gaseous_clay
Well-Known Member
I think the biggest drawback to official Chinese produced hydratubes would be in being associated with the lesser quality.
I have 2 Chinese pieces and while there are no obvious problems that I noticed (like others have posted,) you can tell the quality of the glass is less than that of the HT's I have made by Swagger & SSFG. I detect a yellowish tint to the glass and the joints are clunky. Basically the Chinese glass looks like someone designed and constructed them to be "good enough," not to be "good."
If VXL were to offer cheap Chinese HT's they would have to be very careful when it comes to the quality of them. It may be more trouble than it's worth, particularly when considering the potential hit the company might take in the perception of endorsing and offering what is actually lesser quality merchandise.
My criticism of the current HT lineup is that there isn't that much variety. The HT's all look the same and cost the same. The website could do a bit more to sell them... demo videos to show the perc action, a better description of what the different percs do and what they are for would help to sell them. Also, there are pics of HT's that are no longer available. That has to hurt sales a bit when someone sees that SSFG inline as the main HT pic, but then it is nowhere to be found. I realize that VXL is not a glass shop, but maybe have a "Hall of Fame" area for retired HT's with a place to be placed on a mailing list to express interest if certain retired pieces were to be produced again. I don't know how many pieces need to be ordered to get them produced, but I know personally I would have signed up for a couple pieces if they were to be available.
On that note, I got my fake Devastator today. (I ordered it because I know the likelihood that I will ever get my hands on a real one is slim. This gives me a bit of an idea on what I missed out on by getting to the vape party late.
I have 2 Chinese pieces and while there are no obvious problems that I noticed (like others have posted,) you can tell the quality of the glass is less than that of the HT's I have made by Swagger & SSFG. I detect a yellowish tint to the glass and the joints are clunky. Basically the Chinese glass looks like someone designed and constructed them to be "good enough," not to be "good."
If VXL were to offer cheap Chinese HT's they would have to be very careful when it comes to the quality of them. It may be more trouble than it's worth, particularly when considering the potential hit the company might take in the perception of endorsing and offering what is actually lesser quality merchandise.
My criticism of the current HT lineup is that there isn't that much variety. The HT's all look the same and cost the same. The website could do a bit more to sell them... demo videos to show the perc action, a better description of what the different percs do and what they are for would help to sell them. Also, there are pics of HT's that are no longer available. That has to hurt sales a bit when someone sees that SSFG inline as the main HT pic, but then it is nowhere to be found. I realize that VXL is not a glass shop, but maybe have a "Hall of Fame" area for retired HT's with a place to be placed on a mailing list to express interest if certain retired pieces were to be produced again. I don't know how many pieces need to be ordered to get them produced, but I know personally I would have signed up for a couple pieces if they were to be available.
On that note, I got my fake Devastator today. (I ordered it because I know the likelihood that I will ever get my hands on a real one is slim. This gives me a bit of an idea on what I missed out on by getting to the vape party late.
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