One of the most confusing aspects of vaping concentrates are the names of things. Both wax and oil pens do essentially the same thing, but they both differ significantly. In short, the difference between wax and oil pens is the devices functionality and product it uses.
Wax Pen
A wax pen is generally designed to use raw cannabis concentrates such as wax, shatter or live resin. Most of these products are created by extracting the active cannabinoids using a solvent. They are then purged and sold based on their final viscosity. The concentrates industry is growing rapidly and there’s always new products being developed. Wax pens, for the most part are designed to use most cannabis concentrates and are “load as you go”.
Load as you go is term for having to often reload the device after using it once or twice. Depending on the atomizer, you can often purchase ones which can handle larger loads, for longer periods of time. The nice thing about wax pens is that they generally use a standard 510 mount. This is what almost all e-cigarette batteries use as well, making it cheaper to purchase and replace batteries in the long run.
The name Wax Pen is a bit of a misnomer as many use battery mods, mostly used on e-cigarettes.Though some companies produce pen like vapes, the most effective ones are 510 threaded atomizers.
As you can see with the image, the vape and the battery are reasonably large devices. If you’re looking for portability, there are many companies which sell small wax pens. The trade-off is reliability and the ability to fix things if they break. Most larger size atomizers are rebuildable, whereas small atomizers are often only replaceable.
Smaller style wax pens will often use replaceable atomizers which are difficult to keep clean and expensive to replace.
Using an e-cigarette battery mod will also significantly reduce the chance of a battery failure as the small batteries have low capacity and a higher failure rate. You can also heavily customize your e-cigarette software with custom firmware like articfox.
Regardless of the type you use, a wax pen is an extremely effective and low-key way to smoke cannabis extracts.
Oil Pen
Now you know that a Wax Pen is any kind of atomizer (usually 510 threaded) and any kind of battery appropriate to power it, lets talk about oil pens. Oil pens are more closer to cartridges which are used until the product is gone. Most oil pens use a refillable cartridge with either a wick or heating element.
In order to correctly use an oil pen, the product must be viscous enough to flow into the heating element, thus usually CO2 oil, or oil mixed with some sort of glycol (to liquidize and create vapor).
Unlike wax pens, most oil pens use very little power to heat the atomizer, thus most are used with small pen batteries. You can also purchase “all in one” pens where the battery is not removable from the cartridge and you have to throw everything out once it’s used. They are great for travelling but not recommended to use frequently (as they are more expensive). If the atomizer breaks, you cannot get to your product as it’s sealed.
People who frequently enjoy using oil pens tend to purchase the carts and products separately, opting to save money by filling their own carts with their selected product. Oil pens are great for those looking for a stealthy smoke and a device that does not need to be reloaded after a session. They are great for travelling due to their small form factor and ease of use.
In conclusion
Wax Pens:
- Load as you go atomizer
- Many coil types available
- Use nearly any type of cannabis concentrate
- Customizable smoking experience
Oil Pens:
- Prefilled or fill yourself
- Lasts for multiple sessions
- Few types of atomizers
- Small and easy to use
- Limited types of concentrates can be used
Hope that helps teach you the differences between these great two ways to enjoy cannabis.