Storz & Bickel Crafty+ Review & Owner's Guide (2026): Tested, 8.0/10

The Hook: Brighton & Hove Albion Energy

Here's the thing about Brighton & Hove Albion.

They shouldn't be competing at this level. They're not a superclub. They don't have the budget of Manchester City or the legacy of Manchester United. But you watch them play and for 75 minutes they're dismantling teams with twice their resources. Precise passing, intelligent movement, punching well above their weight.

Then the 70th minute arrives. The legs go. The manager makes his substitutions. And you remember why they're not going to win the league.

The Crafty+ is that Brighton energy in your pocket.

It's got the same heater as the Mighty+. Same hybrid heating system. Same vapour path design. Same German engineering. For 4-5 bowls, it's delivering Champions League vapour from a device that actually fits in your jacket pocket. The extraction is thorough, the flavour is clean, and when it's working? You forget you're not using the bigger vape.

Then the battery icon starts flashing. And you remember.

I've owned my Crafty+ for eighteen months now. It sits alongside my Mighty+ and Venty in the S&B rotation. Each has its role: Mighty+ for home sessions and reliability, Venty for when I want the absolute best airflow, and Crafty+ for genuine portability without sacrificing vapour quality.

We stock the Crafty+ at HerbVape.co.uk — details and pricing up top, and the full owner's guide (setup, temperatures, cleaning, fixes) is further down.

The Crafty+ has never pretended to be the complete package. But for what it does — premium vapour in a pocketable form — it's still one of the best in class.

Vapour Quality: 75 Minutes of Brilliance 9/10

The Crafty+ is the smallest device in the S&B portable lineup that delivers proper flagship-adjacent vapour. Same heater as the Mighty+. Same cooling unit design. Same extraction quality. For a device this size, the vapour is remarkable.

The Precision Advantage: Here's what separates the Crafty+ from simpler devices like the Veazy: 170 individual temperature degrees via the app. If you're the kind of person who notices the difference between 185°C and 190°C — and some of us genuinely are — that precision matters. The Mighty+ gives you an on-device display for this. The Crafty+ requires the app. Trade-off for the smaller size.

The vapour quality itself? Extremely close to the Mighty+. I've done blind tests with mates — most can't tell the difference. The cooling unit does excellent work, the hybrid heating extracts thoroughly, and clouds are thick from the first draw to the last. But I'm docking half a point from a 9.5 because the smaller cooling unit means vapour runs slightly warmer on extended draws, and the Venty's wide-open 20 lpm airflow genuinely outclasses it. At this size? Outstanding. Against the full S&B lineup? A shade behind the bigger siblings.

The Strain Test

The team sheet never changes: identical jars, identical grinder, identical running order, fixture after fixture. The flower is the constant and the machine is the only thing swapped in. The question for the Crafty+ is whether Brighton's squad-depth problem shows up in the flavour as well as the battery — whether a smaller bowl behind a smaller cooling unit holds what the Mighty+ holds.

Jack Herer — Sativa

The Flower: Same jar as every other device on this site. Haze × (Northern Lights #5 × Shiva Skunk), around 20% THC, terpinolene-led with caryophyllene and pinene behind it. Pale, spindly, hairy stuff that looks less impressive than it smokes — crack the jar and it's pine needles and lemon peel first, dry green herbs underneath, black pepper right at the back. Old-school in the way that means "aromatic", not "weak". It's the strain that shows you up: the top notes are fragile, and if a vaporiser can't hold them you find out in the first three seconds.

The Pack: 0.2g, medium grind, into a dosing capsule and dropped into the chamber. The capsule keeps the load identical between the two strains and turns the mid-test clean-out into a thirty-second job instead of a project.

Low Temp (180°C): Four draws, and the first two are the good ones. Pine needles and lemon peel arrive on schedule, but rounded — the cooling unit takes the needle-sharp edge off the way it does on the Mighty+, and you're tasting a warmer pine than the flower actually smells of. There's a cooling menthol edge on the exhale of draw two that I didn't expect from a chamber this small. By draw four the citrus lift has thinned to a suggestion.

Mid Temp (191°C): Three draws. Black pepper turns up properly here and it's well-defined — this is the durable heart of the strain and the Crafty+ renders it without argument. Woody haze underneath, dry earth behind that. The citrus echo is gone by the second of these three, which is earlier than the Mighty+ manages, and the reason is simply that there's less flower in the bowl to work through. Small squad.

High Temp (200°C): Two draws and the bowl is spent. Earth and leather, a bit of toasted herb, that old-school funk at the back. Correct behaviour for Jack up here, not a fault — but there's no third act, because there's nothing left.

