Discontinued Hopper io

I believe there is one more area of customer service that HL should address to help rebuild customer confidence in the products and company, and that is their website. Logging into the new HL IO website allows me to do two things that help me manage my interaction with the company for orders and warranty claims. Nothing says "I don't care" louder than failing to update customer records in a timely fashion (e.g., at least weekly). Currently I have 3 orders that still show 'processed' or 'in progress', and yet all three orders already have shipped and should be marked as such. I have a 4th order listed that shows no status other than 'in progess', which is not very helpful for orders that are languishing due to product supply issues. I also have an open OG warranty claim listed from November that receives no proactive updates, just reactive replies usually a week or two after I post a status inquiry. An occasional proactive status update would be most welcome and reassuring.

Bad Dog said:

I also like how they actually do rma's instead of taking the ghost approach and just handing out new units like candy. I respect how they do repairs even though it's more time consuming and expensive, trying to figure out what the problems are and making improvements and learning rather than glossing over things. Yes new units sent out would probably make for better customer service from a client standpoint but really do you want another defective unit over and over rather then them addressing the problems?

Click to expand...

Haha. I’m sorry but I did get a chuckle from your post.

May I assume you are not a serial RMA GH owner?

Most I can remember reading on FC was 9 on the same unit but I do vaguely recollect reports of more.

Yes I'm sure there are grasshopper owners who have been through hell, I've read some horror stories. They may even think me to be foolish or naïve since I've not been through any of it myself but I believe the only way to make progress is to throughly examine the failings. I also recognize that they aren't some big multi national company with millions of dollars for r&d. I'm sure that many people would prefer a quicker resolution to the issue they have but I believe that the repair process has helped to a degree, example being the improvement in reliability of OG units. Often the path to innovation is fraught with unexpected adversity. All that said I'm not rushing to pick one up and will likely wait until the dust settles before I make any judgment. Just my

Edit: but I also believe you should only have to go through so many rma before receiving a new unit

Bad Dog said:

Yes I'm sure there are grasshopper owners who have been through hell, I've read some horror stories. They may even think me to be foolish or naïve since I've not been through any of it myself but I believe the only way to make progress is to throughly examine the failings. I also recognize that they aren't some big multi national company with millions of dollars for r&d. I'm sure that many people would prefer a quicker resolution to the issue they have but I believe that the repair process has helped to a degree, example being the improvement in reliability of OG units. Often the path to innovation is fraught with unexpected adversity. All that said I'm not rushing to pick one up and will likely wait until the dust settles before I make any judgment. Just my

Edit: but I also believe you should only have to go through so many rma before receiving a new unit

Click to expand...

I do not know what they have improved exactly in the IO wrt to testability but in the OG GH fault isolation and testability apparently sucked balls because they often (well, often enough) shipped back units from RMA that still malfunctioned and did this serially in some cases. Also, cases of very immediate re-failure.

I have personally experienced the "why did you ship this back to me as broke as it was before" type RMA.

We will see if they have improved or not. I hope so but I wouldn't place any money on them as they have broken a lot of people's hearts time after time.

Baron23 said:

We will see if they have improved or not. I hope so but I wouldn't place any money on them as they have broken a lot of people's hearts time after time.

Click to expand...

I can't argue with that fact. I can definitely see it being difficult if not impossible for some to ever restore their faith in the company without sweeping changes in reliability, customer service, rma wait times ext, well see in the coming months if they have truly turned things around. I think that the worst one I heard was in the teens if not 20 rma and I don't think anyone should have to endure such a thing, imo maybe 5 in a year should warrant a new unit as that many fixes isn't cost effective either, nor fair so I can see where your coming from

Edit: then you have @Macicman without a single rma so anything is possible lol

I wait to see if my personal HL pendulum is actually swinging back into positive territory.
I have multiple 'issues' pending.
@VGOODIEZ is doing his part, and I have done my part(s).
Now we will see if HL can follow through on their part. Currently, this looks promising.
I can fill in more details when there are some.

Baron23 said:

So, is this an example perhaps of different units heating very differently (not all that uncommon in the OG GH, even after RMA) or just a difference between two vaporists habits and desires?

Be interesting to see others come on and give us some insight into temps used to see if they vary quite a bit across a population of units.

Cheers

Click to expand...

BARON!!! I did my homework. The parts are different (contacts in the battery compartment, Oven. The dial is very intuitive. There is a very big difference between 2 and 5. The difference is at 5 it gets hotter and the vape is thicker. That is what the dial is supposed to do! It's much more intuitive than the previous hopper. I don't get lip burn. I was planning on using it with a water tool, but have been doing it straight at lower tempts. What I don't like is the PFE costs $40. If there is a better front end it should be on the unit. sell the other one for $10! The customer service is responsive. It may take some time but they have answered several questions of mine , 24- 48 hours. A bit long, but the Lifetime Warranty makes everything better! In my humble opinion.


