A guide to Hoppers/Loaders

Well, since the reaction to the other post I did on here was rather favorable, here is another that I wrote up for another forum.  As I've said before anything any of you would like to add to it please feel free.  Enjoy and I hope someone finds it useful...

People often ask what kind of hopper should they get for their marker.  Like so many other things in paintball, it really depends on the shooter, the style of play, and the marker they are carrying.  When you look at hoppers and loaders, there are three kinds...gravity fed, agitated gravity fed, and force fed.  We'll discuss these in depth a little later on.

To feed or not to feed...

To understand the difference between hoppers, you first need to understand the way the balls feed. 

There are 7-8 balls lined up in the feed tube of your marker at any time (the feed tube being the entire distance from the bottom of the hopper itself to the breach of the marker).  The bottom ball in this stack has a certain amount of pressure exerted on it by the balls above it due to gravity.  This pressure causes that ball to be pushed into the breach faster than if it was just sitting there by itself. 

This means that if you only had those 7-8 rounds in the feed tube (like when the hopper is empty) that as you shot, each ball would have a little less pressure forcing it into the breach than the one before it.  Because of this, each ball would feed just a little slower than the ball before it did.  For faster rates of fire, the balls need to get into the breach as quickly as possible. 

Sir Isac Newton and the law of Paintball Gravity (Hopper that is)

With a gravity hopper, the balls up in the hopper don't feed into the feed neck very smoothly.  Sometimes they get a little jammed up and it takes time for them to sort themselves out before they can fall into the feed tube. 

Remember we talked about how with fewer balls in the feed neck the slower they load?  Well, if you have fired off say, 4 shots in a second, those balls up there in the hopper are fighting each other to get in that feed neck meaning the top part of your feed neck is empty.  With that being empty, the balls that are down by your breach are not getting as much force behind them to push them into the breach as compared to when that feed tube is full.  Thus you have to have a slower rate of fire or you're going to start chopping balls.  A gravity hopper can shot at about 4-5 Balls Per Second (BPS) without chopping.

There is actually no difference between a gravity hopper and a gravity agitated hopper IF (BIIIIIIGGGGG IF) you only shoot less than four rounds at a time with a pause between each burst of a couple of seconds. This means that if you're style of play is short bursts of fire with pauses in between that you can probably get away with a gravity hopper.  Actually, many front guys in speedball could use gravity hoppers if they so choose, but most option for a Gravity Agitated Hopper for those times when they need to fire off more than just a couple rounds.

Of course, Gravity Hoppers are the least complicated of the bunch thus making them very reliable...for what they are.  They also happen to be the cheapest item you can get for your marker.  Most cost under $10. 

I'm getting agitated!!!

Now we come to the hopper that most paintballer's use, a Gravity Agitated Hopper.  A GAH (as I will call it from here on out) has a set of small impellers that "stir" or Agitate the balls when you shoot.  This helps to keep them from getting in each other's way when they try to fall into the feed tube.  It also helps to direct the next ball into the feed tube.  This means that you keep the top of the feed tube full even when you are shooting very quickly. 

A GAH can feed between 8 (the Ricochet Rhino) up to about 13 BPS (for something like the Ricochet AK).  Also, every GAH that I know of is battery operated thus being an "Electric" Hopper.  This is one of the drawbacks to this kind of hopper.  If you forget to turn on the hopper or the battery dies in mid game, you're left with something that is actually worse than a gravity hopper.  The reason why this is are those impellers.  What once was helping you feed the balls is now keeping them from loading.  So if you go with any kind of electric hopper, it is a good idea to carry around extra batteries. 

Another draw back to GAHs, or any electric hopper really, is noise.  When stalking through the woods, nothing is worse than that WIRRRRRR of the agitator kicking in arbitrarily.  To combat this, Ricochet has come out with the Sniper AK.  The Sniper AK is padded to try and reduce the sound of the motor as well as the sound of rattling paintballs. Even so, a little padding in a Gravity Hopper would still make it quieter than the Sniper AK.

Obviously whenever you have moving parts you can have those parts fail.  Most would consider this to be one of the few things they don't worry about.  Because the Agitator systems are pretty basic, there is very little to go wrong with them.  It goes without saying though that you should avoid getting these hoppers near water.  Also, they are more pricey than their gravity hopper brethren.  Expect to pay between $30 and $70 for one of these hoppers.

When all else fails, force it!

A GAH isn't perfect however.  Because it is just agitating the balls and still relying on gravity pushing them into the hole they can still lead to chops when you are shooting at very high rates of fire.

This is where the Force Fed Hopper comes into play.  A FFH (You get the idea) actually PUSHES the balls into the feed tube and thus into the marker.  Usually it has an area in the hopper itself that lines up the balls before they reach the feed neck and is powered to force these balls into the feed neck.  Because the hopper is actually applying more pressure to the ball at the bottom of the stack (the next ball that will be loaded into the breach) the ball will actually load faster than if it was being fed by a Gravity Hopper or GAH. 

Also, the hopper is designed in such a way so that it grabs (well, sort of) balls that are in the hopper into its feed system rather than waiting for them to fall into place. This helps facilitate getting balls to the breach under extremely high rates of fire.