The Verdict: Nine draws total, which is Brighton's whole matchday: bright, precise, over before you'd like. The Crafty+ gives you a genuinely good Jack Herer for the first four draws and an honest one for the rest, and the limitation is structural — a 0.25g chamber has a shorter window on fragile top notes than a bigger one does, no matter whose heater is underneath. It's not being outplayed on quality. It's being outlasted.

Wedding Cake — Indica-Leaning Hybrid

The Flower: Same jar as every other device on this site. Triangle Kush × Animal Mints, via Triangle Mints #23 — around 24% THC, caryophyllene first, then limonene and myrcene. Dense, squat, greasy nuggets that leave your fingers tacky and your grinder needing a wash. Nose is vanilla and cream over sweet raw dough, with a peppery earth underneath and a cherry-berry edge that turns up on the exhale more than the sniff. Modern dessert genetics doing exactly what it says on the tin. Where Jack exposes a device, this one flatters it.

The Pack: 0.2g again, fresh capsule, cooling unit stripped and swabbed while it was still warm so nothing from the Jack carried over. Slightly coarser grind — the dense, greasy stuff packs tight and this chamber doesn't have room to spare.

Low Temp (180°C): Vanilla and sweet cream straight off the first draw, thicker than anything Jack produced, with sweet raw dough sitting under it and a cherry edge on the exhale. This is what the small bowl is good for: the same 0.2g in a bigger chamber spreads thinner, and here it comes through concentrated. Four draws and none of them wasted.

Mid Temp (191°C): Three draws, and this is the stage that answers the resolution question. Butter arrives as a separate thing from the vanilla — you can taste the cake and the dairy apart, which is the whole test on this strain — and black pepper turns up on the third draw without stamping on either. Warm dough underneath the lot. The cooling unit is doing the smoothing here and it costs you a little top-end definition, but on a dessert profile that's a trade worth making.

High Temp (200°C): Two draws. Toasted and nutty, caramelised sugar just tipping toward burnt-edge on the last one, peppery pungency behind. The dessert has collapsed into general warmth, which is where it's supposed to end up.

The Verdict: Nine draws again, and this time nothing was cut short — Wedding Cake is heavy enough that it doesn't need the extra runway Jack wanted. By the third stage the two strains still read as two different plants, which is the thing I actually care about and the thing that justifies the 9 for vapour quality. Brighton don't beat you by having more players; they beat you by knowing what to do with the ones on the pitch. That's the Crafty+ with a dessert strain in it. The only genuine cost is that the two bowls I've just described are two of the four or five you get before the charger, which is a sentence I have to write in every section of this review.

Design & Build: The Sunday Roast Incident 8.5/10

Sunday roast at my mate's house. I'd been using the Crafty+ all morning, didn't check the battery before leaving. Pulled it out after dinner, clicked it on, watched the lights flash red and die.

Sarah's text when I told her: 'Why didn't you just bring the Mighty+?'

She's right. I should have. But I didn't, because the Crafty+ fits in my jacket pocket and the Mighty+ doesn't, and I'm an optimist about battery life despite years of evidence to the contrary.

That's the Crafty+ trade-off in one anecdote.

Build Quality Reality:

The build itself is properly solid. This is Mighty+ DNA in a smaller body — same materials, same cooling unit design, same German engineering confidence. The medical-grade PEEK plastic is high-quality, the buttons respond cleanly, and the thing feels like a serious tool. It's not trying to be cute. It's not available in coral or teal. It's a black brick that does a job.

At 135g, it's virtually identical to the Veazy in weight. But the form factor is different: the Crafty+ is shorter and wider (110mm × 57mm × 33mm), while the Veazy is taller and slimmer. The Crafty+ fits in a jacket pocket; the Veazy fits in jeans. Different trade-offs for different wardrobes.

What People Don't Mention:

• Ribbed exterior acts as a heat sink — the device stays comfortable even during extended sessions
• Swivel mouthpiece protects the unit during pocket carry
• Built-in stir tool hidden in the base (doubles as a fill aid)
• Chamber stands upright for easy loading — no awkward angles
• Ceramic-coated chamber (2021+ models) reduces sticking and makes cleaning easier

The cooling unit is the same proven design from the Mighty+, which means excellent vapour cooling and annoying cleaning sessions. Brighton energy — beautiful football, questionable bench depth.

Is Yours Real?

The Crafty+ is counterfeited, and the fakes have got better. If you're buying used, or from a marketplace listing that seems a bit too pleased with itself on price, five things to check:

1. The serial sticker. Semi-gloss finish, centred, crisply printed. Matte, off-centre or fuzzy is a bad sign.
2. The box. It says Made in Germany. If it doesn't, stop there.
3. The vibration. A genuine unit buzzes strongly and unmistakably on heat-up. Fakes manage a weak flutter, or nothing.
4. The °C/°F toggle in the app. Real devices pair properly and expose the full temperature interface, including the unit switch. Counterfeits either won't connect or give you a stripped-down version of it.
5. The hologram on the cooling unit's cap lock. It shifts in 3D as you tilt it. A flat black sticker means you've got a fake.