What happened Snoopy caught a cold?

C3PO said:

What happened Snoopy caught a cold?

Click to expand...

Just feeling a bit shot up by life these days, Bruce. LOL

Just got life locked in on my six. haha

Few extra points now I have had it a few days, 5-8 bowels a day:
The cap threads don’t fully screw on, it seemed to jam up one time and now won’t fully screw on - a thorough clean and investigation is on the cards. ******SOLVED***** nothing wrong with the threads, the inner screen to the MP had slightly unscrewed itself and that is why the MP did not screw all the way on. I was able to remove, clean and retighten it with a pair of tweezers no problem.
I found a plastic cone that goes from the screen to the opening - perhaps this is how they have reduced the MP heat?

I can clear an oven in one long draw through a Honey bubbler on max setting (5). I prefer to do 2 hits on setting 4, first hit is so flavourful with thick vapour and second hit just to ensure full extraction.

I have clicked and it has failed to turn on twice - little flash from the lights was seen one time. I suspect that this is simply me not holding the clicker at contact point for quite long enough, I’m not concerned by this but will keep an eye on it.

I burned myself a little bit once, holding the device in all four fingers, clicking it on with my thumb with the device set to max. Holding it this way my little finger is about where the light holes are but not covering, maybe covering a hole or two in a couple of places.
As soon as I hit the clicker instant and intense heat was felt on the bottom of my little finger - there was a VERY minor burn that hardly left a red mark but I was quick to remove my finger as it really hurt!
I now know not to hold it this way, I keep my fingers at least 1cm away from the lights and am careful how I hold it.

This thing is very powerful, and I am using it hard - taking long draws through a bubbler on 4-5 up to 8 times a day.
I love it, I love that it is capable of hitting from soft flavour hits at lower temps all the way up to killing a bowl in one hit through water. This means it’s good for many situations including at home where I need quick, hard hitting instant seasons.

loading the device is easy enough and I use a piece of stalk to poke out the spent herb, always with the oven opening facing the floor so dry AVB doesn’t get pushed further into the device.

need to get that PFE sent over now and give that a whirl, haven’t had one yet, so looking forward to ditching the SMP for the drip tip/PFE mod

Uridium said:

Few extra points now I have had it a few days, 5-8 bowels a day:
The cap threads don’t fully screw on, it seemed to jam up one time and now won’t fully screw on - a thorough clean and investigation is on the cards. ******SOLVED***** nothing wrong with the threads, the inner screen to the MP had slightly unscrewed itself and that is why the MP did not screw all the way on. I was able to remove, clean and retighten it with a pair of tweezers no problem.
I found a plastic cone that goes from the screen to the opening - perhaps this is how they have reduced the MP heat?

I can clear an oven in one long draw through a Honey bubbler on max setting (5). I prefer to do 2 hits on setting 4, first hit is so flavourful with thick vapour and second hit just to ensure full extraction.

I have clicked and it has failed to turn on twice - little flash from the lights was seen one time. I suspect that this is simply me not holding the clicker at contact point for quite long enough, I’m not concerned by this but will keep an eye on it.

I burned myself a little bit once, holding the device in all four fingers, clicking it on with my thumb with the device set to max. Holding it this way my little finger is about where the light holes are but not covering, maybe covering a hole or two in a couple of places.
As soon as I hit the clicker instant and intense heat was felt on the bottom of my little finger - there was a VERY minor burn that hardly left a red mark but I was quick to remove my finger as it really hurt!
I now know not to hold it this way, I keep my fingers at least 1cm away from the lights and am careful how I hold it.

This thing is very powerful, and I am using it hard - taking long draws through a bubbler on 4-5 up to 8 times a day.
I love it, I love that it is capable of hitting from soft flavour hits at lower temps all the way up to killing a bowl in one hit through water. This means it’s good for many situations including at home where I need quick, hard hitting instant seasons.

loading the device is easy enough and I use a piece of stalk to poke out the spent herb, always with the oven opening facing the floor so dry AVB doesn’t get pushed further into the device.

need to get that PFE sent over now and give that a whirl, haven’t had one yet, so looking forward to ditching the SMP for the drip tip/PFE mod

Click to expand...

Great feedback, thank you.
The plastic funnel inside the mp sounds like the same part as in og mp (attached to and removes with the screen). In the og there's another funnel fitted between the plastic one and the mp wall and I suspect that if any part changed it may have been that one (and maybe the mesh of the screen? anyone?).

