I've been considering getting a crafty, was hoping someone could clear this up for me: how is the reliability? I've heard many negative experiences with the crafty breaking down, and Storz & Bickel being bad about following through on warranties/ bad at keeping contact with you. But a lot of those stories seem to be from the months after release. Has the newest version improved at all on the defect/randomly breaking front? And also, is it possible to find vendors that will field warranties themselves (ie if I get a crafty and it breaks down not due to my fault/mishandling, the vendor would replace it for me right away and I'd never actually have to talk to Storz & BIckel or pay the shipping fee across the ocean)
also, people mention batteries dying. I'd be using this more than once a week but probably less than once a day. Is that little enough that I shouldn't need to worry about the battery life warranty limit, or about it burning out at all over the 2 year warranty period?
I think it's a real hit and miss with the crafty.
I'm on an first release OG crafty (I think Nov 2014) ~42+ hrs and it's fine no issues at all.
My friend's was purchased Dec 2014 and they are almost 60+ hours, no issue either.
(not much heat up time/battery degradation with either!)
But bulk of reported failures seem to be of heavy daily users (anecdotal evidence) and higher 70+ hour mark.
Some are reporting 150hrs and up to 300 hrs (but with noticeable battery degradation with heat up times).
Note: the 300 hour user swapped his battery himself by resoldering.
I bought from a Aussie reseller who will send a new unit on failure and deal with s&b themselves. But I still have to pay local shipping.
People are saying use "puff it up" website. Apparently Randy really looks after his customers.
If you will be concerned about longevity and don't care about portability get a mighty! Double the battery and half the strain on the unit.
I say jump on board. It's definitely my favourite session vape (what you put into it you use in 1 sitting).
For on demand, 1 hit and put it away, convection style... you are better off with a grasshopper or FireFly2 (soon to be released, but the beta tester on FC says it's awesome).
But right now the grasshopper has poor failure rate themselves. And the firefly1 had big issues at first too apparently.