There's no official S&B serial lookup, so provenance is the real protection: buy from an authorised dealer and none of this comes up. eBay bargains on a device at this price are bargains for a reason.

Battery & Charging: The Tamagotchi Problem 6.5/10

This is where we need to be properly honest.

The Crafty+ gets 4-5 bowls per charge. That's real-world, tested, at normal temperatures. Some sessions you'll squeeze out 5. Some days you'll get 4. If you're running hot constantly, expect the lower end.

The Context:

• Venty: 10-14 bowls per charge
• Mighty+: 6-8 bowls per charge
• Veazy: 7-8 sessions per charge
• Crafty+: 4-5 bowls per charge

The Crafty+ is the battery runt of the S&B portable lineup, and it always has been. Brighton legs at the 70th minute.

The Specs:

• USB-C: Yes (the 2021 update finally killed the micro-USB nightmare)
• Pass-through charging: No — S&B don't support vaping while it's plugged in
• Replaceable battery: No (sealed unit)
• Charge time: ~90 minutes to full — roughly 80% in the first 30

The Tamagotchi Comparison:

Using a Crafty+ is like owning a Tamagotchi. You need to feed it regularly or it dies on you at the worst possible moment. This is partly an ADHD problem — my phone lives at 15%, I've let actual plants die from neglect — but it's also a genuine Crafty+ limitation. The battery capacity just isn't there.

My mate Tom's Crafty+ battery noticeably degraded after about 200 hours of use — roughly 18 months of regular use before you start feeling the capacity drop. Classic Tom luck with electronics, but sealed-battery degradation is a real concern. You can't just swap in a fresh cell. You're looking at warranty support or a new device when it finally goes.

No Saving Grace:

This is the bit people get wrong about the Crafty+, usually because they've read a spec sheet for a different S&B device. There is no pass-through. When the battery is flat you are not vaping through a cable — you are waiting about ninety minutes, or you are reaching for something else. Plan around it: charge it overnight, keep a couple of dosing capsules pre-loaded so the bowls you do get aren't wasted faffing with a grinder, and treat the last 20% as a warning rather than a resource.

Ease of Use 9/10

Once you get past the battery anxiety, the Crafty+ is genuinely excellent to use.

The Interface:

One button plus the app. Press to switch on and it starts heating straight away; press and hold to switch off. The LED shows heating status (red heating, green ready). Double-click activates the Booster (+15°C). Triple-click activates the Superbooster (210°C). Simple enough to learn in one session.

The App Advantage:

This is where the Crafty+ separates from simpler devices. Full temperature control from 40-210°C in single-degree increments. Set your starting temp, programme boost temperatures, track usage statistics, even locate a lost device via Bluetooth (it vibrates and flashes).

If you're the kind of person who has opinions about optimal temperatures for different strains, this is your interface. The Veazy's 3-step system covers 90% of use cases, but the Crafty+ gives you that extra 10% of precision.

Loading:

Standard S&B process. Medium grind, fill the oven, light tamp. 0.25g fits comfortably. The ceramic-coated chamber (2021+ models) makes loading and unloading easier — herb doesn't stick like it did on the original aluminium chamber.

Dosing capsules work perfectly — same ecosystem as the Mighty+, Venty, and Veazy. Pre-load capsules, swap them in, no mess. Essential for the 'I forgot to charge' crowd who need quick sessions.

Haptic Feedback:

The Crafty+ vibrates when it reaches temperature — brilliant for pocketing during heat-up. No need to stare at LED lights. Just feel the buzz and you're good to go.

Cleaning & Maintenance 6/10

The Crafty+ cooling unit is the same design as the Mighty+, which means the same cleaning reality.

The O-Ring Situation:

There are 8 O-rings. Eight. I've lost two down the sink drain during cleaning sessions. Ordered replacements, lost another one. They're small, they're slippery, and they will escape if you're not careful. Budget for spares.

Cleaning Timeline:

• After 10 bowls: Light residue, still fine
• After 20 bowls: Noticeable buildup, flavour starting to muddy
• After 30+ bowls: Proper teardown required, airflow restricted

It's not the worst cleaning experience — but it's fiddlier than simpler devices. The trade-off for excellent vapour cooling is maintenance overhead. The Veazy's smaller, simpler CU is genuinely easier to maintain.

The full teardown order, what never goes near alcohol, and a daily/weekly/monthly schedule are in the cleaning section of the owner's guide below →. Then swear you'll do it more often.

Portability 8/10

The Crafty+ was the most pocketable S&B portable until the Veazy arrived. It fits in a jacket pocket comfortably. Jeans are tighter — it works, but you know it's there.

