30-Second Verdict
The VonG X wins by a hair — 8.6 to 8.5 — which is exactly how it should read, because these aren't rivals so much as the same instrument at two spec levels. The honest one-line truth: buy the M7 to find out if you're a DynaVap person; buy the VonG X once you know you are and you own a water piece. The price gap between them buys DuraDyn build, a thermal-battery tip and native bong fit — and none of it buys you better technique.
DynaVap VonG X: 8.6/10
DynaVap M7: 8.5/10
Buy the VonG X if:
- Your sessions run through a water piece — this is its entire design brief
- You want the heaviest single-hit extraction DynaVap makes
- DuraDyn durability matters: this is the one you can lend without wincing
- Native 10mm AND 14mm fit, twist airflow, and heirloom build justify the extra to you
Buy the M7 if:
- It's your first DynaVap — this is the default recommendation for a reason
- Direct-draw flavour is the point: best flavour-per-gram under £100
- You want the lightest, simplest, most pocketable version of the ritual
- You'd rather spend the difference on a decent torch
Quick Specs Face-Off:
| DynaVap VonG X | DynaVap M7 | |
|---|---|---|
| Heat-up | 3–6s torch; 3–4s reheats (thermal battery) | 3–6s torch |
| Heat source | Butane torch or induction heater (separate) | Butane torch or induction heater (separate) |
| Bowl | 0.1g, or 0.05g with the Adjust-a-Bowl | 0.1g, or 0.05g with the Adjust-a-Bowl |
| Weight | ~24g, ~108mm | ~19g, ~90mm |
| Warranty | 90-day money-back; DynaVap caps and tips covered | 90-day money-back; DynaVap caps and tips covered |
| Price | Check current price | Check current price |
The Hook
There's a wall in every serious guitar shop that does the same trick to everyone who walks past it.
On one hook: a Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster. Nitro finish, hand-wound pickups, a neck somebody in Corona shaped with actual hands, a price tag you turn over twice to check for a misprint. On the hook next to it: a Mexican-made Player Strat at a fifth of the money. Same body shape. Same three pickups and a whammy bar. Same idea, top to bottom.
And here's what every honest guitarist eventually admits: through a decent amp, on a Tuesday, in a functioning band — the Mexican Strat does the job. Not 'nearly does the job'. Does it. The Custom Shop instrument is genuinely better — the hardware shrugs off decades, the details reward you every time you pick it up, and there are specific rooms where it sings in a way the cheaper one can't. But the song comes out of your hands, not the headstock. Nobody in the audience has ever heard the price difference. Players feel it every night.
The DynaVap M7 is the Mexican Strat. The VonG X is the Custom Shop.
Same instrument in every way that defines it: torch-heated, battery-free, a bimetallic cap that clicks at roughly 240°C and hands the thermostat job to you. I called the M7 the manual gearbox of vaping in its review; I called the VonG X the tungsten darts. Both metaphors were about the same truth — these are skill instruments — which is why this pairing needs its own frame. Same music. Same click. One of them is built to heirloom spec, weighted for a specific stage, and priced higher for the privilege.
The question is whether you're the player who needs the Custom Shop — or the player who thinks they do.
We stock both at HerbVape.co.uk — details and pricing below.
Vapour Quality
VonG X: 9/10 · M7: 9.0/10 — a dead heat on the number, split entirely by venue.
The M7's 9 is a direct-draw 9. The micro-bowl's tiny thermal footprint means a narrow window between nothing and combustion, which forces precision, which is exactly why the flavour is so good: thick, flavour-dense, absolutely clean, with nothing in the path adding an opinion of its own. Best flavour-per-gram under £100 — the review said it unequivocally, and nothing since has dislodged it.
The VonG X's 9 is a water-piece 9. Its high-mass stainless tip is literally a thermal battery: it holds temperature through a full fifteen-second pull, so a single slow draw through a bubbler extracts at full power from first second to last, where a standard tip would need two heat cycles to match the depth. It is the closest thing to a proper bong hit a vaporiser can produce, and it out-hits every battery-powered device I've put through water, at any price. The trade is character: the VonG X runs roasty by design, compressing terpene nuance in favour of density.
So the tie splits cleanly: dry, the M7 is the better instrument. Through water, the VonG X isn't just better — it's the best in the entire lineup. Choose the room before you choose the guitar.
