If you went looking for the Arcwave Ion recently, you probably ended up somewhere unexpected. As of September 2026, Arcwave’s own US product URL for the Ion redirects to the Ion 2, and the original Ion no longer appears in Arcwave’s US men’s catalogue.

That leaves a lot of people in the same position: they read about a specific device, decided it sounded right, and now have to pick again from a shelf that has quietly rearranged itself.

This guide is for that moment. It covers what actually changed, the five questions worth answering before you buy anything in this category, and an honest side-by-side of the main options — including where each one costs you more than the sticker price suggests.

What changed with the Ion

Two things are worth knowing.

The original Ion has been replaced by the Ion 2. Arcwave’s US Ion page now redirects, and the Ion 2 lists at $169. The core idea is unchanged: this is a Pleasure Air device, using pulsating air pressure at the frenulum rather than a motor that strokes or thrusts. The Ion 2 adds an “Autopilot” setting with randomised patterns.

The drying base is no longer in the box. The original Ion shipped with its DryTech charging and drying base. The Ion 2’s “in the box” list is the masturbator, a storage pouch, and a magnetic charging cable. The storage base is now sold separately at $69.90, and a replacement CleanTech silicone sleeve runs $79.90.

That second point matters more than it sounds, and it is the thread running through this whole comparison.

Five questions before you buy

1. What kind of motion do you actually want?

“Automatic stroker” covers at least three unrelated sensations, and they are not interchangeable.

•             Air pulse (Arcwave Ion / Ion 2) — no stroking motion at all. Air pressure waves focused on one small area. People who love it tend to love it specifically; people who expected a stroking sensation are often surprised.

•             Thrusting or stroking (Lovense Solace and Solace Pro, Kiiroo Keon) — a motor moves a sleeve up and down the shaft. Closest to a hands-free version of manual motion.

•             Spin and suction (Sauce’s Extra Sauce) — the sleeve rotates and simulates contraction rather than travelling the length of the shaft.

Read reviews for the sensation category first, not the brand. A glowing review of an air-pulse device tells you nothing about whether you’ll like a thruster.

2. Do you want an app in the loop?

Some devices in this category are built around a phone app; some treat it as optional; some don’t have one at all.

The Arcwave Ion has no app and no Bluetooth — physical buttons only. Kiiroo states plainly that the Keon includes a fully offline manual mode that controls stroke speed and length on the device itself, no app or internet required. Lovense’s Solace line is built around app and remote control, though it has onboard controls too.

If you care about not pairing an intimate device to a phone — for privacy reasons, or just because you don’t want to unlock a phone mid-session — check this before anything else. Our app-controlled sex toy buying guide goes deeper on what app connectivity does and doesn’t cost you.

3. How loud is it, and can you find out before buying?

If you live with housemates, family, or thin walls, this is often the deciding factor — and it’s the hardest number to get.

Here’s the honest state of the category: none of Arcwave, Kiiroo or Lovense publishes a decibel figure for these devices on their own product pages. Arcwave markets a “Smart Silence” feature instead, which stops stimulation when the device isn’t in contact with skin — a useful feature, but not a volume measurement. Everything else you’ll read is a reviewer’s subjective impression, and those contradict each other: the same review blog calls the original Lovense Solace “loud… quite mechanical” and the Solace Pro “one of the quietest I’ve used.”

So treat any specific dB number you see attributed to these devices with suspicion unless the manufacturer published it.

For our own device, we measured 48 dB on Extra Sauce. Here are the conditions, because a decibel figure without them is close to meaningless:

•             Quiet indoor room

•             Sound level meter 30 cm from the device

•             Spin and suction running together, at maximum power

•             Airflow sticker intact (it’s part of a patented noise-reduction design, so pulling it off makes the device louder)

That last condition is the one to notice. It’s the loudest the device gets — not a flattering low setting. For scale, ordinary conversation sits around 60 dB and a quiet room around 40 dB, so 48 dB at full tilt is closer to a refrigerator hum than to a voice.

Two caveats we’d rather state than bury. It’s our own measurement, not an independent lab’s. And because nobody else in this table publishes a figure, it is not a comparison — we can’t tell you we’re quieter than an Ion 2, only what ours measures. Change the room, the distance, or the surface it’s resting on and you’ll get a different number; that’s true of any device.