Dimensions: 110mm × 57mm × 33mm at 135g

The Veazy is taller but slimmer — different pocket geometries for different people. The Crafty+ is the opposite: shorter but wider.

Stealth Factor: The matte black finish is stealthy enough. No bright colours, no obvious branding visible at a glance. It looks like a tech gadget, not explicitly a vaporiser — though anyone who knows will recognise it immediately.

The USB-C Advantage: Same charger as your phone. Charge from power banks, car chargers, laptop ports. No proprietary cable to forget at home.

For genuine everyday carry where you need S&B vapour quality, the Crafty+ remains a strong option. Just remember to charge it. Brighton energy — brilliant on the pitch, questionable fitness off it.

How I Actually Use This

Default Setup: App-controlled temperatures, starting at 180°C and stepping up in 5-10 degree increments through the session. Loose pack of roughly 0.2g — I find it vapes more evenly than fully packing the chamber. The whole ritual takes about 8 minutes from turn-on to spent chamber.

When I Reach For It: When I'm leaving the house and genuinely need portability. Jacket pocket carry for actual days out. Restaurant visits (back-garden sessions, not indoors — let's be clear). Days where the Mighty+ would feel like overkill but I still want S&B quality.

When I Don't: Home sessions belong to the Solo 3 v2 and the Mighty+. I'm not sitting on my sofa with the Crafty+ when I've got something bigger with better battery waiting. When the battery is below 20% I don't bother — those last 2-3 hits aren't worth the stress. And when I know I'll need more than 4-5 bowls, I leave it behind entirely.

Honest Cleaning Reality: Same cooling unit as the Mighty+, same resin buildup reality. I should clean every 20 bowls. I probably push 30 before I actually do it. The O-rings remain my nemesis.

Session Frequency: 2-3 times per week as a rotation piece, not a daily driver. It's my 'I need to leave the house and bring S&B quality' device. That frequency means battery management stays manageable — I'm not draining it daily, so the Tamagotchi problem stays theoretical rather than lived reality.

Medical Use Notes

For Pain Management: The Crafty+ serves specific medical needs when portable — same quality extraction as the Mighty+ in a device that fits in a pocket during appointments, errands, or days when leaving the house is the goal. The 170-degree temperature control matters for medical dosing. Not every strain responds the same at 180°C versus 190°C, and if you're managing symptoms rather than chasing novelty, that level of control becomes genuinely useful.

For ADHD/Focus: I use the Crafty+ for lower-temp microdose sessions with sativa-leaning strains when I need to be functional but away from home. The app remembers your last session temps, so consistency is built-in rather than guessed. The Veazy's 3-step system is simpler but less precise for dialling in ADHD-specific doses.

The Medical User's Concern: Battery reliability. If you depend on cannabis for pain management, a dead battery at an inconvenient moment isn't just annoying — it's a medical failure. And because there's no pass-through, a flat Crafty+ is a flat Crafty+ for the next ninety minutes. The Mighty+ or Venty solve this problem. The Crafty+ requires discipline: charge it every night, keep awareness of remaining capacity, have a backup plan. Doable, but requires thinking ahead more than other S&B portables.

Session Timing: From first draw to noticeable pain relief: about 3-5 minutes (faster than edibles, comparable to the Mighty+). Effects last 1-2 hours depending on strain and temperature. For a long pain-management evening, though, this isn't the device — you'll run the battery down before you're done, and you can't vape it on the cable while it recovers.

Value for Money 6.5/10

On price, the Crafty+ sits in an uncomfortable position — squeezed from above and below.

The Mighty+ Problem: The Mighty+ costs noticeably more and delivers dramatically better battery (6-8 bowls), an on-device screen, and the same vapour quality. If portability isn't essential, the Mighty+ is objectively better value.

The Venty Problem: The Venty solves every Crafty+ problem — 10-14 bowls, 20-second heat-up, best-in-class airflow — for a substantial step up in price.

What's Not in the Box: A case. At this price, for a device whose most fragile component is a cooling unit full of O-rings, S&B ship you the vaporiser, a cable and a filling aid — and expect you to buy protection separately. Every Crafty+ that lives in a bag needs a case, which pushes the real entry price up. It's a small thing, but it's the sort of small thing that costs a point on value when the Veazy is so close in price.

So who's it for? The person who specifically needs S&B vapour quality, single-degree precision, and genuine pocket carry. That person exists — but the Veazy, for only a little more, has narrowed the window considerably.

Would I buy it again? Honestly, I'd probably stretch to the Venty. But I don't regret owning the Crafty+ — it's served its role perfectly as the 'S&B quality in a jacket pocket' device. Brighton didn't need to win the league to be worth watching.

The Verdict: 75 Minutes of Brilliance

The Brighton bookend.

