Well, my hopper stopped working this morning. Red light, then off. I took everything out, gave it a bit, and it's working. Still not that hot. Haven't decided what I'm gonna do yet.
as someone said earlier, I wish we could plug the things in to diagnose them. As it is, it's hard to say how 'smart' the vape is, the algorithms it uses are a complete mystery. There's not a lot of space for circuitry, but there's definitely some controlling going on.
I'll say that my current unit is not completely depleting plant matter (I've only ever experienced the Sublimator and hoppers that have broken achieve this).
My ABV from the Hopper I can put in the Sub and get decent tokes off large chambers. Not really the same as having a fresh bowl by some margin, but, there's plenty of go left in the herb.
It's definitely not my preference - I don't typically re-use ABV and don't really have much desire to, and it is pretty annoying having to discard or bother to store partially deplete material.
But, the thing still rips. I haven't had a sub yet and I'm pretty damn baked off of one and a half chambers of Super Silver Haze from the hopper. And the thing is, I can almost always get more hits from chambers when I empty them.
The GH isn't really supposed to be able to deplete material and I knew this going in at the beginning. It's supposed to reach 210 C which is well below optimal vaping for my material wishes, but it's a great temp for the real reason of vaping which is a health conscious high.
I'm very interested to see how my fresh units coming back perform. How consistent will they all perform, what colour ABV and if any differences, how is the effect. Because as is, I'm very happy with the GH, but it's performing like I expected and it's not Sublimating.
The GH can come close, and I've used units that have basically done it, and combusted too, but it's still not the same thing. It gives a solid heavy hit like a true bong hit, but it's more sedative and less euphoric I have found. It's still nice to be able to dial it in though - but to be honest that's a malfunction in itself and all the units that have done it will break sooner than the units like ours, I am guessing*
albeit, I am forgetting you had interim light issues. I have seen my friends same-age-as-mine HT unit do this, but it was fine when I was using it for a month not long ago.
I gave it a serious clean though. It's key to have optimal current running through any electric vape. Oxidation is a big enemy causing electrical resistance, humidity and pressure all effect it. In a mild climate, I've only had so many issues (and I can admit that several issues have been self inflicted, but still warrantied and back then it was only weeks -__-)
I recently read a thing about a Nitecore product addressing high current batteries
Our very first design was a battery-replaceable prototype. However according to our repeated tests, the contact components would be oxidised due to high current and its electrical resistance would be increased to 100 micro ohms even if we used the state-of-the-art contact part to minimise its original electrical resistance to 30 micro ohms. It would lead to the decrease of the effective input voltage and therefore the instability of the circuit. In the end, we decided to build in the battery by welding it into the flashlight.
https://flashlight.nitecore.com/product/tm10k
Very relevant for hopper owners.
Back in the day, I recommended specifically and only Bostik Blu Tack for cleaning the back end threads. I read that tip from a flashlight/torch forum addressing titanium threading (still applies to all threads, esp. SS), oxidation and cleaning.
I personally recommend Bostik stuff, because that is the jam in Australia, it's a household item - and for good reason. All knock-off tacks that I have handled have been awfully inferior. Bostik make a product that is unlike anything I've seen anyone attempt. It is very good for cleaning the GH threads and it's what brought my friends GH back to life with when it was exhibiting potentially the same symptoms as newVaper420- but with obviously dirty threads. Not oxidised and powdered, but actually dirty. I'd certainly go as far as applying DeoxIT to the GH if the threads look clean and the performance is noticeably questionable
