Arcwave Ion: Sex Toy Review

The Toy: Arcwave Ion

The Verdict: (out of five)

Welcome to the flagship product of the brand new Arcwave company. A subsidiary of WOW Tech (which makes We-Vibe and Womanizer, so they know a thing or two about good sex toys!), Arcwave is a brand new company focused on penis pleasures. Their first product, the Arcwave Ion, is what we're focusing on today for our Arcwave Ion review.

And what a flagship product it is. The Arcwave Ion doesn't depend on the overdone "squishy fake vagina with some ridging" design. The Arcwave Ion goes above-and-beyond the standard penis masturbation sleeve design to try out something entirely new. Literally - this has never been done before.

What is that sensation? It's called Pleasure Air. It's the same basic concept that the Womanizer toys are based on - and that the We-Vibe Melt uses. Once the toy is in place, Pleasure Air technology gently "sucks" the skin using the power of suction (and physics!) This sensation offers something entirely different from vibrations, and in the case of the Arcwave Ion, the Pleasure Air technology is focused right on the frenulum - the most sensitive part of the entire penis. (The frenulum has even been used as THE spot to stimulate in order get an orgasm from people who have never orgasmed before ).

While offering a brand new type of sensation, that isn't where the never-seen-before-in-penis-toys features end. The Arcwave Ion comes jampacked with features that are entirely unheard of in penis masturbation toys. For just a peek of some of the best:

Smart Silence: There's no reason to listen to the noise of a sex toy when you aren't using it, and the equipped Smart Silence feature makes that possible. Similar to the features found in the Womanizer Premium, this function automatically turns the toy off when it isn't making contact with the penis. Not only does this reduce the noise level of the Arcwave Ion, but it also makes it a great choice if discretion is of the utmost importance. This feature can be turned off if desired.

Twist-to-Clean: Getting at the Pleasure Air crevice to clean it can be difficult when the silicone sleeve in the way. Arcwave solved this by its equipped Twist-to-Clean function. It's exactly how it sounds. When you're done using the Arcwave Ion, you apply pressure to both sides while twisting - and the electronic parts remove from the waterproof sleeve. This means you can easily clean both sides separately. When you're done, just press them back together again.

DryTech: Within the storage base, there's a small, cylindrical tube that slides into the penis sleeve when it's placed into the base. This hollow tube is removable - and you can slide DryTech packets into it. These DryTech packets (essentially silica) remove moisture from the Arcwave Ion while it's sitting in its charging base to keep the Ion in tip-top shape.

Charging Base: The storage base for the Arcwave Ion also functions as a charging base. The charging cord lays flat underneath the Arcwave Ion's storage base, and the storage base sits flat with the cord attached. The charging lights built into the front of the Arcwave Ion will always let you know how charged the Ion is - all while the lid is still on and everything is still discreetly hidden. (To remove the lid, buttons on both sides of the case must be pressed simultaneously - reducing any accidental discoveries by wandering hands.)

Now that you know about some of the coolest parts of this innovative toy, let's explore how well they worked - and dig into the deeper parts of the Arcwave Ion review.

How'd You Use It?

The Arcwave Ion feels "elevated" from the standard penis masturbation strokers. Most of this is from the features that it includes. It goes well above-and-beyond standard penis stroker and penis vibrator sex toy features. A small part of that "elevation" is the sensation itself. It's a very peculiar (and very different!) sensation to use a stationary penis toy versus the standard up-and-down stroking motion of most penis strokers.

I let my partner try it a few times on his own - and then we tried it quite a few times together. Here is our story:

It's different. It's very different. He says it's not even possible to compare it to Fleshlights and other penis stroking sleeves because it provides an entirely different sensation that isn't in the same wheelhouse. (I imagine it's similar to how difficult I'd find it to compare air suction clitoral stimulators to regular wand-style vibrators).

He says the sensation is really comprised of two different sensations. The biggest selling point of the Arcwave Ion is the Pleasure Air suction sensation on the frenulum.

The Pleasure Air Suction: This is pretty much the big selling point of the Arcwave Ion. If you've ever used an air suction toy like the Womanizer Duo or the Satisfyer Love Triangle, you know the exact type of sensation that the Pleasure Air suction spot provides. It's a gentle suction. This suction happens to be on the frenulum, and he was surprised how pleasurable it was when placed just on one spot. There was no need to "move" the toy to reach orgasm. With it in the spot, that gentle tug against that pleasure spot was all he needed to get off.

