Discontinued The Grasshopper

[syrupy]

Here's a naive outsiders' thought: Why wouldn't they replace an entire defective hopper, take back the defective one, figure out what's wrong, fix it, then sell it as a refurb at a healthy discount?

Why wouldn't they? I'm going to take a wild guess and say...

Spoiler: Possible Reason

PROFITS!

If we look at the statistics for how many business fail within the first year or two, I can see why, at the beginning at least, they may have to play it like that. But your idea makes total sense.

 

[MoltenTiger]

My clip is ever so slightly bent away from the body so it doesn't make contact when spinning the backend.

Whilst this is the case with all new hoppers, it is pretty easy to bend it. My last body got a good ring scratched around it from the few times the clip was in contact with it.
My new body, which has seen 2 weeks of use today, already has some slight scuffs even though I have been cautious to avoid it. If you put any pressure on the clip when unscrewing the back-end, it will push it into the body and may scratch it.
I have thought about putting a bit of foam, or similar, under the clip to avoid the possibility altogether, I may do this when I receive my coloured unit.
On the bare Ti scratches blend in fairly well in normal light.

Over all, I am happy with the clip. I clip it onto a belt loop occasionally to avoid the MP coming in contact with pocket lint.
Mainly though, I think it plays a big role in the stealth aspect. It kind of dulls down an otherwise fancy looking pen. I think if the clip was more complex or branded with a logo or whatever, it would be much more enticing to pick up. As it is, it just looks like a pen - it's not quite interesting enough to bother picking up. I have put this to the test too, and even with a bong nearby and the silicone (dirty too) MP on it, it hid in plain sight unsuspected.

Further tid-bit, if you ask for a fully replaced hopper, even with a deposit paid out to the value of a new hopper, you will get a response like this:

Unfortunately, we do not offer this option. We need to have your Grasshopper here to replace the necessary parts and ensure your whole Hopper is fully operational. It is not our policy to replace a whole device, but rather the faulty parts.

 

[jabba]

Mine gets literally one chamber per batt..if my batt isn't fully charged when I start a new chamber then it won't vape the chamber but damn on a full battery those have to be the biggest bong hits of any vape out there..and I've got all the big hitters..this thing rips but batteries suck..

You have posted this or similar prior. In my experience with my GH....your GH or batteries are not operating properly.

 

[kingfisher]

While mine has been broken and now out for warranty I have forgotten the convience.

I have a 18650 mod setup that is not as simple of a process but has been serving my portable needs.

At first I felt like I was going through withdrawals. Nothing could compare to the hit strength of the gh. Had to resort back to combusting a couple times.

It should be good when my July 2015 order came or the stainless one from vape fiend come .

 

[smokie]

After finally receiving my ti hopper it's dead! Goes from red light to no light with no heat. And when I put it on charger it blinks much slower than it should. Warranty claim opened
Has anyone else had same problem?

 

[kingfisher]

After finally receiving my ti hopper it's dead! Goes from red light to no light with no heat. And when I put it on charger it blinks much slower than it should. Warranty claim opened
Has anyone else had same problem?

Yeah that happened to my stainless after two months.

 

[xlr8]

That's what my second one does now after lighting pink and making noise, it worked for 3 session, waiting vaposhop response to get my 3rd one now.

 

[smokie]

Thanks for replies

 

[Mister G]

I like the clip both form and function. Doesn't look cheap to me either, you folks must have really nice pens or something.

 

[moondog]

Why wouldn't they? I'm going to take a wild guess and say...

Spoiler: Possible Reason

PROFITS!

If we look at the statistics for how many business fail within the first year or two, I can see why, at the beginning at least, they may have to play it like that. But your idea makes total sense.

I don't understand. How does their current policy result in more profits than creating a second revenue stream out of refurbished units?

 

[subway13029]

Mine gets literally one chamber per batt..if my batt isn't fully charged when I start a new chamber then it won't vape the chamber but damn on a full battery those have to be the biggest bong hits of any vape out there..and I've got all the big hitters..this thing rips but batteries suck..

You have posted this or similar prior. In my experience with my GH....your GH or batteries are not operating properly.

I know ive posted and i know thats the issue..i wasnt asking..just letting everyone know that is still a big hitter even with the issues..but thanks

 

[JoeMama]

I wound up nearly Multi-Quoting every single post on this latest page of posts.

I'm just floored by all these problems. Dead out of the box?!?

Aeronautical Engineers my ass. Shame on you Hopper. You're sloppy and careless. No wonder why you're building vaporizers, because if you built an aircraft, it'd crash and burn before it got off the fucking ground.

You have NO excuse for non-existent QA procedures. You are a disgrace. And as an engineer, I take personal offense at your engineering hype. You are the antithesis of good engineering. And you know it. That's why you're NOT building aircraft.

My apologies to the Mod if this crosses any lines. I just hope GHL reads this.

 

[moondog]

I wound up nearly Multi-Quoting every single post on this latest page of posts.

I'm just floored by all these problems. Dead out of the box?!?

