Discontinued The Grasshopper

[moondog]

I am liking the GH more and more.

I am glad you're finally getting to enjoy the hopper after all your trials and tribulations

Heat buildup and battery life limit its portable effectiveness to solo use, but ideal for that. If i want a portable vape to pass round and round to some heavy medical users i would look to other options in my lineup. But for covert solo use or for a couple of very light users, can't be beat IMO.

I will certainly use it often as a stealth portable. Very covert. But it will be best for solo use, as heat and battery life are bigger factors when you add more sets of lungs.

This is the conundrum I am facing. I can't wait to have a hopper for solo use or for sharing with one other person, but am trying to figure out what to do about portable sharing with more than one other person. My Pinnacle Pro just gave up the ghost and I want to replace it with something similar but with replaceable batteries. I'm leaning heavily towards the soon to be released digital version of the Focus vape, which is, to my eye, pretty much a Pinnacle without the weaknesses (integrated battery and plastic mouthpiece). I'm looking for something easy to transport and discreet but also easy to use without specialized technique. I don't want to have to explain anything to someone if I'm passing it to them at a show, other than "suck on this my friend." Any recommendations for another portable to complement my hopper will be much appreciated.

 

[Mr. Me2]

I am glad you're finally getting to enjoy the hopper after all your trials and tribulations



This is the conundrum I am facing. I can't wait to have a hopper for solo use or for sharing with one other person, but am trying to figure out what to do about portable sharing with more than one other person. My Pinnacle Pro just gave up the ghost and I want to replace it with something similar but with replaceable batteries. I'm leaning heavily towards the soon to be released digital version of the Focus vape, which is, to my eye, pretty much a Pinnacle without the weaknesses (integrated battery and plastic mouthpiece). I'm looking for something easy to transport and discreet but also easy to use without specialized technique. I don't want to have to explain anything to someone if I'm passing it to them at a show, other than "suck on this my friend." Any recommendations for another portable to complement my hopper will be much appreciated.

My suggestion...the Mighty/Crafty have no learning curve. The less expensive versions are the Boundless vapes...and I've read here good bang for the buck, but not as good as the Mighty/Crafty.

Or you could just get multiple gh's so everybody has their own.

 

[vapviking]

I'm looking for something easy to transport and discreet but also easy to use without specialized technique. I don't want to have to explain anything to someone if I'm passing it to them at a show, other than "suck on this my friend." Any recommendations for another portable to complement my hopper will be much appreciated.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of good suggestions! and my arsenal is limited, but I have a Mighty that is portable and yes easy to use and capable of very good volume with vg battery life. It may not fit your easy, discreet qualification, but it will not disappoint! New dosing capsules make it even easy out and about...

 

[moondog]

My suggestion...the Mighty/Crafty have no learning curve. The less expensive versions are the Boundless vapes...and I've read here good bang for the buck, but not as good as the Mighty/Crafty.

Or you could just get multiple gh's so everybody has their own.

I'm sure you'll get a lot of good suggestions! and my arsenal is limited, but I have a Mighty that is portable and yes easy to use and capable of very good volume with vg battery life. It may not fit your easy, discreet qualification, but it will not disappoint! New dosing capsules make it even easy out and about...

Thank you both for your suggestions. Me2, I like the way you think (multiple hoppers to pass around), but then I'd have to name them all or something.

I hear so many good things about the Crafty/Mighty but the triple whammy of cost and size (for the Mighty), non-user replaceable batteries, and needing a smartphone for full functionality (for the Crafty) has kept them off my list. I do like those dosing capsules, though...

 

[Mr Mellish]

Thank you both for your suggestions. Me2, I like the way you think (multiple hoppers to pass around), but then I'd have to name them all or something.

I hear so many good things about the Crafty/Mighty but the triple whammy of cost and size (for the Mighty), non-user replaceable batteries, and needing a smartphone for full functionality (for the Crafty) has kept them off my list. I do like those dosing capsules, though...

Have you checked out the Firewood 3? Faster and tastier than Crafty.

