Discontinued Thermovape Cera

[kushcabbage]

So it wasn't a serious question but another shot at TV?

I thought we'd been here before?

OF

absolutely not, never want to derail a thread. I had a serious question, thank you buchee for explaining. Everyone knows how much I love thermovape, I was simply curious why tinfoil was being utilized. I didn't think my post had negative tones. I even reported it to be merged. I know the switches will be fixed and sent. I know thermovape is lightyears ahead. I just ordered another ultra and metal carry case that comes tomorrow!

 

[t-dub]

Effing fantastic, I had that record as a kid

 

[iamn3ko]

Buchee good recommendation on the Pelican case, I just bought one in black. My work uses these to ship out big important packages and they hold up amazing, in all different sizes, you should see where these packages go...

Good buy, now only if I could get my Cera already!

 

[zGaW]

Vapor junkie problems...another week, no shipping notice :-(

Hang in there with me man, we'll be clenching it in our fists and sucking thirstily from Cera soon.

 

[WL]

Hey so I was beta tester for the T1, Rev DART and Evo. I've been following this cera thread and hadn't posted yet. A little birdie told me that the latching switches may be in next week. Which leads me to believe that most of those who preordered with the LS and haven't received their cera at this point will likely get the latching switch right away? And maybe it will even be an available option soon enough!

 

[OF]

Hey so I was beta tester for the T1, Rev DART and Evo. I've been following this cera thread and hadn't posted yet. A little birdie told me that the latching switches may be in next week.

Howdy, WL good to meet you, love your work.

Not sure what to say about little birdies, IMO they lie too often to base plans on. I'll stick with my little voices, thank you very much......

OF

 

[iamn3ko]

Howdy, WL good to meet you, love your work.

Not sure what to say about little birdies, IMO they lie too often to base plans on. I'll stick with my little voices, thank you very much......

OF

Maybe I'm the only one confused, but care to explain? Are you being sarcastic?

 

[VapeStL]

WL's birdie's are singing a different tune than OF's little voices.

 

[WL]

Howdy, WL good to meet you, love your work.

Not sure what to say about little birdies, IMO they lie too often to base plans on. I'll stick with my little voices, thank you very much......

OF

OF you've written some really great stuff on the forum. Good to meet you too.

Birdies name is Zeki. I talked to him on the phone yesterday. He actually brought up the switches. I was inquiring about a Cera beta unit. I emailed Tim late Nov. about that, but I imagine they were too backed up at time the time. I know it's just a projection, but I also know it's no fun to be left in the dark when you could at least have an idea of when your unit might be complete.

 

[iamn3ko]

I understand who the birdies are lol... I'm talking about the whole lying thing?

 

[AirDru]

I understand who the birdies are lol... I'm talking about the whole lying thing?

I think it was a joke. Birdies vs voices. Just some silly talk.

 

[WL]

I understand who the birdies are lol... I'm talking about the whole lying thing?

I think it was just a joke. Although, it is possible that the estimate may not be entirely accurate, based on the potential that the switch supplier ships later than TET expects. But you have the same info about when the switches will be in as TET... for now.

 

[OF]

OF you've written some really great stuff on the forum. Good to meet you too.

Birdies name is Zeki. I talked to him on the phone yesterday. He actually brought up the switches. I was inquiring about a Cera beta unit. I emailed Tim late Nov. about that, but I imagine they were too backed up at time the time. I know it's just a projection, but I also know it's no fun to be left in the dark when you could at least have an idea of when your unit might be complete.

Thanks very much. OTOH, I've great respect for Beta Testers (at least the good ones....). I fully appreciate the vital role they play in development techniques that depend on them. Frustrating all the secrecy, but it's vital to keep the data clean....not that we'd compare notes if we knew each other.....

I'm not surprised at the source, and it's no doubt based on fact. But just because switches are coming in doesn't mean they will ship out in complete units the next day. I don't think these are the original switches, so at the very least they'll need testing and you know the risks of doing that under pressure. Lots of things can go wrong along the way, and have in the past. Mention of such stuff here invites touching off another round of venom filled posts and risks getting us shut down a third time. If you've been lurking you can't have missed those adventures. IMO they did nobody any good, past making as few haters feel superior I guess.

You, through good intentions, just set up 'TV lied to us about promised deliver again' posts. Yes, 'promised'. It's the way people react to such things.

I'm confident TV is hard at work resolving the problem (s), but don't think leaks from Zeki through as yet unknown Forum Members is the intended announcement route. And if it is, IMO it should not be. If it's a real 'company policy' more formal methods would be a better call.

That said, I too have hope for the awaited switches but think those are chickens not yet hatched. Saying 'latching switches are due in next week' doesn't mean that units will ship on Monday. But that won't keep folks for expecting that and demanding their units......after all it must be true, they read it on the net.

