Discontinued The Grasshopper

[abcd5432]

Gave my Hopper a run on 5 though my air pump with the mouth piece on. Managed to suck a heap of really dark oil that formed all around in a ring on the opening. I managed to scrap it off for later

Super clean Hopper ready to be sent back for RMA today or tomorrow. It looks as new as the day it arrived a month ago lol.

Hopper 2# is out for delivery today and my ears are perking every time I hear a potential delivery van outside

I really want a Hopper, but I've just NEVER had these issues and it makes me scared.
I have a minivap so @lazylathe I'd need to know how you feel about your grasshopper vs minivap.
I've followed this for so long but the duds/issues of reliability are worrisome. I'd have thought this would be a lot more ironed out by now. At least the shipping seems quicker though.

 

[Mr. Me2]

I really want a Hopper, but I've just NEVER had these issues and it makes me scared.
I have a minivap so @lazylathe I'd need to know how you feel about your grasshopper vs minivap.
I've followed this for so long but the duds/issues of reliability are worrisome. I'd have thought this would be a lot more ironed out by now. At least the shipping seems quicker though.

Don't be scared...not necessary. We here don't know the % of failures. There certainly aren't thousands of us here reporting problems.

Having said that, here's my experience. I got 2 about 8 months ago; a ss and a ti (for a friend). And I'll admit they both crapped out. Mine got the cop lights of death around 5 months ago. Painless RMA process and I had a replacement body in less than a week. The ti just started going straight to blue. No RMA yet, but I expect it'll be smooth.

Since you have another vape, you have a backup just in case. But I predict it will gather dust after you get the gh.

Did I persuade you?

 

[lazylathe]

I really want a Hopper, but I've just NEVER had these issues and it makes me scared.
I have a minivap so @lazylathe I'd need to know how you feel about your grasshopper vs minivap.
I've followed this for so long but the duds/issues of reliability are worrisome. I'd have thought this would be a lot more ironed out by now. At least the shipping seems quicker though.

Tough question...
If i had to do it again, would I? Possibly but i would wait and just sit back and watch.
Wait till they iron out the bugs and they are more reliable.
Mine is a week old and was giving all sorts of light issues yesterday, today it is fine.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Compared to the MiniVap is not really fair at all.
GH is an on-demand, right now vapor producer! One bowl = 1 Hit!
MiniVap is also on demand convection but in a session style vape. One bowl = 15 minutes of vaping.

The GH is revolutionary indeed in all aspects and i am blown away with the performance and the size of it!

When it works, it is very impressive! Massive flavor and massive clouds!

 

[abcd5432]

Tough question...
If i had to do it again, would I? Possibly but i would wait and just sit back and watch.
Wait till they iron out the bugs and they are more reliable.
Mine is a week old and was giving all sorts of light issues yesterday, today it is fine.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Compared to the MiniVap is not really fair at all.
GH is an on-demand, right now vapor producer! One bowl = 1 Hit!
MiniVap is also on demand convection but in a session style vape. One bowl = 15 minutes of vaping.

The GH is revolutionary indeed in all aspects and i am blown away with the performance and the size of it!

When it works, it is very impressive! Massive flavor and massive clouds!

I'm a little confused by what you mean by it's a One Bowl = 1 Hit vs Minivap being a Session (Which it is lol, I have had bowls last an hour with MASSIVE clouds. I'm not kidding. I kiefed a bowl and we had clouds going for an hour, still were hitting it when I woke up.

So does the GH just go through it faster and get you there faster or what are you meaning when you say it's 1 hit for the bowl. Not sure if that's good or bad coming from a Minivap where I would pass out before finishing a bowl many a time due to how stupidly efficient that vape is.

 

[Mr. Me2]

Tough question...
If i had to do it again, would I? Possibly but i would wait and just sit back and watch.
Wait till they iron out the bugs and they are more reliable.
Mine is a week old and was giving all sorts of light issues yesterday, today it is fine.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Compared to the MiniVap is not really fair at all.
GH is an on-demand, right now vapor producer! One bowl = 1 Hit!
MiniVap is also on demand convection but in a session style vape. One bowl = 15 minutes of vaping.

The GH is revolutionary indeed in all aspects and i am blown away with the performance and the size of it!

When it works, it is very impressive! Massive flavor and massive clouds!

I've read the posts of your gh problems. Sorry to hear it! I don't remember, have you tried emailing Caroline at ghl to get her recommendation? Though I haven't tried recently, I've always had a good experience going that route.

 

[Gramin]

Hopper #2 report!

Within ~100 serial to my Hopper #1.

Air flow is a huge improvement on #2. This might be from having a newer MP or not having any of the oven holes blocked (yet). I had no idea the difference until now. Having another Hopper to compare to is handy!