Brighton will never win the Premier League. The Crafty+ will never be the Mighty+. But for 75 minutes — for 4-5 bowls, for a day out, for genuine pocket carry — it'll outplay anything in its class.

Eighteen months in, the Crafty+ still lives in my rotation. Not as my daily driver — those roles go to the Solo 3 v2 and the Mighty+ at home, and the Venty when I want that wide-open airflow. But when I need S&B vapour quality in a jacket pocket with single-degree precision? The Crafty+ is what I reach for. I'll be honest about the battery life and even more honest about why I still use it despite the battery life: Stockholm syndrome is real.

The battery anxiety is real, and with no pass-through there's no way to vape around it. The Veazy has narrowed this device's audience considerably — better battery, slimmer profile, only a little more money. But the Crafty+ still makes vapour the Veazy can't match, from a solid metal heater the Veazy doesn't have, with 170 temperature degrees the Veazy can't offer. For the precision crowd, the trade-off is still worth it. You just need to be honest with yourself about whether you're that person — because for everyone else, the Veazy is the better buy.

Score Breakdown

Category	Score	One-Line Summary
Vapour Quality	9/10	Same heater as the Mighty+, slightly warmer draws from the smaller CU
Design & Build	8.5/10	Mighty+ DNA in a pocketable body — solid, functional, not pretty
Battery & Charging	6.5/10	The Achilles heel. 4-5 bowls. Sealed battery, no pass-through. Tamagotchi energy
Ease of Use	9/10	170-degree app precision, haptic feedback, dosing capsule ecosystem
Cleaning & Maintenance	6/10	8 O-rings. Resin trap CU. Budget 20 minutes every 20-30 bowls
Portability	8/10	Genuine jacket-pocket carry — wider than the Veazy, smaller than the Mighty+
Value for Money	6.5/10	The Veazy beats it on battery for a little more; the Venty solves every problem for a lot more
Overall	8.0/10	Brighton energy: brilliant when it's on the pitch, questionable fitness

Category average is 7.6. The 8.0 sits above it because the Crafty+ still makes fantastic vapour — same heater as the Mighty+, same extraction quality — and the 170-degree precision is unmatched at this size. But the battery holds it back, and the Veazy now beats it on real-world value: better battery life, slimmer profile, for a little more. The Crafty+ is still the right device for precision temperature steppers who need pocket carry. For everyone else, the window has narrowed considerably.

Vs the Competition

The uncomfortable comparison. The Veazy costs a little more, delivers better battery life (7-8 sessions vs 4-5 bowls), faster heat-up (40s vs 60s), and a slimmer profile. For most people, the Veazy wins. The Crafty+ only pulls ahead if you specifically want single-degree temperature control and slightly better vapour from the solid metal heater vs the Veazy's mesh. Established reliability data also favours the Crafty+ if you're risk-averse about newer devices. Full Veazy review → | Mighty+ vs Crafty+ →

Same vapour quality, same heater, same ecosystem — the Mighty+ is essentially the Crafty+ with a bigger battery and an on-device screen. The Mighty+ costs noticeably more and delivers 6-8 bowls per charge instead of 4-5. If portability isn't essential, the Mighty+ is objectively the better purchase. The Crafty+ only makes sense if you genuinely need the smaller size and are willing to live with battery anxiety. Full Mighty+ review → | Mighty+ vs Crafty+ →

The performance king. 10-14 bowls per charge, best-in-class airflow, narrower profile for pocket carry, full temperature control via built-in screen. There's almost no reason to buy a Crafty+ if you can stretch to a Venty, except price sensitivity. The Crafty+ is a lot cheaper and delivers adequate performance; the Venty delivers excellent performance. For daily users, the Venty's battery life solves the core Crafty+ problem. Full Venty review → | Mighty+ vs Venty →

Completely different philosophy. The TinyMight 2 is on-demand convection — near-instant heat, massive single hits, glass stem fragility — and it's considerably dearer. The Crafty+ is session-style hybrid heating — consistent, reliable, no technique required. The TinyMight 2 hits harder on individual draws; the Crafty+ delivers more even sessions. If you want raw power and don't mind learning a technique, TinyMight 2. If you want to press a button and get S&B consistency, Crafty+.

The one comparison people don't expect me to make, and the only one where the Crafty+ genuinely loses on flavour. The ArGo runs an all-glass vapour path — no plastic, no PEEK, nothing between the herb and your mouth but glass — and it tastes it. Terpenes come through purer and better separated than the Crafty+ manages, particularly on a fragile sativa like the Jack Herer. What it doesn't do is density: the ArGo's tiny bowl gives you concentrated espresso sips, not the thick, satisfying clouds the S&B heater produces. It's also far more technique-sensitive — draw too hard and you'll thin it out, where the Crafty+ forgives whatever you do to it. Battery goes to the ArGo too, because the 18650 cell is swappable, which is the whole problem the Crafty+ can't solve.