OF

 

[WL]

Thanks very much. OTOH, I've great respect for Beta Testers (at least the good ones....). I fully appreciate the vital role they play in development techniques that depend on them. Frustrating all the secrecy, but it's vital to keep the data clean....not that we'd compare notes if we knew each other.....

I'm not surprised at the source, and it's no doubt based on fact. But just because switches are coming in doesn't mean they will ship out in complete units the next day. I don't think these are the original switches, so at the very least they'll need testing and you know the risks of doing that under pressure. Lots of things can go wrong along the way, and have in the past. Mention of such stuff here invites touching off another round of venom filled posts and risks getting us shut down a third time. If you've been lurking you can't have missed those adventures. IMO they did nobody any good, past making as few haters feel superior I guess.

You, through good intentions, just set up 'TV lied to us about promised deliver again' posts. Yes, 'promised'. It's the way people react to such things.

OF

You make a good point. Just to be clear, I was speculating that the latching switches might start to go out with preorders soon. I don't know that for sure. Definitely not Monday. Even if their supplier is on time, you make another good point about the testing. I just thought it might be helpful to throw this thread a bone? But I absolutely see how that could go wrong. For the record, I AM NO OFFICIAL SOURCE OF INFORMATION. PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK TET. THEY DID NOT PROMISE ANY OF THE THINGS I SAID. Thank you.

 

[OF]

I just thought it might be helpful to throw this thread a bone?

Understood and commendable. But that's not a family dog and a bone there, you're kissing up on throwing raw meat at a pack of wolves.

"Those who ignore the lessons of history are condemned to repeating them".

I'll continue to not count chickens until hatched, and encourage that in others......especially around such emotion charge hot button topics. Our getting worked up about it here is not going to change anything worthwhile, it surely won't make it happen any faster or better.

Do you even know if those switches are the tested and approved type or are they maybe just some more samples in for evaluation? We've had several such batches fail you know. Are they really getting in the hundred or more they need immediately? Every reader will want to make that connection.....many will I bet?

OF

 

[jdee]

More adventures of a Cera pre-ordererererer? surely.

After finally cleaning my oil cart just for fun, which btw continued to produce vapor AFTER being soaked in iso and boiled. I proceeded to do as the instructions say and put 0.5g into the cart. Well since there was apparently still some left + the 0.5 it may have overfilled. It started coming out the bottom of the cart into the threads. No problems I'll clean it. A little bit got in the inside of the body, so cleaned it best I could but little bit got in between the body and where the cart screws in. That's ok, I'll just use the exact size hex key that was recommended in this thread to remove that part from the body to clean in. 3 screws came out fine, the 4th is stripped due to the softness of the metal so now stuck. I would like to know, is it safe to submerge the body, if not what is the recommended way to clean the inside in case of spills?

Something else that I think is worth mentioning. It was said the Cera was an open and modular platform, one such example was that the oil cart has the exact size hole to use a 510 driptip. This is my preferred mouthpiece for oil because it's much more comfortable for me. There is however a very slight issue with this, in that the edges of the inner portion of the oil cart are pretty sharp. They can cause the plastic and rubber o-ring from the driptip to shred, with repeated insertion/removals. Pieces of plastic and rubber that if you're not careful may end up in your reservoir. I don't think this is an ideal scenario for a medical device.

 

[Darb]

I think TET has said not to take those screws out.
I tried a normal 510 drip tip and I tore my oring too.
I found the vapor way smoother with the Cera mouthpiece though.

 

[iamn3ko]

I think you voided your warranty man, just saying...

Don't know if you care but TET said they made it so they'll know if any one tampered with it...


Interesting story though, are you still having issues then? Hopefully it's working now?



These set screws seem to be having issues, falling out just from cleaning, screws stripping, losing screws, only having 2-3 screws out of 4, Eh, my OCD is already kicking in. I hope I don't have these problems.

 

[OF]

That's ok, I'll just use the exact size hex key that was recommended in this thread to remove that part from the body to clean in. 3 screws came out fine, the 4th is stripped due to the softness of the metal so now stuck. I would like to know, is it safe to submerge the body, if not what is the recommended way to clean the inside in case of spills?

There is however a very slight issue with this, in that the edges of the inner portion of the oil cart are pretty sharp. They can cause the plastic and rubber o-ring from the driptip to shred, with repeated insertion/removals.

I agree, it probably wasn't as empty as you think. It happened to me as well. I'm not sure if I didn't dry it out well enough or what but it flooded on half a gram. I figure that was about .15 too much, not a lot of an overfill. Worth watching IMO, until you understand how full is full. My feeling right now is half a gram over new, maybe 1/3 of a gram to the top up? That would be roughly 4 times the DART numbers, which makes sense?

