Discontinued The Grasshopper

[hippogriff]

As I try to figure out whether to pull the trigger and make my advance payment - could anyone offer any solid reasons why I should?

Price is likely to go up soon, otherwise, no. I'm a backer so I chose this ride, it's fun, and much work has been done to the point where they're assembling units while waiting for the last part to be stocked (we don't know where they are in this), and the few units released are getting favorable reviews along w/ scrutiny that comes from having a few thousand spectators during development. Things're looking good for a successful crowdfunding campaign. But you have to figure your own risk, I imagine pre-orders are the safest money spent on this yet-to-exist thing, but we still don't know what's going to happen. Is the risk worth the $? savings from a preorder? You probably wouldn't get your order much faster than someone who waits for a few hundred backers to get theirs and review first...

 

[flotntoke]

Price is likely to go up soon, otherwise, no. I'm a backer so I chose this ride, it's fun, and much work has been done to the point where they're assembling units while waiting for the last part to be stocked (we don't know where they are in this), and the few units released are getting favorable reviews along w/ scrutiny that comes from having a few thousand spectators during development. Things're looking good for a successful crowdfunding campaign. But you have to figure your own risk, I imagine pre-orders are the safest money spent on this yet-to-exist thing, but we still don't know what's going to happen. Is the risk worth the $? savings from a preorder? You probably wouldn't get your order much faster than someone who waits for a few hundred backers to get theirs and review first...

I hadn't seen this anywhere - specifically that the price will be increasing once they are actually producing/shipping grasshoppers. I did read the bit on their website that basically says we need your money to produce your vape (and others, I suppose).

Is there an expected retail price once they really get this project rolling? Sorry, but I like to know what I'm getting for the risk of pre-ordering with payment 3 months or more out so I can compare it to the other options - like buying one when in stock and waiting a week for it. Thanks!

 

[fft]

Had been lurking through the previous grasshopper thread for some time and just caught up on this one (now at an amazing 23 pages in less than a week!), and like many am anxiously awaiting the grasshopper being available. Seems like it could be one of the best portables ever.

I get the emotional attachment of many (especially early funders/investors), but have to side with some of the cautious skeptics here (@lwien making some of the most intelligent posts from this side of things).

Start with you want my money now to send me a grasshopper in 3 months (if that)? Hasn't the company shown repeatedly that keeping up with promised timelines isn't their strong suit? Many newer vapes (especially higher/newer tech ones such as this), seem to go through a bit of a bumpy start as they work out kinks. Seems like this may be the case here even before concerns brought up by the small handful of current owners. Can someone explain why so many people are so anxious to send their money and wait months for delivery? Especially given the history of this vape and promises made over the past year and a half?

Am I missing something? I get absolutely loving a vape. I can be a fanboy of a good product like few others! (check the nano thread for verification) But, all the heaps of praise in this situation just baffles me! There seems to be a lot of surety thrown around by people who won't even see one in real life for months.

The hype on this one has hit a level I don't recall seeing in the past. So what gives?

As I try to figure out whether to pull the trigger and make my advance payment - could anyone offer any solid reasons why I should?

I don't think you are being unreasonable but bear in mind this is a crowd sourcing project and that a group of backers offered to fund the GH sight unseen...that was part of the deal. They are supposed to make promises up front in order to entice backers. Now that we are 18 months in and this is starting to be real for backers there are broadly two camps of people on this thread: long time watchers/backers and a second group of regular vape consumers looking for an established vape.

I don't think anyone is representing at this point that the GH is the be all end all of vapes. Yes there are people who are rooting for this to the ideal vape...its part of the fun of participating in crowdsourcing. Now and then there is the schadenfreude camp rooting for the GH to fail. Then there are others who just stumble across the GH thread with no knowledge that this is a crowdsourcing project and equate the sheer volume of interest with hype/support for the grasshopper.

So a few people have vapes in their hands right now. I'd say the initial reaction has been generally positive. A backer myself, I like what I see so far. Many backers are getting excited and watch this thread constantly for new news. In the absence of new news, there is much discussion and speculation. Some people have seen enough and are curious enough to pull the trigger on pre-orders, others want a fully proven product before they buy. If you're just a guy looking to buy a good vape and don't want the uncertainty around delivery, then check back in a few months and hopefully things will be more clear then.

 

[tr33sPlease]

I hadn't seen this anywhere - specifically that the price will be increasing once they are actually producing/shipping grasshoppers. I did read the bit on their website that basically says we need your money to produce your vape (and others, I suppose).