So: cheaper, better flavour purity, longer effective battery life, more work. The Crafty+ gives you bigger clouds, single-degree control and a device you don't have to think about. If you're a flavour purist on a budget, the ArGo is the honest recommendation. If you want to press a button and get vapour, it's the Crafty+. Full ArGo review →

Owner's Guide: Getting the Most From Your Crafty+

Everything above is whether to buy one. This bit is for once you have. Almost every complaint I read from new owners — "the vapour is weak", "it keeps turning itself off", "the battery is useless" — is a technique or settings problem with a fix that takes under two minutes. Here are those fixes, in the order you'll need them.

First Use and Setup

Do these in order. Don't skip step two, however keen you are.

1. Charge it fully. It ships part-charged. Use the supplied USB-C cable and a proper 5V wall plug — a laptop port will crawl. Roughly 90 minutes from flat, most of it in the first half hour. A fast PD charger won't speed things up; the Crafty+ only draws what it wants.
2. Run two burn-off cycles. Empty chamber, cooling unit fitted. Switch on, triple-click to Superbooster (210°C) and let it run until it shuts itself off. Do it again. This drives the factory smell out of the chamber and cooling unit. Skip it and your first bowl tastes of hot machinery. If a rubbery note lingers, pull the O-rings, rinse them in hot water, dry, refit and run a third.
3. Change the auto-shutoff. Out of the box it switches off after two minutes of inactivity, which is far too short for a session with any conversation in it. Pair it to the S&B Web App and push it to five minutes. This one change fixes the most common new-owner frustration.
4. Press the button, then load. Heat-up from cold is about a minute. Start the heat first and grind while it climbs — the device buzzes to confirm it's on, and buzzes again with a green LED when it's at temperature.
5. Draw slowly. Fifteen seconds, gentle, like sipping tea that's slightly too hot. Watch the LED. Keep it green.

Two things nobody tells you. First, the temperature you set is chamber temperature, not what reaches your mouth — the PEEK cooling unit strips a huge amount of heat out of the vapour on the way through, which is why 210°C sounds alarming and feels fine. Our temperature guide explains why numbers don't compare cleanly between devices. Second, take the herb out when you're done. A heated load left sitting in the chamber goes stale and gums the screens. Empty it, tip the ABV into a tin (here's what to do with it), and your cooling unit will thank you a fortnight from now.

Controls, in full: press to switch on (it starts heating straight away to your base temperature — 180°C out of the box), double-click for Booster (+15°C), triple-click for Superbooster (210°C), press and hold to switch off. A brief press mid-session resets the shutoff timer. Red LED means heating, green means ready.

Dennis's Golden Rule: Sip it, don't rip it. If the LED flips from green to red while you're inhaling, you're drawing too fast. Slow down and the vapour comes back.

Loading and Technique

Grind medium. Coarse sea salt or ground coffee, every time. The Crafty+ heats by conduction at rest and convection on the draw — convection needs air gaps between particles, conduction needs contact with the chamber wall, and medium is the only texture that serves both. Too fine and it mats, blocks the screens or drops into the heater assembly. Too coarse and you get dry pockets that never cook. More in our herb prep guide.

Fill to the rim, tamp once, lightly. The flat end of the filling aid is the right tool; your thumb isn't. Over-packing is the second most common new-owner mistake after drawing too hard — it restricts airflow, cooks the top layer and leaves the bottom green.

The 0.20g habit. The chamber takes 0.25g, but I load about 0.20g. It vapes more evenly, stays consistent from first draw to last, and you get more bowls per charge because the heater isn't pushing through a dense load. Try a fortnight at 0.20g before deciding what a "proper" load looks like.

Dosing capsules. Drop-in steel cups holding roughly 0.10–0.15g. They keep the chamber dramatically cleaner and turn "fill a bowl" into "drop a cup in". If the Crafty+ is leaving the house, pre-fill capsules at home — faffing with a grinder in a beer garden is nobody's idea of discreet, and it wastes battery you don't have spare. Half-fill one at 175–185°C for a proper micro-dose that still behaves like a real bowl.

The knack is the draw. Come to this from combustion and you'll pull hard and fast. The Crafty+ punishes it: a fast draw pulls heat out of the chamber faster than a single-battery heater can replace it, the LED flips to red, and the vapour thins to nothing. The new owner concludes the device is weak. It isn't. If the LED goes red mid-inhale, actually stop for a second, let the element catch up, then carry on. Two or three sessions and it's automatic.

Learn the buzzes. One on start, another when it's ready. My mate Dave picked mine up off the table mid-heat-up, felt the ready-buzz land in his hand and put it down convinced the session was over. The ready-buzz means begin. When the session's done the device just goes quiet and dark after the timer runs out.

