The Grasshopper

I would say this paragraph is a good candidate for the Fixit resource.

 

Alright, I've had a hopper for a while now.

I think I'm ready to give some thoughts on a working hopper now that I've shared many thoughts on the qc issues.

Frankly, I think the hopper when functioning as intended is quite possibly the best vaporizer I've ever used.

If you buy one, my advise is where possible to use it heavily and frequently for the first few days and hopefully any issues will rear their head by then. Getting a model with no issues in paramount, especially for those of us with medical needs who wanna use this as an on-the-go driver.

Cons are as follows for me:

* No tool provided to remove mouthpiece screen. If you use a difficult to remove screen or any other such component that will inevitably require thorough cleaning, then FFS include a tool to easily remove it!!!!

* Battery life is very low for concentrates, I tend to get one or two bowls of use with concentrates - these bowls however do give delicious whitewall rips for ages though This issue is very much countered by the fact that batteries are removable/replaceable. I recommend at least 2-3 batteries for every hopper used regularly. One battery is going to leave you spending a lot of time waiting for charging if you are involving concentrates at all. YMMV if you are using only flowers/lower temps though. Multiple batteries will leave even the most ardent concentrate users happy with results These batteries are tiny after all, you can easily carry a lot of them and still have more space free in your pocket than if you had a portable that delivered more battery life (Mighty for example).

* The unit is very hot at the mouthpiece to repeatedly draw through after a few hits. This one really seems to be designed for one or two big rips and then wait til later to reuse from the look of it. It does deliver hits big enough to be used in this way though. With the silicone mouthpiece, it isn't too hot to use except at temps past 4. What I have found is that if you stick a straight glass (like the traditional Ehle style dome design for old school nails) 14mm dome onto the silicone mouthpiece cover and put your lips on the outside on the top edge of the glass (not inside where hot air flows), you can hit at max temp direct from the pen without making it much longer/more unwieldy to hold/use.

* Threads are VERY prone to getting gunked up during filling of the device if you are using very resin coated nugs. It pays to be very careful to keep threads clean! I am sure that @Ratchett products designed for filling the hopper will resolve this issue though! I do wish they made a fill tool that came with the hopper, like the Mighty/Crafty has.

* my inductive charger has not always functioned properly. I have only ever used UL certified power bricks. Not including a USB power brick was an obvious oversight IMO. This unit is really pushing the boundaries of how we store and use energy - shouldn't manufacturers provide this to rule out all possible user errors here?

Now to the positives:

1. The hopper gives bigger rips than any portable I've ever used. In some cases, I find myself swearing that it hits harder than the evo! The heater is a landmark feat and I think hopper labs really deserve kudos for this.

2. The hopper heats up lightning fast! ~5 seconds to heat up to max temp is a dream come true! If you are a medical user who needs big hits, fast on the go - this is indispensable (but until you luck into a fully-functioning model with no QC issues, have a backup vape on hand medical people!)

3. Stealth - it goes without saying but I'll say it. This thing is the stealthiest vape I've ever used, and even smell factor is minimal unless you have reclaim buildup on the silicone tip (CLEAN THESE REGULARLY! Especially if you use concentrates).

4. It doesn't combust! Not with the driest of flowers packed as full and tightly into the bowl as possible run at max temp for a long, big rip through a bubbler!

5. Flavor is outstanding, especially below temp 5. I find that temp 5 the vapor can be very hot and you don't notice the flavor over the heat until you exhale. The flavor is still outstanding but one can be distracted from the flavor by the heat if you are not using water at this temp. Setting 5 is best IMO for water paths or concentrates (which tend to hit smoother than flowers even at hight temps) only lol.

I must qualify my overall praise and view that the hopper is the best portable ever made by saying that this only applies to units that do not have the apparently too-common QC issues.

If they work out the kinks and get working models into every customer's hands in the end, this will be a game changing product! For those of us who have working models already, I think I can safely say that it already is!

 

how do you tighten the screen?

 

A pair of very fine pointed needle-tip tweezers seem to be best so far.

I will add to the helpful post that you quoted here that if your top mouthpiece screen isn't fully screwed in, it also won't be able to fully screw onto the threads on the mid-section.

 

Hey TRAP LARD

I actually just did this today to clean. Just make sure if you use these tweezera to have them as closed in a possible but with a good grip. You don't want the outside of the tweezers scraping the inside of the mouthpeice.

 

ah i have one of those laying around. Sounds good I'll give it a try!