The Strain Test, Side by Side
Same jars, same grinder, 0.1g on the scales for both — the flower is the control, and with DynaVaps there's a second control worth naming: no temperatures, only heat cycles. You don't set 185°C on a metal tube. You heat to the click and choose how to ride it — exhale on the click, one second past it, or pushing the cap — and both reviews ran the same three-cycle ladder. One structural note before the comparison: the M7 was tested direct-draw, the VonG X the way it's meant to be run, through water. That's not an inconsistency; it's each instrument on its own stage.
Jack Herer
First cycle, exhale on the click: the M7's first draw is, per its review, the reason people put up with all of this — pine needles and lemon peel arriving whole, cooling mint on top, from a stainless tip that was cold ninety seconds ago. The best two draws of Jack Herer you can buy at M7 money, competing with electronics at four times the price. The VonG X's first cycle lands the same pine and lemon in the same place — and then the water gets hold of them. The lift arrives softened, a degree or two less needle-sharp than direct-draw; the bubbler smooths, and the smoothing costs you the very top of the citrus. Same flower, same cycle, and the price gap runs backwards: on cycle one of Jack, the cheaper device wins.
Second cycle, one second past the click: here the thermal battery starts earning. The M7 gives two draws — pepper cutting through, pine dropping back but still legible, a citrus echo on the first draw and gone by the second. The VonG X gives three draws off a three-second reheat, because the tip never really went cold, with a thread of lemon still legible on its second — more than most ovens manage anywhere near this stage. More extraction per cycle, faster between cycles. That's what the extra mass is for.
Third cycle, pushing the cap: the M7 ends on earth, leather and a thread of light fuel. The VonG X ends on earth, leather and light fuel through water. Convergent endings — but hold that thought, because the strains themselves don't converge equally, and that's the next section's punchline.
Side-by-side verdict on Jack: the M7 renders Jack's fragile top more faithfully; the VonG X extracts more of Jack per cycle and hands it to you smoother and heavier. Fidelity versus weight — the whole pairing in one strain. Both reviews also flagged the same asterisk, and it's the most DynaVap sentence ever written: your second cycle on a Tuesday is not your second cycle on a Friday. You are the thermostat on both devices. Neither price tag changes that.
Wedding Cake
First cycle: near-identical results, which is telling — vanilla and sweet cream over dough, cherry on the exhale, thicker than Jack managed at the same point on both devices. Wedding Cake's heavy notes don't condense out in the VonG X's water the way Jack's do, so for once the bubbler takes nothing off the top. Where Jack exposed the difference between these two, Wedding Cake barely notices it.
Second cycle: the sweet spot on both, and the closest thing to a genuine quality gap in this whole test. The M7's review called its second cycle the best of the entire session — butter alongside dough, pepper underneath, cherry deepening to jam, still separable into parts. The VonG X did the same trick through water and — per its review — passed the separation test more convincingly than it passed anything with Jack: butter, pepper and jam all on the table at once, richer and rounder than anything else in my collection that isn't mains-powered. On this jar, through glass, the thermal battery is the better second cycle. It's the Custom Shop room — the one where the expensive instrument audibly sings.
Third cycle: and here's the fork in the road. On the M7, the two strains never converged — Jack finished as leather and fuel, Wedding Cake as toasted sugar, and you'd never confuse them. Its review called that the argument for the whole manual class. On the VonG X, by cycle three, both jars were converging on the same brown roast — its own review owned it flatly: a delivery device with real flavour, not a flavour device with real power.
The Flavour-Device Call
The site ledger has this right and the cycle-by-cycle comparison proves it: the M7 is a flavour device — two plants stay two plants to the very bottom of the bowl. The VonG X is delivery-leaning — brilliant flavour in cycles one and two, then power politely finishing the job. If the third cycle matters to you, that's your answer. If your third cycle is a bong rip on a Friday, it was never going to matter.
Design & Build
VonG X wins, 9.5 vs 8.5 — this is precisely what the extra buys.
The M7 is stainless steel top to bottom, ~19g, purely functional: captive cap you can't lose, Adjust-a-Bowl spacer, an O-ring as the only wear item. Proven longevity — Dave has run DynaVaps since 2018, three models, one cap replaced (O-ring wear, not failure), and expects another six years without drama. It's an 8.5 because it's excellent, and not a 9 because there's no design reward beyond holding something well made.
