Discontinued The Grasshopper

[almost there]

well whatever is wrong with my hopper is described as a "unique failure" whatever that means. The parts are being swapped out and they're keeping whatever is wrong for further analysis. Apparently this unique issue hasn't been caught in production or the previous other 2 RMA's and still I'm gonna get a repaired hopper instead of just swapping it out and giving me a fully functioning unit finally. Unreal!!! I can't wait for the day another stealth unit is released, I can deal with the problems with the vape but the CS just fustrates the hell out of me.

 

[newVaper420]

Well, that was short lived. I just got my hopper back last week and it's already broken. Not getting hot again. LOL.

Just sent the warranty message.

Thankfully, got the Mighty going. I need to get my Cloud Evo fixed. But I digress.

When the Hopper works, it's choice. But if I can't use it as a daily driver (which it seems not), then this may be a losing proposition.

I was informed that I should try to use compressed air to blow it out. I'll give that a shot, and if not, I'll send it back in

 

[duff]

Sorry @almost there and @newVaper420. Incredibly frustrating.

I can't believe that FC and Reddit users are the only folks experiencing this amount of failures.

Did they send you both prepaid shipping labels?

 

[Baron23]

Well, that was short lived. I just got my hopper back last week and it's already broken. Not getting hot again. LOL.

Just sent the warranty message.

Thankfully, got the Mighty going. I need to get my Cloud Evo fixed. But I digress.

When the Hopper works, it's choice. But if I can't use it as a daily driver (which it seems not), then this may be a losing proposition.

I was informed that I should try to use compressed air to blow it out. I'll give that a shot, and if not, I'll send it back in

We have been seeing this type of BS for almost two years now? Their failure to improve test-ability and fault isolation and their inability to improve robustness and reliability are at this point inexcusable.

Its beyond belief that they are still shipping back 'repaired' RMA'd units that fail immediately or shortly thereafter.

I just don't get WTF they are doing and they don't engage directly with the community at all.

While my GH has been failure free for over a year, I still can't recommend this vape as you story is just far too common.

Cheers and I'm sorry about your GH.

 

[almost there]

Sorry @almost there and @newVaper420. Incredibly frustrating.

I can't believe that FC and Reddit users are the only folks experiencing this amount of failures.

Did they send you both prepaid shipping labels?

nope. The fact that they need to further analyze the faulty parts means that I got a fucked up unit from the start. So despite paying and never receiving a working unit, the expense of 3 RMA's not to mention all the time wasted, all they'll do is swap out the parts instead of giving me a new unit.

 

[Cheesequake]

Hi
I just realized I DON'T have to hit fast & hard at all, quite the contrary as some of you told me after my last post here. I had a slow pull and I've seen the clouds for the first time with this vape!
Other than being instant vapor it can hit pretty hard. I only got wispy hits until now but I still liked it for morning instant vapor.

I still follow the advice to continue hitting a few seconds after switching off the unit.
Is there any other trick to keep an healthy unit?
I really hope to be able to babysit my GH.

If hitting the hopper harder gives you less dense vapor there is something wrong with your hopper. 100%.

 

[JCat]

Got my SS hopper back today ... took 5 weeks to service it (or 5 weeks less 4 days since that's the time it took to get from me to them). It's not fixed at all. They replaced the insides of the body looks like since it's all new and shiny in the chamber, however, crazy flashing blue lights and super weak performance. <5 seconds into a draw the heater seems to start giving up and the vapour starts to get wispy. (ie. just when the load is heated, the GH heater decides to stop outputting much heat, so can't really whitewall anything properly ... can translucently whitewall a bubbler ... like skim milk diluted with 80% water ...)

Brutal. 2/3 of the times I've gotten this SS hopper back it's not fixed at all (I haven't gone back and verified that # exactly ... could be less could be more, but at any rate it's very, very poor)

So now even if HL pays for the shipping back, what does that mean ... I'll have been without it for >10 weeks? How is that acceptable? Canada Post, USPS, UPS, and HL have had my Hopper a lot more than I have in the last 8 months (back a total of 6 times to-date I believe w/ an avg turn-around time of 4 weeks ... so that extrapolates to 24/34 weeks of ownership where CP/USPS/UPS/HL have had it instead of me ... ie. 71% !!!!!!! ... wow! Luckily my Ti Hopper has faired quite a bit better ... actually must be about the opposite since I've pretty much always had 1 working (somewhat) hopper but never had 2 ... it's hard to see the positives at times though when you have stats like this

Edit: If I didn't really need a hard hitting, pocketable, instantaneous portable I'd be selling my Hoppers and buying a Floperpot w/ all the accessories so I could be having fun as opposed to repeatedly bashing my head against a brick wall.