Don't stir mid-session. On some devices it's essential. On this one it dumps the chamber heat you just spent battery on and rarely improves extraction. The temperature ladder below does the job stirring is meant to do.

Temperature Settings

The Crafty+ runs 40–210°C. On the device you get three steps; the app unlocks single-degree control across the whole range. For most people, the three steps are all you'll ever need.

Setting	What you get	When to use it
160–175°C (app only)	Barely visible vapour, maximum flavour	One or two opening draws on a fresh bowl of something bright and citrusy
180°C — base (factory default)	Balanced flavour and effect	Where most of your session lives: the first four or five draws
195°C — Booster (double-click)	Denser vapour, fuller effect, flavour still there	When 180°C perceptibly thins out; two or three draws
210°C — Superbooster (triple-click)	Thickest vapour, flavour mostly gone	Finishing the bowl; one or two draws, then tip it out

The three-step ladder. Start at 180°C and take four or five draws. When the vapour thins — you'll feel it before you see it — double-click to Booster and take two or three more. When that thins, triple-click to Superbooster for a final one or two. Then stop and empty the chamber. Nine or ten draws is a full Crafty+ bowl, which lines up with what the strain test above found on the app-controlled run. If you're regularly getting fewer, you're over-packing or drawing too fast. Don't chase an eleventh draw from a spent bowl — it tastes like a bonfire.

Adjusting for the strain. Bright, terpinolene- or limonene-led flower (the Jack Herer end of things) gives its best draws at 180°C and rewards a slow start; with the app, drop to 170°C for one opening draw. Heavy myrcene-led indica material is often muted at 180°C and doesn't open until 190–195°C — there's no shame in starting at Booster and skipping the base step entirely. You'll use a bit more battery and get a better bowl. The temperature guide goes deeper on what comes off where.

Getting More Out of the Battery

The battery reality is covered in the review above: 4-5 bowls, sealed cell, no pass-through. What you can control is how many of those bowls you actually get.

• Load 0.20g or use capsules. Less mass to heat, more bowls per charge.
• Don't idle at temperature. The five-minute timer is a convenience, not a target. Pausing for more than a couple of minutes? Let it shut down and reheat.
• Climb, don't camp. Stepping from 180°C to 210°C at the end is cheap; running the whole bowl at 210°C is not.
• Carry a power bank, not a second device. A 10,000 mAh pack in the bag gives you a couple of full recharges. It's the single most effective fix for this device's only real limitation.
• Treat 20% as a warning. The last couple of draws are stressful and rarely good. Charge it.

Flying: the single 18650 cell works out at roughly 10.4 watt-hours, well under the 100 Wh carry-on limit. Carry-on only, never hold luggage, device fully off. Herb is a separate question, and the destination's laws are your problem, not the airline's.

The App and Bluetooth

No screen means the S&B Web App is how you get at anything beyond the three steps: single-degree control from 40–210°C, a real battery percentage (the LED alone is next to useless for planning), auto-shutoff from 1 to 5 minutes, LED brightness, and a find-my-device buzz that has genuinely found mine down the side of a sofa.

Android is straightforward: the S&B app from the Play Store, or app.storz-bickel.com in Chrome. Grant location permission — Android needs it for Bluetooth scanning; it's a platform quirk, not S&B being nosy. iPhone is the friction point. Apple pulled vaporiser apps from the App Store in late 2022, so you need a Bluetooth-capable browser such as Bluefy or WebBLE, then app.storz-bickel.com through that. It works reliably once it's set up; do it on day one rather than when you urgently want to change a setting.

Do you need it? Not day to day. Set the shutoff to five minutes, nudge the LED brightness down and most owners never open it again. It earns its keep if you need one exact temperature repeatably or you're experimenting below 180°C. And don't go looking for firmware updates: the Crafty+ doesn't get them. Nothing's wrong; there's simply nothing to update.

Cleaning Schedule

The review scores cleaning 6/10 for a reason: eight O-rings in a cooling unit that's brilliant at trapping resin. The schedule below is what keeps it from becoming a chore.

When	What to do	Why
Daily (after every session)	Empty the chamber. While still warm, run a cotton bud dampened with 91%+ isopropyl alcohol round the chamber and across the underside of the cooling unit's mesh. Twenty seconds.	Warm resin wipes off like butter; cold resin needs a soak. This habit alone stretches teardowns from every ten bowls to thirty-plus
Weekly (or every 15–30 bowls)	Full cooling unit teardown and soak (steps below)	Draw resistance climbing or flavour going muddy means it's due
Monthly	Check the screens and all eight O-rings for wear; replace anything tired or flattened. Wipe the outside and the charging port	Screens and O-rings are consumables — expect to swap them every few months with regular use

Clean the chamber with the device upside down. Alcohol running into the heater assembly is one of the few ways to genuinely damage a Crafty+.

