Discontinued The Grasshopper

[Mr Mellish]

Grasshopper is an engineering company that happens to make vapes. And that is literally what they say about themselves.

I'm not one of the haters. Although I do need to get around to processing my first RMA soon, I've been very happy with the GH. However, that actually seems like an opinion unsupported by reality. I've worked for a medical device manufacturer before and we had excellent engineers. Engineering is more than coming up with a cool idea. It's designing for manufacturability, repeatability and reliability. It's designing fixtures and test rigs that support production, progressive improvements and a QA system that protects their customers.

I know they don't claim to be a medical company (who wants the FDA up their ass if they can avoid it?) and I'm sure they are doing some or many of the things listed above, but anecdotal evidence suggests they need to step up their game if they want to convince others that this is true.

 

[AJS]

A properly working GH, ahhhh the memories:

This GH came pretty much DOA, but I was able to get one half decent hit out of it:

Oh I know the feeling!

I hear about all these working GH's for such and such time, but it's sad to have such little evidence by means of a 1/2 decent 1/2 minute video. When in fact they could just be 1/2 performing.

Damn wish I could get my camera to pick up vapor like that without hard lighting on it! Impressive rip.

 

[biohacker]

Damn wish I could get my camera to pick up vapor like that without hard lighting on it! Impressive rip.

Thanks dude! Amateur video shot in the hotel bathroom!

 

[skyvaper]

My SS seemed to under perform until I was able to clean where the clip meets the threads on the backend. I had a qtip kit with cotton pads I put some iso on and "flossed" the area. Between that and making sure my backend was screwed on TIGHT I have had no more hot backend or underperforming.

 

[AJS]

My SS seemed to under perform until I was able to clean where the clip meets the threads on the backend. I had a qtip kit with cotton pads I put some iso on and "flossed" the area. Between that and making sure my backend was screwed on TIGHT I have had no more hot backend or underperforming.

Hmmm interesting

 

[duff]

I apologize for my profanity

It's ok this time...

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

I apologize for my profanity, in my 400 post I have not once swore

It's all good, considering the name of the forum itself I don't think anyone here minds.

 

[MoltenTiger]

Vapour density is heavily reliant on material.

I recall biohacker, you were getting clouds coming out of the intake holes around the time you were making those videos right? Not everyone has bud that dank, and dank bud makes the fattest clouds.
It is also still vapour, so lighting and angle makes a big difference too.
In a lot of ways that's a vape in optimum conditions and might not be a reliable benchmark IMO.
Nice vids though

That said, these things do vary in output, especially when they end up dying. I've gotten hundreds of mostly consistent hits with the odd anomalie between my RMA's. Once you start getting symptoms every session, it's on the way out and it might hang on for months or it might give an error straight away.

Symptoms are hot back-ends, only lighter-brown ABV at max temp, long heat ups, flickering blue lights.
These all mean the circuitry has been compromised, and these mechanical faults will likely last as long as the production run of the failing component, and if the component is just hot fixed, it's likely to fail in the same way in less time. Pretty clearly we've seen a lot of this with the GH project, which makes all of the sense due to blatant financial constraints. That's just how it is, how it's always been and how it will continue.

So I would recommend users not to solely rely on getting dense clouds to gauge how their unit is performing, but to note the performance and keep an eye out for the symptoms listed above predominantly.

