Discontinued The Grasshopper

[Raf]

damn it works so well after RMA!!

I know right?!

but power supply is still a question mark in my book and also with the new version...

I cant decide if i need one of the "best" efest brand two slot. I was almost s9ld on the xtar for the smaller trickly issue when someone said their earlier model xtar burnt up. Lol. I also figure since I've already been using the nitecore D4 for so long I've already probably done whatever harm the bigger trickle is apparently capable of? But.. does that mean I'm still chipping away at them when i could be preserving them with the efest before its too late?

 

[muunch]

I've been using the Xtar MC2 with no issues - both for 18650s and GHB2.

Playing with new PFE tonight and man, does this thing make a difference... Airflow is kicked way up, and much prefer how this mates to glass.

Can't wait to try a Ti to see how the difference in heat retained by the unit/front-end ends up being.

 

[Raf]

I've been using the Xtar MC2 with no issues - both for 18650s and GHB2.

Playing with new PFE tonight and man, does this thing make a difference... Airflow is kicked way up, and much prefer how this mates to glass.

Can't wait to try a Ti to see how the difference in heat retained by the unit/front-end ends up being.

From cold I feel like the ti gives a more pure convection hit because the SS heats up fast enough to start conducting during a long first draw. The ti doesn't, just gets warm. After a couple hits through glass both are probably conducting about the same

It's amazing how much difference the glass you use makes in terms of pairing well with the PFE. You really need something that provides some resistance not just a dragless perc. If you have a dragless perc, adding a little constriction in the mouthpiece or with a drop-down improves performance by providing a small amount of resistance. I think it forces the heat to stay in the chamber slightly longer so everything just makes a stronger Tetris but I dunno. But otherwise unless you pull really hard the GH thinks you're not taking a hit and shuts off. But by pulling really hard you lose out on diffusion and get a warmer hit, and it's harder to milk a cloud. So adding that Upstream constriction makes the device feel more comfortable like it's being continuously used without moving hot air through the extraction chamber as quickly

Pulling as hard as you can through a Chillum makes for a slightly warmer but pretty intense aromatherapy experience also. Great for asthma, I coughed so hard I cleared up a lot of stuff from my lungs

 

[rnartian]

Not sure how I feel about this.

At least in my case, my GH's heater is fine. I don't think I've ever gone passed level 2. I can typically get very tasty, terpy hits from 1 and finish off with 2 for nice dark brown avb (I can go to 3, but the vapor ends up so harsh and hot that I prefer not to and I'm too afraid to run my working hopper through a water piece in case I get unlucky). When I think of the Grasshopper, I don't think, "Damn, this would be SO cash if it weren't for this heater....", I typically think of the scarcity of the batteries and the inconsistent quality of the product (but, from what I've heard, the more recent ones are much better).

Still pretty excited to see more about this upgrade. I was actually thinking about getting one of the newer Ti models for 4/20, anyway.

My guess (and the inference of @Hopper Labs) is that an upgrade program is in the offing, for owners of the Old Hopper. Maybe that will be my time, though I won't been keen on doing that as a pre-order. How's about swapping two old ones for one new?

I would love to be able to send in my old hopper and get a certain amount of money off of a newer one, but I also don't know if they would actually do so. Do you think S&B would accept "old" Craftys being sent in for a discount on the Crafty+? I get that we're feeling hesitant about the new GH based on some unsavory history, but that would be unreasonable imo.

Honestly... I'm hoping the "old" grasshoppers are discounted by 4/20 so I can pick one of those up with the current improved heater because I don't need anything any hotter than that and my current (old) GH heats up in about 5 seconds, with is enough for me.

 

[muunch]

3.8~ on the dial...

edit:

Kinda seems right to point out that even after the battery stuff, I still had my PFE sent out loose. Bubble mailer, which is nice - and my leather sleeve+condom in plastic, but the PFE was just loose in there.