I'm not certain, but I believe the fourth screw is actually epoxied into place with special conductive epoxy to provide connection to the strip up the inside of the tube. The same sort of epoxy is used on the connection to the ring at the bottom I think. Best advice is to carefully put the 3 screws back in and not mess with them again. It blows the warranty for openers and is not IMO a place users are intended to be messing about in......in fact quite the opposite.

That said, the body can also be soaked in most anything you want, even boiled (not the switch and end cap thougth). Mine came back from loan with the same problem, but I guess it doesn't bother me after the exposed parts were wiped clean. If it did, I'd consider the dishwasher?

Finally, I disagree with you, sharp edges are definitely an issue. That is on my list to discuss from the core I just got a week or two back. It's a production one and had a sharp edge on one of the cuts on the outside (the exposed step between the first and second rings). Normally this is taken care of in tumbling the parts for the correct time in the correct media. Many things could have prevented that, including intentionally doing it to preserve the surface finish? It's something to be addressed before the next batch are made for sure.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying it, put the screws back and the wrench away before you break something and get to cleaning it. Maybe a couple of minor floods with ISO a minute or two apart? Swish some in and stand it in the sink to soak into the gap? Myself, I like the dishwasher idea......

OF

 

[jdee]

Was just posting my findings, still really love the cera. Now that I know it's safe to soak the body it's not an issue. And regarding the voiding of warranty REALLY? My cera did not come with any such type of written instructions stating what I did and did not have permission to do to the device I now own. But I would love to read it, can anyone point me to that? I agree that mentioning 'don't bother removing the screw because it's glued in, and anyways if you need to clean the body you can soak or boil it' would have been a nice tip. But I did it so you don't have to. Any mention of not removing screws I saw were relating to the cores, not the body. But seriously what type of warranty could I possibly require on a tube that hold a battery..

 

[saltway_sweeper]

And regarding the voiding of warranty REALLY? My cera did not come with any such type of written instructions stating what I did and did not have permission to do to the device I now own. But I would love to read it, can anyone point me to that.

I happened to read it today when I was browsing the website...

Warranty:Thermo-Essence Technologies provides a limited lifetime warranty against manufacturing defects. Cera heater cores come with a yearlong warranty, after which time a rebuild fee will be charged. The batteries are a consumable and will need to be replaced eventually. The Cera should not be disassembled by the customer and has been built to identify tampering; any such tampering or damage will result in a voided warranty. Repairs are performed solely at our facility. Return shipping is the customer's responsibility and shipping costs are non-refundable; we also recommend using a trackable shipping method. We will ship the warranty units back to the address provided by the customer using USPS Priority Mail. If the unit was purchased from an authorized retailer, a proof of purchase is required with the items being returned. No warranty items will be sent unless items have previously been sent back to us for repair. We reserve the right to modify policies without prior notice.

 

[OF]

And regarding the voiding of warranty REALLY?


My cera did not come with any such type of written instructions stating what I did and did not have permission to do to the device I now own. But I would love to read it, can anyone point me to that? I agree that mentioning 'don't bother removing the screw because it's glued in, and anyways if you need to clean the body you can soak or boil it' would have been a nice tip.

But seriously what type of warranty could I possibly require on a tube that hold a battery..

Yeah, really. "The Cera should not be disassembled by the customer and has been built to identify tampering; any such tampering or damage will result in a voided warranty."

It's not a matter of having permission to do what you want, more one of responsibility for doing so. Nobody cares as long as you don't expect them to fix it for free. That would be the risk here I think? Like if you had managed to get the screw out? Or later on, should they need to get the now headless screw out for service (most likely by torching it first to break down the glue?) but then have to scrap the tube over? As long as you don't expect warranty service, it's cool as you say.

You can read the warranty conditions under which the sale was made on their policy page:
http://thermovape.com/policies/

although I seriously doubt they'd hold you to it since it's innocent, not tampering really.

I'm not sure who you're agreeing with about friendly "don't bother" warnings not to take it apart, but it's surely not me. I was the "don't do it" guy. Still am.

OF

 

[jdee]

No worries OF, you've been nothing but helpful. I was only saying that had I known the screw was glued in I wouldn't have even bothered, this is the first time the information has been made available. I am totally and fully responsible for all my actions. And I also have full faith in the fact that I won't be requiring any type of warranty service on the cera body anyways, so this is the least of my concerns.

 

[jambandphan03]

I don't think it would void anything with the cera body, just the cart itself correct? Unless you go tampering with the Cera body...

 

[Darb]

I don't think it would void anything with the cera body, just the cart itself correct? Unless you go tampering with the Cera body...

The body is what the screws were removed from.