I can speak to a few of the points you discussed.
Your thoughts on us being cautious about the battery are correct. We cannot assume it was not the battery, even if there is no direct evidence to suggest it was. It looks likely at this point we will never know what the source of the fire was. This is the most unfortunate circumstance, as we can't rule out the battery.
We understand and expect some mixed feelings on the new device. We know that some people had/have still not received their warranty back, but we have cleared over 85% of the backlog. We were on track to be very near 100% done before the new device announcement. We knew even with the backlog complete, there would be some pushback, and that is okay. We don't pretend to have a perfect track record or not to be a business trying to develop new products. That is what we love to do. Matt and I did all of the development of this new device over the last few years. Some of these improvements even made it into finial generation Grasshoppers
with no one knowing. The new device mostly maintains form but puts it all together in a slicker and more reliable, more powerful way. Trust me when I say we learned a few things with the original Grasshopper.
Pre-fire the plan was to have 500-1000 devices ready today, December 1st. We would have had that done, and we would be having a different conversation right now. It is incredibly unfortunate that this is not the case, but such is the way of things. Even with the device so nearly complete, we decided that a reservation at this time would allow supporters to contribute a little bit now when we need some help without asking people to put down the full price without much info. To that note, there will be a lot more information coming, but give us a bit of time to get that onto the site. The new April release provides us with a lot of time to have a smooth launch.
The new device is much more efficient, which leads to better battery life. This is manifested in a few ways:
1. There is far less electrical loss, which is a direct gain. Less power loss on the circuit boards and power transfer "lines" means less energy was expended while it was on.
2. A more powerful heater means faster startups and more heat to be delivered to the plant per unit time. The longer the device is on, the more heat is being wasted to the environment, to the housing of the device, and being lost in the electrical pathways. Making each bowel take even a little less time, and cutting down on startup time adds up to huge savings. We can heat a larger volume of air faster!
3. A more powerful heater only means that the power is available to be used when needed. Better software allows us to use that extra power vaporize faster, but that does not mean it will always be running flat out. You can get best-of-both-worlds efficiency this way.
Thanks so much for the support. More info is coming.
Edit: We will get to the warranty portal replies this coming week. I am sorry they have not been dealt with yet. There was abnormally high CS work via email and we have been focused on that. We are caught up and will be on the warranty system shortly.