I did run it through 99% iso which revealed nothing questionable after qtipping dry. Just nice rips.

edit2:

Feel like it's only right after a few more rips to just go ahead and get pre order in before they close

following the "5 tips&tricks" on the website - I can 1hit a load with PFE without the unit/MP getting hot at all.

(namely: don't tamp the load, and take 15-20second draws)

 

[vapviking]

I would love to be able to send in my old hopper and get a certain amount of money off of a newer one, but I also don't know if they would actually do so. Do you think S&B would accept "old" Craftys being sent in for a discount on the Crafty+? I get that we're feeling hesitant about the new GH based on some unsavory history, but that would be unreasonable imo

I traded up from Crafty to Mighty a few yrs ago, got a nice discount, but the Crafty was still in warranty period. All properly registered Hoppers are under warranty.
Healthy Rips offers owners 50% on trade-in even after warranty.
So, stuff like this does happen.
I think that, IF the Grasshopper+ tm is far more dependable, then it could make sense for HL to want to upgrade the entire fleet over time, and have us pay (costs, not much profit, pls!) for it.

 

[Baron23]

I love using my GH through a cheap little J-hook.

I'm finding that the standard MP with condom actually is giving me a better seal on a 14mm joint than my SS PFE that I have had for a while. Not sure if its the glass joints or the PFE but there is air leak so I use the MP/condom and that works great. This pic just happens to show the PFE.

 

[Raf]

Taking water out of the equation definitely delivers my lavender aromatherapy more intensely, but otherwise less is more when it comes to water filtration. Although it's easy to add more draw resistance by increasing the amount of water, you end up losing more aroma the more you percolate. so it's ideal to have just barely enough water to submerge the perc, but restrict airflow enough that you're not nursing a cloud with PFE when the heater thinks you went away and shuts off.

Since the basic nosecone attachment has its own natural constriction, it does seem to work better than the PFE in certain glass pairings (particularly in smaller pieces): in terms of the smoothness of flavor that is possible while maintaining what the heater wants to 'feel' like in order to stay turned on. Ironically, because the PFE allows such an unrestricted flow, it can actually make it harder to rapidly extract while not overkilling and slightly tasting less like a VT heatwand compared to the nose cone. Still works great, just tastes 9.5 instead of 9.9... until you have mastered the precise timing to click off midrip, etc.

I have only found this to be true since the middle to late 2019 heater improvements. The old units (2016ish vintage, from bef9re i started recieving non-working or overheating bodies in early 2019 or possibly late 2018) consistently always work much better with the PFE, there's no ability of being too strong for their own good.

They drain battery life faster and they heat slower but the old units are easier to not accidentally degrade flavor . The biggest adjustment for me was getting used to needing to (wanting to) click off in the middle of the draw because the heater works so much better now

Edit/correction: What I said above was wrong about the stainless PFE! it only gets warm after one long hit so it's not actually resulting in any conduction effect. My bad.

Such a first world problem when your vaporizer works better at the "expense" of improved battery life, so you have to adjust your Technique to avoid degrading flavor by 4%

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

So much to talk about...

I was all set to order my friend a new Grasshopper for his birthday, I was going to order the week before the fire but procrastinated and we all know what happened next. It’s probably best that I delayed since the batteries have been recalled. I’m guessing they’re safe to use but I understand @Hopper Labs wanting to be as cautious as possible. If there was a fire in the area of the batteries the intense heat could cause them to vent. Sometimes it’s just not possible to find the source of a fire, and the presence of vented batteries makes it unethical and possibly even illegal to sell batteries from that batch to customers. I would have handled it the same way myself. I would probably use those batteries if I had received them, with extra vigilance, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking the same of my good friend. He got a great gift anyways and was thrilled so no worries there.

The new unnamed device gives me mixed feelings. Even if the fire had never happened the fact remains that Hopper Labs was spending time and resources developing the new device while there was still a long wait time for warranty repairs. From my perspective they should have focused instead on warranties and establishing rock solid reliability with the latest upgrades. However, I don’t know what they are going through and this development may have been necessary. Or maybe it didn’t require much extra in the way of time or resources, maybe it was a relatively simple change to the existing design.