The other thing is, the units will individually perform differently, like any product. At this time it's unknown how precise the GH temp spectrum is, but it's been observed to vary. HL have said they have the ability to do custom temps per unit, it's just a matter of time to create test rigs to squeeze the tolerance down enough. In the mean time, since they said that (AMA), there has been a bubble of combusting products and other reports of hotter performance (for the first time, I'm one of three or four combusting GH owners from yesteryear). They're aware of what they've created, but the device is still in an upgrade cycle. Lifetime warranty means you can easily follow along with upgrades when needed, but there's a cost involved for the consumer. For me it's been $1 per week (over 15 months with one replacement set of batteries and two trips back, two free replacement main bits) so I'm still stoked, but that's basically the deciding factor with the Grasshopper. Can you be bothered to keep it running? Until I have a viable alternative then it's a no brainer down here. The market has advanced since I purchased the hopper but the GH still sits in a lonely category. But the category isn't the biggest clouds, it's a discrete portable that doubles as a slide for a bong. I was underwhelmed when I first got my hopper, I thought the clouds were anemic, and there was some fluctuation of performance as that hopper had its sensors fail over 3 months, but it definitely got me high from the box, and when it was combusting months later it didn't get me much higher despite the most dense clouds.
If people without medicinal grade herb want true hyper dense vape clouds from their GH, they should try some kief in the bowl.
But, if they send the unit away to be fixed because a video misled them, then they'll get the hopper back and the bud is exactly the same and the performance hasn't changed.
Weak clouds and ABV continuously weak with blue lights flickering? Tell HL this and they'll fix it.
Weak clouds and patchy ABV but constant strength LEDs is probably just average material.

I've put maybe 50 or more different strains through the hopper, some of it amazing some of it awful, and that's simply where most fluctuation in cloud output lies. Definitely hoppers can outperform each other, but when they're properly calibrated they take exactly the same time to heat up and there's very minimal difference in performance. How long they stay properly calibrated is the issue with the hopper, as fluctuating circuitry fucks with the design fundamentally and thermal sensors are fragile. That's why they need RMAs so often, and if the use case remains the same and so does the unit/design it's always only a matter of time before it needs to go back. There's a reason no one else is making an electric vape on this scale that has a 45W heater, but I'm glad HL were silly enough to tackle it!

 

[CarolKing]

I would like the GH evolve the temperature gauge I think that is a weak point IMO and eventually see a digital temp indicator. I know they have a lot of other issues right now. Just thinking out loud.

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

Vapour density is heavily reliant on material.

I recall biohacker, you were getting clouds coming out of the intake holes around the time you were making those videos right? Not everyone has bud that dank, and dank bud makes the fattest clouds.
It is also still vapour, so lighting and angle makes a big difference too.
In a lot of ways that's a vape in optimum conditions and might not be a reliable benchmark IMO.
Nice vids though

That said, these things do vary in output, especially when they end up dying. I've gotten hundreds of mostly consistent hits with the odd anomalie between my RMA's. Once you start getting symptoms every session, it's on the way out and it might hang on for months or it might give an error straight away.

Symptoms are hot back-ends, only lighter-brown ABV at max temp, long heat ups, flickering blue lights.
These all mean the circuitry has been compromised, and these mechanical faults will likely last as long as the production run of the failing component, and if the component is just hot fixed, it's likely to fail in the same way in less time. Pretty clearly we've seen a lot of this with the GH project, which makes all of the sense due to blatant financial constraints. That's just how it is, how it's always been and how it will continue.

So I would recommend users not to solely rely on getting dense clouds to gauge how their unit is performing, but to note the performance and keep an eye out for the symptoms listed above predominantly.

The other thing is, the units will individually perform differently, like any product. At this time it's unknown how precise the GH temp spectrum is, but it's been observed to vary. HL have said they have the ability to do custom temps per unit, it's just a matter of time to create test rigs to squeeze the tolerance down enough. In the mean time, since they said that (AMA), there has been a bubble of combusting products and other reports of hotter performance (for the first time, I'm one of three or four combusting GH owners from yesteryear). They're aware of what they've created, but the device is still in an upgrade cycle. Lifetime warranty means you can easily follow along with upgrades when needed, but there's a cost involved for the consumer. For me it's been $1 per week (over 15 months with one replacement set of batteries and two trips back, two free replacement main bits) so I'm still stoked, but that's basically the deciding factor with the Grasshopper. Can you be bothered to keep it running? Until I have a viable alternative then it's a no brainer down here. The market has advanced since I purchased the hopper but the GH still sits in a lonely category. But the category isn't the biggest clouds, it's a discrete portable that doubles as a slide for a bong. I was underwhelmed when I first got my hopper, I thought the clouds were anemic, and there was some fluctuation of performance as that hopper had its sensors fail over 3 months, but it definitely got me high from the box, and when it was combusting months later it didn't get me much higher despite the most dense clouds.
If people without medicinal grade herb want true hyper dense vape clouds from their GH, they should try some kief in the bowl.
But, if they send the unit away to be fixed because a video misled them, then they'll get the hopper back and the bud is exactly the same and the performance hasn't changed.
Weak clouds and ABV continuously weak with blue lights flickering? Tell HL this and they'll fix it.
Weak clouds and patchy ABV but constant strength LEDs is probably just average material.