The VonG X is DynaVap's DuraDyn tier, and the name isn't marketing fluff: titanium body, high-mass stainless thermal-battery tip, reinforced condenser addressing the historic VonG weak point, titanium cap, heat-treated moisture-resistant wood midsection, twist-airflow mouthpiece, native 10mm and 14mm fit with no adapter. Five extra grams, all of them deliberate. Jake picked it up and said 'This one's got weight' — and it was the first thing I noticed too.
Custom Shop hardware: the tuners don't slip, the frets don't wear, and thirty years from now it'll still be the nice one.
Heat & Power
VonG X wins — same torch, better thermodynamics.
No batteries anywhere in this comparison, which is half the reason to buy either: nothing degrades, nothing bricks, nothing needs a firmware update. Both take a single-flame torch (sold separately for both) or an induction heater (genuinely recommended for medical users on either device).
The difference is what the metal does with the flame. The M7 heats in 3–6 seconds and cools at standard-tip pace; every cycle is a fresh negotiation. The VonG X heats in the same 3–6 first time, then reheats in 3–4 because the thermal-battery tip retains residual heat — which makes it faster across a multi-bowl session despite being the heavier lump of metal. It also draws longer per cycle: 12–18 seconds against the M7's 10–15 before the cap clicks off-temp.
One shared warning, because this section is where new buyers get hurt: the click is the cap hitting ~240°C, not the herb — the bowl sees somewhere in the 165–200°C range depending on how you ride it. On both devices, the flame is the easy part. The timing is the instrument.
Ease of Use
VonG X edges it, 7 vs 6.5 — but the learning curve doesn't care what you paid.
Let's not launder the truth through a comparison table: I combusted fourteen times in my first month with the M7. I counted. There's a spreadsheet. Sarah has seen the spreadsheet and had follow-up questions about my decision-making process. That tuition applies to both of these devices, because the skill is the click-timing and the click-timing is identical — expect over-extraction in week one, inconsistency in week two, muscle memory in week three.
The VonG X's half-point advantage is earned after the apprenticeship, not during it: faster reheats mid-session, the twist airflow giving one-handed draw control, longer forgiving draws off the thermal mass. If you've run an M7, the transfer takes an afternoon.
Could your mum use either? The M7 review's answer stands for both: absolutely not. That's not a flaw. That's the genre.
Cleaning & Maintenance
M7 wins, 10 vs 9.5 — the only category the cheaper device takes outright.
The M7 is the only perfect 10 on this site, fully justified: all metal, ISO soak, pipe cleaner, five minutes, done. You can forget it in alcohol for a day and it will forgive you. Consumables are an O-ring every couple of years and cheap screens.
The VonG X is nearly there — full-device ISO soak, 20 minutes, rinse, dry — with one asterisk: the heat-treated wood midsection. It handles brief alcohol exposure fine (that's what the heat treatment is for), but it wants short baths and thorough drying, and it doesn't want to live in a steamy bathroom. 'Nearly indestructible, with one component that asks for respect' is a 9.5, and half a point is exactly what that care instruction costs.
Portability
M7 wins, 8.0 vs 7.5 — because the VonG X's real luggage is the bubbler.
Both are pen-sized metal tubes that vanish into a jeans pocket, and both share the same stealth ceiling: the torch. The M7's review scored public stealth 3/10, and no build tier fixes the fact that flaming a metal tube in a beer garden reads as deliberate from fifty metres.
The VonG X's extra handicap is its own design brief. Direct-draw underuses the thermal-battery tip, so the honest carry equation is device + torch + DynaStash + a water piece at the destination. That's not a pocket kit; that's a plan. The M7 is the one that actually travels — smaller, lighter, and complete the moment you add a flame.
Value for Money
A 9-apiece tie on the sheet — and a split decision in the wallet.
The M7 is the pound-for-pound entry argument: the sweet spot between the B2's test drive and the Omni's luxury, and pennies a year to own over six years once you count screens and O-rings, against a far bigger yearly bill for a sealed-battery portable that'll want replacing. That maths converted me off battery vapes for evening use entirely.