In regards to the claim that it is more powerful with better battery life, it is easily possible with an increase in efficiency. As an example, you can get more power and better gas mileage by switching an internal combustion engine from port injection to direct injection. You could tune that engine for just the power or mileage, but you could also tune it in the middle and see an increase in both numbers with the same exact engine and one relatively simple change. The same is true with electronics, gains in efficiency allow for lower current draw and/or more output. You could also potentially create a ultra efficient new device with the new tech and a 45W or even lower powered heater, it wouldn’t be as powerful as the 65W version but it would get even better battery life.

Anyways, I had planned on buying a new hopper for my friend and it looks like that won’t be possible for a while so I decided to throw caution to the wind and pre-order the new device. I’m not rich but I can afford to spend $100 on a roll of the dice. I’m looking forward to hearing more about the new device, hopefully sooner rather than later.

@Hopper Labs: is the new device going to be sold alongside the Grasshopper or will the original 45W device be retired?

 

[Raf]

So much to talk about...

I was all set to order my friend a new Grasshopper for his birthday, I was going to order the week before the fire but procrastinated and we all know what happened next. It’s probably best that I delayed since the batteries have been recalled

They still have spare bodies for sale so if you have enough extra batteries for your friend, you can still Franken-builtd a 'new' phaser from extra back/front ends.

You will need to mail them to get a clicky unit added to a cart, if you don't already have some spare back ends. Keep in mind an old stainless back-end is perfectly fine to mate with a brand new fully upgraded spare titanium body purchased off the site. Says they are shipping in 3 to 5 days

 

[slozukimc]

@Hopper Labs what’s up with replying to your customers via the warranty portal? I have asked a few times about what is going to happen with my Hopper in RMA and no reply at all from John since the fire.

 

[Raf]

@Hopper Labs what’s up with replying to your customers via the warranty portal? I have asked a few times about what is going to happen with my Hopper in RMA and no reply at all from John since the fire.

You definitely deserve to hear it from them at least as a form letter in response to your email but fwiw they did at one point state above that they would make good on all of the outstanding warranty units once footing was regained, and especially after the batteries are back flowing freely like the spice melange . So that sounds like good news but also like there will be a delay. If I remember correctly they were currently working on the stuff that had been sent to them in November 2018 when Mercury went into retrograde in Scorpio or something... causing the fire.

It might be an overall everything happens for a reason and we're better off now because s*** blew up in November thing if your warranty unit ends up being replaced with one of the Mark II units.

I was stoked that I waited so long to start any kind of warranty return process for my various defective units when I saw how amazing the brand new stuff I received in September was working lol. I literally had it all boxed up and ready to send on the morning of the fire.

I'll admit here in front of all of you that the reason I never tried to return anything is because I was afraid they would piss me off by not adequately handling the process and then I would feel like I could no longer make purchases from them in retaliation. Yet, things work so well when it's not broken, I couldn't risk that situation might happen

 

[slozukimc]

You definitely deserve to hear it from them at least as a form letter in response to your email but fwiw they did at one point state above that they would make good on all of the outstanding warranty units once footing was regained, and especially after the batteries are back flowing freely like the spice melange . So that sounds like good news but also like there will be a delay. If I remember correctly they were currently working on the stuff that had been sent to them in November 2018 when Mercury went into retrograde in Scorpio or something... causing the fire.

Yep. I have been one of their “biggest” supporters of John here, singing his praises, because I have been seriously impressed with his response time and vast improvements in customer service.

I have been very patient and polite, and will continue, as long as things appear to stay the same.

Don’t drop the customer service ball John, you have been on a good roll.

 

[Hopper Labs]

So much to talk about...

