So I got my fritter convertible hydratube the other day
I recall reading earlier in the thread somewhere that it didn't come with the stand, just the stopper and mouthpiece, but I asked Sam and he assured me it came with everything.
I asked him to make me a flared mouthpiece, I'm not sure if that's what he does as standard (I could swear I've seen some with the more closed off style mouthpiece that looks "phallic"
), but the mouthpiece came exactly as I was hoping.
In the end it is very similar to the mouthpiece on my leviathan lattice bubbler.
I was worried the drag would be high give that the frit is so small compared to the other fritter pieces I own (including this piece, I've got 5 fritters now
), but it feels quite similar to the others.
Maybe it's due to the relatively low water volume the piece holds?
I've been using it with my solo primarily so far, 18mm gong stem in the bottom inlet, using it hydratube style.
That setup does feel a little tall, but that would only really worry me if I was to put the whole setup down on a table without removing the tube.
It sits quite well on a table even without the stand, because of the crazy thick 18mm joints used.
I've got a couple of pieces with extra thick 18mm joints, but the ones in this tube are even bigger than them.
I really like the stopper/carb idea, it's kinda like it has a built in cloudbuddy.
I also gave it a whirl with my LSV.
With the airflow the LSV provides, I can get it to stack all the way up to the mouthpiece, but I've had zero issues with splashback so far.
I never use my pieces on a tabletop, always hand-held.
When using it "standard" style (so using the middle inlet, not the bottom one) it has to be held so as to ensure the bottom stopper is kept in place.
I wouldn't call it awkward, just something I need to be mindful of when not using it hydratube style. (The massive joints are too big for a keck clip, so you can't just clip the bottom on and pick it up normally.)
It's hard to judge exactly, but from what I can tell, the diameter of the frit is the same as the little pre-filter Frits that come with the 21mm DG fritter tubes.
Unfortunately the piece did have 1 small flaw, in the downstem part there was a tiny hole.
When I say tiny, I couldn't see it, and I couldn't feel it when I ran my finger along it.
It did cause a very slow leak (it took over 45 mins for the piece to empty, and it only seemed to leak after an initial pull) I can't blame Sam for it slipping through QC, it was a very minor blemish that unfortunately made the piece only semi usable.
I contacted Sam about it, and he got back to me really quickly.
We've come to an agreement on the issue, and overall I'm happy with how everything ended up.
It's unfortunate the piece had a blemish, but Sam sorted it quickly and without hassle - that's a sign of good customer service in my book.
I've managed to repair the leak with some glass epoxy.
Does anyone know of a way to "sand" Down the epoxy to clean up my work without damaging the glass?
But yeah, overall I'm loving the piece, and I'd totally recommend it and GBD to anyone thinking about picking up one of their pieces
I'm strongly considering getting either the fritter dewaar bubbler, or the fritter sidecar tube next...
I'll try to snap some pics and a vid of it over the weekend.