 

[Chose]

My suggestion...the Mighty/Crafty have no learning curve. The less expensive versions are the Boundless vapes...and I've read here good bang for the buck, but not as good as the Mighty/Crafty.

Or you could just get multiple gh's so everybody has their own.

The focus vape is very good for the money I got it as a back up vape incase my hopper dies on me ,and was very surprised on the big clouds it gives you and fast heat up time . Also you could take this vape any where looks like a e cig mod ,but you will need to swap the screen as the ceramic and screen it comes with restricts air flow .i feel confident now that if my hopper dies it won't be sutch a big deal infact if it did die I wouldn't return it until pre orders are finished so I can get latest quirk free edition (if they change any thing) I would not have felt this stress free before I had the focus it's like a conduction hopper but obviously not as tasty but not bad at all. And forgot to say a complete noob could suck on it no problem

 

[moondog]

Have you checked out the Firewood 3? Faster and tastier than Crafty.

I just took a look. Very nice, not perfect for my needs list, but more to the point, it's discontinued. The FW4 comes out in the fall. Don't think I can wait that long. All my waiting is taken up with the hopper.

The focus vape is very good for the money I got it as a back up vape incase my hopper dies on me ,and was very surprised on the big clouds it gives you and fast heat up time . Also you could take this vape any where looks like a e cig mod ,but you will need to swap the screen as the ceramic and screen it comes with restricts air flow .i feel confident now that if my hopper dies it won't be sutch a big deal infact if it did die I wouldn't return it until pre orders are finished so I can get latest quirk free edition (if they change any thing) I would not have felt this stress free before I had the focus it's like a conduction hopper but obviously not as tasty but not bad at all. And forgot to say a complete noob could suck on it no problem

The digital Focus seems to be hitting that sweet spot for my needs as a hopper backup and portable sharing unit. Price is right, easy to use, replaceable batteries, has the option of a Pinnacle-like bullet/capsule system, and has the digital readout for feedback.

 

[btka]

So I don't know if I'm imagining this or not but it seems like the red and blue lights on my GH have considerably dimmed over the past month or so since I've received my unit. I remember when I first got it I could see the preheating lights very well but now it seems like they are much dimmer and hard to see unless it's held on the right angle. Has anyone else experienced this?

that is normal ... the led lights are l7cated that way ...

 

[CarlosSpiceyWeiner]

Ordered June 13, 2015 - I just got an email to confirm my shipping details.

Same here.

Ordered a titanium on June 18, 2015. Received shipping confirmation email on Sunday.

I couldn't wait any longer. So I purchased a SS hopper from Vapefiend 3 or 4 months ago.

I love the same things that everybody else does about the hopper.

Plus have the same issues with it as everybody else has.

I do taste a hint a metal in the vapor. But as long as the herb is high quality and tastes great. It doesn't bother me at all.

4 out of 2 batches of herb. That looked great and smelled great. Tasted like complete ass in the hopper from beginning to end. I usually start out at 2.5 and finish around 4.5.

I live in New York so great herb is hard to come by.

It tasted so bad that I had to go back to using my Arizer Air until the batch was finished. The Air gave those batches more of a neutral taste.

Don't get me wrong the 2 other ounces I put through it tasted like heaven.

I get the flickering lights right from the start. But only when I'm drawing from it.

The backend gets hot IMO only when my hands are in a certain position.

I usually draw from it while having the top of my pinky resting on the on/off button. While my middle finger and ring finger. Are resting on the hoppers clip. My thumb is holding the back and my index finger. Is a little higher below the mouthpiece on the front.

Always using the condom by the way. I just don't like lip dancing around the hot mouthpiece.

With my hand in that position while drawing. If I move my pinky and touch the backend. Where the serial number is. At the same time as the on/off button. I get an instant surge of heat.

It doesn't happen all the time. Plus I click it on and off after each hit. So it hasn't been a real issue with me.

All that said. I can't wait for my titanium to finally get here to compare the two.

I most likely will keep the SS as a backup to the titanium.

Guess I'll have to wait and see how that turns out.