I was all set to order my friend a new Grasshopper for his birthday, I was going to order the week before the fire but procrastinated and we all know what happened next. It’s probably best that I delayed since the batteries have been recalled. I’m guessing they’re safe to use but I understand @Hopper Labs wanting to be as cautious as possible. If there was a fire in the area of the batteries the intense heat could cause them to vent. Sometimes it’s just not possible to find the source of a fire, and the presence of vented batteries makes it unethical and possibly even illegal to sell batteries from that batch to customers. I would have handled it the same way myself. I would probably use those batteries if I had received them, with extra vigilance, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking the same of my good friend. He got a great gift anyways and was thrilled so no worries there.

The new unnamed device gives me mixed feelings. Even assuming the fire never happened the fact remains that Hopper Labs was spending time and resources developing the new device while there was still a long wait time for warranty repairs. From my perspective they should have focused instead on warranties and establishing rock solid reliability with the latest upgrades. However, I don’t know what they are going through and this development may have been necessary. Or maybe it didn’t require much extra in the way of time or resources, maybe it was a relatively simple change to the existing design.

In regards to the claim that it is more powerful with better battery life, it is easily possible with an increase in efficiency. As an example, you can get more power and better gas mileage by switching an internal combustion engine from port injection to direct injection. You could tune that engine for just the power or mileage, but you could also tune it in the middle and see an increase in both numbers with the same exact engine and one relatively simple change. The same is true with electronics, gains in efficiency allow for lower current draw and/or more output. You could also potentially create a ultra efficient new device with the new tech and a 45W or even lower powered heater, it wouldn’t be as powerful as the 65W version but it would get even better battery life.

Anyways, I had planned on buying a new hopper for my friend and it looks like that won’t be possible for a while so I decided to throw caution to the wind and pre-order the new device. I’m not rich but I can afford to spend $100 on a roll of the dice. I’m looking forward to hearing more about the new device, hopefully sooner rather than later.

@Hopper Labs: is the new device going to be sold alongside the Grasshopper or will the original 45W device be retired?

I can speak to a few of the points you discussed.

Your thoughts on us being cautious about the battery are correct. We cannot assume it was not the battery, even if there is no direct evidence to suggest it was. It looks likely at this point we will never know what the source of the fire was. This is the most unfortunate circumstance, as we can't rule out the battery.

We understand and expect some mixed feelings on the new device. We know that some people had/have still not received their warranty back, but we have cleared over 85% of the backlog. We were on track to be very near 100% done before the new device announcement. We knew even with the backlog complete, there would be some pushback, and that is okay. We don't pretend to have a perfect track record or not to be a business trying to develop new products. That is what we love to do. Matt and I did all of the development of this new device over the last few years. Some of these improvements even made it into finial generation Grasshoppers with no one knowing. The new device mostly maintains form but puts it all together in a slicker and more reliable, more powerful way. Trust me when I say we learned a few things with the original Grasshopper.

Pre-fire the plan was to have 500-1000 devices ready today, December 1st. We would have had that done, and we would be having a different conversation right now. It is incredibly unfortunate that this is not the case, but such is the way of things. Even with the device so nearly complete, we decided that a reservation at this time would allow supporters to contribute a little bit now when we need some help without asking people to put down the full price without much info. To that note, there will be a lot more information coming, but give us a bit of time to get that onto the site. The new April release provides us with a lot of time to have a smooth launch.

The new device is much more efficient, which leads to better battery life. This is manifested in a few ways:

1. There is far less electrical loss, which is a direct gain. Less power loss on the circuit boards and power transfer "lines" means less energy was expended while it was on.

2. A more powerful heater means faster startups and more heat to be delivered to the plant per unit time. The longer the device is on, the more heat is being wasted to the environment, to the housing of the device, and being lost in the electrical pathways. Making each bowl take even a little less time, and cutting down on startup time adds up to huge savings. We can heat a larger volume of air faster!

3. A more powerful heater only means that the power is available to be used when needed. Better software allows us to use that extra power vaporize faster, but that does not mean it will always be running flat out. You can get best-of-both-worlds efficiency this way.


