Not to be adverserial, but what is the “crazy cool shit” that they spent big sums of money on?
I only pop in once in a while in this forum to see if anything has changed. I have 2 hoppers that I’ve been waiting for 16months to send in but I’m just waiting for the right time which will probably be never.
I ask because I know they spent money on moving somewhere else and bought some machines to bring the operations in house. I know they keep coming out with new concept products like a carrying cases and chargers but I’ve yet to see these concepts come to fruition. As far as I can tell, they may be spending money but I don’t notice the impact or any net benefit to the consumer.
Once again, I have no beef with the OP, my problem lays solely with hopper labs.
Yep, by crazy cool shit I mean they set up shop to laser sinter metal, pick and place SMDs, laser weld, laser engrave, automate procedures, and it all adds up to (allegedly) delivering this crazy cool pen. To me that qualifies. Lasers are really cool, I have micro etched CBD and THC molecules on my fanciest unit. The resolution is impressive.
The case and the charger, well I could care less about them, it is lame how they're not available - but it's just fancy stuff no one needs. The priority is obviously on the pen and clearly it still needs focus.
They're spending a boat load of money for sure, and it directly benefits the consumer.
What they have done is obtain the cheapest part cost, and keep QC in-house on their most problematic part. The heater is what everyone is waiting for, they have to be 3D printed and it takes time and it's state of the art tech. They've been figuring out how to produce the things and have ramped up throughput which means less waiting for RMA or for new buyers.
The newest design revision is a thing of awesomeness. My latest is over a year old now and hasn't skipped a beat, it's always run capped at 210°C as it's supposed to be. The experience compared to my backer unit (retail purchase from Vapefiend 2016) and my 2018 4/20 35% off unit was decent. Single click power switch, the newer magnetic ring charger is a massive upgrade, and it hasn't stopped working ever. Luck could play a part, but that backer unit spent 13 months in CO until I received it 5 months ago, and it's currently my go to and traveller piece.
Prior to that, RMAs were failing very rapidly, like after 2-4 weeks (and several times!).
Things are definitely better, but they're not perfect. Much closer to something that could be considered good though.
At the very least you should start the RMA process. It's a gamble to pay to send them back, but it's a bigger loss if you don't IMO.
At least we've gotten over the debate as to whether it was the usage/how used that determined longevity
There's never been all that much kicking about the GH echo chamber, but I think that debate has dwindled purely as fewer are actually using the things and they're forced to be waiting to try.
And for the record, you can kill a hopper by using it wrong. But hitting it hard shouldn't be considered wrong usage, and when everything is working like clockwork it seems you can keep this up for a long time potentially.
Either luck out or be shit outta luck.
Product reliability, either with new or RMA’d units, is mediocre at best from what I’ve read
Well at best it's very reliable and at worst it isn't at all.
I got vapes falling out of my hair so I guess I'd tend to pack a surplus dynavap if I'm hell bent on reliability. But in some situations the hopper is much more reliable. Long term I think it's an electronic consumer product that is going to have it's day.
I'm already on my second flagship phone and I'm due for warranty replacement again, not even 2 years after signing the contract. If I wanted to rely on communication I'd opt for face to face. But I get by enjoying these silly distractions and past times. The hopper will never be infallible.
I don’t think HL really cares
I think they do, otherwise they'd give up