#2 Backend dial is hard as fuck to turn I'm not happy with it at all. On #1 it glides quite nicely but on #2 it's gritty and crunchy. The dial markings don't align and the dial itself is crooked. I will be begging AV to keep the BE from #1.

With the shitty #2 BE on #1's body you can see it doesn't match all too well. I'm quite surprised at the variance for what should be identical parts if they're really within ~100 manufacturing.

Anyway time to reset the clock and here we go again.

Going to always have Hopper upright from now on. I may even stop using my mini pinnacle tube. I'm not sure I trust using the Hopper inverted at the moment. I will be monitoring under the screen very closely and will probably avoid kief added as an extra.

 

[Mr. Gweilo 420]

Well I'm starting to develop some hate for Hopper Labs. It took them 3 days to respond to my warranty claim only to tell me to get some tweezers and fix the mouthpiece myself. Idiots. The instructions specifically say not to do this. Of course I replied instantly and now have to wait at least 24 hours to get a response. Sorry not even close to good enough. It is a part that retails for a measly $25. Get your act together and ship me one that functions you muppets.

 

[vapen00b]

I've started to make a habit of this, its not unlike when I used to blow out my bowl after dumping it out. I actually notice that there is less and less vapor on those empty hits after doing it fairly regularly for a few weeks so I think I'm getting to the bottom of it.

Would you be so kind and ask your GHL neighbors next time you get the chance what they say in regards to this? Should we do that? Is it prone to failure if NOT done once in a while? Is it safe to use the hopper mouthpiece up (with kief)?
Is that gunk just some old resin - or something coming from the internals?

Okay, that might be too many questions .. Anyway, I'd appreciate their (and your) view on it. So if it helped, just pick one


Thanks.

 

[MoltenTiger]

Well I'm starting to develop some hate for Hopper Labs. It took them 3 days to respond to my warranty claim only to tell me to get some tweezers and fix the mouthpiece myself. Idiots. The instructions specifically say not to do this. Of course I replied instantly and now have to wait at least 24 hours to get a response. Sorry not even close to good enough. It is a part that retails for a measly $25. Get your act together and ship me one that functions you muppets.

The worst part is, tweezers are not a perfect tool for the job.
I'll never take my screen out, having to adjust it a tiny bit was frustrating enough.
It's not that it's too hard, it's just that it should be a no brainer with an included tool. There's no reason to test patience dealing with something they thought about including but price cut on.
That was a stupid decision, no ifs or buts. Real dumb

 

[Mr. Gweilo 420]

The worst part is, tweezers are not a perfect tool for the job.
I'll never take my screen out, having to adjust it a tiny bit was frustrating enough.
It's not that it's too hard, it's just that it should be a no brainer with an included tool. There's no reason to test patience dealing with something they thought about including but price cut on.
That was a stupid decision, no ifs or buts. Real dumb

Exactly mate. The contradictory information is also highly confusing. Is the idea that the points of the tweezers should grip holes in the screen? I assume turning it clockwise should tighten it?

 

[MoltenTiger]

Exactly mate. The contradictory information is also highly confusing. Is the idea that the points of the tweezers should grip holes in the screen? I assume turning it clockwise should tighten it?

I scratched up my screen adjusting it, luckily on a now scrapped MP.

If you wedge the tweezers in to one of the three clips and a hole, and hold them still whilst twisting the MP, that was most successful for me but be prepared for profanity to explode from you body.

Yes, clockwise.

Also, sidenote, if you ever need to scrape the edges of the screen with a toothpick or similar during cleaning or emptying the chamber, do it in a clockwise direction, that's how I moved my screen in the first place.
If you get the perfect angle of force, it is very smooth turning.
But it's really annoying to do this with fine nose tweezers that are in no way made to remove/replace screens.

If you've been using it with a tiny gap between MP and GH body, I'd suggest a quick PBW soak if you have a bare metal MP and access to the best cleaning powder of all time.

 

[Mr. Gweilo 420]

I scratched up my screen adjusting it, luckily on a now scrapped MP.

If you wedge the tweezers in to one of the three clips and a hole, and hold them still whilst twisting the MP, that was most successful for me but be prepared for profanity to explode from you body.

Yes, clockwise.

Also, sidenote, if you ever need to scrape the edges of the screen with a toothpick or similar during cleaning or emptying the chamber, do it in a clockwise direction, that's how I moved my screen in the first place.
If you get the perfect angle of force, it is very smooth turning.
But it's really annoying to do this with fine nose tweezers that are in no way made to remove/replace screens.

If you've been using it with a tiny gap between MP and GH body, I'd suggest a quick PBW soak if you have a bare metal MP and access to the best cleaning powder of all time.