Also worth knowing: a motor-driven device changes pitch under load, and mechanical noise is often more noticeable than its raw volume suggests. If discretion is your priority, ask a retailer for a measured figure and the conditions it was measured under. A vendor who has both will tell you.

4. How does it get clean, and how long does it take to dry?

This is the single most underrated spec in the category, and it is where enthusiasm goes to die.

Ask three things: does the sleeve come out, can the body get wet, and how long until it’s usable again?

The Arcwave Ion’s sleeve twists out and both the sleeve and body are rated IPX7, so they can be fully submerged; Arcwave’s drying system uses a silica pack that needs periodic regeneration in a microwave. Kiiroo is explicit in the other direction — the Keon stroker sleeve washes separately, but the Keon unit itself is not waterproof and should only be wiped with a slightly damp cloth. Extra Sauce works the same way: the cup washes on its own, the motor body gets a damp cloth and nothing more.

One step people skip, and it matters on any device where a sleeve seats inside a motor housing: the sleeve has to be completely dry before it goes back in. Towel it thoroughly or let it air dry. Reinserting a damp sleeve traps moisture against electronics and gives mould somewhere to start.

That’s also the practical argument for a cheap spare. A device with a removable, washable sleeve and a $20 replacement is a device you’ll actually keep using, because you’re never waiting on one sleeve to dry.

5. What does it cost over two years, not two minutes?

Sleeves are consumables. They wear, they discolour, they eventually need replacing. The price of that replacement varies enormously, and almost nobody checks it before buying.

“App?” — None means no app or Bluetooth exists; Optional means Kiiroo states the Keon has a fully offline manual mode; Central means app and remote control are the primary interface, though onboard controls also exist. Kiiroo’s $209 price is a sale price. Extra Sauce’s 48 dB is our own measurement, taken 30 cm from the device in a quiet room with spin and suction running at maximum power; different conditions give different readings. Prices verified from each manufacturer’s own site on 20 September 2026 and subject to change. Lovense’s product page did not return published specification figures we could independently verify, so we’ve left those cells for you to check at the source rather than repeat numbers from third-party listings. “Not published” means the manufacturer states no decibel figure on its own product page — it is not a claim that those devices are loud.

The sticker price tells you what a replacement costs. What it doesn’t tell you is how often you’ll be buying one — and that’s the number that actually decides your annual spend.

Here’s the awkward part: almost nobody in this category publishes a sleeve service life. Not Arcwave, not Kiiroo, not Lovense. So you can compare $79.90 against $69 against $20 and still have no idea what any of them costs you per use.

We publish ours, so at least one row of this table can be worked out properly. A Sauce Cup is rated for roughly 30 to 50 uses with proper care — warm water and a mild cleanser or plain water, water-based lubricant only, dried completely before storage, and never a hair dryer. At $20, that’s somewhere between 40 and 67 cents a use. Heat, harsh cleansers or the wrong lubricant will cut it well short of that, which is why the care instructions aren’t boilerplate.

We can’t run that calculation for the Ion 2, the Keon or the Solace Pro, because the information doesn’t exist publicly. That’s not us claiming their sleeves wear out faster — it’s us pointing out that you’re being asked to buy a consumable without being told how consumable it is. Ask before you commit.

Where Extra Sauce fits

We make the Extra Sauce Automatic Male Masturbator, so treat this section as us showing our work rather than as neutral testimony.

It’s $109, and it’s a spin-and-suction device rather than a thruster or an air-pulse device — three modes (spin, suction, both), five frequencies each, and a pressure-sensitive button on the body that changes intensity based on how hard you press, so you adjust rhythm mid-session without menus. There’s no app and no Bluetooth pairing at all.

The design decision we’d point at is modularity. The sleeve is a Sauce Cup — a standalone $20 manual masturbator that clicks into the Extra Sauce machine and pops back out in about a second. That means three things: you can use it manually with no power, you can swap between four textures rather than living with one, and a replacement costs $20 instead of $70–$80. If you want the machine plus the full texture set, the Max Sauce Bundle is $170 versus $189 buying the pieces separately.

On noise, we measure it at 48 dB — meter 30 cm away, quiet room, spin and suction both running at maximum power. As above: our own measurement, and since nobody else in this category publishes a figure, it tells you what ours does rather than how it ranks.