I've put maybe 50 or more different strains through the hopper, some of it amazing some of it awful, and that's simply where most fluctuation in cloud output lies. Definitely hoppers can outperform each other, but when they're properly calibrated they take exactly the same time to heat up and there's very minimal difference in performance. How long they stay properly calibrated is the issue with the hopper, as fluctuating circuitry fucks with the design fundamentally and thermal sensors are fragile. That's why they need RMAs so often, and if the use case remains the same and so does the unit/design it's always only a matter of time before it needs to go back. There's a reason no one else is making an electric vape on this scale that has a 45W heater, but I'm glad HL were silly enough to tackle it!

That's a fantastic post! As far as flickering blue lights, I have had them since day once of my Grasshopper experience. I had flickering blue lights, dark ABV, and huge clouds. It's stayed the same except when I was in need of an RMA. The RMA's didn't change the flickering blue lights, GHB2s didn't help, the new GHB2s with thicker wrapping didn't help. I think both of my hoppers will always flicker for some reason. It's not a constant flickering, maybe I'm misunderstanding something and the issue is an excessive flickering which I have noticed with malfunctioning units.

That just goes along with what you said about going by all of the actual symptoms and not vapor density alone. Especially in the case of videos it can be hard to judge how thick the hit really was because of lighting and angle.

Instead of looking at vapor thickness and opacity you should be looking at output in my opinion. For instance, look at @biohacker's third video with .1 grams in a near-DOA Grasshopper.

At first glance it looks just like the first two in vapor output. He did a great job capturing the thickness of the vapor. If you look closely though, it is ever so slightly less dense.

More importantly though, it takes a little longer to get going, and vapor output tapers off much more quickly. As someone who has experienced a few RMAs myself I have noticed these same differences in person with an underperforming hopper:

A properly working GH, ahhhh the memories:

This GH came pretty much DOA, but I was able to get one half decent hit out of it:

Oh I know the feeling!

I hear about all these working GH's for such and such time, but it's sad to have such little evidence by means of a 1/2 decent 1/2 minute video. When in fact they could just be 1/2 performing.

The darkness of your ABV can be a good indicator, as long as you haven't switched strains recently. That's another reason why it's nice to have two hoppers, I can test the same strain in a fully functioning hopper and one with questionable performance. When my Ti was underperforming, it's ABV on temp 5 looked like the ABV from my SS unit on temp 3.

 

[MoltenTiger]

That's a fantastic post! As far as flickering blue lights, I have had them since day once of my Grasshopper experience. I had flickering blue lights, dark ABV, and huge clouds. It's stayed the same except when I was in need of an RMA. The RMA's didn't change the flickering blue lights, GHB2s didn't help, the new GHB2s with thicker wrapping didn't help. I think both of my hoppers will always flicker for some reason. It's not a constant flickering, maybe I'm misunderstanding something and the issue is an excessive flickering which I have noticed with malfunctioning units.

That just goes along with what you said about going by all of the actual symptoms and not vapor density alone. Especially in the case of videos it can be hard to judge how thick the hit really was because of lighting and angle.

Instead of looking at vapor thickness and opacity you should be looking at output in my opinion. For instance, look at @biohacker's third video with .1 grams in a near-DOA Grasshopper.