 

[moondog]

I do taste a hint a metal in the vapor. But as long as the herb is high quality and tastes great. It doesn't bother me at all.

4 out of 2 batches of herb. That looked great and smelled great. Tasted like complete ass in the hopper from beginning to end. I usually start out at 2.5 and finish around 4.5.

I live in New York so great herb is hard to come by.

It tasted so bad that I had to go back to using my Arizer Air until the batch was finished. The Air gave those batches more of a neutral taste.

Don't get me wrong the 2 other ounces I put through it tasted like heaven.

I don't have my hopper yet so I have no personal experience, but I don't recall anyone else mentioning a metallic taste; not after 3 or 4 months of use. But I could be forgetting someone. I also can't recall anyone saying the hopper made their herb taste bad. That's pretty strange. Good to hear it was an anomaly.

 

[CarlosSpiceyWeiner]

I don't have my hopper yet so I have no personal experience, but I don't recall anyone else mentioning a metallic taste; not after 3 or 4 months of use. But I could be forgetting someone. I also can't recall anyone saying the hopper made their herb taste bad. That's pretty strange. Good to hear it was an anomaly.

Before I started using the SS hopper. I was using an Arizer Air as my daily driver for a little over a year. Before that the Solo. I personally love the pure taste of vaping through glass.

I can compare it to back in my combustion days. When I would only smoke through glass bowls. Because of the pure taste of the herb. If I smoked through metal bowls. I always tasted the hot metal.

So using the hopper to me has the same hot metal taste I remember. Mixed in with the taste of the herb.

I didn't mean that the hopper made the herb taste bad.

I meant that you better have good legit herb to vape through the hopper. Or IMO it's a waste.

 

[MoltenTiger]

I don't have my hopper yet so I have no personal experience, but I don't recall anyone else mentioning a metallic taste; not after 3 or 4 months of use. But I could be forgetting someone. I also can't recall anyone saying the hopper made their herb taste bad. That's pretty strange. Good to hear it was an anomaly.

Some herb does taste bad. Over 120 terpenoids and flavonoids have been identified in cannabis, and only 2 were found to be unique to the plant. The rest are also found in fruit and vegetables. So just as someone doesn't like a particular fruit/veg, bud with similar chemical flavour profiles will taste just as bad to them.
There's also a reliance on growers and suppliers to flush plants, dry and cure properly and store appropriately to maintain a tasty yield.
Vaporizing is very efficient at extracting these chemicals, and the GH does a good job from a fresh and cold sample. However, there is I think, a very slight flavour signature left by the hopper that is either because of the metal in the air path/heater or a result of the ultra concentrated heat on the plant material. I really noticed this when I got my warranty body back after 3 weeks, it's very subtle but there. I only taste it using the hopper directly.

This study looks at cannabis and its constituents though it's not the one I was citing for unique components, it is still super interesting.
http://www.cannabis-med.org/data/pdf/2001-03-04-7.pdf

 

[jivebuggered]

I'm glad they are taking back the whole unit. Wasn't a fan of just sending components back to customers. At this point in the game they need to determine exactly where the failure is occuring.

Just wondering has anyone looked down the hopper to the positive connection to the circuit board? The connection plate which is just behind the circuit board or heater that the positive part of the battery contacts ? looks different to the usual torch or other devices. It looks like a lot of small dots etched into it. I wonder if some of these "dots" are not quite connecting (almost like corrosion that happens on terminals inside a lot of torches.) Could this be the cause of a lot of these weird power issues???

 

[MoltenTiger]

So last night I tried some kief in the hopper, which is insane through glass. HUGE rips.
Anyway, I was already pretty high I guess, so I decided to just put some kief in the chamber without any extra herb or anything and see what happens.

