My parts finally came in this week but first I'll ask (as I don't remember seeing this) did anyone notice imperfections in their coatings?
I scratched at the marks and nothing seems to be coming of but I'll send an email to S&B.
There was talk earlier in the thread of lighter and darker coated parts which is very visible when I compare my 2 regular inserts to the 2 reducers they sent. The reducers are very dark and the regular ones are blotchy looking. Hard to photograph but very visible to the naked eye. I'm not sure how that'll work out long term.
After a good clean (which didn't seem necessary) I then put in the new parts, which was extremely easy except the plastic housing I had on hand doesn't hold the new bowl when I flip it over (but the old one holds oddly enough). The old screen came out with little effort and then I made sure to ISO the surface underneath (with the Hybrid inverted) as the surface was absolutely filthy. After that I did a burn off at max temp for about 5 minutes and had the air pump blow until the temperature was sitting at 165°C (329°F). I loaded up full bowl of some Island Pink and the result was not what I expected, the flavour was meh. Subsequent bags only got worse, and that was staying below 190° (374°F) and it got to the point where I had to go grab my Tinymight to make sure it wasn't the herb (which it wasn't as the flavour was much better in a different device). The other parts of my vapour path weren't perfectly clean but never has flavour tasted so tainted and I've let my parts get much much dirtier.
I don't see the new insert changing the flavour and unless my taste buds have suddenly developed an intolerance for the materials used I'm at a loss as to why the taste would be so bad.