Effective battery use? With the GH? No way!
It may mean a little extra maintenance, but the benefits will far out weigh that!
Tell me you're getting an extra 1/2 bowl with it and no heat (except maybe the clip which is probably press fit and always going to be a concern)
I can say with no exaggeration that so far, one one battery, on T4, I have:
-Vaped a pinch of Indica last night before bed (re my post gushing about the new performance).
-Emptied this morning and have vaped one full fluffy chamber to ABV perfection.
- Am currently vaping a second similar sized chamber with Hits #1 and 2 being 10/10 clouds, Hit #3 being a 7.5/10 cloud, and Hit #4 starting to question if the chamber is done or if it's ABV yet.
(to be continued below)
SIDEBAR:
Here's the thing - the "variable" in all assessments (IMHO): Battery Stooch (that's my word for "stay power"
) (
this has nothing to do with DetoxIT):
With a battery that is
not at 100%, would the T-setting replicate the same temperature "range" as a 100% charged battery? That is to say, I have found that as the battery gets weaker, I'm THINKING that turning up the Temp will "compensate" for the battery depletion. It sure seems that way, because...
(back to topic)
I've literally just now acted on this Sidebar idea and where Hit #4 was of light density, the nudge I just did to T4.25 gave me back an 7.5/10 cloud for Hit #5, and Hit #
6 yielded 3/10. Emptying the chamber, it's golden brown ABV. No flecks of good stuff.
And I
also just noticed that, by now, I'd see the Blue Flicker of Impending Death. The Blues are still rock steady after more than 10 uses. The blues are SOLID! My GOD man, do you know what this MEANS!?
So, It is unquestionable to me that, having got what I've got from this little maintenance (which I don't intend to do unless I feel that warmth, or even that crunchiness whilst screwing the body together with the backend), I have gotten superb repetitive performance without futzing. Sure, I
always check that the fastened ends are tight, of course.
I hope this helps...
I welcome any concerns about safety. Safety is a large part of why a lot of us vaporize. Hell, I worry about marking my batteries with Sharpies because I don't want that ink in the air path. And there does seem to be a tiny bit of air that gets through the back end if you plug the air intake holes on the side. Maybe it's coming through the mouthpiece threads, it's hard to tell.
Because of this I hesitated to add the DeoxIT Gold to the resource, but after looking into it seemed safe enough in relative terms to my non-expert mind.
Isopropyl alcohol is not the safest thing either and Hopper Labs recommends that for cleaning. Not that I'm saying because they recommend one unsafe thing we can use any unsafe thing, but the MSDS for DeoxIT Gold is pretty benign in my opinion.
I will buy some soon, I am eager to see what results I receive.
I would like to touch upon the black stuff in the threads of the backend. I think this is either machining grease or some lube they put on during assembly. I cleaned a bunch off when my hopper was relatively new, before it should have had time to build up oxidation from arcing. The hopper wasn't having any heat issues either so I doubt arcing was happening.
When I've cleaned it since there has been virtually zero black residue. The first time there was a huge amount that took a lot of q-tips to get rid of. The threading also seemed grittier after I cleaned it the first time, which is why I thought it might be some kind of conductive lube.
I'm sure some people with heat issues might have arcing causing oxidation. But I also think HL puts something on those threads when they build the hopper.
Vapor, I get your concern... I just took a thick rubber band to put around the LED holes, and that wasn't enough for me... I took the whole front into my mouth,
beyond the lights (being careful not to get it wet of course) and could (just barely) detect some "escape path" going on, but, based on 1) how little I'd used, and 2) how many times I wiped it clean, and 3) how tightly those threads are woven together, and 4) how cool the body is (which further decreases 'outgassing'), and (!!!) 5) how tiny that "escape air" might be -
(also, physics will eliminate that path as "active" until your draw path is severely obstructed)....
then I feel comfortable enough to not have a concern for myself.
Having said all that, I think the Gold IS the better solution in light of what you said before. After all, we are not restoring contacts. We're cleaning and protecting them. I should have made that connection about all this in the first place.
Regarding the residue, it's really not residue, but a "release" of what wouldn't come off
without using DetoxIT. I too had wiped my new hopper just with ISO and got the stuff I called Mystery Gunk.
This stuff is different. It's oxidation, and it is molecularly "stuck" on the metal. ISO won't remove that. ISO only removes Mystery Gunk.
Thanks for allowing my to contribute. The impetus to improve this experience is so enhanced when you have peeps to share it with. I'm glad to be a part of the FC Hopper Cult.
EDIT: I just loaded a fresh chamber, same size, put the temp BACK to T4, and ripped a great cloud; toward the end of the hit, the slightest blue flicker began.