At first glance it looks just like the first two in vapor output. He did a great job capturing the thickness of the vapor. If you look closely though, it is ever so slightly less dense.

More importantly though, it takes a little longer to get going, and vapor output tapers off much more quickly. As someone who has experienced a few RMAs myself I have noticed these same differences in person with an underperforming hopper:




The darkness of your ABV can be a good indicator, as long as you haven't switched strains recently. That's another reason why it's nice to have two hoppers, I can test the same strain in a fully functioning hopper and one with questionable performance. When my Ti was underperforming, it's ABV on temp 5 looked like the ABV from my SS unit on temp 3.

Good round up. Yes, flickering blue LEDs are normal as they indicate battery level. Stuttering LEDs is the bad symptom. It's similar but quite different.
My original back-end did this for 8 months before it prevented whatever hopper it was attached to from working effectively/normally. It might be a subtle difference in appearence but not in nature.

And yeah that's a good point with bios vids, the last vid does aptly display the bad symptoms you talk about and for sure, without direct comparison it's not very noticeable.

Timing issues and heat retention are also key things to critically observe in terms of placing a hoppers performance on a spectrum.

IME a proper working in-order device should heat up in less than 10s (dependant on ambient temp) but it should consistently produce peak cloud output after about 7 seconds. The peak density should hold for some seconds depending on amount of herb, broken hoppers might drop the peak density very rapidly (heat retention problem) or take a long time to heat up

 

[YetAnotherUsername]

re: #17320

@slcbdco

I think it depends on definitions. When I used to pump loads of hash oil I still would say I'm not as high within the critical 30-40 minutes mark. Overall I am not as high as a kite, but it is def still a strong experience. I grew to find out I dont need Chinese eyes to have the lovely cannabis-fueled smile grin on my face

cheers

 

[biohacker]

I recall biohacker, you were getting clouds coming out of the intake holes around the time you were making those videos right? Not everyone has bud that dank, and dank bud makes the fattest clouds.
It is also still vapour, so lighting and angle makes a big difference too.

The vapour out of the intake holes (I would not call them clouds, rather tiny wisps) were due to my own user error/technique.

The bud was nothing special, not bush weed, but not super top shelf dank either.

I could milk bongs with those 2 working GH's in any light conditions, trust me.

But the category isn't the biggest clouds

I think it still is, when working properly, although I do get your point on the niche category of stealth/discretion. The GH can be a cloud monster rivalling many desktop devices.

Weak clouds and ABV continuously weak with blue lights flickering? Tell HL this and they'll fix it.

Or they won't. Caroline frequently downplayed, and said "this is how the new ones work". Flickering is NORMAL! ha!

The other thing is, the units will individually perform differently, like any product.

I disagree, as i've never seen more inconsistent results in a device, from unit to unit. My experience has been that products typically perform the same, this is huge in QA. If what you say is true, and i've like to hear some examples (of vapes specifically), I wouldn't purchase them. I realize that there can be some offset inconsistency between some analog devices with potentiometers, however calibration usually solves this to some degree. There is no reason why one GH should work on 3 as it does on 5 on another. If it's happened, recall!

The darkness of your ABV can be a good indicator

This! As Molten mentioned, if the output is anemic, and abv is light, be mindful of technique, but if it's get super hot and flickering, it's probably fubar'd.

With reasonable herb, I don't think my videos are anything special with how a GH is supposed to perform.

 

[slcbdco]

I'm not one of the haters. Although I do need to get around to processing my first RMA soon, I've been very happy with the GH. However, that actually seems like an opinion unsupported by reality. I've worked for a medical device manufacturer before and we had excellent engineers. Engineering is more than coming up with a cool idea. It's designing for manufacturability, repeatability and reliability. It's designing fixtures and test rigs that support production, progressive improvements and a QA system that protects their customers.

