Alpine 2020/2021 - Induction Heater
- Thread starter fatbiker
- Start date
stark1
Lonesome Planet
I have been a bit unglued, so haven’t fired it up (expecting it to go IED on me).
Let you know when I can catch myself, so I can kick my butt! Until then
Cauldron is 2/3 the size of A-20 in one dimension; significantly lighter (no batteries).
Used a 1A charger to fully charge, fully charged in 1/2 hour.
enlarge picture online
Let you know when I can catch myself, so I can kick my butt! Until then
Cauldron is 2/3 the size of A-20 in one dimension; significantly lighter (no batteries).
Used a 1A charger to fully charge, fully charged in 1/2 hour.
enlarge picture online
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TommyDee
Vaporitor
Looking forward to your comparison on performance to the Caldron. At least one can get into the Caldron! That is always a plus for tinkerers.
Did I reiterate that I am still impressed with the A'20? Like a little borg qube sitting on my coffee table telling me resistance is futile for some reason. And I agree every time!
...and yes, it is heavy enough to do serious damage to a perp if you got the pitching arm for it. Its heft is definitely part of the appeal. It ain't going into my pocket. It's going to get set somewhere. So don't forget it.
3 GRN lights means charged. And charged is a loose term with A'20. They made the unit 'safe'. Meaning it won't overcharge if the power supply happens to be a little on the high side of the spec. I am consistently able to add 1 watt/hour to the pack when the 12V charger thinks its done. That accounts for about 8% of the charge. And therefore, you will also be relieved to know that keeping the A'20 charged full time also means that it is only at 92% capacity so no worries about the 100% charge doom so many rant about.
I have never experienced a cell failure in over 30 years using high power cell tech save one aged NiCad cell, but hey, each their own. I call BS in any significant way to cell life in either quality li-ion or li-po offerings. Consumer experience with name-brand batteries is fairly consistent universally. No one cycles their cellphone batteries which are lipo for the most part; no one keeps their flashlight at 80% for emergency use. It just seems dumb to limit charge capacity when the whole purpose is maximizing runtime. What's the 'real' savings? Do the math - does it make sense to get 5% extra charges if you only charge the thing maybe 4 times in its lifetime? Do power tools get 'broken in' for packs? Don't they also remain charged between 95% and 100% all the time for occasional use in most households? I'm borderline OCD enough - this one has never bothered me in the least. The numbers suggest you get more useful and fruitful life from a battery you simply keep between the 3V and 4.2V per-cell margins. I want my devices ready to use to their full capacity. And I verify capacity with my Opus charger. These little power plants are not the droids you are looking for.
3 green lights - >11.87V resting
2 green lights - 11.86-11.2V firing or resting
1 green light - 11.1-10.6 firing or resting
Only the red light during firing means the pack has dropped below the working voltage of 3.6V per cell. A charge is indicated as you will not know when the firing voltage is 9V or less. This is a very conservative battery management strategy.
I'm impressed with the delivery of 11.75V when firing at full charge. I don't get that with li-ion. IMR cells appear to have higher internal resistance.
A lot of you have 12.6V chargers. I am in no way suggesting anyone change their charger to be used with the A'20. I monitor the charge and that is how I know what is going on inside. The 12V charger supplied by ToggenGear is the sanctioned charge device!
Did I reiterate that I am still impressed with the A'20? Like a little borg qube sitting on my coffee table telling me resistance is futile for some reason. And I agree every time!
...and yes, it is heavy enough to do serious damage to a perp if you got the pitching arm for it. Its heft is definitely part of the appeal. It ain't going into my pocket. It's going to get set somewhere. So don't forget it.
3 GRN lights means charged. And charged is a loose term with A'20. They made the unit 'safe'. Meaning it won't overcharge if the power supply happens to be a little on the high side of the spec. I am consistently able to add 1 watt/hour to the pack when the 12V charger thinks its done. That accounts for about 8% of the charge. And therefore, you will also be relieved to know that keeping the A'20 charged full time also means that it is only at 92% capacity so no worries about the 100% charge doom so many rant about.
I have never experienced a cell failure in over 30 years using high power cell tech save one aged NiCad cell, but hey, each their own. I call BS in any significant way to cell life in either quality li-ion or li-po offerings. Consumer experience with name-brand batteries is fairly consistent universally. No one cycles their cellphone batteries which are lipo for the most part; no one keeps their flashlight at 80% for emergency use. It just seems dumb to limit charge capacity when the whole purpose is maximizing runtime. What's the 'real' savings? Do the math - does it make sense to get 5% extra charges if you only charge the thing maybe 4 times in its lifetime? Do power tools get 'broken in' for packs? Don't they also remain charged between 95% and 100% all the time for occasional use in most households? I'm borderline OCD enough - this one has never bothered me in the least. The numbers suggest you get more useful and fruitful life from a battery you simply keep between the 3V and 4.2V per-cell margins. I want my devices ready to use to their full capacity. And I verify capacity with my Opus charger. These little power plants are not the droids you are looking for.