Aeronautical Engineers my ass. Shame on you Hopper. You're sloppy and careless. No wonder why you're building vaporizers, because if you built an aircraft, it'd crash and burn before it got off the fucking ground.

You have NO excuse for non-existent QA procedures. You are a disgrace. And as an engineer, I take personal offense at your engineering hype. You are the antithesis of good engineering. And you know it. That's why you're NOT building aircraft.

My apologies to the Mod if this crosses any lines. I just hope GHL reads this.

I'm not a mod so I'm not going to comment on what lines you may have crossed, but I will ask this: If your purpose is to have GHL read this, maybe you should email it directly to them? That might be more effective than posting it to a public forum that we aren't even sure GHL reads.

Anyway, to the point at hand: This latest rash of problems IS disconcerting. Last night I was actually considering canceling my order. I also find myself half-hoping that my hoppers will be delayed some more so that they work out the kinks before building mine.

Here's another database project we can talk about that will never actually happen: I wonder if there's any correlation between their announcements of hiring and training new assemblers and the clusters of DOA (or quickly failing) hoppers.

 

[Delta3DStudios]

After finally receiving my ti hopper it's dead! Goes from red light to no light with no heat. And when I put it on charger it blinks much slower than it should. Warranty claim opened
Has anyone else had same problem?

Just curious, have you tried an external charger to see if you could charge the batteries and confirmed they are fully charged?

Sounds like your batteries may be drained and you're immediately assuming your hopper is DOA? I wouldn't give up so easily

 

[Mr. Me2]

I'm not a mod so I'm not going to comment on what lines you may have crossed, but I will ask this: If your purpose is to have GHL read this, maybe you should email it directly to them? That might be more effective than posting it to a public forum that we aren't even sure GHL reads.

Anyway, to the point at hand: This latest rash of problems IS disconcerting. Last night I was actually considering canceling my order. I also find myself half-hoping that my hoppers will be delayed some more so that they work out the kinks before building mine.

Here's another database project we can talk about that will never actually happen: I wonder if there's any correlation between their announcements of hiring and training new assemblers and the clusters of DOA (or quickly failing) hoppers.

I think you raise a legitimate question about new staff and qc. We know when this started, basically all units were being assembled by the bosses. I'm confident they have some level of qc in place. But who knows what type of testing (if any) is done and if it's done on every unit. We also don't have current stats or representations of the % of warranty claims. But if they shipped 2000 units last month, and they still have ~5% warranty claims, that's about 100 units with issues. Obviously, not all units shipped went to fc'ers.

With those guesstimate numbers, I'm not too worried by what we're seeing here. I'm a little more concerned about successive warranty claims. I would hope ghl puts a better system in place so that issues are resolved the first time. Hopefully they'll get there.

One thing we haven't seen here is ghl refusing warranty claims. They're making good on their hoppers. That's good for everyone. I truly believe they're in it for the long haul.

 

[smokie]

Just curious, have you tried an external charger to see if you could charge the batteries and confirmed they are fully charged?

Sounds like your batteries may be drained and you're immediately assuming your hopper is DOA? I wouldn't give up so easily

I have tried with 6 batteries. I have a ss grasshopper that I have had since December. It's a faulty unit. Also when on charger the light blinks at half normal speed(on grasshopper)
But thanks for suggestions

 

[Delta3DStudios]

I have tried with 6 batteries. I have a ss grasshopper that I have had since December. It's a faulty unit. Also when on charger the light blinks at half normal speed(on grasshopper)
But thanks for suggestions

Ok, good to know. Just wanted to make sure you've tried everything before opening a warranty request

 

[Baron23]

I think you raise a legitimate question about new staff and qc. We know when this started, basically all units were being assembled by the bosses. I'm confident they have some level of qc in place. But who knows what type of testing (if any) is done and if it's done on every unit. We also don't have current stats or representations of the % of warranty claims. But if they shipped 2000 units last month, and they still have ~5% warranty claims, that's about 100 units with issues. Obviously, not all units shipped went to fc'ers.

With those guesstimate numbers, I'm not too worried by what we're seeing here. I'm a little more concerned about successive warranty claims. I would hope ghl puts a better system in place so that issues are resolved the first time. Hopefully they'll get there.

One thing we haven't seen here is ghl refusing warranty claims. They're making good on their hoppers. That's good for everyone. I truly believe they're in it for the long haul.

I have seen this 5% failure rate quoted before. Can you please tell me the source for this metric.

Although my GH is working perfectly (and I'm thankful for that and love the vape), I rather agree with Joemoma though I wouldn't express it that way.

I am also an engineer, I worked for a long time in airborne electronics/avionics and I KNOW that there are ways to drive failure modes out during development and drive out infant moralities from production runs before shipping. I also have some familiarity with failure analysis and corrective action. All of this takes time, money, and a commitment to quality.

If these guys really were aerospace engineers, none of these concepts should be foreign to them.

Just saying, they can make the best functionally performing vape in the world but still fail due to poor company performance.

