A couple notes:
When I pulled it out of the package, I unscrewed the core to do a visual inspection (read: enjoy the sexiness in my hands again) and found that there was a noticeable rattling sound coming from the core. I could hear it when it was gently shook, but could not hear it when I wiggled the stainless steel bottom of the core. My heart sank at first when I heard this, because of how my core had failed (abnormal lighting behavior and sparking in the core). The core still has a very light stain to the inner ceramic bowl from my previous usage, so I know that I received the same core and it wasn't replaced. My worry was that they only fixed the grounding strap (I can see the new solder point) and did not investigate the core itself. Perhaps, I thought, the core became damaged, or further damaged, during it's journey through the mail. Anyways, moving on. I had success but noticed two strange things.
I screwed it back in and threw in my fully charged battery that was ready in the waiting. I pressed the switch and quickly saw it start to glow nicely. Hope returns! Mere seconds later and it was at full brightness, doing so faster than I recall prior and reaching a brightness level that I want to say is greater than what I had experienced before. It seems easier to see a red glow through the outer ceramic wall of the core now.
The first strange part– after doing that initial test run, the core is no longer rattling.
So, without any further ado I loaded it up with a solidly sized bowl pack and gave it a go. Mouthpiece on, button down, gave it maybe 10 seconds given the glowing behavior I had just observed, and gave a good "Step 2" pull for 3-5 seconds. A little short, yes, but I was excited and I'm still new to this… I exhaled a test puff after that modest pull and
so much pretty vapor came out that, given my surprise and confusion, I went right back at it without exhaling the starter pull. Hey, you can forget the 3 steps if you aren't trying to maximize things, and I don't need maximization with performance like this!
Now, here is where strange part number two came in. A little while after my happy first run, I dove back in. This time I decided to try giving it a harder pull. Worryingly I heard a sort of click sound after I picked up the speed, and soon after the vapor became harsh. I exhaled, and it didn't taste nice. I dumped it out and sure enough there was a solidly blackened little ball at the bottom of the bowl. No cherry, thankfully.
Thanks if you've read this far, please excuse my long winded writing style. In the end I'm very, very surprised by how well my Cera is performing. But I am nervous about the strange sounds I'm hearing. Is it at all possible that there was a break somewhere in the coil and there is loose metal in there? Is it conceivable that I could have pulled up a fleck of hot metal, causing the combustion? Or, is my Cera just a hod rod and I'm paranoid?
Last thing: my Cera had a little hand written note on it marking it as "high res". Any thoughts on what this might mean? Thanks in advance! Can't wait to see everyone else who's getting theirs today happily posting later…