Is there an expected retail price once they really get this project rolling? Sorry, but I like to know what I'm getting for the risk of pre-ordering with payment 3 months or more out so I can compare it to the other options - like buying one when in stock and waiting a week for it. Thanks!

There is no specifics mentioned yet, but the GH team has mentioned that there will be a retail price increae. How much is anyone's guess.

I preordered so I would get a spot in line and get the cheaper price. I can afford to be out some money for an insert indeterminate amount of time, but if you can't then I wouldn't preorder...though don't be surprised if it costs you more.

 

[vapebuddy13]

Can we stop tagging and bugging the few people who have a unit? They have lives... and I'm sure they would like to enjoy the gh... When they have a better feel and grasp of the unit Im sure they'll come back and post. multiple posts asking the same thing/just calling for a post isn't gunna make it come any quicker

@flotntoke as mentioned, a price increase will happen and be the new "production pricing" presumably when the site is updated (possibly w/ tm nights update?) So its really just for the pricing. Waiting a few weeks for more units to go out and more people to give feedback probably won't cause much longer wait time than there is ordering now. So far the little we've heard about production units seems good

 

[midgetsanchez]

RIP Grasshopper

So something unexpected happened....I guess there's a first for everything.

I noticed something weird happening with my hopper where the lights would flash red/blue during use and shut off (this is the thermal protection mechanism when the sensor detects overheating). I don't have reason to believe my unit was actually overheating though.....I didn't do anything abnormal other than run several cycles for the burn-off I described earlier. I did drop the unit once, but it worked fine afterwards. Anyway, the red/blue flashing started happening immediately when I powered my unit on, rendering my hopper useless. I think perhaps the temperature sensor had malfunctioned or was defective on my unit, but yeah....RIP Hoppy

I contacted them to see if the issue could be resolved - they seemed very surprised as they've apparently had no units fail so far. Long story short - I'm the first to test out the warranty!

They expedited me a new unit immediately, so luckily I wasn't hopper-less for very long. I was also sent a shipping label so I could send back the old unit for them to investigate the issue, as it's literally never happened before. The process was painless, it's unfortunate mine died but anything is prone to failure, especially first-run production batches. I'm happy they were able to take care of me exceptionally quickly and issue the warranty replacement overnight.

Anyway - the replacement unit works exceptionally well. I did notice some slight differences (like a different screen), which is interesting. The second hopper is also in the 1000's serial-number wise, whereas my first was a 500-something. Strangely enough, my new unit weighs half a gram less than my first.

The first thing I did with my new unit was the burn-off on max temp - it took just a couple cycles, probably took 5 minutes tops but I can confirm it stops "gassing" after that. The "off-gassing" does not smell like burning wires or anything weird, so I definitely believe what they stated to me about it being from finger oil residue on the heating element from contact during assembly.

I know there's discussion about reliability but only time will tell - the people that get units from the very first batch will probably be the most likely to find weird quirks and whatnot....that's the territory that comes with the first run of anything! I'm sure those things will get ironed out as they scale up production. What's important is how they handle issues if they arise, and so far I'm happy despite my first unit failing.

Dual wield!

 

[Kalessin]

RIP Grasshopper

So something unexpected happened....I guess there's a first for everything.

I noticed something weird happening with my hopper where the lights would flash red/blue during use and shut off (this is the thermal protection mechanism when the sensor detects overheating). I don't have reason to believe my unit was actually overheating though.....I didn't do anything abnormal other than run several cycles for the burn-off I described earlier. I did drop the unit once, but it worked fine afterwards. Anyway, the red/blue flashing started happening immediately when I powered my unit on, rendering my hopper useless. I think perhaps the temperature sensor had malfunctioned or was defective on my unit, but yeah....RIP Hoppy

I contacted them to see if the issue could be resolved - they seemed very surprised as they've apparently had no units fail so far. Long story short - I'm the first to test out the warranty!

They expedited me a new unit immediately, so luckily I wasn't hopper-less for very long. I was also sent a shipping label so I could send back the old unit for them to investigate the issue, as it's literally never happened before. The process was painless, it's unfortunate mine died but anything is prone to failure, especially first-run production batches. I'm happy they were able to take care of me exceptionally quickly and issue the warranty replacement overnight.

Anyway - the replacement unit works exceptionally well. I did notice some slight differences (like a different screen), which is interesting. The second hopper is also in the 1000's serial-number wise, whereas my first was a 500-something. Strangely enough, my new unit weighs half a gram less than my first.