One of the biggest things he was surprised by was how important it was to find "the spot". Again, as someone with a vagina and clitoris who has loved air suction toys for years now, it was always hard to explain to him how important it was that the toy stayed in ONE PLACE once we found that place. Now he understands.

It took him a lot of trial and error to find the "sweet spot" to place the Arcwave Ion. Many of the spots felt relatively neutral, and he found one spot on his shaft where it was painful to use the Ion. But when he found the "right" area, he says his entire penis lit up with pleasure. It was an instant "on" switch when the Ion found the right spot, and he could instantly feel that it was a spot that was going to be orgasmic. He says the "neutral" spots still felt okay, but they didn't compare to the pleasure of the sweet spot. That's where the magic happens.

Sensation two is the reverberations around the shaft that the Pleasure Air suction's mechanisms cause. These reverberations follow the wiggly silicone material, and they essentially "envelop" the entire shaft in this sensation. It isn't vibration.

He says he'd compare it to the "thrumming" sensation on my Lora DiCarlo Baci and my Lora DiCarlo Ose 2. It feels deep, beneath-the-surface, and very, very good. And as long as the Pleasure Air suction portion is turned on and your penis is inserted into the Arcwave Ion, those deep, thrumming sensations surround the entire shaft. (I just asked him for added feedback, and he just says "Those are A+. Absolutely A+. They're a big part of what "makes" the toy.")

He does note that, while he loves the sensations of the Arcwave Ion, sometimes there are times where he just doesn't feel like it's the right sensation for the day. Sometimes, he says, he'd really rather the physical experience of stroking up and down and putting more effort into the sensation; he said it can be stress-relieving in a way that the Arcwave Ion doesn't necessarily replicate since it is a stationary toy.

He does say that he finds himself leaning more towards the Arcwave Ion for days when he's really tired and the idea of a reliably intense orgasm with minimal effort sounds amazing. He loves having both options for how he's feeling on any specific day.

One thing we were NOT prepared for was the noise! There's a reason that the Arcwave Ion includes a Smart Silence feature - and it's because the Arcwave Ion is extremely, shockingly loud when it isn't smothered against a penis.

Smart Silence solves this issue since the toy automatically turns off anytime it doesn't feel pressure against the Pleasure Air. So with the Smart Silence turned on (which is default for the toy), you'll never hear the loudness, and the purr of the Arcwave Ion, when pressed against the penis, is only about 20% of the total loudness when it isn't pressed against something.

However, my partner doesn't have a completely straight penis - just like lots of other penis-owners out there. This means that the completely straight design of the Arcwave Ion never quite fit his penis anatomy. Since it doesn't offer any side-to-side flexibility (just width flexibility), this required inserting himself into the Ion penis masturbator at an angle every time. This angle rarely triggered the Smart Silence feature to activate the Pleasure Air function. He spent multiple masturbation sessions attempting to "trick" the Smart Silence into actually turning on the Pleasure Air functions, and he was damn-relieved when I told him that the Smart Silence feature could be turned off.

And with the feature turned off, he loved the Arcwave Ion even more. Before, when he spent time trying to "trick" it into working, he enjoyed it when it worked, but it usually turned itself off before he could "make it" anywhere. With the Smart Silence turned off, the toy was occasionally a bit louder, but it was always functioning, and within seconds, he was close to orgasm.

Turns out that it wasn't a party trick either. On every subsequent use, with the Arcwave Ion positioned in that "just right" spot, he could easily climb to orgasm with no movement at less than a minute - as long as Smart Silence was off so the toy would reliably stay on. (We timed it once for my entertainment. It took 28 seconds from start to finish.)

We actually haven't even used the Arcwave Ion past its 50% power settings. It's more-than-powerful enough at the lower settings, and he's never wanted to try anything stronger. So it definitely has a ton of power packed into this silicone sex toy's body!

On all of our trials with dildos and fingers, the Arcwave Ion Smart Silence works perfectly and flawlessly. As long the penis/object is straight, it seems to activate the Smart Silence as intended. If your penis has a natural curve to it, though, I'd expect to need to turn off Smart Silence to have a more reliable sexual experience.

