I own or have owned the Firefly, Pax, Pax2, Mivape and grasshopper and only one of them has never broken so far, the pax2. Raise your hand if the pax2 is your FAVORITE vape.
Only on turned me from a SMOKER to a VAPORIST and that is the grasshopper. Continuing with the car analogy I make, the pax2 is Toyota reliable, yeah it never breaks but who cares, I'd rather walk than drive the thing where the Grasshopper (in my experience) is BMW reliable, almost never breaks, but when it's down, it's down, but who cares because like BMW giving you a full size spare tire, the company philosophy of grasshopper is to not leave you stranded (read lifetime warranty).
The term I take from my auto industry days (no offense to the ladies, in fact, not having invented the phrase, I take the subtext to mean, WORTH IT) "if it has tits or wheels it's gonna give you problems" I guess one could add produces tasty vapor to the list because my only vape that hasn't broken so far is the one that's weakest on flavor production. And perhaps I'm just lucky with the pax2 or worse and perhaps likely, I just don't use it enough to break it. I think even Steve Jobs once boasted that they fix more iPads than some competitors sells, the subtext being that things don't break if they aren't being used.
All that to say, I haven't seen one thread of a vape anybody actually cares about that isn't filthy with returns. What I have seen, unlike Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny is actual people building actual grasshoppers and shipping them. What I have seen is that every GH they have made is sold and way beyond that number and if they had twice the capacity they probably still couldn't meet the demand because they need probably more than triple the capacity to do that. What I have seen is the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of customers have few if any QC issues, and even fewer still cancellations or returns, which would almost be a relief of those cancellations and returns weren't replaced with double and triple the new orders.
From QC Grasshopper seems on par if not better than this, lets not forget, NASCENT industry. Where the company does stand out is that it's not financed by a large vending machine company (mivpae) a tobacco conglomerate (pax before ploom spun off for pax2) or venture capital (firefly).
The Grasshopper is a true equity company. They raised capital not from investors but from those who could give them the seed money in exchange for the product, what Thomas Jefferson would have called a "subscription" and finance continued operations through sales. Even if this product wasn't a revolution in vape tech, which I think many who actually have experienced a functioning one and not too high to find their way to the thread would agree that it is, I would be 100% behind GHL because of their back to the future business model. In our economy where most people's angst, whether they realize it or not is because of the negative social externalities of our current (in the US specifically) capital formation and allocation, it is really great to see pure entrepreneurism. Particularly when the product kicks the ass of investor backed units.
So for those that a lifetime warranty isn't good enough, I'm sure there is some Toyota that will meet your needs. For the rest of us, lets enjoy our "BMW" rely on the lifetime warranty (if, and there are many people out there who have not used their warranty yet, not because they stopped using the product but because a. it hasn't broken and b. some people with minor problems that GH would like to fix, those folks are waiting for it to be "actually broken" before sending it in because they are so happy about with it. And I know that's true even if they hadn't said that because a. I've seen plenty of posts on this thread to that effect and b. I'm I the same place with my mivape right now where I could send it in but it's really not broken enough.
To channel my inner Marie Antoinette (and yes I know she actually never said it) If you can't get by on one Grasshoper, buy 2.
Which is half joking because my 2 grasshoppers are still cheaper than 1 firefly which also broke a few times and now that I have a grasshopper I never use.
The only device I ever had that never broke was joint, bongs drop, vapes break, batteries die and life goes on.
Now cue two or three useful posts on the product (this not being one of them) followed by 3 more pages of how, somehow, GHL isn't working 7 days a week and how the flavor isn't good and how the tip is too hot yadda yadda, while the majority of us GH owners sit back and enjoy the tidy little revolution in our pockets.
Maybe this thread is cursed by the vapor gods.