Get ready, head down, get set, GO! (run at brick wall). When head makes contact and one falls, if still able to stand back up, do so and repeat. Keep repeating in perpetuity. (owning a Hopper is just slightly more painful than this)

 

[disGRUNTled]

Have not used the Hopper in a while , so its getting a run today w/ some Gorilla Glue #4.Grind mode on Youtube.

 

[newVaper420]

Sorry @almost there and @newVaper420. Incredibly frustrating.

I can't believe that FC and Reddit users are the only folks experiencing this amount of failures.

Did they send you both prepaid shipping labels?

No pre-paid shipping label on the first return, but they were going to send me on this one :-)... See below...

We have been seeing this type of BS for almost two years now? Their failure to improve test-ability and fault isolation and their inability to improve robustness and reliability are at this point inexcusable.

Its beyond belief that they are still shipping back 'repaired' RMA'd units that fail immediately or shortly thereafter.

I just don't get WTF they are doing and they don't engage directly with the community at all.

While my GH has been failure free for over a year, I still can't recommend this vape as you story is just far too common.

Cheers and I'm sorry about your GH.

WELP I got good news!!! :-) They told me to use compressed air, and bam, I went to the local computer store, got some "Ultra Duster", and sprayed the shit out of it. And bam, it started working.

Which now, leads me to believe that when I sent it in last week, nothing was actually wrong except this issue which would explain why my backend nor body was changed.

Anyhow, I'm not sure why they didn't suggest this to me last time it broke.

But this solution definitely worked. I just didn't like that the spray said something like contains bitterants. But whatev's. Stupid federal government. LOL.

 

[biohacker]

@JCat sorry to hear bro, so sorry. Now you really have me second guessing my decision, especially after spending some cash on the accessories!

Please do keep us posted as to whether they will honour their doa rma reddit statement, and if they send you a new gh or parts.

i've never really had a tasty vape. would this be one to get?

You don't think that your Lotus is one of the best tasting vapes out there?

Also the Grasshopper I'm using isn't functioning properly, but as a result it's extra tasty and incapable of heavily toasting (which can taste quite bad).

I've had GH's that seemed to over roast on 5 and tasted bad. But others on 5 have tasted amazing. All depends on the temp calibration, how much buildup has occurred that could affect airflow, and your draw speed/technique.

If hitting the hopper harder gives you less dense vapor there is something wrong with your hopper. 100%.

Not necessarily. Since you own some convection vapes, you know that a quick draw at the start won't milk up your glass very fast. He's realized that starting slow and building up is the way to go. I had to re-learn this lesson myself after some RMA's when the vapour gunk gets cleaned because the airflow opens right up and i've really had to be cognizant of slowing my draw.

 

[Mr Mellish]

Not only are HL paying shipping both ways for DOA purchases and RMA's, but apparently for quite some time now are shipping parts out first before having to ship the bad part back. This was a practice they did for a while, then stopped, but now appear to have started up again. Perhaps it's for USA only though?

Just picked up the used SS in the classifieds. Also did some shopping at PlanetVape and picked up the herbalizer female WPA (thanks @JCat !), their last battery lol, PFE, and 5 silicone mouthpieces (since they actually have stock!). Just need to source some more batteries and I should be set. Really keeping my fingers crossed for proper performance so I can buy GH SS #2 too!

I fully expect to RMA once per month...but that's my threshold.

Hmmm... HL neither paid for my shipment nor sent parts. They received my GH’s on 10/16 and reported they were in testing on 10/18. Today, they shipped my repaired GH’s.

 

[Cheesequake]

@JCat sorry to hear bro, so sorry. Now you really have me second guessing my decision, especially after spending some cash on the accessories!

Please do keep us posted as to whether they will honour their doa rma reddit statement, and if they send you a new gh or parts.



You don't think that your Lotus is one of the best tasting vapes out there?