Thanks so much for the support. More info is coming.

Edit: We will get to the warranty portal replies this coming week. I am sorry they have not been dealt with yet. There was abnormally high CS work via email and we have been focused on that. We are caught up and will be on the warranty system shortly.

 

[slozukimc]

I can speak to a few of the points you discussed.

Your thoughts on us being cautious about the battery are correct. We cannot assume it was not the battery, even if there is no direct evidence to suggest it was. It looks likely at this point we will never know what the source of the fire was. This is the most unfortunate circumstance, as we can't rule out the battery.

We understand and expect some mixed feelings on the new device. We know that some people had/have still not received their warranty back, but we have cleared over 85% of the backlog. We were on track to be very near 100% done before the new device announcement. We knew even with the backlog complete, there would be some pushback, and that is okay. We don't pretend to have a perfect track record or not to be a business trying to develop new products. That is what we love to do. Matt and I did all of the development of this new device over the last few years. Some of these improvements even made it into finial generation Grasshoppers with no one knowing. The new device mostly maintains form but puts it all together in a slicker and more reliable, more powerful way. Trust me when I say we learned a few things with the original Grasshopper.

Pre-fire the plan was to have 500-1000 devices ready today, December 1st. We would have had that done, and we would be having a different conversation right now. It is incredibly unfortunate that this is not the case, but such is the way of things. Even with the device so nearly complete, we decided that a reservation at this time would allow supporters to contribute a little bit now when we need some help without asking people to put down the full price without much info. To that note, there will be a lot more information coming, but give us a bit of time to get that onto the site. The new April release provides us with a lot of time to have a smooth launch.

The new device is much more efficient, which leads to better battery life. This is manifested in a few ways:

1. There is far less electrical loss, which is a direct gain. Less power loss on the circuit boards and power transfer "lines" means less energy was expended while it was on.

2. A more powerful heater means faster startups and more heat to be delivered to the plant per unit time. The longer the device is on, the more heat is being wasted to the environment, to the housing of the device, and being lost in the electrical pathways. Making each bowel take even a little less time, and cutting down on startup time adds up to huge savings. We can heat a larger volume of air faster!

3. A more powerful heater only means that the power is available to be used when needed. Better software allows us to use that extra power vaporize faster, but that does not mean it will always be running flat out. You can get best-of-both-worlds efficiency this way.


Thanks so much for the support. More info is coming.

Edit: We will get to the warranty portal replies this coming week. I am sorry they have not been dealt with yet. There was abnormally high CS work via email and we have been focused on that. We are caught up and will be on the warranty system shortly.

@Hopper Labs I am curious about the upgrades of original Hoppers secretly “out in the wild”. I assume you know which units, by serial number, have these mods.

Could this be why my dark grey model seems to heat up way faster and last longer even with the same batteries I have been using?

edit: Thank you for the update on the warranty portal status. Very much appreciated.

 

[Raf]

Some of these improvements even made it into finial generation Grasshoppers with no one knowing.

If the stuff you sent me in the last order didn't already have these improvements then I don't think I can handle them yet

Keep nerfing mine lol, so i dont need a safety helmet. Thx!

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

@Hopper Labs: Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate the detailed explanation of the efficiency gains. You might want to fix this typo though:

Making each bowel take even a little less time

 

[Raf]

@Hopper Labs: Thanks for the quick response! I appreciate the detailed explanation of the efficiency gains. You might want to fix this typo though:

No it's too late now they can't take it back @Hopper Labs already promised us faster bowel movements

Need to include serial# and cereal type in your help mail to CS. Make things easier for them by including that in the subject line, for example:RE: serial GT1701 cereal Fiber-Os

 

[muunch]

The HBC is fully complete and is "waiting" only on production equipment and 3rd party interfacing to finish. There are still a number of steps before it goes to full-scale production, to ensure everything will go smoothly and the QC is in place to not create a huge headache.