Screen loosening has been an annoyance (but only for some) all along. I much prefer the front ends I have that do not loosen.
On that note, I also prefer using a pfe with a little drip tip over the standard front end.

The 'burning' of the finger near the holes is disturbing to me. I had an og that did this a lot; I found in my case it was when a finger touched front end and body simultaneously, bridging the two (but not every time...). It develops even faster than back end heat and gives a bit of a sting. On mine I had buffered the area with a short length of silicone tubing slid over the straight shaft of the front end, in my case, a pfe. I am not happy to hear about similar behavior from an io.

As always, we hold the hope that HL remains committed to continually improving the product.

@Baron23 raised a excellent counter point to my liking of rma's, in that many people received still malfunctioning units after. And it got me thinking just what does hopper do to test repaired units? Do they simply do a fix of what they believe to be wrong, make sure it turns on and send it back out? Just what is their testing policy? Seems simple to me, just load it up and use it, I'd expect my mechanic to test drive my car after repair to insure everything is working properly, so why not use the vape? I'm not suggesting that the boys at hopper get blasted all day lol seems like if you loaded it up with cbd or other cheaper vapour producing herb, connected it to a glass tube that is maybe 1-2 feet long, connect that to a vacuum pump to simulate draw speed, with a temperature sensor where it connects to the tube to see what the vapour temp is and perhaps even a light or laser shining through the tube to a photoreceptor to gauge vapour density. Doesn't sound that hard and I'm sure that there is a better method than my ruff idea. Hopefully as they improve there won't be such a need for rma's or at the very least they have some sort of more stringent quality control for them.

Bad Dog said:

I'm sure that there is a better method than my ruff idea.

Click to expand...

I'll bet they could find some enterprising young person to be an unpaid intern and toke up all day long, uh, testing hoppers.

Reefer Fiend said:

I use both IOs with a PFE and a glass mouthpiece for cooling, and IO hits are just big fun!

Click to expand...

What kind of glass mouthpiece do you use? I usually use the Lotus Vapor-Scope, a j-hook, or a Chinese knock-off mini bubbler without water, but I'd like to find something rugged that I could just slip into my pocket.

Ok, I've held off saying anything until I've had about a month with my IO, and this is what the GH was supposed to be!

The instant is nice, but I was fine with the speed of the OG. I start by pulling slow, building up speed as heat builds, seems to really pull everything out she has fast, I really appreciate that!

I've had the same clicker problems others have had since day one. I've really paid attention to my button pushing, and it's not being pushed at an angle, or different speeds, it just takes the click sometimes, others it doesn't. That is in both turning it on and off.

I run my IO the same I did with my 2 x SS's and Ti GH's, one full pull at 5, a few taps against my palm or something to break up the air paths and a finishing hit to make sure we're clear. I opted for the SS with the IO because - I like the heft better than the Ti - I hit hard and fast and the SS cools down slower, but also heats up slower - I always use a small glass piece with it and I figured the GH's hit great when working, I can't see myself missing the extra 5 watts. That glass piece stays in my leather @Ratchett case, probably my all time favorite custom accessory. (may look into making one myself with a few changes, it's almost perfect)

I've been very happy with the IO, but it seems to already be having issues. Charging cords that work fine with my GH's are only charging the IO about 50% of the time, the other 50% they flash for the first few times and then shut down. It's inconsistent and annoying. Nothing like grabbing it on the way out the door only to find it's still not charged up. Has anyone else seen this? I have always used a stand alone charger in the past, seldomly the cord until the IO.

Interestingly enough, another thought that crossed my mind when selecting the SS was the HL battery situation. 5 watts isn't much, until you're down to one battery and it's on it's last legs. My IO has worked well with my three old batteries, but the one that came with it still seems to last longer and run a little stronger closer to the end of it's charge. Of course that was also before @maxvapor710 solved this with his power adapter, I have one on the way and I can't wait to try it!

The batteries are still a sore point. I've ordered 18 over the years and they have arrived in varying conditions, one was useless out of the gate and it was during some of their stormy CS times (yes, it's always stormy with HL, but, there have been some peaks IMO). Right now if they could come up with the 5 they owe from a fire time purchase I'd consider trading in my GH's for another IO, then I'd have one to send in when this one falters.

All in all very happy with this and hoping it stays functional. But I still won't leave the house with only my IO, there's more than just a stigma with me and my GH's, there's a history.

I color code my accessories for each vape so it's harder to grab the wrong one, somehow, metallic emerald green seemed perfect for the IO/GH.