Well it's what Matt and Trevor say about their own company. You don't have to agree, you should believe those words came out of their mouths and when I compare grasshopper to a lot of other "vape" companies I would agree with Grasshoppers description. Pax for example is a venture capital fund that happens to make probably the most popular and in my experience most reliable vape in the market, but it sure is boring to use, no surprise because it was designed by investors.

The grasshoppper is not the most reliable but it's certainly the coolest, and some might say .... over-engineered. The result of what I affectionately call a tinkerer, read, a person genuinely interested in and curious and experimentative in how things work ... which some would maybe call an ENGINEER.

So as "vape" companies go, yes I think pax is a "VC" that happens to make vapes and GH is an "Engineering" company that happens to make vapes. They say themselves, there technology could have other applications, they just happen to be making a vape right now, and if that's not good enough for purists, then I wonder which vape company they think is truly a "vape" company. Most, their primary objective is to make money, a quality vape being secondary to that on,y as a neccissty. Grasshopper is primarily making a cool, whatever the hell that is that makes it work so good and it working in a vape is "secondary" to that cool thing. You can decide which motive is better or if you even care.

I certainly think the GH motive is better, but when i'm vaping my tobacco blend in my pax I can tell you I don't care and I'm thankful to venture capitalist just as I am independent entrepreneurs because whether they "meant" to or not, both companies make a great vape for my needs and wants.

I think it depends on definitions. When I used to pump loads of hash oil I still would say I'm not as high within the critical 30-40 minutes mark. Overall I am not as high as a kite, but it is def still a strong experience. I grew to find out I dont need Chinese eyes to have the lovely cannabis-fueled smile grin on my face

I also think it matters why you're consuming. Under normal circumstances a few grasshopper rips has me set for awhile. When recovering from surgery however, I had to take tinctures and edibles like it was my job and still barely felt high after the medicine was done working on the pain.

For me at least, this is why cannabis is better than opiates for pain, because at least in my body, cannabinoids do their job before they go party so, althoguh fortunately i'm very healthy, in the occasions i'm taking cannabis medicinely, i can for the most part carry on my regular activities because the more I "need" the less high I feel.

 

[MoltenTiger]

Or they won't. Caroline frequently downplayed, and said "this is how the new ones work". Flickering is NORMAL! ha!

Yeah that has been problematic for some people, in my experience if you explain the problem fully they are reasonably prompt to sort it out. Not to say it's rapid, it takes a few weeks now there's so many hoppers out there and large numbers coming back, but otherwise it's been a very efficient service I've found.
And I posted my history before, I've had a few goes at it.

I don't want to suggest that return RMAs are to be blamed on anyone's descriptions, as it's of course much more likely dodgy units were slipping through the gaps in the busy and rushed warranty dep.
But still, it's easy to get the hopper there and hopefully it's unlikely for things to go bad.
Making users pay for a return RMA if they got it wrong round one is totally unreasonable and a classic example of why so many hate HL. It is what it is, at least it's a small vape and usually cheap to ship.

Getting hoppers back from RMA to find the same problems is utter crap though, so hopefully they can make serious efforts to stop that. I'm still interested to see how mine show up whenever they finally do. There've been reports of scratching and tiny life-spans but in every case reaching out to HL eventually does resolve it. Even getting brand new units (Reddit bitches) It could potentially be an extremely annoying and time consuming endeavour, but their track record is there despite the repeat blunders.

I think it still is, when working properly, although I do get your point on the niche category of stealth/discretion. The GH can be a cloud monster rivalling many desktop devices.

It definitely is a monster when it wants to be. I do kinda think the big clouds are more a perk than it's main feature, but it does rightfully fall in the big cloud category. But it struggles to make huge clouds long-term, stressing it is going to lead to RMAs until HL can master the durability, which is what everyone wants.

