I just wanted to follow up now that I've had my xtar VC2 plus a few days. It seems like a great portable charger. The important features are that you can charge from a USB source like a wall wart, battery or solar and it has the option to switch between .5 and 1 amp. At 750mAh, I'd generally stick to .5 with the gh batteries unless you are in a hurry. The display itself is not very useful. It does show you basically how close it is finishing, which can be useful in a situation where your on the go and charging/vaping, but its not sufficient for determining battery health or capacity. It looks like the VP series from xtar at least provides voltage, so that would make a better home and car charger. I wish there was something similar to my maha c9000 for li-ion which provides a lot of data and several modes for conditioning, but I don't know of one.
A few notes on my GH experience, which I've been pretty quiet on. My first impressions of the vape were that its an absolutely stunning piece of kit. The hype is real.
I have to be honest, though. I've seriously struggled with using the GHs I have natively and I don't have glass to use them through. I didn't want to come in here and be all negative, so I've been experimenting on my own with tons of help from rereading parts of this thread.
The first few days, I flat out hated the experience. It was so scorching, even on the first few draws, I was never able to get the unit hot enough to complain about the mouthpiece being hot. I felt burning all over my mouth and down my throat the following morning after 3-4 hits over two "sessions." There was no taste because all my taste buds were knocked out of commission. I could barely taste my morning coffee. By the end of the second day, I was about ready to give up. I was concerned for my teeth and soft tissues. I went back and watched the Vape Critic's review, because I remembered him having a similar experience. I was like, "he's totally right, why were they so hard on him?" I then watched
@BuzzDanklin 's demo where he passed it back and forth with a friend. I thought, "that would literally put me in the hospital." I even coincidentally was vaping Pineapple Express just like he did in that video. WTH???
I really couldn't get above heat level 3. Extraction was low and pain was high. Material was coming out green and sticky. I got frustrated and looked for something to vape it through. I settled on a wine decanter that you just stick on the top of the bottle (a Soiree, if anyone is bored. Consider the honey recovery options. : ) It's tiny and I didn't give it much of a chance of being impactful. I totally fogged up my office in one minute with very little discomfort. It was pretty badass and gave me the will to keep experimenting. Such a nice and extremely uplifting feeling. I decided to take two days off of vaping to let my mouth recover and give me time to reread some of this thread.
Yesterday I had a much better native experience. The key, which has been subtilely harped on around here, was a VERY SMALL amount of material. I had been going in the opposite direction because it was intuitive to me that cramming more stuff in there would protect me from the heat. This is wrong. I loaded up with a pinch and had a much more comfortable experience. Messing with my draw a little bit to be harder and quicker pushed me a little further into satisfaction. I got medicated twice and was shocked this morning when I poured it out. I marveled at how little was in there. If you laid it out flat, it would barely cover a dime. It was also the right color. I hit it at 4, so a golden-brown.
Maybe what was more important than the amount was the way I loaded it. Previously I had been dipping it into my space case to scoop and I think that naturally tamps things as you go making for a pretty tight pack. I can't recommend this even though it's really tempting. I still have a lot more experimenting to do because I'm not at a level where I'd generally go for it over my FF2 natively. I don't expect it to reach FF2 comfort or flavor, but I would like it to make a compelling enough case for me overall. I've ordered a few glass stems and am trying to get a quote on some glass tubing I can cut myself into different lengths for experimenting. (I guess, I've never cut glass before, but I'm the type to just go for it.) I'm wondering if just adding a stem or a stem with a carb would get me to heaven with this thing. I'll also likely order the tiny focus hydrotube from sunshine. I will report back if I have any kind of success crafting a glass mouthpiece/stem. I have some ideas to keep it portable. I still have to try my crafty CU as well.
Thanks for all the info in this thread from all the ultra early adopters. Without it, my grasshoppers would be a couple of novelty pieces or gifted to friends by now. We need to nominate some items here for a best of thread!