The full teardown:

1. Unscrew the cooling unit from the device.
2. Separate the top and bottom halves, remove the mouthpiece and push the screens out.
3. Soak everything except the O-rings and the holographic cap lock in 91%+ isopropyl alcohol for at least two hours.
4. Brush the mesh screens.
5. O-rings get hot water only — alcohol degrades the rubber over time and they perish early.
6. The cap lock never sees alcohol. It dissolves the hologram's adhesive, and that hologram is how you tell a genuine unit from a fake.
7. Rinse everything in hot water and dry completely.
8. Reassemble, then run one burn-off cycle before loading. Residual alcohol tastes appalling.

Not losing the O-rings: clean over a white towel on a flat surface, never next to an open drain, and count all eight before you start and after you finish. Keep a spare seal ring set in the drawer — the day you need one, you'll need it urgently. Our cleaning guide covers the chemistry if you want it.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Likely cause	Fix
Vapour thin or weak	Drawing too fast; LED flipping red mid-inhale	Slow, 15-second draws. Pause when it goes red, resume when green
Switches itself off mid-session	Default 2-minute auto-shutoff	Set 5 minutes in the app; tap the button during pauses to reset the timer
Draw getting tight	Resin in the cooling unit	Full teardown and two-hour soak; warm-swab after every session to delay the next one
Tastes of plastic	Burn-off skipped or incomplete	Two Superbooster cycles on an empty chamber; hot-water rinse the O-rings if it persists
Tastes burnt	Grind too fine at 210°C, reheating spent herb, or a gummed-up cooling unit	Coarsen the grind, start at 180°C, empty the chamber between sessions, strip the cooling unit
Green at the bottom, done at the top	Chamber over-packed	Fill level with the rim, one light tamp, no compression
Heat-up slower than usual	Low battery or a cold device	Normal. Charge it, or let a device from a cold coat pocket warm up
Won't pair with an iPhone	No native iOS app since late 2022	Use a Bluetooth browser (Bluefy or WebBLE) and open app.storz-bickel.com
Won't pair with Android	Bluetooth scanning needs location permission	Grant location, close other S&B app instances, power-cycle the device and keep it close
Cooling unit won't seat flush	O-ring missing or misaligned	Count all eight, check the grooves, fit a spare if one's gone
Down to 2–3 bowls a charge	Cell wear, usually in year two	Open a warranty case with S&B while you're inside the two years
No LED, no buzz, nothing	Deeply discharged cell, or a fault	Two hours on a wall charger before concluding anything; then warranty

Still stuck? Our general fault-finding guide covers what goes wrong across every device.

Warranty — read this properly. The Crafty+ carries S&B's standard 2-year warranty and is excluded from the extra year you get by registering a Mighty+, Venty or Volcano. If anyone tells you otherwise about this specific device, they're wrong. Register it at storz-bickel.com anyway: it establishes your purchase date and makes a claim far smoother. That matters here more than on any other S&B, because the part with a clock on it — the sealed battery — tends to fade right around the edge of that window. Watch your bowls-per-charge through year two, and if you're down to three, open a case then rather than waiting. Don't try a DIY cell swap: the shell doesn't survive being opened, and you'll destroy a working device.

Storing it: upright, room temperature, out of sunlight, chamber empty, and at around half charge rather than full or flat if it's going to sit for a while.

Parts and Accessories That Fit

• A second cooling unit — buy this first. Rotate them: when one gets gummy, swap in the clean one and let the dirty one soak at your leisure. Cleaning stops being an event.
• Dosing capsules — a magazine of eight for pre-loading, a capsule caddy for carrying, and the filling set for 40 if you're all-in. Same capsules as the Mighty+, Venty and Veazy.
• Seal ring set — you will lose an O-ring. Have the spares before you do. The wear & tear set bundles the consumables.
• Screen set — screens are consumables; keep a set in the drawer.
• Crafty Plus case — it should have been in the box. The cooling unit is the fragile bit, and a loose Crafty+ in a bag will find something to knock against.
• Stainless steel cooling unit — less plastic in the vapour path and far easier to clean; a metal unit takes a soak and a scrub without any of the care the PEEK one needs. The best upgrade there is if plastic notes bother you.
• Water pipe adapters — the 14mm or 18mm S&B adapter onto a glass piece makes 205–210°C genuinely smooth. Home tool, not a carry tool. Skip cheap universal adapters — the cooling unit's locking ring is precise and they can strip it.
• Skip replacement batteries and teardown kits (use the warranty) and concentrate pads if you're a flower user — it handles them technically and badly.

More general advice in our accessories guide.