Haze Square Review – Hip to be Square!
*Notice* this product is discontinued, check out our ranking chart for the best vaporizers currently available.
After the success of their first ever vapourizer, the Haze Dual V3, Haze spent many years working on a worthy successor the Haze Square. Being the first ever vapourizer with four chambers, as well as on-demand convection and USB-C charging, the Square is a hugely innovative device with a lot to offer. Find out how it compares to the competition, and if this unique device is a winner or not!
At the time of this review, the Haze Square is still in pre-order stages, and there have been some kinks and wrinkles that need to be ironed out. Some slight changes may occur between the review unit we have and any future releases of the Square. Keep that in mind going forward!
If youre new to the herb vapourizer scene, check out our handy Vaporizer Buyers Guide to help understand what you might need in a vapourizer!
Review: Haze Square
How it Works
A question that may pop up might be something along the lines of how on earth do you load a quad chambered vapourizer?. Surprisingly, its not too difficult! By rotating the dial on the backside of the device, youre able to separate the two halves of the device. Take the half with the chambers and peel lift away the loading chamber from the shell to reveal the 4 chambers.
Each chamber pod fills up with a maximum of 0.25 grams, though youll get better performance with only filling them up about 75% full. Dont tamp down your material, as leaving it loose for air to flow freely gets much better results.
Operating with just three buttons, the Square seems rather simple to use. There are five, pre-defined temperature settings to choose from, though you can configure each one with the Haze desktop app (available only for Pro models).
Triple tapping the center button turns the unit on, and using the + or buttons next to the mouthpiece will let you choose your temperature setting. To engage the heating element, hold down the start button until the LED turns green and the unit vibrates. At that point, take a heavy draw and enjoy!
To swap between chambers, its as simple as rotating one half of the device! Theres not much else to it, and youre free to take another draw right away!
Temperature Flexibility
With a temperature range of 320-480°F/160-249°C, youre given plenty of room to dial in the perfect setting for your material. Especially nice to see is the upper range allows for better compatibility with concentrates. Weve seen far too many vapourizers run just a little too low for effective concentrates usage, and the Square doesnt disappoint!
Though you dont have exact temperature control right on the unit, the five presets youre given certainly allows for plenty of flexibility throughout a session. With the Haze Square Pro App (for Windows or Mac), you can individually set each of these to your hearts desire!
The non-pro version of the device limits you to only 360/370/380/390/430°F, or 182/187/193/199/221°C, which isnt quite as nice, and I wouldve liked to see them give a wider range with it maxing out for concentrates use. The vapour is a definitely warmer than other vapourizers like the Mighty, but not too harsh that itll leave your throat burning. I imagine once a proper water pipe adapter comes out, itd really take the vapour to the next level.
Vapour Quality
The Square really surprised me with the performance! Using an on-demand, rapidly heating coil, the Square uses primarily convection heating with a slight touch of conduction warming the bowl.
With a lot of units that promise so many things but fail to deliver, the Square really does a great job. The draw resistance is incredibly light, being close to free-flowing. This alone came as a huge surprise, considering the size of the stem and compact form factor.
After the first primer draw, cloud production is also surprisingly decent. Satisfying clouds of vapour pop up at all temperatures, with the upper end, of course, being even larger. The flavour is also top notch, competing with other high-end units, though still not on the same level as something like the Firefly 2+.
One thing we will note though is that the Haze Square can cause combustion if you are not careful. If you are on a higher temperature, engage the heater, quickly release it (this happened to use when our finger slipped) and re-engage the heating element, it seemed to overshoot the temperature and caused our herbs to burn. This is not too surprising when you can see the exposed coils that generate the heat and how close they are to your actual herbs. Hopefully, in a future update, they will address this and not allow the coils to double heat in the event that a heating cycle is stopped by mistake halfway through.
Use with concentrates works quite well, and the maximum temperature settings allow you to get the most out of your material. It works best with a small chunk of material, and too much can spell disaster for cleaning. Id still prefer a dedicated wax pen vaporizer, but the Square does quite well in a pinch! Definitely better than the majority of dry herb vapourizers on the market today.
The Square completely exceeded all of my expectations for vapour quality, and gets a big thumb up in this department!
Manufacturing Quality
The Square feels surprisingly chunky. In fact, its surprisingly heavy, though the heft feels nice in the hand. Constructed mostly of anodized aluminum, its quite sturdy and Id trust it to eat a few falls without many problems. Dont test that though!
The Square Pro includes a pretty standard accessories kit, including 4 material pods, 2 concentrate pads, 2 silicone lids, wall charger & USB-C cord, cleaning tool, material tool, and user guide.