The VonG X is the category-killer argument: DuraDyn build, thermal battery, twist airflow and native bong fit for less than its own all-titanium stablemate, and far less than the electric portables it out-hits through water. Against the premium electric water-piece options, its review said the value proposition writes itself, and it does.
So the tie is real, but the sequencing isn't: the M7 is the better first pound you'll spend on a DynaVap. The VonG X is the better ninety-second pound.
Score Comparison
| Category | VonG X | M7 |
|---|---|---|
| Vapour Quality | 9/10 | 9.0/10 |
| Design & Build | 9.5/10 | 8.5/10 |
| Ease of Use | 7/10 | 6.5/10 |
| Cleaning & Maintenance | 9.5/10 | 10/10 |
| Portability | 7.5/10 | 8.0/10 |
| Value for Money | 9/10 | 9.0/10 |
| Overall | 8.6/10 | 8.5/10 |
No Battery scores — both are butane- or induction-heated manual devices with no electronics.
A tenth of a point. Three category ties or near-ties, two wins each on the rest. That's not indecision — that's two spec levels of one instrument, priced a little apart, scoring like it.
Who Should Buy Which
The M7 buyer is either new to the click or loyal to the pure form of it. First DynaVap: this is the default recommendation, full stop — cheaper tuition, lighter carry, and flavour-per-gram nothing under £100 touches. Committed direct-draw purist: also this, because the third-cycle separation test is the M7's crown and no thermal battery improves on it. Buy it, budget for a torch, accept the fourteen-combustion apprenticeship as the price of the degree.
The VonG X buyer already owns the skill and a water piece, in that order. They know their second cycle from their third, their bubbler lives within arm's reach of the sofa, and they want the heaviest, densest, most repeatable hits manual vaping can produce. They also — not trivially — want the DynaVap that lends, survives and outlasts: the DuraDyn build is the one you hand across a kitchen counter without a silent prayer.
The upgrade path is real and one-directional: plenty of M7 owners buy a VonG X. I've yet to hear of anyone going the other way, except to keep the M7 in a jacket pocket — which, to be fair, is what jacket pockets are for.
How I Actually Choose
Both live here, and they've sorted their shifts without my input.
The M7 is the weeknight instrument: two to three bowls between eight and eleven, the wind-down ritual — dinner, clean the tube from last night, pack 0.1g loose (Dave's method since 2018, and he's still right about it), respect the click on cycle one, push cycle two, skip cycle three if I'm tired. Ten to fifteen minutes of enforced attention that my ADHD brain has decided is a feature.
The VonG X is the weekend one: Friday and Saturday evenings, bubbler out, airflow twist two-thirds closed, two to three cycles a bowl, the Sunday-morning microdose with the screen pressed up. It shares the Sunday ISO bath with the bubbler like a couple who've settled into a routine.
Sarah surveyed the pair of them in the DynaStash recently and observed, 'So they're both tubes, Dennis.' Plural, this time. I choose to read five years of character development into that.
The honest pattern: the M7 is a habit, the VonG X is an occasion. If I could only keep one — and I've genuinely sat with this — I'd keep the M7 and grieve the Friday nights. Which tells you the M7 is the more essential device, and the VonG X is the better one. Both things are true. That's the whole review.
The Verdict (The Bookend)
Back to the guitar wall.
The Mexican Strat is the right first guitar and, for a lot of players, the right only guitar — the song comes out of your hands, and the M7 puts more song per pound in your hands than anything else in the shop. 8.5/10 and the best flavour under £100 is not a consolation prize.
The Custom Shop instrument justifies itself the moment you have the specific stage it was built for. For the VonG X, that stage has a downstem, and on it the thing genuinely sings — 8.6/10, the heaviest hitter DynaVap makes, built to a spec that let me hand it to Jake for an unsupervised week and get it back pristine, with his own bubbler and better technique than I have on my good days. 'I tested it properly,' he said. Three years ago that sentence would have been a punchline. The build — and the bloke — earned the straight reading.
Same instrument. Same music. Buy the M7 to learn the song. Buy the VonG X when you know which room you're playing. And if you end up with both on the wall — well. Nobody with two Strats has ever regretted it.
FAQ
VonG X vs M7 — which should I buy?