I've had GH's that seemed to over roast on 5 and tasted bad. But others on 5 have tasted amazing. All depends on the temp calibration, how much buildup has occurred that could affect airflow, and your draw speed/technique.



Not necessarily. Since you own some convection vapes, you know that a quick draw at the start won't milk up your glass very fast. He's realized that starting slow and building up is the way to go. I had to re-learn this lesson myself after some RMA's when the vapour gunk gets cleaned because the airflow opens right up and i've really had to be cognizant of slowing my draw.

The grasshopper is different than other convection vapes though. I had multiple units and the harder I drew the more vapor I got. When it first came out one of the selling points was that you can't over power the heater - and on a perfecty working unit you absolutely shouldn't be able to. I've got iron lungs and I could rip it as hard and long as I wanted and the vapor would just keep pouring out until there was nothing left.

 

[biohacker]

I've got iron lungs and I could rip it as hard and long as I wanted and the vapor would just keep pouring out until there was nothing left.

So you're saying that you can pull as hard as you want right from the start of your hit and vapour would just start pouring, or would take some time to build? Not doubting, but i've had a lot of these grasshoppers and I have 7.5L swimmer's lungs as well, but like most convection devices, I need to start my pull slower in order for the biomass to heat up....but once that milk starts THEN I could pull as hard as I want. I also have videos posted demonstrating this. But perhaps it's because my lung capacity is so massive that I need to be super cognizant of how hard I draw? Then again, there have been lots of reports of "wispy" vapour, and I sometimes wonder if it's just technique related. Grind consistency could be a big factor here as well.

@Cheesequake would you be kind enough to post a video of you pulling on your gh as hard as you can from the start on temp 5, to illustrate? Or even just link an example so I can better grasp this picture? This is something I don't think i've seen yet TBH.

Also, curious - how is the GH different from other convection vapes? Because it's not 100% convection?

Hmmm... HL neither paid for my shipment nor sent parts

Did your GH die within 2 weeks of receiving it?

 

[Cheesequake]

So you're saying that you can pull as hard as you want right from the start of your hit and vapour would just start pouring, or would take some time to build?

No and that isn't what anyone was talking about as far as I know. Of course a convection vape is going to need time to build up heat within the material and start vaping, but you can start pulling hard on the grasshopper and continue to pull as hard as you want throughout the entire hit without over powering the heater. And it's different from other convection vapes because I've never seen another convection vape that allows you to rip as hard as you want to from start to finish with zero regulation except maybe the CFV to an extent.

@Cheesequake would you be kind enough to post a video of you pulling on your gh as hard as you can from the start on temp 5, to illustrate? Or even just link an example so I can better grasp this picture? This is something I don't think i've seen yet TBH.

Here's a video from when I had the GH. Got sick of sending them in for replacement every 2 weeks though so I sold it long ago. All those replacements gave me a chance to try multiple units though, and when they worked they all performed basically the same and I couldn't overpower the heater.

 

[vapviking]

It's also been my experience that a couple (or a few) short 'primer' hits - be they fast or slow, and I don't bother inhaling - are needed to get things going with a Hopper. Then, once vapor production begins, I can pull hard as I want, being much more careful so's not to get coughing from the amount of output! My typical range of temp use has been about 3.8 on up to 5. I'm partial to pairing with water, since I do like me some big hits...

My practice has also been* to use a freshly charged battery at beginning of every session, which, most typically, is only one chamber's worth for me. For a second chamber I might not swap battery, but I've found much better/consistent results with fresh ones. Mostly, if I'm at home, I just pop it on the o.e.m charger after every use so I don't wind up swapping batts. very often. As a rule, I'd rather not be disappointed, so I pay a lot of attention to this. And I also keep a second Hopper at the ready...

* Going from fading memory here, as my forced break has now gone on for an excruciating 6 months.
I live vicariously through all the good folks here on FC.

 

[biohacker]

And it's different from other convection vapes because I've never seen another convection vape that allows you to rip as hard as you want to from start to finish with zero regulation

Did you find the same with the PFE? I always thought it was due to airflow restriction until my RMA's came back with super open airflow. That's when I REALLY had to dial down my draw at the start.

Got sick of sending them in for replacement every 2 weeks though so I sold it long ago.

Ugh, every 2 weeks is beyond my threshold. I really hope i'm not joining you (again). But I sincerely do empathize.

