IOLITE 2.0

The IOLITE 2.0 holds about 500 mg in a stainless filling chamber with a heating pin standing up through the middle of it, and the whole chamber sits at roughly 190 °C for the length of a session, so resin bakes onto that pin and into the mesh screen beneath the load. The rest of the mess is condensate, which collects in the moisture condenser and the bore of the mouthpiece. There is no battery here, so fuel quality counts as maintenance too.

1. Empty the chamber while it is warm. Dried material tips straight out. Damp material sticks, and the manual says to lift it with a wooden toothpick or similar rather than anything that will tear the screen. The chamber is hot immediately after a session, so give it a moment first. Do not pack it tight either, since IOLITE blames a crammed chamber for poor airflow and weak performance.

2. Split the mouthpiece off. Unscrew the mouthpiece from the filling chamber, then draw the moisture condenser out with the small hand tool supplied in the kit. Run one of the pipe cleaners through the mouthpiece bore.

3. Use what the manual actually allows. IOLITE asks for boiling water on the mouthpiece, or Milton or any baby bottle sterilising fluid. Isopropyl is not mentioned anywhere in the manual for this device, and the only solvent it names for the screens is tap water, so keep alcohol well away from the body.

4. Rinse or replace the mesh. A clogged screen comes out and rinses under the tap. Once it is damaged, fit the spare mesh screen from the box. IOLITE lists the chamber mesh, the mesh in the heat pin chamber on older units, the filling chamber and the mouthpiece as the parts that wear out.

5. Leave the body sealed. The butane tank, piezo igniter, bimetal thermostat and catalytic heater sit behind the black grill, and the manual rules out disassembly, adjustment and repair, which also ends the two year warranty. Nothing wet or pointed goes into the grill. The catalytic reaction needs oxygen through those vents, which is why IOLITE says never to run the unit inside its pouch.

6. Treat the fuel as a service item. Only good lighter butane belongs in it, and the manual names Vector and Newport. Impurities block the tiny jet and the unit lights low and slow. The fix IOLITE gives for that is to purge the tank and refill three times on an approved gas, then run one long session to clear the jet. Fill with the switch at 0, valve pointing up, and stop as soon as gas escapes.