 

This was just addressed to what I quoted before. The effect of cognitive dissonance here is that for quite a few people the most expensive equipment sounds best. As in HiFi shops there are no double blind tests (which are pretty hard to do anyway in this area), people will be biased towards the more expensive stuff, and once they are using it at home, the cognitive dissonance effects will prevent them from having second thoughts.

 

Another good tip for the Fixit resource?

 

Ah, OK, I get that. That does happen a lot in consumerism. I was coming from more of an engineering design perspective. Granted, the "consumer" may not dig the differences we've discussed, but OCD engineers like me parse shit to death!

 

I just wanted to follow up now that I've had my xtar VC2 plus a few days. It seems like a great portable charger. The important features are that you can charge from a USB source like a wall wart, battery or solar and it has the option to switch between .5 and 1 amp. At 750mAh, I'd generally stick to .5 with the gh batteries unless you are in a hurry. The display itself is not very useful. It does show you basically how close it is finishing, which can be useful in a situation where your on the go and charging/vaping, but its not sufficient for determining battery health or capacity. It looks like the VP series from xtar at least provides voltage, so that would make a better home and car charger. I wish there was something similar to my maha c9000 for li-ion which provides a lot of data and several modes for conditioning, but I don't know of one.

A few notes on my GH experience, which I've been pretty quiet on. My first impressions of the vape were that its an absolutely stunning piece of kit. The hype is real.

I have to be honest, though. I've seriously struggled with using the GHs I have natively and I don't have glass to use them through. I didn't want to come in here and be all negative, so I've been experimenting on my own with tons of help from rereading parts of this thread.

The first few days, I flat out hated the experience. It was so scorching, even on the first few draws, I was never able to get the unit hot enough to complain about the mouthpiece being hot. I felt burning all over my mouth and down my throat the following morning after 3-4 hits over two "sessions." There was no taste because all my taste buds were knocked out of commission. I could barely taste my morning coffee. By the end of the second day, I was about ready to give up. I was concerned for my teeth and soft tissues. I went back and watched the Vape Critic's review, because I remembered him having a similar experience. I was like, "he's totally right, why were they so hard on him?" I then watched @BuzzDanklin 's demo where he passed it back and forth with a friend. I thought, "that would literally put me in the hospital." I even coincidentally was vaping Pineapple Express just like he did in that video. WTH???

I really couldn't get above heat level 3. Extraction was low and pain was high. Material was coming out green and sticky. I got frustrated and looked for something to vape it through. I settled on a wine decanter that you just stick on the top of the bottle (a Soiree, if anyone is bored. Consider the honey recovery options. : ) It's tiny and I didn't give it much of a chance of being impactful. I totally fogged up my office in one minute with very little discomfort. It was pretty badass and gave me the will to keep experimenting. Such a nice and extremely uplifting feeling. I decided to take two days off of vaping to let my mouth recover and give me time to reread some of this thread.

Yesterday I had a much better native experience. The key, which has been subtilely harped on around here, was a VERY SMALL amount of material. I had been going in the opposite direction because it was intuitive to me that cramming more stuff in there would protect me from the heat. This is wrong. I loaded up with a pinch and had a much more comfortable experience. Messing with my draw a little bit to be harder and quicker pushed me a little further into satisfaction. I got medicated twice and was shocked this morning when I poured it out. I marveled at how little was in there. If you laid it out flat, it would barely cover a dime. It was also the right color. I hit it at 4, so a golden-brown.

Maybe what was more important than the amount was the way I loaded it. Previously I had been dipping it into my space case to scoop and I think that naturally tamps things as you go making for a pretty tight pack. I can't recommend this even though it's really tempting. I still have a lot more experimenting to do because I'm not at a level where I'd generally go for it over my FF2 natively. I don't expect it to reach FF2 comfort or flavor, but I would like it to make a compelling enough case for me overall. I've ordered a few glass stems and am trying to get a quote on some glass tubing I can cut myself into different lengths for experimenting. (I guess, I've never cut glass before, but I'm the type to just go for it.) I'm wondering if just adding a stem or a stem with a carb would get me to heaven with this thing. I'll also likely order the tiny focus hydrotube from sunshine. I will report back if I have any kind of success crafting a glass mouthpiece/stem. I have some ideas to keep it portable. I still have to try my crafty CU as well.

Thanks for all the info in this thread from all the ultra early adopters. Without it, my grasshoppers would be a couple of novelty pieces or gifted to friends by now. We need to nominate some items here for a best of thread!