First two pics top row (blue dots in corner of pic) was after hitting the bong with a small scoop in the chamber. After one or two light drags, the kief melted to the walls of the chamber.
The pics don't show it all too well, but it's gold coloured and has slight depth to it the whole way down. (hopper was vertical in glass).
I then filled the chamber with some herb and vaped the rest.
It was super effective! (was planning on posting these pics after, but the struggle was real).
After shots are the third and fourth pics top row (red dots).
As can be seen, it vaped this oil quite well, herb came out very dark brown, oil (melted kief) turned into a dry powder.
I used the metal tool below to quickly wipe out the residue, and the two pics to the left (first two bottom row, green dots) show that it came out basically clean.
The last pic bottom row is the mouthpiece, and the last pic top row is the positive battery contact.

The first pic top row shows both screens. Very fine holes and a one-way air path means this all worked out quite well.

@jivebuggered From what I can see, there is a brass battery contact plate centrally, 6 solder points surrounding it (two/three in my pic show convex solder mounds, which isn't ideal. Concave means the solder has reached a proper liquid stage and can wick through the PCB.) about 6 capacitors of varying styles and three blank chips.

 

[moondog]

Some herb does taste bad. Over 120 terpenoids and flavonoids have been identified in cannabis, and only 2 were found to be unique to the plant. The rest are also found in fruit and vegetables. So just as someone doesn't like a particular fruit/veg, bud with similar chemical flavour profiles will taste just as bad to them.
There's also a reliance on growers and suppliers to flush plants, dry and cure properly and store appropriately to maintain a tasty yield.
Vaporizing is very efficient at extracting these chemicals, and the GH does a good job from a fresh and cold sample. However, there is I think, a very slight flavour signature left by the hopper that is either because of the metal in the air path/heater or a result of the ultra concentrated heat on the plant material. I really noticed this when I got my warranty body back after 3 weeks, it's very subtle but there. I only taste it using the hopper directly.

This study looks at cannabis and its constituents though it's not the one I was citing for unique components, it is still super interesting.
http://www.cannabis-med.org/data/pdf/2001-03-04-7.pdf

I understand this. What I misunderstood is that I thought OP was saying herb that otherwise tasted fine was tasting bad only in the hopper. Guess I was more curious than coherent when I posted.

 

[lovecrush]

What are the experiences using the hopper with hashish? Sandwiching it between herbs?

 

[MoltenTiger]

What are the experiences using the hopper with hashish? Sandwiching it between herbs?

I haven't tried it with enough I don't think.
But the small piece I did try didn't seem to melt amongst herb. It was only a tiny little piece of bag hash though.
I think higher temps and conduction would be the key to concentrates.
It all comes down to if you want results, or if you want the best results possible.
The hopper will perform, but it won't be to the levels other methods will offer.

 

[Vapor_Eyes]

I understand this. What I misunderstood is that I thought OP was saying herb that otherwise tasted fine was tasting bad only in the hopper. Guess I was more curious than coherent when I posted.

I think you both might be right. Perhaps OP doesn't have much experience with convection vaporizers. In my opinion cannabis can taste completely different in one, not just better. It's a more pure taste but if you don't like the flavor it tastes "worse".

There are some strains I come across that I try to only vape in my CFX as it has quite a bit of conduction in its heating system.

It's almost like how I only add cream to coffee that tastes bad. I prefer the pure taste of black coffee, but if it's shitty coffee I'm going to throw some cream in there.

Edit: Just to keep this more on topic, I find the Grasshopper taste to be just fine, quite nice in fact. It's not my best tasting vape, but it certainly doesn't make my herb taste bad.

 

[HappyFunTime]

I really enjoy the grasshopper when used in conjunction with the crafty cooling unit. With the silicone tip on the GH it is possible to simply hold a CU to the hopper to make this work. (Remove CU screen.

This combo can provide huge, cool rips. The issue is that it can be cumbersome to hold during use. A such I thought of making a 3D printed adapter, but lack the tools/skills. As such I decided to use foil tape to make a prototype.

The GH with the silicon tip slide snugly into the adapter and since the GH full connects to the CU there is no tape in the air path.

http://anony.ws/image/NDnp
http://anony.ws/image/NDnr

Combined with my cigar tube mod the pair make for an interchangeable battery version of the crafty with instant on. It's a dream.

http://anony.ws/image/NDnx

 

[Hogni]

I imagine that this nice mini VapeXhale Hydratube-clone or this one could be a nice watertool for the gh!?

