The 7th Floor Sidekick is a feature rich conduction vaporizer. In this guide, we’ll walk you through using the Sidekick. If you’re deciding if the Sidekick is the right vaporizer for you, head over to our Sidekick review.

While this vaporizer is unique, I’d recommend heading over to my best dry herb vaporizers list for more up-to-date models.

Loading the Sidekick Vaporizer

The top cap portion is held on magnetically, give it a slight lift and it opens right up – revealing a mirrored surface and a ceramic bowl. When removing and installing the top cap, the stirring rod needs to be aligned towards the outside of the device. There’s a white dot on the thumb dial that indicates the best position. It was a bit of a pain in the ass to get it right the first few times, but after a few days, it became second nature. The bowl can hold up to .5g of material – but it’s not a pleasant experience. It works best with .2g or less. I’ve tested with a variety of grinds and found that a medium to fine grind works best. Not powdery like the MFLB finishing grinder produces, but certainly not chunky either. You don’t want to pack it down, just tamp it to get it all below the silicon gasket. A finger or the glass bead of the included pick works perfectly. Put the top back on by aligning the little tab on the right and tilting the top back into place.

I think the top mechanism can be refined a bit for easier opening and closing. It’s not terribly difficult – but it’s not as slick and snappy as the Firefly 2. If you put too much weed in the bowl, closing the top gets more difficult (and you’ll probably get more material in your mouth). Opening the top again before vaping also makes a mess as the stir rod pulls out of fresh material. Why would I open the top cap when the bowl is loaded with fresh green? Read on.

Using the Sidekick Vape

You turn the unit on by holding the power button for 2 seconds. It boots up fast and displays a sweet little LCD screen. A logo flashes for a second or two before the default screen shows. No frills here – the screen shows you a timer, remaining voltage, and your heat setting. Heat settings range from 1 to 11 in half steppings for a total of 21 heat settings. Use the up down arrow keys to choose a temp setting. Tap the power button once to start your session.

The unit takes about 30 seconds to heat up when starting at 5. Yes, 5. Surprisingly, 5 is pretty damned hot and will completely toast your greens in a full 7-minute session.  According to the manual, the 5 setting is 350° F, but in my unit it is more like 375. I’m going to inquire with 7th Floor about this…

For flower, I’ve found that the best usage is five minutes at temp setting 5, followed by two minutes at temp setting 7 or 7.5. The unit powers off after 7 minutes. There’s no warning or notification. A little vibe might be nice, just in case I’m stoned and sitting there pulling blanks. You’ve all been there, right?

Cleaning

Dump your ABV while the unit is still hot. You’ll be rewarded with a better vapor quality on your next session, and more sessions between deep cleans.

A quick tap on a trash can or mason jar clears the bowl. Use the included wood handled brush, or even kleenex to wipe off the screen. I like to pinch the stir rod with a paper towel and give it a twist while holding the screen against the paper towel. Cleans it all in a quick twist.

For deep cleaning, remove the screen and stir stick. Give them both a 10 minute soak in ISO. Wipe the inside of the lid and the bowl with a ISO dipped Q-tip. I usually use 3 or 4 Q-tips.
Remove the bottom silicon elbow, take the metal piece out and give it a quick soak too. You can remove the metal sleeves from the vapor path and soak them, or dip a twisted paper towel in ISO and thread it through. I only clean these tubes every other deep clean.