The first thing I did with my new unit was the burn-off on max temp - it took just a couple cycles, probably took 5 minutes tops but I can confirm it stops "gassing" after that. The "off-gassing" does not smell like burning wires or anything weird, so I definitely believe what they stated to me about it being from finger oil residue on the heating element from contact during assembly.

I know there's discussion about reliability but only time will tell - the people that get units from the very first batch will probably be the most likely to find weird quirks and whatnot....that's the territory that comes with the first run of anything! I'm sure those things will get ironed out as they scale up production. What's important is how they handle issues if they arise, and so far I'm happy despite my first unit failing.

Dual wield!

Good to know they got you a new one so quickly. Hopefully your new one holds up better.

 

[inuhuion]

i'm sure a lot of people here are gonna have a field day with this, but i'm glad Hopper Labs has demonstrated a commitment to fixing it quickly.
My initial guess is your unit was one of the first ones built (possibly by hands other than Matt and Trevor's), so there might've been an error, just due to the learning curve. At least that's my hope.
I'm consoling myself in that so far, nobody else's unit (all 4 or 5 of them that we know of) haven't had a catastrophic failure. That we know of. Yet.
if midgetsanchez has discovered some heretofor unknown design flaw that pushes the release back, i'm just sayin'... i might riot.

 

[DirtD1V3R]

RIP Grasshopper

So something unexpected happened....I guess there's a first for everything.

I noticed something weird happening with my hopper where the lights would flash red/blue during use and shut off (this is the thermal protection mechanism when the sensor detects overheating). I don't have reason to believe my unit was actually overheating though.....I didn't do anything abnormal other than run several cycles for the burn-off I described earlier. I did drop the unit once, but it worked fine afterwards. Anyway, the red/blue flashing started happening immediately when I powered my unit on, rendering my hopper useless. I think perhaps the temperature sensor had malfunctioned or was defective on my unit, but yeah....RIP Hoppy

I contacted them to see if the issue could be resolved - they seemed very surprised as they've apparently had no units fail so far. Long story short - I'm the first to test out the warranty!

They expedited me a new unit immediately, so luckily I wasn't hopper-less for very long. I was also sent a shipping label so I could send back the old unit for them to investigate the issue, as it's literally never happened before. The process was painless, it's unfortunate mine died but anything is prone to failure, especially first-run production batches. I'm happy they were able to take care of me exceptionally quickly and issue the warranty replacement overnight.

Anyway - the replacement unit works exceptionally well. I did notice some slight differences (like a different screen), which is interesting. The second hopper is also in the 1000's serial-number wise, whereas my first was a 500-something. Strangely enough, my new unit weighs half a gram less than my first.

The first thing I did with my new unit was the burn-off on max temp - it took just a couple cycles, probably took 5 minutes tops but I can confirm it stops "gassing" after that. The "off-gassing" does not smell like burning wires or anything weird, so I definitely believe what they stated to me about it being from finger oil residue on the heating element from contact during assembly.

I know there's discussion about reliability but only time will tell - the people that get units from the very first batch will probably be the most likely to find weird quirks and whatnot....that's the territory that comes with the first run of anything! I'm sure those things will get ironed out as they scale up production. What's important is how they handle issues if they arise, and so far I'm happy despite my first unit failing.

Dual wield!

Good one on them to get you one quick but I am a little interested in the differences between the first one and the new one. Why is it lighter? Did they send you a pre-production unit by accident? I know they are super busy but did you send them an email questioning the differences in the two units? One part of figuring out the mass production process before implementing the process is ensuring quality control and unit to unit consistency.

 

[Just Justin]

Please confirm you got the charging cable with your production GH?

Sorry, I don't have a charging cable yet..I am using the recomended external charger, the N270. I did have the real charger cable with my pre-production unit and it was slick.

How long does it stay on if you decide not to click it off after each hit? Seemed like the two dudes on the video had it going long enough for a session, unless there was some video editing. I thought I read 18 seconds somewhere else though. I feel like I won't want to keep turning it on and off.

Do any of the users have any feelings on that?

The Grasshopper has a 18 second shut off timer, however, if you keep inhaling, the GH will sense this and reset the timer so you will have another 18 seconds on or you can inhale again to keep resetting it.

 

[hi_there]

oh oh...

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, david@grasshoppervape.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

hahahaha

 

[Kalessin]

@Just Justin

Have you noticed any difference in the pre- and post-production SS hoppers?