3 green lights - >11.87V resting
2 green lights - 11.86-11.2V firing or resting
1 green light - 11.1-10.6 firing or resting
Only the red light during firing means the pack has dropped below the working voltage of 3.6V per cell. A charge is indicated as you will not know when the firing voltage is 9V or less. This is a very conservative battery management strategy.
I'm impressed with the delivery of 11.75V when firing at full charge. I don't get that with li-ion. IMR cells appear to have higher internal resistance.
A lot of you have 12.6V chargers. I am in no way suggesting anyone change their charger to be used with the A'20. I monitor the charge and that is how I know what is going on inside. The 12V charger supplied by ToggenGear is the sanctioned charge device!
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babaganush
Well-Known Member
Most of us knew what we were getting into when we bought this. This induction heater was practically half the price of all the others you listed there, so youre basically comparing something high end to something mid range. Would most of us here buy this at the current $150 price? Probably not, but for $80 this was a heck of a deal, at least for me. That said, they should really lower the standard price to like $100 if they wanna stay competitive.
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TommyDee
Vaporitor
Damn birds got the cherries. LOL @stark1 - no, I have zero affiliation with "The Randall", ToggenGear, or SourceVapes. However, how long have I been saying someone needs to step up? Randall did! Glad he did! Give him a chance. I actually got more than I expected. Of course presentation on first impression is critical. I hope to serve you the fucking crows that ate my cherriesU musk B cherry
I do think the real price is $120 if you don't overlook the coupon like I did. Yea, stand-alone... its worth that. Will they fix the top, I'm sure. Will they fix the magnet, maybe, it does work for decapping. Will they have a good battery exchange plan? I hope so. Will we get instructions? Probably. With the discount, it is the cheapest stand-alone IH out there and it is not made of plastic. Metal housings get automatic cred. And mine came without a single scratch, or even a mark, on the entire anodized body. My heart stopped a second when I put it down on a brick. I had the cork dots on there not a minute later.
And I should add that by the very same token, the PSM is also a great heater a lot of people have and adore. Place your orders already! A'20 is what commercialism gets you and PSM is what artisan vapes get you. I like having contact with the maker for sure. The demand just seems so high ATM. Look at how many Apollo's are flying out of the warehouse! Imagine 1 IH for every 2 new Dynavap users. How many that would be. I think I just heard Jeff faint!
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thunderstealer1337
Well-Known Member
Well its 5pm monday,
no fedex label (I have the fedex accountmanager or whatever)
no email
no message reply
what a fooqn joke again after delay/delay/delay never get any updates that actually correlates to what he is claiming...
again confused and waiting for update - this is gettin really old
also its really easy to see he did not have enough qc/units to ship first preorder no matter wtf he was claiming on interwebz, we just lucky he slipped up and informed a paying customer earlier about this shenanigans.
Pretty evident the last couple deliveries ppl were getting was really piss poor qc that should have never left their facility, but of course we will claim its all normal and this is normal lol
im still
that he pushed out some statement that the 17/18 labels were printed but never left the printer - after 7 days.... you should have realized that day 1, and the claim is still not validated because you can literally go and validate if the 17/18 outbound packages are still in your facility - you dont need to lie, again I would be fine if he updated that preorder wont ship till July... but w/e
no fedex label (I have the fedex accountmanager or whatever)
no email
no message reply
what a fooqn joke again after delay/delay/delay never get any updates that actually correlates to what he is claiming...
again confused and waiting for update - this is gettin really old
also its really easy to see he did not have enough qc/units to ship first preorder no matter wtf he was claiming on interwebz, we just lucky he slipped up and informed a paying customer earlier about this shenanigans.
Pretty evident the last couple deliveries ppl were getting was really piss poor qc that should have never left their facility, but of course we will claim its all normal and this is normal lol
im still
that he pushed out some statement that the 17/18 labels were printed but never left the printer - after 7 days.... you should have realized that day 1, and the claim is still not validated because you can literally go and validate if the 17/18 outbound packages are still in your facility - you dont need to lie, again I would be fine if he updated that preorder wont ship till July... but w/e
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acstorfer
Take My Money Dammit!
The QC was practically unforgivable, but the Alpine works very well. I’ve gone the whole day without having to recharge.
You may be in luck. You may be getting a unit with the right magnet, and a more than show battery indicator. The extra wait would be worth it. I forget if it’s a six month or one year warranty, but I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of returns for repairs. I mean a lot of returns for repairs. I do worry that if I send my IH in for work that is on stuff that isn’t really needed Source may not be able to replace so many units. So I’m hoping the wait is worth it for you.