I disagree, as i've never seen more inconsistent results in a device, from unit to unit. My experience has been that products typically perform the same, this is huge in QA. If what you say is true, and i've like to hear some examples (of vapes specifically), I wouldn't purchase them. I realize that there can be some offset inconsistency between some analog devices with potentiometers, however calibration usually solves this to some degree. There is no reason why one GH should work on 3 as it does on 5 on another. If it's happened, recall!

I'll receive my first repaired units soon, but all the new ones I've tried have been very consistent, until they break and then random fluctuations occur. Receiving units back like that seems like they're not fixed and that's not a device issue anymore (it's a company issue, and hopefully one that is being addressed)..
In the EQ thread I've read people who've bought multiple EQ's and noticed variation with the digital read out/performance, plus there are some units that ship with a misaligned ceramic heater which affects performance. No one would ever know though. Every product has variation in many ways, like if you want to overclock a CPU, some just kick arse where as some fizzle. This is the same with the GH as obviously the poor thing can't always handle the hammering bong lords seek. Not many others are having problems? At least less heavy users are having less problems. Usage is the number one correlation to RMAs, so people obviously like using the things and HL are slowly making the parts more able to cope with it.

With reasonable herb, I don't think my videos are anything special with how a GH is supposed to perform

I was really just saying that expecting easy clouds like that from the get go might lead to let downs. I have tried and failed to capture huge hits many times and any pic I upload of a still is a screen cap from the most dense seconds of viddy. Like I said, I was disappointed when I first tried my hopper on my D020 with my RezBlock lol, well not disappointed but left wanting more. I've since dialled my usage in and got better glass to match with, but I've put plenty of bush through the thing to know that you do need lots of THC to get big clouds. Also some bush is surprising!

 

[Hogni]

GBH are finally back in stock at Verdampftnochmal!
But only GBH

 

[MoltenTiger]

Just checked my email and I have two repaired hoppers, an SS and Ti PFE, 3 batteries and a couple of stickers heading my way!

HL had the units for 5 business days all up. Very keen for their return!

I bought the extras back in March, communication with Caroline was a breeze from coordinating free shipping on my order, to swapping an SS PFE to Ti after its release (invoicing me the difference) and finally getting two warranty cases and a purchase all bundled up together and sent to my front door!

What's kind of funny is that I'm as keen as ever to get the things back, although it took me so long to actually send them away. Using my backup vape was at first quite nice, and so I never rushed out to the post office and oddly avoided it like it was a task. When I finally got there, it was cheaper, easier and quicker to deal with than I thought, so next time I'll be sending the things one at a time and at a moments notice. Doing that, if trends continue, I'll never not have a functional unit. I'm hoping trends get better, as it is I'd say only half the time both units worked flawlessly simultaneously. It'd be nice to always have walrus hits on demand

 

[Roland Blaze]

Found a nice little bubbler on dhgate for the GH that fits in the pocket for big hits on the move


When the damned thing works that is..

 

[CarolKing]

I'm not a cloud chaser. How the vape medicates is the bottom line for me. Also how it performs. The clouds are dependent on the cannabis you are using as well. I've had big clouds from some cannabis and it didnt medicate worth a damned.

Using some Silver Tip strain right now in my GH. Good clouds and good medicine.

When buyers were waiting for the GH to arrive folks couldnt wait to get their hands on this unit. Even though we heard of all kinds of problems at the time, I am surprised that the issues continue. We have no way of knowing what the actual return rate is? I would sure like to know. It may not be as high as we imagine. The folks that are unhappy we hear from on this thread regularly.

We hear from very few happy Grasshopper owners unfortunately on this forum. It's a bummer for sure. This thread could be fun if we had more enthusiasm. It's just not there.

 

[Smokinjoe]

Do all you guys think the GH is a good dry herb vape?

I just have already bought a flowermate with decent expectations n was disappointed

 

[CarolKing]

@Smokinjoe It's seems like folks are still having issues with their units. I'm not sure if the newer revised version is better? It might be too soon to know. I would wait a little while.

I recieved my GH from a friend and paid the $45 transfer fee from Hopper Labs. Mine is an older model. I haven't had any issues and it's been 6 weeks or a couple months since I got it.

