PAX are the company that made a pocket vaporizer look like something you’d actually want to own. American mob, came out of the same design house as the Juul, and for years a PAX was the default answer when someone wanted a portable vaporiser that didn’t look like a science project. Small, magnetic, no buttons to speak of. That’s most of why people in Australia went looking for them.
The trade-off is baked into the shape. To get something that slim PAX went with a conduction oven and a fairly tight draw, so these were never the cloud kings. What they are is discreet, easy to pocket, and dead simple to use once the oven’s packed. Here’s the range, with the honest version of each.
PAX 3
The PAX 3 is the one most people picture. Conduction oven, portable, heats the herb against hot metal walls rather than blowing air through it. You pack the oven, it buzzes when it’s ready in about 20 seconds, and you draw. Temperature is set by holding the mouthpiece and watching the petals on the lid, or properly through the app. Four presets, roughly 180°C up to about 215°C, and 190-205°C is the sweet spot for most people.
The quirks are well known. It only really vapes well when the oven is full, so a half-pack lid is more or less essential. The draw is restrictive next to a convection vape. And it gets warm in the hand on the hotter settings. The PAX 3 shipped with both a dry herb and a concentrate insert, which made it the flexible one in the range, though the concentrate bit is fiddly and most people ignored it. Good all-rounder if you want one tidy unit and don’t mind the upkeep.
PAX Mini
The PAX Mini is the stripped-back model. Same conduction oven and the same draw character as the rest, but shorter, lighter, and with the bells removed. No app, no concentrate insert, fewer preset temperatures. You get a single set of LED petals and a heat range that sits in the same 180-215°C ballpark, just with less granular control over where you land.
It suits someone who found the PAX 3 over-specced. If you never opened the app and never touched concentrates, the Mini does the actual job for less money and slips into a jeans pocket without a thought. The smaller battery is the catch, so heavier sessions mean reaching for the charger sooner.
PAX Plus
The PAX Plus is the quiet successor to the 3, and it’s an evolution rather than a rethink. Conduction oven again, portable, same broad shape. What changed is around the edges: a redesigned oven screen that’s said to use the herb more evenly, a half-pack lid included in the box at last, and tweaked heating with an “ExpertTemp” mode that nudges the temperature up as you go to keep the vapour coming. Range is the familiar 180-215°C, and ExpertTemp does the thinking if you can’t be bothered.
It’s the easy pick of the current dry-herb PAX units. The half-pack lid in the box alone saves the annoyance of buying one separately. The honest note: if you already own a PAX 3 that’s running fine, the Plus isn’t a leap worth paying for. It’s a better starting point, not a must-upgrade.
PAX Era
The PAX Era is the odd one out, and worth flagging so nobody buys the wrong thing. It is not a dry herb vape. The Era is a pod device built for vape oil cartridges, so the oven and screen talk above don’t apply. You click in a filled pod and draw, with temperature set through the app. It only makes sense if you’re vaping oils rather than flower, and most of the cartridge ecosystem it was designed around never really landed here.
For dry herb, skip it and look at the 3, Plus or Mini. For oils, it’s a neat, pocketable bit of kit, just know what you’re getting before you go hunting for one.
Living with one
The thing to know about PAX is that they live or die on cleaning. Resin builds up fast in the mouthpiece and around the oven lid, and a gummed-up PAX draws worse and tastes worse. The fix is cheap and quick: a cotton bud with a little isopropyl run through the vapour path every few sessions, and a deeper clean now and then. The screen at the bottom of the oven is a wear part, so swap it rather than fight a clogged one.
- New to it? Start with our complete cleaning guide for the PAX 2 and 3.
- Just sorting the mouthpiece? Here’s the easiest way to clean your PAX mouthpiece.
- Want the background on the model? See the PAX 3 announcement and why the PAX 3 was so sought after.
It’s also worth seeing where PAX sits against the rest. They’re a different animal to the convection and hybrid crowd, so it’s worth reading up on Storz & Bickel, DaVinci and Arizer before you settle. And if you just want to browse the field, our portable vaporizers and dry herb vaporizers collections are the place to start.
Which one suits you
Quick version. Want the flexible all-rounder with concentrate option: PAX 3. Want the same thing fresher with the half-pack lid sorted: PAX Plus. Want the simplest, cheapest pocket dry-herb PAX: PAX Mini. Vaping oils, not flower: PAX Era. And if you want bigger clouds and an easier draw, that’s where the convection brands earn their keep.