Regard to well cured weed and preservation of taste/terpenes does anybody have experiences with the CVault containers?

 

[Mr. Me2]

I imagine that this nice mini VapeXhale Hydratube-clone or this one could be a nice watertool for the gh!?

Regard to well cured weed and preservation of taste/terpenes does anybody have experiences with the CVault containers?

I use the CVault and highly recommend them

 

[TheWhisper]

I do taste a hint a metal in the vapor. But as long as the herb is high quality and tastes great. It doesn't bother me at all.

4 out of 2 batches of herb. That looked great and smelled great. Tasted like complete ass in the hopper from beginning to end. I usually start out at 2.5 and finish around 4.5.

I live in New York so great herb is hard to come by.

It tasted so bad that I had to go back to using my Arizer Air until the batch was finished. The Air gave those batches more of a neutral taste.

I don't have my hopper yet so I have no personal experience, but I don't recall anyone else mentioning a metallic taste; not after 3 or 4 months of use. But I could be forgetting someone. I also can't recall anyone saying the hopper made their herb taste bad. That's pretty strange. Good to hear it was an anomaly.

I did have some issues with a strange taste last year:

http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/the-grasshopper.18482/page-178#post-878480

A replacement body fixed it.

 

[Stu]

I just deleted 15 posts that were discussing c-vaults and jars in general.

Feel free to discuss the topic here if you wish to continue the conversation:
http://fuckcombustion.com/threads/the-cvault-climate-controlled-storage.4585/

Now, back to the Grasshopper...

 

[jivebuggered]

So last night I tried some kief in the hopper, which is insane through glass. HUGE rips.
Anyway, I was already pretty high I guess, so I decided to just put some kief in the chamber without any extra herb or anything and see what happens.

First two pics top row (blue dots in corner of pic) was after hitting the bong with a small scoop in the chamber. After one or two light drags, the kief melted to the walls of the chamber.
The pics don't show it all too well, but it's gold coloured and has slight depth to it the whole way down. (hopper was vertical in glass).
I then filled the chamber with some herb and vaped the rest.
It was super effective! (was planning on posting these pics after, but the struggle was real).
After shots are the third and fourth pics top row (red dots).
As can be seen, it vaped this oil quite well, herb came out very dark brown, oil (melted kief) turned into a dry powder.
I used the metal tool below to quickly wipe out the residue, and the two pics to the left (first two bottom row, green dots) show that it came out basically clean.
The last pic bottom row is the mouthpiece, and the last pic top row is the positive battery contact.

The first pic top row shows both screens. Very fine holes and a one-way air path means this all worked out quite well.

@jivebuggered From what I can see, there is a brass battery contact plate centrally, 6 solder points surrounding it (two/three in my pic show convex solder mounds, which isn't ideal. Concave means the solder has reached a proper liquid stage and can wick through the PCB.) about 6 capacitors of varying styles and three blank chips.

Howdy, what is yours and other members thoughts on the brass contact plate? If a few of the "etched" holes ever get dirty could it cause the power drain and other weird electrical things that have been happening? Has anyone cleaned this plate with a cotton bud (with Iso) after having problems and has cleaning it made any difference? I really think this part of the Hopper needs to be investigated more.
On a side note I use the metal measuring tool that came with the E-nano to clean out the hopper oven, it works well.
http://imgur.com/a/y8fLz
Photos show the difference in size to a normal pen the other photo show the excellent cooling stem I have adapted from DaVinci stem with high temp silicion and a Da vinci gong stem with silicon which mate nice and airtight to the hopper MP just like the shuttle mating to the space station LOL

 

[Kalessin]

Was bored and lamenting my broken hopper. Shook it, clicked it a bunch, smacked the backend on the box a few times, clicked it again and now it is working again. Hallelujah! My new frontend is arriving Thursday, hope it lasts till then.

Edit: and it almost just killed me...gotta remember to respect the Hopper's power and not pull too hard..