What it isn’t: it doesn’t thrust, so if a stroking-length motion is the thing you want, a Keon or a Solace is the honest answer and we’d rather you buy one of those than be disappointed by ours. The motor body is also not waterproof — wipe it with a damp cloth only. The cup itself lifts out and washes normally, which is the part that actually needs cleaning; just make sure it’s completely dry before it goes back into the machine.

Which one, for whom

•             You want the Ion experience specifically — buy the Ion 2. Nothing else on this list produces air-pulse stimulation. Budget for the storage base if drying matters to you.

•             You want a hands-free stroking motion and app-synced content — the Keon or the Solace Pro. Accept the sleeve replacement cost as part of the purchase.

•             You want to stay off apps entirely — Ion 2 or Extra Sauce; both work with physical controls only.

•             Discretion is the priority — Extra Sauce is the only device here with a published decibel figure and stated test conditions (48 dB at 30 cm, max power). That’s not proof it’s the quietest; it’s the only one you can put a number to before buying.

•             You want the longest cover — Arcwave Ion 2 lists 2 years plus a 100-day guarantee, double what Kiiroo and Lovense publish.

•             You want to spend under $150 and keep it that way — Extra Sauce at $109, with $20 cups rated for 30–50 uses, is the only option here where you can actually calculate your running cost before buying. Caveat: it’s a different sensation category from the Ion.

•             You’re not sure you’ll like automatic at all — start with a $20 manual cup before spending $109–$199 finding out.

FAQ

Is the Arcwave Ion discontinued? As of 20 September 2026, Arcwave’s US Ion page redirects to the Ion 2 and the original Ion is not listed in Arcwave’s US men’s catalogue. Existing stock may still be available through third-party retailers, but you’d be buying a product the manufacturer no longer lists.

Is the Ion 2 the same as the Ion? Same Pleasure Air mechanism, with an added Autopilot mode. The notable practical change is that the DryTech charging and drying base is no longer included in the box.

What’s the cheapest automatic stroker worth buying? Cheapest and worth-buying pull in opposite directions. Below roughly $100 you’re mostly looking at devices with non-removable sleeves, which become a hygiene problem fast. The questions to ask aren’t about the sticker price: does the sleeve come out, what does a replacement cost, and how many uses is it rated for?

How long does a stroker sleeve last? Almost nobody tells you. Arcwave, Kiiroo and Lovense don’t publish a service life for their sleeves, so the honest answer for those is that you’ll find out by owning one. Ours is rated for roughly 30 to 50 uses with proper care. Whichever you buy, the variables that matter are the same: heat shortens sleeve life, silicone- and oil-based lubricants degrade TPE, and storing a sleeve damp is what ends it early.

Do any automatic strokers work without an app? Yes. The Arcwave Ion 2 and Extra Sauce have no app at all. Kiiroo states the Keon has a fully offline manual mode. Even app-centric devices like the Solace line have onboard controls.

How do I clean an automatic stroker properly? Remove the sleeve and wash it on its own with warm water and mild unscented soap or a dedicated toy cleaner, then rinse thoroughly. Dry it completely — towel it or let it air dry — before it goes back into the motor housing; a damp sleeve traps moisture against electronics. Only submerge the body if the manufacturer publishes a waterproof rating for it. On devices that aren’t rated, including Extra Sauce and the Kiiroo Keon, the body gets a damp cloth and nothing more. Use a water-based lubricant, and clean after every session rather than before the next one.

What’s the quietest automatic stroker? Nobody can answer that honestly right now, because Arcwave, Kiiroo and Lovense don’t publish decibel figures for these devices. We measure Extra Sauce at 48 dB — meter 30 cm away, quiet room, spin and suction both at maximum power, so that’s the loudest it gets rather than a flattering setting. For context, ordinary conversation is around 60 dB. That makes it the only device in this comparison with a number and stated test conditions attached, which is a transparency advantage rather than a proven ranking. If discretion matters to you, ask any vendor for both the figure and the conditions.

Which of these has the longest warranty? Arcwave, at 2 years on the Ion 2 plus a 100-day Pleasure Guarantee. Kiiroo, Lovense and ours all list 1 year, so on this one measure Arcwave is ahead of us and we’d rather say so than leave the row blank. Warranty length is worth weighing on a product with a motor, a lithium battery, and a part that gets washed after every use — and check what’s excluded, not just the number. Consumable sleeves generally aren’t covered by any of these.

Browsing the category? See our male masturbators collection, our Extra Sauce vs Fleshlight comparison, or our roundup of the best male strokers of 2026.