Its important to mention that throughout the pre-order phase, many people have reported issues with the silicone seal, vapour production, scratching on the stainless steel bowls, sporadic combustion (we already mentioned), slightly misaligned parts, and small dings and dents. The complaints occurred earlier on in the pre-order phase, and Haze has addressed all of these issues quite handily, though new cases do pop up regularly. If you want something more robust you can have a look at the Crafty+ , something unique about this is that it also is compatible with extracts!
Theres something to say about Haze as a company too though. Their customer support appears to be on top of things, with any problems or defects being dealt with appropriately. Not to mention a 10-year warranty and 1 year of free service on any Haze vapourizer, they go above and beyond to make sure youre satisfied.
Like with the Dual V3, there were many improvements and slight tweaks made over time, eventually working out all the bugs and errors that initially were present. I trust Haze to rectify any problems and faults quickly!
Battery Life
Unfortunately, the Square uses a proprietary battery that cant be swapped on the fly. Each charge will let you get through all four bowls, giving you around 40 – 60 minutes of battery life in total, depending on your temperature settings and draw habits.
The Square makes up the points by using a USB-C charging port however, which quickly tops up the unit within ~30-40 minutes. This is incredibly impressive, however, we know from cell phones that fast-charging also causing faster degradation of the battery. You could try checking out the Airzer Air 2 for its amazing 3 hours long battery life.
Meaning with the faster charge time there is a good chance the battery on the Haze Square will need to be replaced sooner. Haze has mentioned that the battery itself is replaceable, but its an involved process and only worth doing if the current one dies entirely. No one likes being left with a costly paperweight.
Portability
Though a little bit chunky, the Square has a pretty small form factor considering it has 4 chambers. It doesnt fit so well in most pants pockets, and presents a noticeable bulge, but in loose shorts pockets it stows away well.
Itll also reduce your overall carry size since you wont need a second battery or a container to carry extra herb in.
Its not fragile by any means, so tossing it into a bag doesnt leave you with any feelings of anxiety that it might fall a part or self-destruct. If you are impatient and looking for a convection style vapourizer that offers easy loading and a portable size be sure to check out the Utillian 721 Vapourizer.
Having four bowls packed and loaded right away lets you fire up a new session within seconds without worrying about swapping out some pods or filling a fresh chamber is a welcomed feature.
Ease of Use
There are two challenges presented with getting the Haze Square working optimally loading and cleaning. Loading the ovens takes a bit of trial and error too dense of a pack and vapour quality suffers. Too coarse of a grind gives uneven vapourization.
Too little material doesnt work very well either and too fine of a grind may leave you with some small specks falling onto the heating elements. Some users have even experienced combustion as a result. Draw technique plays a slight role too, and weve found that having a slightly stronger draw helps get better results.
With four chambers too you expect exponentially harder cleaning too. By throwing all of the metal pieces and mouthpiece into a small glass of isopropyl alcohol and gently wiping off the silicone pieces, the total cleaning time turns out to be pretty short.
Fully reassembling the Square takes some effort, especially without the cleaning tray (which is sold separately). The included Haze Square User Guide does a good job explaining the entire process in depth, with some handy illustrations included. Still, expect to spend more time than average for cleaning.
The Square isnt too hard to use overall, and passing it off to someone who has never used a vapourizer wont require much coaching. Cleaning would definitely be a headache without the cleaning tray, so its definitely worth picking one up. Its not as foolproof to use and clean as something like an Utillian 722, though its still nothing mind-boggingly complex.
Discreetness
Due to the compact size, the Square hides away almost entirely in your hand. It doesnt really look like anything in particular, and Im sure it could pass as a USB power bank if asked. Since its on-demand, it doesnt emit much odor at all when either in use or sitting passively.
Huge bonus points are awarded again regarding the reloading situation. No longer will you have to worry about packing a fresh pod with some pungent herb in public, since youve now got four ovens at your disposal! However, you now have 4 chambers filled with your herb which can admit a smell in its own right. If you’re looking for something at a cheaper price range and with neat silver colored aesthetic look, you can check out the Dynavap M.
Its not the tiniest or the lightest, but the multi-bowl functionality and discreet looks redeem it.
Overall Experience
The Haze Square is certainly one of the most unique vapourizers that are set to enter the market in 2018. Many scoffed when they first heard the idea of 4 chambers, however, this idea has actually been executed quite well.
It certainly has some quirks that need to be worked out but overall as it stands its a pretty decent unit for the price.
Id certainly recommend spending the extra coin and getting the Square Pro, the USB-C charging and Square Pro App are well worth it!
The Haze Square is still in pre-order status so be sure to check our website for its eventual release.
If you have questions about our Haze Square Vapourizer review or just want to let us know what you think, feel free to drop us a comment below! Thanks for reading and as always, keep vapin!