 

[tr33sPlease]

oh oh...

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, david@grasshoppervape.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

hahahaha

It's working for me...

 

[1_gr8_underdog]

Mobile and Pc site are working fine for me as well.

 

[inuhuion]

Site works for me too, no noticeable changes.

 

[Just Justin]

@Just Justin

Have you noticed any difference in the pre- and post-production SS hoppers?

So far besides the added insulation, the production Grasshopper seems to have less threads for the mouthpiece so it spins off really fast and easy. Production GH is an improvement to the previous unit I had and as far as I can tell, it stays cooler longer and doesn't seem to get as hot to the touch but I am only getting started with the new GH so I am holding off confirming things until I have had enough time testing.

By the way, I have hopefully fixed my dang website so all of the photos should show up.........I also started a new post for the upcoming GH review/resource.

Here is a little something I whipped up for my batteries to carry and protect them. I can tell you, if you wreck the plastic case around the batteries, they won't work properly in the unit because the metal of the battery is then exposed to the metal of the GH body and it messes with the circuit but I think that may only apply to plastic around the negative side - of the battery end where it contacts the temperature dial and on/off assembly. I had a freak accident and somehow sliced the top of the plastic off of one of my batteries when I was testing the pre-production unit.

This pic is of a screen basket that I made and tried some concentrates with my pre-production GH and it produced some good vapor! The GH certainly has the power to do concentrates, its just a matter of containing them and making something that will hold them effectively, not make a huge mess and be somewhat practical. I have a lot of ideas and things I am going to try but so far this is what I've got.

 

[Deleted member 23961]

I did notice some slight differences (like a different screen), which is interesting.

When you have some time on your hands, if you could take a photo of the screen differences that'd be much appreciated!

 

[andee145]

 

[midgetsanchez]

Good one on them to get you one quick but I am a little interested in the differences between the first one and the new one. Why is it lighter? Did they send you a pre-production until by accident? I know they are super busy but did you send them an email questioning the differences in the two units? One part of figuring out the mass production process before implementing the process is ensuring quality control and unit to unit consistency.

It's entirely possible what I got was a pre-production unit by accident....I was just looking at Buzz's Ti unboxing pictures and noticed that the "new" screen he mentioned looks identical to the one in my replacement unit. I already sent the defective one out so that they can diagnose it asap.

@Just Justin I dig the battery case - and the concentrates rig. I've actually managed to rig a fantastic concentrates mod for my hopper already, I'll be posting pics soon! It's a little different from the "basket" you made, but it's fairly simple and effective. Hint: it uses the same concentrate pads as the Mighty/Crafty. The capillary action ensures the concentrates stay in the pad when heated, leaving no mess! Still doing some testing though...

 

[baltik]

Fwiw "something" happened to mine too... Different issue than what's been stated above - will see how the team responds. Hopefully same outcome

 

[inuhuion]

oh good god no

 

[IAmKrazy2]

Fwiw "something" happened to mine too... Different issue than what's been stated above - will see how the team responds. Hopefully same outcome

Is this my first post i made on the 20 plus pages? Sorry to hear of your failure too, and different issue all together?

This is not good news. Update looming tomorrow and with this second known failure i sure hope it is addressed on the update.

 

[lwien]

And so, the dreaded growing pains begins. Not unexpected though. Most all new product that breaks new ground is prone to stuff like this especially when manufactured by a young team of engineers with no prior experience in running a business such as this in dealing not only with manufacturing but distribution, marketing, public relations, warranty issues, etc etc as well.

As I've said previously, the question is not if GH will stand behind their product and make every effort to correct these issues in a timely manner, but rather if they have the funding necessary to weather the storm.

 

[Jack Sprat]

I think it would be helpful if people who do have the Grasshopper and have technical problems with it post something concrete as opposed to cryptic messages that just serve to fuel wild speculation. Whist that might be entertaining to some, I think it just serves to clog the thread with rumours, making reliable information difficult to find. Hopefully we all had enough of that in the previous GH thread.

 

[hippogriff]

And so, the dreaded growing pains begins. Not unexpected though. Most all new product that breaks new ground is prone to stuff like this especially when manufactured by a young team of engineers with no prior experience in running a business such as this in dealing not only with manufacturing but distribution, marketing, public relations, warranty

yes, this is why I've been wanting GH to get to distributing, cause the backers are the real beta program, and the next big test for the company is surviving the beta program. Go GH!