I've been criss crossing the country over the past 10 days, first a few days in Florida, followed by a few days in Oregon (my oh my their dope is so good, best in the country in my opinion, I always forget how good it is till I get there!) then D.C. So below is a user tiptrik of life on the road and in the air with limited cannabis access and using the GH as really your ONLY vape.
For context, I've had my GH since mid-July. Am I a total fan boy? YES. Have I had warranty issues? YES. My current vape I've been using non-stop and no worries since early September. My other vapes are Firefly, Pax2 and MiVape.
All of which I use very rarely if at all (I never use my Firefly, I gave it another go on the recommendation of
@BuzzDanklin with some new draw techniques, I don't think you're wrong Buzz, I just don't want to work that hard but agree its "worth" it and my pax2 I also never use anymore, the MiVape I have been using because as someone mentioned earlier about pairing GH and a Crafty, it is nice to have a "session" vape companion for the GH and so far the Mivape is in the running but I still use it maybe once or twice a day as compared to the GH being my go-to device.).
I took my GH and about a little less than an eighth with me expecting that should get me through 3 days until I could stock up again in Oregon. I am an all day everyday consumer and now I am also on a vacation on a beach so, under VERY HEAVY usage, I found I used about 4 batteries a day. I also would vary pack between fully packed because I had wrongly convinced myself that its "more convenient" (more on pack amount later) and some very small packs because I was doing it super fast while walking or something like that.
As for discretion, whether going through security at the airport or vaping ANYWHERE other people where vaping or smoking, this device is the discretion champ. No one ever batted an eye. As I was being more conservative than usual because (I live in Colorado so I usually am not concerned about conserving cannabis) my stash was it, I definitely found that one can get hits off a fully packed bowl far longer than I would normally go for. With temp stepping starting around 2.5 and going to 5 I would get anywhere between 25-30 hits per bowl. Under this kind of usage however I noticed battery life was about the length of the bowl. So as you read this post and everyone's else know that "bowl" needs to be defined by how packed it is because conversely with a slight pinch per bowl, I easily get 4-5 "bowls" per battery (again more on pack later).
By the end of the weekend in Florida, I still actually had a little bud left over, certainly not enough to worth taking to a Florida airport when flying to Oregon so that, ahem got disposed of faster than a GH could manage and allow me to also get to the airport (read, smoked a joint of it).
Oregon, oh Oregon your dope is good, anyway restocked in Oregon, spent a few days of Grasshopper inspired misadventures and then treated myself to PDX's liberal cannabis policy to ensure I have enough to through 4 days in D.C. which, incase you haven't been there lately, you can consume cannabis openly and publicly just about anywhere. It is awesome, I mean WHOA, I mean OH THATS HOW LIFE SHOULD BE, as in I live in Boulder Colorado and I feel more comfortable ripping my grasshopper walking down Pennsylvania avenue than I do Pearl Street. Don't believe me? Google Boulder e-cig ban and Washington Post DC smells like weed. So long as you bring your own DC is the best cannabis consumer experience in the Country right now!
Anyway, I have a friend who I actually introduced to the GH who happened to get his a few weeks ago, unfortunately had to send it back for QC but got his new one while I was in town. We went to his apartment and we were both loading our GH's and as I was filling mine up in preparation for going out he looks at me and is like "What are you doing? Thats WAAY too much".
Funny for me because the first time he used a GH was when he tried mine back in August (he backed after mine so he had to go from using a GH to waiting months for his own but c'est la no?) I was probably the one who originally told him to pack it with almost nothing because those of you who may remember from my posts in the summer I was a total zealot about a pinch will do ya.
I had convinced myself during the days of travel that packing a big bowl to last quarter of a day was convenient and made sense. Of course the wisdom of someone who lives in a city where absolutely no once cares if you're walking down the street packing a GH was insightful for me.
What I was reminded of going back to the pinch method (from which I will never stray again) is that less is WAAAAAY more with the GH. So instead of loading my GH to the brim I used a tube from my buddy and ground up some bud to go.
I forgot that if you're just taking a little pinch the GH is super easy to load and takes almost no time.
I forgot that because the GH is so efficient, the Terpenes (read flavor) get stripped pretty fast so you can extract cannabinoids well after the terpenes (which I know follow the science that says they are as if not more important to the psychoactive experience) that with a full pack you can get 10-15 cloudy, potent but absolutely flavorless hits, where with a pinch you maybe only get 6-8 hits but of those 4-5 taste amazing and pretty much both the terps and the cannabinoids are gone pretty quickly.
And I forgot that with a pinch, no need to worry about tapping a bowl out or finding a paper clip because the ABV just falls right out.
And finally, (more on discretion of a tight pack in a sec) I forgot that for cloud production for those who do really care about that, less is more because pack and airflow are inverse proportional.
To quickly advocate for something I totally don't believe in for myself but I'm sure someone might and as it shows the "versatility" (I don't think its versatile at all, I think the GH is best as it was designed although you "could" do this ...), I came to appreciate during my travels with a fully tightly packed and therefore restricted airflow GH something .... "Cloudless Vaping".
With a fully packed chamber and set on temp 2, I could get quite a few very delicious hits that were definitely full of active terps and cannas cus I was baked but got no clouds coming out. I found that with this technique I could get 10 hits or so before I had to turn the temp up. Once above 3 clouds where unavoidable. It was awesome for pure discretion though and good to know that once could literally use it anywhere. Fully packed, temp 2, no clouds, literally the only thing the absolutely nobody that cared what I was doing was maybe why is there a light coming out of my pen but really nobody looked at me, whether in a restaurant or bar or wherever because there was really only flavor.
I can also see using a full pack on higher temps for sessioning bong rips. The Grasshopper definitely "does" all of those things.
That said, I'm going back to the pinch at a time. All joking aside, my experience with the GH has been awesome, limited QC issues, addressed quickly and a great travel companion.
It is however as GH has always stated, which is why their price point is so low (again as an early backer it was only $99 but even now at $150 its still at least 50 bucks cheaper than any other vape I own and never use anymore) this is a PERSONAL device. Can you share it? Sure and I did but I liked my GH best when I got DC and my friend had his own. Can you pack it full? Sure if thats your pleasure, but for a cannasiuer, there is no reason not to use the device optimally which is a small loose pack, just a pinch which will get you a bunch of flavorful cloudy rips. Then just unscrew the top and let the ABV just fall out and pack the next bowl.
At home with friends doing bong rips? Okay, pack in just a pinch, crank up the temp and clear that bowl! Then dump it out and pass it on to your friend. They can pack in a pinch of the same dope or something different and get FRESH TASTY HITS! Thats of course if your friend doesn't have their own GH for some reason. Either way, there's no reason to not have fresh hits. Freshies for everybody is the point of the GH. It seems a lot of people are saying are shortcomings of the device are really just using it sub optimally. I mean if its really important to you that your friend take a hit off a bowl where all the flavor is already stripped then the GH is not for you, try a glass bowl, guaranteed only one person gets freshies.
But for those who prefer everyone gets maximum flavor, get a GH and pack it light, and let everyone in the group vape the entire bowl of 5-6 hits. Its the optimal way to use the device in my opinion. Everyone deserves a tasty GH rip and if they don't have their own GH, they'll thank you to finish your bowl and let them pack a fresh one for themselves when they borrow your GH. By personal device, I don't mean "selfish" device, I just mean "one person at a time".
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