How Else Could It Be Used?

While we've done most of our tests leaving the Arcwave Ion stationary during use (as designed), there's no reason that you can't stroke with the Arcwave Ion. "Stroke" is a loose term, though. In order to keep the suction going with the proper spot, you can't pull the Ion too far away from the spot on the penis. So, you can "stroke", but it's essentially micro-strokes that really only move the Arcwave Ion a couple millimeters at a time. That's more than enough to feel the internal ribbing rubbing on the penis, though, and if you can keep the Arcwave Ion in the proper spot while also doing these small strokes, it's been an instant orgasm every time we've tried it. He says it triples the pleasure of the suction alone - and I have to imagine part of it is because it's a sensation that his penis is used to. (And then he tells me to stop reading so much into everything, so okay.)

The Arcwave Ion could certainly become a couple's toy (with me using it on him), but on our trials for that, we've found that it was hard for me to find the "exact spot" where the toy felt orgasmic - and keep it there. I've generally preferred some of our more active strokers for coupled sex toy use, but he keeps pulling out the Arcwave Ion for solo use - and I love watching him use it on himself too.

Since the Arcwave Ion seems to work just fine (and designed to be that way!) if you just hold it in place and use it that way, it feels like it would lend itself well to hands-free orgasms. In practice, we haven't been able to find a way to anchor the Arcwave Ion reliably against the body to keep it in the proper place to cause hands-free orgasms. It definitely causes those "effortless" orgasms as long as it's in the right spot, but our attempts to leave it in that spot without hands have been unsuccessful so far. But if you were otherwise occupied (like touching your partner), the Arcwave Ion requires no real movement once you get it into the proper spot, so as long as you have a single hand available, it could be used for pleasure while you're pleasuring your partner - especially if the position makes it hard to move your hand/body in a stroking motion.

Product Details

The Arcwave Ion was designed to fit a wide variety of penis sizes through two specific design choices: an open-ended design and the stretchy silicone.

The open-ended design will allow you to use the Arcwave Ion no matter your penis length. Since the toy primarily focuses on the frenulum area, penis length isn't a huge deciding factor for using the Arcwave Ion anyway.

The second part - the stretchy silicone - is a bit more unique and requires a few more words. If you look at the Arcwave Ion, you'll see that the silicone portion forms a cylinder around where the penis should go. The two base sides of silicone closest to the plastic, thicker-half of the Arcwave Ion are much more rigid. They don't provide much stretch or flexibility, but even if you have a large penis, they don't seem like they'd press into the skin too badly, based on the tests on my fingers.

All of the silicone past the part that connects closest to the plastic/thick base is much, much more flexible, though. It can easily fold in on itself, and it can easily stretch around a thick penis. And when I say "stretch", I mean "stretch". If you had a 2.5" diameter penis, it would be tight, but it would fit. (We tried it on one of our dildos). Since the silicone "rests" at a pretty average size, though, the sleeve still feels snug (and requires lube to get into it) with smaller penises as well. It's a very flexible type of design that should allow for a wide range of penis sizes to fit into it - aside from the "curved penis" issue mentioned above.

While the Arcwave Ion was designed mainly for stationary use its internal chamber is still equipped with some texture. Throughout the entire shaft, there is not-so-subtle ridging. Near the tip (by where the frenulum is), you'll see an open area/hole where the Pleasure Air function does its magic.

If you use those micro-strokes we talked about earlier, the ridging does make a difference and definitely adds some pleasure. It also adds some pleasure during insertion as well - and would allow you to use the Arcwave Ion as a semi-regular "stroker" without the Pleasure Air function if that's how you're feeling that day.

As mentioned above, the noise level of the Arcwave Ion isn't quiet. The Smart Silence helps reduce a lot of the noise. With Smart Silence on, you'll only hear the quieted version of the motor when it's pressed against the penis. With Smart Silence on, you can use the Arcwave Ion in a home with other people present - but with the door closed and decent noise going on within the household.

