Hi guys - this is a review that I posted on Vape Life Forum, Bud the Vape Critic's site. Now I understand that many did not like Bud's review of the GH, but I personally have nothing but the highest respect for Bud. However, our opinions do differ and he and I are totally good with that.
I was going to edit it so as to make it appear as if written first for FC, but fuck it...its been a long day LOL
I was recently loaned a Grasshopper (GH) to try out. It’s a bronze Ti unit with the new back end (no split in the ring).
My main concerns with the GH are with the company, Hopper Labs, behavior with respect to delivery dates and the quality of their production. I think what they have done to people as far as deliveries (really, no deliveries), but supplying EU vendors (who apparently backed them) with units for retail sale (above list price) definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Also, there are some posters I have read with 5 or 6 RMAs already and I saw one guy claim 10! (but who knows, he may have been using his as a sex toy LOL). But, we don’t know the total population shipped and can’t make any significant and sensible projections on failure rate as all we have is anecdotal reports, mainly from the people who did have problems. On the other hand, they seem be responding very quickly with design improvements, RMAs under their lifetime warranty deal, and production line improvements.
So, what about the vape itself? First of all, I want to be completely clear and unambiguous about this one point: I have the utmost respect for Bud, The Vape Critic, and this review of the GH is not intended in any way to be a refutation of Bud’s review of this vape. Also, I’m not taking shots at the man while he is on vacation; everything written below has been PM’d between Bud and myself already and he’s completely cool with independent opinions and understands that people place differing values on different characteristics and have differing aesthetic tastes. That dissent is not only allowed but encouraged is one of the things that make this site great and far preferable to me than some other well-known vape sites.
Appearance and Design
Very nice looking, chic, elegant, nice feel to hand. I agree with Bud that this is a bit spoiled by the pocket clip (LOL) but I don't object to it as much as much as he does. If given a choice, I would do without it, but the fact that it’s on their…..meh.
The condom; I don’t mind it at all but agree that the color choice (translucent natural silicon) is poor in that it will very quickly get stained brown from vapor. But this really isn’t a big deal to me and chances are it will stay a lot cleaner than a lot of grungy pipes and bongs that many of us have passed around, yeah? For $5/each I will consider the silicon condom to be consumable and no great burden to replace if it gets too ugly to bear.
Now, I agree with Bud that I would wish that they had expanded the scale for the five temperature hash marks. That is, I would wish that they had they used a greater amount of the diameter for the temp adjustment (more travel) as it would provide better resolution to the user when setting temp. But, I did find very nice smooth mechanical resistance when adjusting the temp ring and felt I could pretty much get it to set and stay where ever I wanted. More territory for temp setting…yeah, nice to have…but I'm not outraged or inconvenienced by it.
I also agree with Bud that they should have added a few more threads to the attachment of the mouthpiece. Think of it being a little more like 'Space Case' type threads. But I can also see their design challenge. To provide for an oven of any size, plus insulating double layer, well...you are left with only so much room for the thickness of the mouthpiece. Also, it occurs to me that many folks well prefer it the way it is as you don’t have to unscrew for an age to get the mouthpiece off and once on it is very stable and not liable to just come unscrewed. So, it’s a non-issue for me.
My one criticism of the design is on the decision to add induction charging circuitry (The slip it over the end charger) to a vape that has very limited mechanical space and a challenging thermal environment. Doing this in a pen where the batteries are removable and external Li ion chargers are readily available doesn’t make sense to me but for those that travel with their vapes a lot, this may be very desirable (but still…really?)
Operating a GH
This is dead simple. No technique or body language needed. The oven is rather small (which I like for this vape’s purpose) and I get about .15 of fine ground herb in there with a very light tamp to no tamp at all. I start about about 3.75 on the temp scale (which is right at 365 F) and get wonderful flavor and the start of psycho active vapor. I then bump up to about 4.2 (approx. 385 F) for the bulk of the load and might bump up just a bit more to 4.5 for last draw.
I have run it with fine grind and hand chunks. I think ground works better but it handles chunks just fine which is very good in an ‘on the go’ vape.
I tend to start with a long slow draw to heat the herb and when I start to feel good vapor (maybe half way through) I speed up my air intake. I have seen no evidence at all that the GH heater can’t keep up with whatever air flow I chose to use.
The AVB comes out a nice even mid-dark brown. Actually, comes out more evenly browned than from my Volcano! While I have gotten some roasted flavor later in the load, there has not been a single shred of evidence of combustion while at the same time my herb appears to be completely extracted.
I primarily use this vape to take a draw and then set it down. That is, turn it on…take a draw…right at the end turn it off and keep drawing for a little bit…then set it down. I use it like this when watching TV or reading a book. Take a hit, let it sit; take another when the mood hits. That or for a quick couple of draws before leaving the house, for example. In both of these use cases, the temperature of the mouthpiece (and body of vape for that matter) is not an issue to me at all.
I’m waiting for a 18 mm male to 14 mm female adapter to put the GH on my glass. Looking forward to that.
The Heat
Now, when using as a session vape…well, that’s a bit of a different story. When taking one hit after another in quick sequence, the mouthpiece gets pretty hot. By the 7th hit, the mouthpiece without the condom was too warm to hit comfortably. But it was fine up to about hit number 5. Again, this is fast sequence drawing. With the condom, heat was no problem for me.
The session vaping does bring up a point. This is definitely a convection vape…until the sides of the oven get so hot that they transfer heat to the mouthpiece. Surely if you get this unit that hot, there must be some level of conduction. But I for one don’t think that conduction is a sin and I have found the vapor from this unit to be very good and perfectly acceptable to me.
Charging
A battery lasted me through three loads but when it died I did not get the fast flashing blue…it went straight to fast flashing red and died. No problem, I had the extra battery already charged in my external charger so away we went. I have had no problem charging the unit with either the induction charger (magnetic bit that sticks on the end of the vape) or with externally charging batteries. I tend to charge at lower amps on my external charger as this is kinder to battery life (i.e. .5 amps).
Plug for Delta 3-D Studios
They make a nice little stand for the GH and a lot of other keen stuff, much of it 3-D printed.
http://delta3dstudios.com/portable-vaporizer-accessories/grasshopper-vaporizer/
Summary
I like this vape a whole lot on appearance, design, operation, and my personal use cases it fulfills. To me, this is a very nice ‘instant on’ companion to my desktop Volcano. The short falls are on company execution (delivery really) and some concerns about failure rate and how Hopper Labs is going to do long term with their lifetime warranty liability. But, that’s a possible future impact and at the present it’s working just perfectly fine and I’m enjoying it tremendously.