Then, once vapor production begins, I can pull hard as I want

This is all that I was trying to say.

 

[Cheesequake]

PFE wasn't a thing when I had my hopper unfortunately.

 

[biohacker]

PFE wasn't a thing when I had my hopper unfortunately.

Just wondering if it would make any difference in "overpowering" the heater or being able to rip it full speed since the airflow is opened up so much more. Probably even more sensitive at the start of the draw. Should have my PFE to test out hopefully today.

 

[JCat]

Just wondering if it would make any difference in "overpowering" the heater or being able to rip it full speed since the airflow is opened up so much more. Probably even more sensitive at the start of the draw. Should have my PFE to test out hopefully today.

With a properly working hopper, you don't have to regulate your draw. With my properly working Ti hopper (or for the <30% of the time my SS hopper has worked), I can pull as hard as I want and the vapour will keep coming until the material runs out. With my current SS hopper, if I start out with a super, super, super light draw, I can start to milk it, but 5 seconds in (give or take), whether I increase my draw speed or leave it crazy slow or anywhere in between, the vapour starts to give up and get wispy.

With a properly working hopper, if you start out slow and work up from there, you do get best results and whitewall faster, but even if you start fast, if you keep going, it gets there and does fully whitewall my pieces. (especially with material in the >25% THC range ... although works very well with my Super Lemon Haze that's around 16% too and tastes amazing!)

Edit: I've exclusively used PFE's since they were released.

Edit 2: @biohacker ... I don't know if I have 7.5L swimmer's lungs ... but I can hold my breath for 2 minutes under water ... 1 minute isn't even an effort (I only start to really feel it around the 1.5 minute mark)

 

[biohacker]

Edit 2: @biohacker ... I don't know if I have 7.5L swimmer's lungs ... but I can hold my breath for 2 minutes under water ... 1 minute isn't even an effort (I only start to really feel it around the 1.5 minute mark)

Same dude! Wim Hof Method FTW!

 

[newVaper420]

Ok....... update. Grasshopper still working incredible after the canned air spray. Just did a clean this morning again, and everything is good.

Also, I'm ashamed to admit this, but this morning, I grabbed the hopper, packed it, and then was looking for the PFE... Guess what? I packed it in the PFE. LMAO....

Had to empty it, clean the PFE and try again LMAO!!! :-)

 

[vapviking]

Also, I'm ashamed to admit this, but this morning, I grabbed the hopper, packed it, and then was looking for the PFE... Guess what? I packed it in the PFE. LMAO....

Had to empty it, clean the PFE and try again LMAO!!! :-)

Welcome to the club.

 

[Hjalmark]

Ok....... update. Grasshopper still working incredible after the canned air spray. Just did a clean this morning again, and everything is good.

Also, I'm ashamed to admit this, but this morning, I grabbed the hopper, packed it, and then was looking for the PFE... Guess what? I packed it in the PFE. LMAO....

Had to empty it, clean the PFE and try again LMAO!!! :-)

Ahaha yeah that was like the first thing I did using the hopper stoned with the new PFE

Or put the clicker in my mouth .. Classic

 

[Vapetrees]

Ok....... update. Grasshopper still working incredible after the canned air spray. Just did a clean this morning again, and everything is good.

Also, I'm ashamed to admit this, but this morning, I grabbed the hopper, packed it, and then was looking for the PFE... Guess what? I packed it in the PFE. LMAO....

Had to empty it, clean the PFE and try again LMAO!!! :-)

I still haven't done this but last night when my gf handed me the GH while holding it with the mouthpiece facing down, I thought she had opened the chamber and the herb was going to fall out. I told her what are you doing, it's going to fall but then realized it wasn't because the PFE looked like a GH without a mouthpiece on lol.

 

[kbrown5523]

Ok....... update. Grasshopper still working incredible after the canned air spray. Just did a clean this morning again, and everything is good.

Where do you blow the air into the Hopper? I feel like an idiot that it's not clear to me, but when I get mine back I want to try using the canned air spray to prevent build up.

Also, I'm ashamed to admit this, but this morning, I grabbed the hopper, packed it, and then was looking for the PFE... Guess what? I packed it in the PFE. LMAO....

Had to empty it, clean the PFE and try again LMAO!!! :-)

I've done it too, more than once, and I'd bet we're not the only ones...