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paintballimpact.com / Loaders - Hoppers / Gravity Feed Loader
Gravity Feed Loader
There are two main categories of hoppers/loaders, the gravity feed loader and the electronic hopper. With a gravity feed loader, the paintballs passively drop from the hopper into the chamber of the marker one by one. This type of technology is adequate for some paintball guns, but not for more high end machines that can fire more rapidly. High end markers like the Strange Shocker from Smart Parts and the Tonic Shocker from Toxic Performance have the technology to shoot paintballs as fast as you can pull the trigger. Other markers have the technology to shoot 3 paintballs for one trigger pull. With this type of rapid fire ability, gravity feed loaders sometimes have trouble feeding the markers with paintballs fat enough. There are a number of great hoppers on the market today, such as the Spyder FASTA 18v LCD from Kingman, the Halo TSA LCD from Odyssey, and the Ricochet AK from Ricochet 2K. The Ricochet AK is an electronic loader that comes with an open lid lock, low battery light, and one button operation.
The loader is defined as any vessel that holds paintballs and then loads them into the chamber of the paintgun. A loader is also known as a feeder on a hopper. Most loaders hold between 150-180 paintballs. With a gravity feed loader, paintballs drop by themselves into the chamber of the marker. With an electronic loader, the paintballs are force-fed into the marker at a faster rate than they would be able to drop on gravity alone. Electronic hoppers are needed with markers that use adjustable electronic triggers and other electronic parts that make the marker shoot very fast. While an electronic hopper does increase our rapid fire capabilities, it does require more parts and maintenance than a gravity feed loader. Electronic loaders require batteries that must be replaced when they run out of power. Also gravity feed loaders also have many of the same issues that electronic markers have when it comes to weather extremes. Sometimes the performance of electronic hoppers in compromised when the weather is extremely cold or very hot and humid. To keep our hopper working effectively, you must keep moisture away from all electrical components of the loader.
Worr Game Products, Zap, and Avalon are three of over 15 paintball manufacturers that manufacture loaders. The gravity feed loader is a suitable piece of equipment in many paintball games, but it will not be effective in all circumstances There are some inflatable bunkers like the beam and the snake that will require players to shoot while laying sideways and on their back. Since the gravity feed loader requires the hopper to be directly over the marker to drop in via gravity, shooting in bunkers like the snake may require diminish the performance of the hopper if the player is forced to shoot with the marker chamber and hopper horizontal to each other.
The Triumph SSl-200 from Tippmann and the EVLution 3 from Viewloader both work effectively. The eVLution 3 is very productive, with a 200 paintball count capacity, LED low battery indicator, and a 23 balls per second feed rate. The lid of this system is spring loaded, allowing it to be filled and closed easily.
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