Without Smart Silence on, I highly recommend leaving the Arcwave Ion as a solo toy to be used only when you have the house to yourself (or, at least, everyone else is multiple rooms away). It's definitely not a quiet toy if you need to turn off Smart Silence for long periods of time, but with Smart Silence activated, it stays well-within the regular realm of acceptable sex toy noise.

Power-wise, the Arcwave Ion puts out quite a bit of power - more than we've ever needed to use to achieve orgasm. We've attempted to turn it up past half-power a few times, but he warns it'll be an instant orgasm as soon as we do. Needless to say, the Arcwave Ion packs quite a bit of power - even if it isn't in the type of sensations that you're "used to" considering powerful.

As long as your penis shape works with the design of the Arcwave Ion and your frenulum loves the suction sensations, I would imagine the power level of the suction and resulting thrumming is more-than-enough for most people.

How It Works

The Pleasure Air function works via the power of suction. Much like the air suction vibrators that have taken the world by storm for the past few years, the Arcwave Ion, when settled into the right place, forms a gentle "seal" against the skin. Once this "seal" is formed, the suction continues to pulse and gently suck against the skin. This gentle suction is where the bulk of the Pleasure Air sensations come from - in addition to the full-shaft sensations from the humming motor that we talked about earlier.

To get to enjoying that part, though, you need to know how to operate the Arcwave Ion. First off, there are three buttons on the shaft of the Arcwave Ion. They are the Smart Silence button, the + button, and the - button. Each one of these buttons is easily accessible with a thumb while holding the Arcwave Ion. Each one presses down easily with a satisfying "click" when pressed.

To turn on the vibrator, press and hold the + button for one second until the device rumbles. Now it's on. Honestly, I spent a long time trying to figure out if the toy was on or not - because despite being "on", the Smart Silence will keep the toy entirely quiet and motionless until the penis is inserted into the Arcwave Ion. Don't be as dense as me - just try using the toy to watch the Arcwave Ion roar to life - instead of spending 15 minutes trying to troubleshoot why it wasn't "on".

Once the toy is on, you can insert your penis into the Arcwave Ion. You can then adjust how intense the sensations are by the + and - buttons right there on the shaft.

While you're inside of the Arcwave Ion, you can use your thumb on the thin silicone to press the shaft of your penis more firmly (or less firmly) into the Pleasure Air area. It's entirely up to you, and this thinner silicone allows you to apply the pressure necessary for you to get the most from the Pleasure Air sensations.

If you're someone who tends to use a lot of lube, excess lube can build up around the sensor and make it hard for the sensor to function. You may need to slide a finger in and wipe the Pleasure Air area clean of lube if you have a lot of lube build-up.

When you're done, pressing and holding the - button will cause the Arcwave Ion to turn off. Simple, right?

The Arcwave Ion is equipped with a stand-by turn off mode. If you turn the toy on and don't insert anything into it for three minutes, it will turn itself back off to conserve battery while in Smart Silence mode. This is to reduce the likelihood that you drain the entire battery when accidentally leaving the toy on after use. (Post-orgasm brain can definitely be spacy!)

Turning the Smart Silence function on or off is as simple as holding down the Smart Silence button that lives right next to the + and - buttons. When the button is glowing, Smart Silence is activated - and holding down the button will turn off Smart Silence. Turning off Smart Silence means that the toy will operate constantly - regardless of whether it senses an object against the sensor or not.

Materials and Care

The Arcwave Ion is made from ABS plastic and silicone. Everything that your penis will touch is made from silicone. The thick half of the toy is all made from a slightly-textured plastic. If you look at product pictures, you can see where the material changes. Like all pure silicone, it's entirely taste-free and odor-free. It's really just a fantastic substance (and I'm glad that the Arcwave Ion found a way to make silicone really hospitable for a penis sleeve!)

Cleaning the Arcwave Ion is fantastically easy with its Twist-to-Open feature. With a (decent bit) of pressure while twisting, the electronic parts (the thick base) comes apart from the silicone sleeve. This means you can easily wash both ends separately - and both are waterproof. It's much easier to clean the deep crevice of the Pleasure Air hole with the silicone sleeve not attached directly on top of it. I generally have to use a washcloth or towel to spot clean the electronic half as necessary (lube and bodily fluids), but this allows the bulk of the cleaning (in the sleeve) to be done under running water without a care in the world.