First DynaVap: the M7, no hesitation — it's the default recommendation and the cheaper apprenticeship. Existing DynaVap owner with a water piece: the VonG X, which is the best water-piece vape in the lineup. The price gap buys build and bong fit, not better basics.
Can I use them with a bong or water piece?
Both, but unequally. The M7 fits 10mm. The VonG X fits 10mm AND 14mm natively, no adapter, and its thermal-battery tip is specifically engineered for water-piece extraction — it's the entire reason the device exists. If bong use is your plan, this question alone decides the comparison.
Is the vapour quality actually different?
Both score 9 for vapour, honestly. Direct-draw, the M7's micro-bowl flavour is the finest under £100 and keeps two strains distinct to the last cycle. Through water, the VonG X hits denser and longer per cycle than any DynaVap — or any battery portable — but runs roastier and converges strains by cycle three.
How do heat cycles work — why no temperatures?
Neither device has a thermostat; you do. The cap clicks at roughly 240°C and the herb below sees ~165–200°C depending on how long you ride past the click. A bowl is typically two to three cycles: exhale on the click for flavour, a second past it for balance, pushing the cap for full extraction.
Which is easier to clean?
The M7, by half a point (10 vs 9.5) — all metal, ISO soak, five minutes, indestructible. The VonG X soaks whole too, but the heat-treated wood midsection wants short baths and thorough drying. Both embarrass every electronic vape on this site.
Will I combust while learning?
Yes, on either — the learning curve is identical because the skill is identical. I logged fourteen combustions in month one on the M7. Expect 5–14 yourself, proficiency by session 30, muscle memory by 50. An induction heater flattens the curve considerably.
Do they need a torch?
Both, sold separately — a single-flame torch or an induction heater serves either. The torch is also the shared stealth ceiling: neither device is a public-transport vape, whatever it cost.
About Dennis M.
Dennis M. has been vaping daily for the best part of a decade — since an original Mighty in 2018 — and has tested 50+ devices for this site. He works in IT, has ADHD, and uses cannabis for chronic pain management. He lives in Manchester with his partner Sarah, who once identified the M7 as 'a tube, Dennis', has now confirmed the VonG X is also a tube, and considers the matter closed.
Dennis's combustion spreadsheet remains in his email archive. Jake's week-long VonG X loan remains the reference standard for both DuraDyn build quality and personal growth. Neither document is available on request.
A note on spelling: 'vaporizer' is the de facto international spelling, but I've stuck with the British 'vaporiser' throughout this blog.
Questions, corrections, or a device you want tested? dennis@herbvape.co.uk
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Get Both at HerbVape.co.uk
DynaVap VonG X
Buy the VonG X →
Worth grabbing with it: DynaStash ER — the Custom Shop guitar gets a case; so does this.
DynaVap M7
Buy the DynaVap M7 →
Worth grabbing with it: DynaTorch (Single Flame) — neither device includes a heat source, and single-flame is the one to learn on.
Just one more bowl.
Last updated: 25 September 2026.
Review Policy: I buy or borrow the devices I review. HerbVape.co.uk is my employer, but my opinions are my own — they pay me to be honest, not to sell you shite. Affiliate links and discount codes exist because running a site costs money, not because they influence scores.
Strains Used: Jack Herer — sativa (Haze × Northern Lights #5 × Shiva Skunk), ~20% THC, terpinolene/caryophyllene/pinene-dominant, pine-citrus-pepper profile with fragile top notes. Wedding Cake — indica-leaning hybrid (Triangle Kush × Animal Mints, via Triangle Mints #23), ~24% THC, caryophyllene/limonene/myrcene-dominant, vanilla-cream-dough dessert profile over peppery earth. Same two strains, same jars, across every vaporiser reviewed on this site — the strain is the control, the device is the variable. Strain effects vary by individual, batch and consumption method.
Medical & Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this review constitutes medical advice, and I am not a medical professional. Cannabis is a controlled substance in the UK; medical cannabis is legal only on prescription from a registered specialist clinic — Sapphire, Cantourage and Zerenia are three of the larger ones. HerbVape.co.uk sells vaporiser hardware only: we do not sell, prescribe, or recommend cannabis or cannabis products. Vaporisers are sold for use with legal dry herbs and legally prescribed medical cannabis. You must be 18 or over to buy one, and cannabis law varies by jurisdiction — check yours.