I kept my name on the Flux waiting list. The Alpine works extremely well but with so many issues on the first run, well it’s reminiscent of the Ghost MV1. It is a great unit, but for me it took three units to get to a working one. I NEVER want to be short handed an IH. I used a torch for years. I had no idea how much more I would enjoy using my vapcaps.
thunderstealer1337
Well-Known Member
Again
Its 5pm Tuesday and nothing....
yup, I had to go online to figure it out again and again it makes no sense, he says he contacted all 17/18 ppl that were stuck from 7/2, and stated they were shipping today Tuesday, well lol immediately ppl posted up they got no communication at all whatsoever and its end of business day Tuesday now - and I as well got no communication at all, its roflmao the mountain of lies he has spouted now.
edit: well here is USPS response
The parcel you are inquiring about, article #9400111899563188455942 was not mailed by the shipper. I show that a shipping label was created on 7/2 but there is no other tracking on this parcel. All parcels are scanned accepted at the time of mailing and show enroute scans as they are processed to their destination. There is no acceptance or enroute scans on this parcel. Please contact the shipper as this parcel was never mailed.
yea, ive gotten prolly thousand of packages from usps, and never ran into this issue even with corona, and concur with usps this was not shipped on 7/2 and they just mass printed the labels to get everyone to shuttup because they missed their promises to ship over and over and over again.
Its 5pm Tuesday and nothing....
yup, I had to go online to figure it out again and again it makes no sense, he says he contacted all 17/18 ppl that were stuck from 7/2, and stated they were shipping today Tuesday, well lol immediately ppl posted up they got no communication at all whatsoever and its end of business day Tuesday now - and I as well got no communication at all, its roflmao the mountain of lies he has spouted now.
edit: well here is USPS response
The parcel you are inquiring about, article #9400111899563188455942 was not mailed by the shipper. I show that a shipping label was created on 7/2 but there is no other tracking on this parcel. All parcels are scanned accepted at the time of mailing and show enroute scans as they are processed to their destination. There is no acceptance or enroute scans on this parcel. Please contact the shipper as this parcel was never mailed.
yea, ive gotten prolly thousand of packages from usps, and never ran into this issue even with corona, and concur with usps this was not shipped on 7/2 and they just mass printed the labels to get everyone to shuttup because they missed their promises to ship over and over and over again.
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Midnight Toker
That is not a drug, it’s a plant.....
For those in the 7/2 shipping limbo, I got this in my email a couple hours ago...
---------
Your order was part of a shipment that went out on 7/2 that seems to have been lost by USPS. We are placing an order recall with them and recreating your shipping label with UPS and sending out your item, hoping to have it sent out no later than tomorrow afternoon!
-----
Shortly thereafter I got a text from UPS w/a tracking number. Hopefully I will have an Alpine in the next couple days.
---------
| 3:15 PM (2 hours ago) | |||
|
Your order was part of a shipment that went out on 7/2 that seems to have been lost by USPS. We are placing an order recall with them and recreating your shipping label with UPS and sending out your item, hoping to have it sent out no later than tomorrow afternoon!
-----
Shortly thereafter I got a text from UPS w/a tracking number. Hopefully I will have an Alpine in the next couple days.
Mine as well. Wtf!!!
fatbiker
Well-Known Member
What a nightmare. I feel bad you are having so much trouble. I wish I could help.
I ordered the alpine sometime in June as it was supposed to be shipped out at the end of June. Yes I’m the dummy that paid full price. Because I freaking hate pre orders. I was told that this was not a pre-order. Same day I got on the waiting list for a psm. That waiting list was approximately 9 weeks. The alpine was supposed to ship in days of ordering.
Psm shipped on 7/2. “Same day” as the alpine. Now I’ve been using my psm for 4 days and my alpine is lost in Usps land......I forgot why I’m writing all this... I’m pretty medicated... oh yea!!! The psm is great. I love it. Maybe the alpine will be okay as well. But it will have to be freaking spectacular to get this bad taste out of my mouth
Psm shipped on 7/2. “Same day” as the alpine. Now I’ve been using my psm for 4 days and my alpine is lost in Usps land......I forgot why I’m writing all this... I’m pretty medicated... oh yea!!! The psm is great. I love it. Maybe the alpine will be okay as well. But it will have to be freaking spectacular to get this bad taste out of my mouth
Not much there about cost for that service...
They're not responding to my messages. I guess it's because I'm not making airing my issues in public
![:\](/i/s/hmm.gif "Hmm :\")
Trying to assume good will, but I'm close to my limit.
TommyDee
Vaporitor
I had to resort to the warranty route to get that. I was sure to ask for a future event rather than an immediate request for warranty service.
I don't think we're making a dent in their daily concerns. They're stuck on Reddit and Instagram for hype and spin. We don't put up with that shit here.
I don't think we're making a dent in their daily concerns. They're stuck on Reddit and Instagram for hype and spin. We don't put up with that shit here.
Yeah, I'm watching the situation over there too, and sent Randall a message there yesterday.
Slow CS responses for me (limit of 1 per 24 hours so far???), and not all that helpful at that. Fingers still crossed that they figure this out.
Just so everyone notices, the Toggen Gear website (where I placed my pre-order) states a satisfaction guarantee. My understanding is that means "or your money back"... legally speaking that is. https://definitions.uslegal.com/s/satisfaction-guaranteed/
Slow CS responses for me (limit of 1 per 24 hours so far???), and not all that helpful at that. Fingers still crossed that they figure this out.
Just so everyone notices, the Toggen Gear website (where I placed my pre-order) states a satisfaction guarantee. My understanding is that means "or your money back"... legally speaking that is. https://definitions.uslegal.com/s/satisfaction-guaranteed/