FFHs come in two types.  One is a Hopper/Feeder combo like the Halo B.  It attaches, looks, and is loaded like a normal hopper.  Then there are the Force Fed Systems such as the Q-loader and Warp drive.  The Q-loader can be connected to the marker or can be on the shooter while the Warp is usually placed on the shooter.  Both systems use a very long tube to connect the loading mechanism to the feed neck of the marker.  The Q-loader also requires special pods since the loader and pod are one in the same.  The Halo B and Warp drive are both battery operated while the Q-loader uses a spring to work the feed mechanism.  Many people like the Q-loader because it is quiet and the shooter doesn't need to worry about his loader's battery failing on him in the middle of the game.

FFHs, regardless of what type they are, can feed up to 35 BPS...signifigantly faster than what the above average shooter can manage. However, to fire at such speeds the marker itself must have items to help reduce ball chop as well such as a breach "eye" sensor (detects if a ball is loaded in the breach or not...if not, the marker will not fire), low pressure operation, and special bolts that are less likely to chop a half loaded ball. 

All this technology has a price though.  FFHs are generally the most technologically advanced of all the hoppers. Usually, the more complicated something gets the more susceptible it is to failure and FFHs are no different.  This is why these hoppers are best used on speedball fields where the chance of them finding water or getting really beat-up is less likely.  Most will tell you though that even so, it is rare for their Force Fed Hopper to fail them on the field.  Batteries are usually far more a concern to them than that.  (The Q-loader is the exception to this rule...it is a very basic design and thus does not suffer from such drawbacks.)

This also means that FFHs are the most expensive hoppers of the bunch. The Ricochet Apache starts off at the $90 mark and prices go up into the $130 range.  But if you need one of these hoppers then the price shouldn't bother you...after all, your paint costs will probably easily eclipses that within a couple of games.

Which one for me???

This is a good question.  It is probably best to work your way from the bottom up.

So, think about the limitations of a Gravity Fed hopper.  Now ask yourself, "Do I ever fire off long bursts of paint?"  "Do I fire 4-5 rounds off VERY quickly?" "Do I own a Semi-Auto marker?"

I know what you're thinking, that last question seems to make it like all Semi-Auto shooters should have at least a GAH.  Well, that's not a bad idea.  Unless you are ONLY going to play in a sniper type role with your marker (in which case you may consider thinking about a pump anyway) there will come a time when you need to spray and pray.  I know this goes against everything I try and say, but there have been times when, alone, and facing a number of guys who want to paint me like a new barn, that spraying and praying buys you some time to find help or get away.  During a situation like that the LAST thing you want is to chop a ball in your breach.  Gravity Hoppers are great if you shoot very slowly, not very often, and are looking for the ultimate in stealth.

A GAH is recommended for any Semi-Auto marker because most of today's Semis can shoot faster than 4-5 BPS even with mechanical triggers.  As was mentioned before, regardless of what you may think if you own a Semi, there will come a time when you may wish you had that higher rate of fire. 

So really the big question becomes should I have a GAH or a FFH?  The price range between the two can be pretty substantial.  However, people who need a FFH are those people who shoot at VERY high rates of fire (14 BPS and up) and are constantly laying down strings of paint for cover work such as a backman in speedball.  Suffice to say that if you start chopping balls on a regular basis with a GAH on your marker, then a FFH is probably in your near future.  However, remember that your MARKER has to be able to handle that high rate of fire too.  Don't expect a SIM, Spyder, or any other marker that doesn't have the items needed for a high ROF to shoot any faster than about 15 BPS no matter what hopper is on it.

There is an exception to the rule of only people with fast trigger fingers need a FFH.  That is the Q-loader.  The Q-loader has some features that make it a good option for certain players. One, is the Q-loader will feed no matter what position it is in.  Hang the marker upside down and it will still feed.  Secondly, the Q-loader can be mounted in many different locations thus giving you the ability to reduce your marker's profile by not having a big hopper on the top of it. It uses no batteries which means one less thing to worry about. The Q-loader is also very light weight when compared to competing FFS such as the Warp feed.  The Warp feed still requires batteries, usually must be worn by the shooter, and is a bit heavier than the Q-loader. If  you're a MilSim player, the Q-loader can give your marker a bit more realistic profile.

Conclusion

Well, there you have it.  A compact guide on Hoppers and loaders. Generally, most people will get a GAH for their semi-automatic marker.  Sooner or later they are going to shoot faster than 4-5 BPS and a regular Gravity Hopper just cannot keep up with that rate of fire. However, it really depends on your playing style, your marker, and what you can afford.

I hope this helps those of you out there looking for your first (or next) hopper and remember, it's all about having fun!

Edited by Robotech

Very useful and informative Robo and jus to let you know as well, I jus recently used my Qloader fer the 1st time this past Sunday...it ran pefectly, it did what Ancient Innovations claimed it would do but, Im still keeping my 12v Revy as a back up.

Edited by evil_fingers

Youre wrong on one point. A taller ball stack does NOT feed faster. All objects fall at the same rate, if you remove the last ball in the stack (bolt opening), the weight of the stack does not affect speed, since all 7 or 8 balls in the stack will drop due to gravity at the exact same rate.