MonkeyTime said:

I've had the same clicker problems others have had since day one. I've really paid attention to my button pushing, and it's not being pushed at an angle, or different speeds, it just takes the click sometimes, others it doesn't. That is in both turning it on and off.

Click to expand...

IMO that's because its the dumbest design ever for an on/off switch on an electronic device and I can only attribute it to slavish devotion to making the damn thing look like a pen.

This is a $300 vaporizer, not a 50 cent click-it Bic pen.

The clip falls into that category for me also.

Just my never humble opinion.

Baron23 said:

Just my never humble opinion.

Click to expand...

My hopefulness has taken a hit with these recent reports

Bad Dog said:

My hopefulness has taken a hit with these recent reports

Click to expand...

No vape is perfect, we push them hard and they have problems, some more than others. I've had a less than stellar experience to date, but it's a unique vape that owns a niche. It's why we continue to support HL and why I'd trade in my older GH's for one IO if the batteries become readily available.

Iron out a few more things and this could be a dope gun!

MonkeyTime said:

Iron out a few more things and this could be a dope gun!

Click to expand...

Indeed, and I do hope that this comes true.

But hasn't this been said for the last four years?

The Hopper IO is a DopeGun(TM).

We've always been good at looking out for each other here, especially when it comes to products that may warrant some extra caution before purchasing. I was rather vocal myself in that regard back when the Grasshopper was a Kickstarter campaign.

The launch was far from perfect and the product didn't quite live up to its bold promotional claims. It did however break at least some new ground in portables, and for that the company deserves credit.

Clearly there have been some significant issues since then. At this point I don't think it's news to many reading this thread. I'm not suggesting that anyone should discount that, but I do think we should make an effort to be helpful and constructive in our criticism.

If you're going to say the product uses the dumbest design ever at least make a suggestion on how to improve it. We want the company to succeed and deliver a solid vape after all, right?

Got my stainless IO from @VGOODIES in the mail finally (after USPS sat on it for like 6 days longer than they were supposed to ) And I’ve gotta say this thing is indeed a dopegun! I have a great working OG stainless hopper and this thing most definitely out performs it in every aspect! What a monster packed into a tiny package! Thanks again for your lightning fast service @VGOODIEZ! Those “special hopper accessory prototypes” will be on the way in just a couple days my friend!

El Jefe was right.

JoDaGlass said:

Got my stainless IO from @VGOODIES in the mail finally (after USPS sat on it for like 6 days longer than they were supposed to ) And I’ve gotta say this thing is indeed a dopegun! I have a great working OG stainless hopper and this thing most definitely out performs it in every aspect! What a monster packed into a tiny package! Thanks again for your lightning fast service @VGOODIEZ! Those “special hopper accessory prototypes” will be on the way in just a couple days my friend!

Click to expand...

Yeah it's crazy. I have been watching this happen to shipments to the mitten for months now. It's seems they travel along fine and just stop when they get to the market. That said, glad it landed and you are happy! I can't wait for those accessories. I think there will be a good market for them!

vtac said:

We've always been good at looking out for each other here, especially when it comes to products that may warrant some extra caution before purchasing. I was rather vocal myself in that regard back when the Grasshopper was a Kickstarter campaign.

The launch was far from perfect and the product didn't quite live up to its bold promotional claims. It did however break at least some new ground in portables, and for that the company deserves credit.

Clearly there have been some significant issues since then. At this point I don't think it's news to many reading this thread. I'm not suggesting that anyone should discount that, but I do think we should make an effort to be helpful and constructive in our criticism.

If you're going to say the product uses the dumbest design ever at least makers a suggestion on how to improve it. We want the company to succeed and deliver a solid vape after all, right?

Click to expand...

I have suggested in the past that there are a number of switching tech that are far more reliable than a mechanical clicker.

For what it’s worth.

A good friend needed to cut down on consumption so we traded my custom KGWoodcrafts omnivap for his Hopper IO. Been waiting for the color Ti units to come out before I buy one and couldn’t pass up the chance to grab a regular Ti unit to try out.

This is one hell of a vape! Instant heat is amazing. I can’t lie, it has burnt me a couple times and failed to turn on until I did the typical Hopper cleaning of threads and contacts. With my best batteries it rocks. I mean 4 or 5 bowls at temp 5 through the Orbiter, usually 3 to 4 loooooong hits. Impressive for the amount of power it has. You can’t draw too hard for the heater. It just keeps on making thick clouds hit after hit until the herb is just dark enough to not get the “burnt popcorn” taste and seem well vaped. Here’s hoping it remains as reliable as it has been so far. As of now this is the only Hopper I feel comfortable enough that it will work when I need it to take out and about without my Omnivap for a backup.