The ceramic disc worked so well when I tried it that I never experimented with or acquired any other loading mediums.

My filter seems to keep clean, perhaps because I don't apply any heat until I am taking the first toke? I've practiced lighting and breathing in many times without spice in the disc and there is no hint of DMT.

Thanks for your replies. I'll get a new ceramic disc and also try the liquid pad and screens and see how it goes. I have some experimenting to do again.

Are you sure you're not exhaling too soon? This could be for physiological or psychological reasons even if your technique previously was fine.

Or is it the current batch of extract you're using?

I'd be more open to consider the possibility that it's psychological or physiological if it weren't for the smoke. The fact that the failed blast off and smoke occur together doesn't seem coincidental. Usually I see nothing at all on exhale regardless of how long I hold it in. This looks similar to exhaling a huge drag from a cigarette.

I've been using the same extract for a while and have had very good success with it up until now. I also tried some that was in storage in the freezer- no difference.

Today I thought of something that has changed in my technique that I forgot about: Lately I have been faster with my loading process. I heat the disc much less and dump the spice on quicker. It still all melts in, but perhaps the whole disc has not heated enough for the spice to completely spread throughout. Hot air needs to move through the disc, but perhaps this is not happening if the spice only melted just into the surface. Hmm.