Can I poke again on this?

 

[rnartian]

Matt and I did all of the development of this new device over the last few years. Some of these improvements even made it into finial generation Grasshoppers with no one knowing. The new device mostly maintains form but puts it all together in a slicker and more reliable, more powerful way.

Have I been coveting the new hoppers without even knowing? Drats!

 

[vapviking]

Anyways, I had planned on buying a new hopper for my friend and it looks like that won’t be possible for a while so I decided to throw caution to the wind and pre-order the new device. I’m not rich but I can afford to spend $100 on a roll of the dice.

On a random check, I saw today that The Herb Cafe apparently has Grasshoppers in stock. I bought one from them last year and ship to US (they are in Canada) was no hassle, matter of fact, no 'duty', since Hoppers are made in US. No extra batts there.
btw, the $100 is just the deposit oo GHV2, you did see that, no?

Matt and I did all of the development of this new device over the last few years. Some of these improvements even made it into finial generation Grasshoppers with no one knowing.

Here's another typo; The "finial Grasshoppers" made me do a major double-take, as the realization that "final" is the intent and that fact really sank in. It sounds so, well, final...

And shout out in major way to @Hopper Labs for coming thru for me. His offer for batteries for folks with recent rma's was not hollow. Yesterday my Hopper rose like the Phoenix and is running just super. Without the new power, it was dead in the water. Thank you, friend.

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

btw, the $100 is just the deposit oo GHV2, you did see that, no?

Yes, I did see that. What I meant was that if for some reason the new device is never released I can afford to lose $100. Even then I could file for a refund with PayPal. It was poorly phrased and I probably shouldn’t have said that at all.

As far as my friend, he is fine for the moment with consumption methods, I just wanted to give him more options. His needs are quite specific too and while he enjoyed using my Grasshopper there were things about it he didn’t like. He wasn’t a fan of the VapCap at all which surprised me. I may end up getting him something else instead, or maybe giving him one of my hoppers, or giving him one of the new unnamed HL devices. Will we see the return of Zen Pen? Maybe it will be called the Blasthopper? Or perhaps it will be dubbed Grasshopper Max Pro Version 2 Ultra65 Phoenix Edition?

 

[Raf]

And shout out in major way to @Hopper Labs for coming thru for me. His offer for batteries for folks with recent rma's was not hollow. Yesterday my Hopper rose like the Phoenix and is running just super. Without the new power, it was dead in the water. Thank you, friend.

Hell yeah. This is why i added fire relief, I was sure they were going to follow through but that's nice to have it confirmed.

"Hopper rose like the Phoenix"

Okay so I just drained four batteries and put them all in the Nightcore at the same time, one of them stayed at one bar longer than the others so I assumed this one had the largest capacity but now that one finished charging first before two of the others.
Ones that take longer to charge probably have a larger max capacity remaining? Right?

Update: the cell that gained 2nd bar first has now been charging for a full 23 minutes longer than it took for the slowest initially charging cell to complete its charge

I guess I have to retest them now to check to see if the one that charge fastest actually performs the best or if the reverse is true

 

[Baron23]

@Hopper Labs - while we all know that it takes time away from other pressing tasks, I believe that you will find that maintaining the kind of communications you displayed above will go a very long way toward helping to satisfy your customers and build trust and confidence.

Please do keep it up....it was over due but that's then and this is now....and as of now the communications and transparency are deeply appreciated. At least by me! haha

 

[slozukimc]

@Hopper Labs - while we all know that it takes time away from other pressing tasks, I believe that you will find that maintaining the kind of communications you displayed above will go a very long way toward helping to satisfy your customers and build trust and confidence.

Please do keep it up....it was over due but that's then and this is now....and as of now the communications and transparency are deeply appreciated. At least by me! haha

This is exactly how I feel. I am willing to sit back, relax and wait as long as you need for my rma to come back as long as I get a reasonable reply when I ask.

Keep up the good work.