 

[moondog]

I have seen this 5% failure rate quoted before. Can you please tell me the source for this metric.

Although my GH is working perfectly (and I'm thankful for that and love the vape), I rather agree with Joemoma though I wouldn't express it that way.

I am also an engineer, I worked for a long time in airborne electronics/avionics and I KNOW that there are ways to drive failure modes out during development and drive out infant moralities from production runs before shipping. I also have some familiarity with failure analysis and corrective action. All of this takes time, money, and a commitment to quality.

If these guys really were aerospace engineers, none of these concepts should be foreign to them.

Just saying, they can make the best functionally performing vape in the world but still fail due to poor company performance.

Well said.

 

[Mr. Me2]

I have seen this 5% failure rate quoted before. Can you please tell me the source for this metric.

Although my GH is working perfectly (and I'm thankful for that and love the vape), I rather agree with Joemoma though I wouldn't express it that way.

I am also an engineer, I worked for a long time in airborne electronics/avionics and I KNOW that there are ways to drive failure modes out during development and drive out infant moralities from production runs before shipping. I also have some familiarity with failure analysis and corrective action. All of this takes time, money, and a commitment to quality.

If these guys really were aerospace engineers, none of these concepts should be foreign to them.

Just saying, they can make the best functionally performing vape in the world but still fail due to poor company performance.

If I remember right, that 5% number was in one of ghl's updates/newsletters. And I think they said the number was improving.

And I basically agree with your engineering comments about testing. But is that for design and development, or does that hold true throughout continued manufacturing? For example, we have heard they recently had a bad batch of chargers. Outsourced parts that have a % of defects that are still properly assembled - could/should that be caught before shipment and use? I ask because I really don't know and would appreciate more insight from you engineering guys. Thx!

 

[Baron23]

If I remember right, that 5% number was in one of ghl's updates/newsletters. And I think they said the number was improving.

And I basically agree with your engineering comments about testing. But is that for design and development, or does that hold true throughout continued manufacturing? For example, we have heard they recently had a bad batch of chargers. Outsourced parts that have a % of defects that are still properly assembled - could/should that be caught before shipment and use? I ask because I really don't know and would appreciate more insight from you engineering guys. Thx!

If one wants to pursue the highest reliability, there are testing features for both development/acceptance of the design as well as for production runs. In development, things like parts screening and stress (electrical, environmental, mechanical) testing will drive out failures that can then be analyzed for root cause and corrected in the design. In production, there are ways to ensure your design stays reliable in quantity production; burn-in is one, sample stress testing is another.

Now, this all comes down to cost and value. When designing a five 9's or better avionics for a USAF fighter, you would probably see all of these and more. For a vape, its reasonable to pick and chose something that is proportionally appropriate. But it doesn't seem like they are doing anything.

Also, and again personally, I ain't buy the 5% failure rate from a newsletter. We will not know the failure rate as we don't have access to the data. But there are a lot of failures being reported and the resounding silence of Hopper Labs on this issue, and their aversion to coming on BBS like this one (as do other vendors) and communicating openly with their customer base, is telling.

 

[syrupy]

I don't understand. How does their current policy result in more profits than creating a second revenue stream out of refurbished units?

Because the refurb units would be cheaper, and if they had no warranty, probably not good for them or the customers. The less durable a unit is, the more I want it to be on warranty. 25% off for a non-warrantied hopper doesn't sound like a deal to me.

Edit: maybe the 5% failure rate is what they are seeing off the line?

 

[Mr. Me2]

If one wants to pursue the highest reliability, there are testing features for both development/acceptance of the design as well as for production runs. In development, things like parts screening and stress (electrical, environmental, mechanical) testing will drive out failures that can then be analyzed for root cause and corrected in the design. In production, there are ways to ensure your design stays reliable in quantity production; burn-in is one, sample stress testing is another.

Now, this all comes down to cost and value. When designing a five 9's or better avionics for a USAF fighter, you would probably see all of these and more. For a vape, its reasonable to pick and chose something that is proportionally appropriate. But it doesn't seem like they are doing anything.

Also, and again personally, I ain't buy the 5% failure rate from a newsletter. We will not know the failure rate as we don't have access to the data, but there are a lot of failures being reported and the resounding silence of Hopper Labs on this issue and their aversion to coming on BBS like this one (as do other vendors) and communicating openly with their customer base.

Thx for the info. Much appreciated.

 

[moondog]

Because the refurb units would be cheaper, and if they had no warranty, probably not good for them or the customers. The less durable a unit is, the more I want it to be on warranty. 25% off for a non-warrantied hopper doesn't sound like a deal to me.

Edit: maybe the 5% failure rate is what they are seeing off the line?

Thanks for the explanation. I guess I was assuming they would offer a warranty. I've purchased other refurbed products ("factory reconditioned") that had a warranty.

 

[Baron23]

Thanks for the explanation. I guess I was assuming they would offer a warranty. I've purchased other refurbed products ("factory reconditioned") that had a warranty.

Indeed