Many thanks. Will give it a try tonight.

 

[MoltenTiger]

Many thanks. Will give it a try tonight.

No worries, let us know how you go, I've probably made it sound much worse than it is

Despite it's lack of perfection, it really is a sweet device.
Just got blue lights from the charger just as my game updated.
Oh yis

 

[biohacker]

Well I'm starting to develop some hate for Hopper Labs. It took them 3 days to respond to my warranty claim only to tell me to get some tweezers and fix the mouthpiece myself. Idiots. The instructions specifically say not to do this. Of course I replied instantly and now have to wait at least 24 hours to get a response. Sorry not even close to good enough. It is a part that retails for a measly $25. Get your act together and ship me one that functions you muppets.

The worst part is, tweezers are not a perfect tool for the job.
I'll never take my screen out, having to adjust it a tiny bit was frustrating enough.
It's not that it's too hard, it's just that it should be a no brainer with an included tool. There's no reason to test patience dealing with something they thought about including but price cut on.
That was a stupid decision, no ifs or buts. Real dumb

Like my brand new in box GH last xmas, and now my new front end replacement, I couldn't get the mouthpiece all the way on and had to get my lsv poker tool out and spin it back on snug. Nice QA.

I'm no longer a quadhopper.... my new raw ti is moving on to @JCat, so i'm now a tri-hopper! (with 2 in RMA!)

I scratched up my screen adjusting it, luckily on a now scrapped MP.

I think I noticed some very fine light scratches from my old mucked up front end, although from the Hopper's Mouth:

The Hopper's front-end has a durable, machine etched stainless steel screen. Not only does it not need to be replaced, but this screen is also designed to withstand scratching during cleaning. Scrape the screen with a small tool or unscrew your backend and use the end of your clip to remove leftover plant material.

 

[Baron23]

Would you be so kind and ask your GHL neighbors next time you get the chance what they say in regards to this? Should we do that? Is it prone to failure if NOT done once in a while? Is it safe to use the hopper mouthpiece up (with kief)?
Is that gunk just some old resin - or something coming from the internals?

Okay, that might be too many questions .. Anyway, I'd appreciate their (and your) view on it. So if it helped, just pick one


Thanks.

Yep, and this one I asked in a post above. Would be nice to know

Since you know these guys, ask they what the heck their expectations are for owners to keep the area beneath the initial oven screen clean. I don't care how small the screen holes are, with enough usage stuff is going to get in there. What was their plan for this...just another RMA? Personally, I think that screen should be removable by the owner without voiding warranty and that they should post instructions on how to do this in their manual.

 

[WoodyWeedPecker]

Although I do remember them recommending dipping the body up to the holes in ISO to clean the oven... In a tall shot glass if I am not mistaken. Maybe this cleaning takes care of all the debris under the oven screens?

Was it up to the air intake holes or up to the indentation line (below the holes)? While it seems there's a danger of iso dripping down to the electronic and sensor (esp if not done correctly). It shows Hopper labs were also concerned about abv getting trapped under the screen.

I'm also concerned about it. I don't it's realistic to think a dry q-tip can always do the job. Especially, if there's 2 screens with a little space between them. At the moment, I'm using an mflb brush (and another similar brush looking like an acid brush from hardware store); Hoping the filaments from the brushes can get through the tiny holes, with the mouthpiece side facing down. I also like to pull hard while the hopper is heating up on an empty bowl without the mouthpiece (oven facing down). This is what probably restored my hopper when I received cop lights a few weeks ago. It is the only time, I received cop lights and it's worth trying it out before making a warranty claim. I also blew hard into the holes while it was heating up, but it's not something I would recommend due to the danger of hot air blowing back to the electronics and sensor. At the time, my hopper was basically dead and ready for warranty so I had nothing to lose.

So far, so good. My hopper is still working strong. As a portable, it's almost perfect (on-demand convection, quick heat up time, no need to stir-but I do tap it, small and stealthy, short battery life but it's understandable for its size).

 

[vapviking]

RE: mp screen, I'd prefer to have one that I can remove, so I can actually see the screen, the two funnels and the inside of the mp housing -- every once in a while -- and know for certain when they are clean.

I have a SS that developed loose mp screen in first two weeks and was a little frustrating to realize what had happened, but it was just at the same time that we here were learning about the precision tweezers so I went straight to that method. A tool and some proper guidance from HL would have helped.

I have a Ti Hopper that will not allow me to disassemble the mp innards, and a SS mp that will. I do very frequent alcohol baths (usually only 20 to 30 minutes every couple of days, long soaks now and again) for both. The couple of times that I've disassembled SS the mp for deep cleaning has given me much more confidence about results of the cleaning.