I don't use mine continually though. It looks like folks that use a high heat and use the GH as their only vape have problems. I can only go by on what I see here. I don't look on Facebook or Reddit.

 

[slcbdco]

We have no way of knowing what the actual return rate is? I would sure like to know. It may not be as high as we imagine. The folks that are unhappy we hear from on this thread regularly.

I suppose it depends on what one "imagines" but yeah its probably not as high as people imagine. I have somewhere between 15 and 20 friends with hoppers now and in the past 6 months only one of them has had a repair issue

Do all you guys think the GH is a good dry herb vape?

I just have already bought a flowermate with decent expectations n was disappointed

The grassshopper is very different experience from the flowermate as the grasshopper is convection heating. I've had a hopper for 2 years. When I started my primary consumption method was bongs and joints, now I almost only use my grasshopper. For a person looking to switch from smoking to vaping the grasshopper I think makes the best case.

 

[Mr. Me2]

I've been silent a while, but thought I'd share happy gh info...

I'm STILL in love with my hopper. It's my go-to. I'm almost never pulled to another vape. To remind the old time followers and to share with those new here, I got mine around June 2016, and had one fast and painless RMA in October. It sees very regular use, never through water and at fairly modest temps. And other than scraping the mouthpiece screen after each load and an occasional mouthpiece ISO soak, it gets virtually no other maintenance.

Did I say I LOVE this thing? And I'm very sympathetic to those with multiple RMAs. I wish (at least) ghl offered free shipping to those folks.

A final thought - mine does get the flickering blue light. I attribute that to a lower battery charge indicator. No biggie for me...

 

[biohacker]

It may not be as high as we imagine

It may be higher than we imagine too.

This thread could be fun if we had more enthusiasm. It's just not there.

It could be fun if the GH reliability and CS wasn't so sketchy either. Enthusiasm for what? You've seen my milk vids yeah? Grasshopper milks fuck yeah! How's that for enthusiasm?

Do all you guys think the GH is a good dry herb vape?

L O L. Please define "good" for us.

I'm not sure if the newer revised version is better?

Newer revised version?? Say again!?

I don't look on Facebook or Reddit.

There's your problem, all of your eggs in one basket on a tiny fraction of GH users. Check out reddit, vape life forum etc. Don't just read this thread if you want to broaden your horizons on vapes in general. It's not like you don't have the time.

I have somewhere between 15 and 20 friends with hoppers now and in the past 6 months only one of them has had a repair issue

SHOCKING!!!

It sees very regular use, never through water and at fairly modest temps.

Please define dude, daily usage of what .5g? a gram? What's modest temps 190c?

A final thought - mine does get the flickering blue light. I attribute that to a lower battery charge indicator.

Have you noticed a correlation between the two? When fully charged no flicker and when it drops it starts to flicker? This really should not be the case. I'm not sure what's up with the flickering, but my best fully functioning GH's did NOT flicker at all. OTOH, the DOA's did, as did all the ones with the newer backends, that sucked in performance in comparison to my OG backer hoppers as well as hot back ends.

I found a good deal on a used hopper on Reddit i'm looking at getting, but not until I see an actual video of its performance dry, and through water...and I wanna see those led's stay solid, the way it's supposed to be.

 

[Mr. Me2]

I don't weigh mine, but generally 1 load a day. And I usually stick to temp 3, sometimes bump it to 4 near the end of a load.

I find when I put in a freshly charged battery, there's no flickering. But it starts to flicker pretty soon after.

To add a little detail, I generally fill the oven about 3/4 with virtually no, or very light tamping. Medium grind. And I find I get about 4 pulls per load, but the 4th is almost always pretty weak. And that's why and when I'll step up the temp to 4 for that last pull.

I wish I had stronger search skills, but I thought ghl said that the blue flickering was designed and intended as a battery strength gauge, and that was posted in this thread. I could be wrong about that, though.