 

Oh I don't think I've been subtle about that at all ;-) Also more mouthpiece is better than just the tip for the best rip

 

Yeah, fair enough. You and @Vapor_Eyes do repeat it often, especially recently and that is very helpful. I think with the grasshopper especially, people read the thread for months or even a year before they get their device. Slowly digesting it along with a mix of other threads really waters it down and you forget a bunch. Its also a very fast growing thread. I think very appropriate for a best of at this point and, unfortunately, uniquely appropriate for the new troubleshooting thread we have now. haha

 

I'm glad you figured it out! I started out using pinches, but packed it full once in the first couple days. I like to experiment with my vapes and try different techniques. I also wanted to see how much I could cram in there, ended up being .15 of medium grind.

I was shocked how hot it was, even at low temps. It was pretty much unbearable and I struggled to finish the chamber, but I did manage to fully extract by using the silicone mouthpiece for the first time. It was even very hot through the mouthpiece.

It was seriously like using a different vaporizer. I suddenly realized how people could have such drastically different opinions about the device.

For the record, my average bowl is .05 grams at temp 4 and I use the Grasshopper natively with no silicone mouthpiece 99% of the time. I take one hit at a time and shut it off between hits. My hopper certainly gets hot but it's not unbearable at all, and I barely even notice it anymore.

 

It amazes me seeing people talking about the heat of the vapor as a problem. It's shocking how different people's experience can be. I use on max dry and don't get the slightest discomfort...how do y'all eat hot foods?

 

I tend not to eat or drink extremely hot things. Its very bad for your soft tissues and can cause hairline cracks in your enamel. My dentist is all about throat and mouth cancer and basically has me paranoid on the subject. Also, recent studies about coffee and tea found they don't elevate throat cancer risks but regularly drinking very hot beverages will.

(edit: grammar)

 

I'm not even thinking extremely hot things. My fresh bacon I ate this morning was perfectly edible but far more unpleasant heat-wise than my hopper vapor..

 

Yeah, so that's the thing. Considering I could still feel the affects of the GH vapor on my tongue 48 hours after a light session on level three leads me to believe we either had very different experiences or have very different mouths.

I did not pick up my GH and get there, I've had to work on technique quite a bit. Its opposite to my FF2 experience where I picked it up and was at home. A lot of people struggle with technique on that device. My only thought is that we all have different intuitions and therefore very different experiences.

 

The hopper's vapor is deceptive. I normally don't notice it at all at temp 4. Sometimes I'm holding it weird or it shifts and the vapor hits the roof of my mouth, or under my tongue, and I'm surprised how hot it really is.

I don't notice it at all though normally.

 

I've had my hopper for a few weeks and have been loving it. I did notice a fairly hot back end and very low battery life but wasn't sure if it was a defective back end or just normal, I also seemed to have inconsistencies with how well it worked. Sometimes I could get my herb darkly roasted other times not. These issues seemed to be getting worse and while the twisting the back end backwards and forwards fix did help sometimes it was starting to annoy me so I made a warranty claim. They posted a new back end out within 48 hours and it took a week to get to the UK. My hopper is now working perfectly and the difference is major. No more heat at all at the backend. Battery life has doubled and its consistently roasting my herb to a nice dark brown. Couldn't be happier, so if you're sitting on the fence about whether to warranty your hot back end, do it!

 

Same position as you mate. Got my replacement back end to the UK very very quickly. Kudos to HL there.

Unfortunately the new back end is getting just as hot as the last one, and I can combust if over 3.

 

YES! DO IT! The grasshopper team really wants folks to have the best possible device in their hands so don't be bashful and don't give up on the Grasshopper, send it in if its not working properly. I can totally see how this vape isn't for some people but I wonder how many people who are dissatisfied simply have a faulty unit and therefore haven't really experienced the grasshopper yet...

 

I'm still waiting for a new backend. I hope the new backend will be good.
And now? Do you send your Hopper to HL?

 

They asked me to return the 1st backend. I've waited a week to see if the new one improves (it hasn't), so I'll be returning the replacement back end and keeping the original one and then see what they say.

 

They told me, if the new back end works fine, I have to send the old back end to HL. If the new back end isn't good, I have to send alls parts to HL.

Edit:
if I only have to return the back end, I must look at times as I will ship it. A package for such a small particle hardly worth it.

 

Crap, don't want to be without the hopper!