@MoltenTiger , funny but my habit recently changed to counterclockwise swirl (a la George Costanza?) when I swab mp with q-tip or trusty toothpick. I hope to swish stuff in the direction that will carry it up and out of the threads rather than drive stuff down into threads.

Air flow is a huge improvement on #2. This might be from having a newer MP or not having any of the oven holes blocked (yet). I had no idea the difference until now. Having another Hopper to compare to is handy!

I noticed this BIG TIME recently upon receiving a unit back from repair service when it blew it's brother out of the water, performance-wise. Big difference in draw and extraction. I realized that with the weaker unit I was rationalizing things like, "I guess this batch of product needs, like, 6 primer hits to start producing." I now see folly in that! and sent the weaker-performing unit back just the other day.

Amazing that after these what, 3 years, we are now drilling down deeper on the cleanliness thing (inside Hopper Body, not just mp), as relates to functionality, serviceability, folklore, catastrophic failure and viability. So interesting that all this is coming to fore as the product leaves the infancy of per-order stage and grows into its' mainstream potential. I see this as a major defining moment and test in Grasshopper's life story.

 

[WoodyWeedPecker]

RE: mp screen, I'd prefer to have one that I can remove, so I can actually see the screen, the two funnels and the inside of the mp housing -- every once in a while -- and know for certain when they are clean.

It would cool if you could unscrew the screens by design to do a complete clean up.

Especially the heater screens (since you can already dip the mouthpiece side in iso for a pretty thorough clean up). There's always going to be some ABV (and melted trichomes) trapped in there and that place is otherwise hard to reach. If you could unscrew the screens by design, you could do a complete clean up from time to time probably reducing dramatically the number of warranty returns while keeping the air flow (draw resistance) steady for many years.

 

[MoltenTiger]

I feel like the mouthpiece screen collecting resin will cause performance issues if left for over a week without cleaning with heavy use.

I noticed my last two sessions the performance was all of a sudden poor with my plain Ti. It wasn't producing mass cloudage and it wasn't roasting my herb...
Just now, I blasted some empty chambers. I probably half drained a battery trying to get the most heat internally with super forceful suction for fast airflow, I felt like I could feel the airflow becoming slowly less restricted and after a few good goes, I did exhale a whisp of vapour.
I swapped mouthpieces to a clean one, and without even swapping the battery I had 3 chambers which all gave off the classic hopper white walling when you think it's done kinda deal.
It's good to be back!
I was already planning on cleaning more regularly, but now I'm at least going to clean mouthpieces weekly.

I feel like there is a bit more maintenance with the hopper than meets the eye, and empty tokes ain't no joke, for primitive upkeep

 

[JCat]

Just wanted to pipe in on the power mod again (USB-C or power brick ... either way ...).

What I was thinking is you need a "barrel" with male and female threads, that has the positive contact of the battery on the one end and the negative on the other side. You would thread this piece onto your grasshopper (there would be a power cable coming out the side of it, and you would thread your back-end into the other side of it. You'd end up w/ a grasshopper that's maybe a 1/2" to 1" longer, but it would likely work well ...

Just a thought (I suppose I should draw something to better illustrate the concept, but my artistic abilities leave something to be desired!)

 

[natural farmer]

Yeap! I knew I remembered that... 24 hours soaking up to the air intake holes...

 

[biohacker]

Someone is good at photoshop!

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

@natural farmer: Where did you find that picture? Were there pictures of the rest of the manual?

I'd like to see the entire manual, I remember reading there were two versions. I dug out both my manuals yesterday and they are both the new ones. I'll try and see if I can dig up the post that mentions it.

 

[ooo]

just checking in with some positive news and give hope to others out there wondering if they should purchase a Hopper. i'm now 8 months in with mine and it's been trouble free. never had any signs of poor performance or any hiccups along the way. i have noticed a minimal decline in battery performance with the GHB1's but that is to be expected. i still haven't turned on my 2nd Hopper that i bought as a backup to see if it even works. i've been so happy with this vape that VAS doesn't even get to me anymore.

 

[WoodyWeedPecker]

Yeap! I knew I remembered that... 24 hours soaking up to the air intake holes...

Ok, you win. I was hoping somebody would still have those instructions somewhere.

It's a bit reassuring to me that hopper labs thought it was completely fine to submerge the grasshopper up to the air holes. The graph above means that by design, they didn't mind iso above the screen and even on the heater!! They just didn't want iso to drip inside the rest of the body and they didn't want you to use your grasshopper before it completely dried. Clearly, using your hopper before it dried up completely could be damaging to you hopper. Now I feel better about using a slightly iso damped q-tip on the screen.