Pros(shortlist):
- Cheap ($35 Canadian - new)
- Ultra Reliable
- Excellent Battery Life (Single 9v)
- Large Capacity (230 Balls)
- Durable
- Better than a gravity feed
- Sound Activated
Cons(shortlist):
- Slower than 12v Revvy
- Ugly (Really, Really, Really Ugly)
- Long (Holds Many Balls)
- Sound Activation Sensitivity
- Ping Pongs Paintballs When Low
Review Body:
Browsing through Wal Mart I came across the Zap Mach 404 hopper. Initially the look of the hopper deterred me from picking up the package. This is an ugly loader, no joke. Known among my friends at my field as the "brown banana loader", it got quite a few jeers and snide remarks. It wasn't until my first use of the Mach 404 that it's positive qualities began to shine.
I was amazed at the feed rate this hopper was able to sustain. Normally, with a Revvy I would just do a drop test, but because this loader is sound activated it wasn't possible to do a standard drop test. Instead I had to gauge it while in play. I had my (at the time) Black Dragun Compact set to Full Auto @ 13bps. When crammed full, this loader feeds it's fastest as the agitation by the "vibrating pendulum" causes all the balls to move and funnel down the feedneck. It was able to keep up to the 13bps Full Auto until half empty, at which point there were a few skips in what was a nearly flawless stream of Full Auto. As the loader emptied the feedrate dropped slowly until there were only 10-15 balls left. At this point the paintballs began to be tossed about the hopper like one would watch a lottery or bingo machine bounce the draw balls around. Most people carry around pods, so this isn't likely to be an issue in game. This hopper is excellent for Hopper Ball games as it's large capacity will keep you in a game longer.
The durability and construction of the hopper made it easy to take apart and clean. The shells are made with a plastic similar to older Revvy hoppers and was very resistant to bumping and hits from paintballs. The vibrating pendulum system came apart really easily and the only issue I had with the construction was that a long set of wires are run from the front of the loader along a channel that goes to the top of the loader and down the pendulum to the pager motor that vibrates the whole assembly.
I found the sound activation sensitivity to be a slight issue. At one point when playing with my 2k1 Impulse, the hopper would miss the odd shot because the marker was very quiet. There is no way to adjust the sensitivity aside from boring a hole in the side of the hopper where the sound sensor is (not recommended).
I found the battery life to be very good. The hopper runs on sound activation and uses a pager motor as opposed to a servo mechanism as found in a Revvy the battery life was great. Being used to a Revvy, I expected to change batteries every day of play. Not so with the Mach 404. I found the battery would die after 15-17 cases. That's a boat load of paint for one 9v battery.
All-in-all I was very impressed with this loader. If you want something that is comparable to a Revvy and are on a budget. I can highly recommend this hopper... that is if you can get past the look of it.
This review has been rated:
Currently 3.7/5 stars.
Zap Mach 4044 more reviews till level 3. Apparently the ******* red text above this box is telling me I need to write at least 50 characters, so I'm writing this wall of text that you're currently reading. Call...
4 more reviews till level 3. Apparently the ******* red text above this box is telling me I need to write at least 50 characters, so I'm writing this wall of text that you're currently reading. Call it whatever you want, spam, etc. Nobodys coming in here anyways.
