I'm amazed.

General water gun discussion.
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MidnightSon117
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Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 8:59 pm

I'm amazed.

Post by MidnightSon117 » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:21 pm

I didn't know there was a following for tricked out waterguns. I found this site by accident when I was looking at the slate.com site for the best waterguns. That article came out a little after a family reunion I attended (first one in almost 10 years), and I noticed how much waterguns had changed. And how I outgunned I was by my little cousins.

I've been into waterguns since I was a kid...and I remember one extended day of playing with cheap water guns and flimsy triggers that left a scar on my finger still visible to this day. I figure after paying my dues, I really deserve a nicer watergun.

I picked up the Arctic blast my little cousin was using and I really liked it. Especially how it shoots that supersized mug of water up close. But...I wanted something more rifle-like, like my old Super Soaker 50, but with something that has a CPS as well as a little more..output? I read the FAQ, and I'm not sure how the different nozzle thing works. Is it something that just rotates to change the flow? I'm looking for pressure and distance first and foremost. I guess the air reservoir isn't as important, as I shoot in bursts and not in streams (old habits die hard.) But if I'm missing any other factors to look for, please let me know. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

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Specter
Posts: 474
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 4:57 pm

Re: I'm amazed.

Post by Specter » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:34 pm

Welcome to Super Soaker Central!

Older soakers like the CPS series are no longer made and are very difficult to find. You can buy older soakers off ebay if you are willing to pay a hefty price for the most wanted/rare ones.
Other options are to build your own soaker. The easiest homemade is the APH, the other common homemade is the CPH. The APH can be built buying all the parts on 1 trip to the hardware store. The CPH is a bit more difficult to build and you have to buy some parts off the internet (mainly the Latex Rubber Tubing (LRT)).
You can read the APHandCPH guides at their respected links. There is also a LRT guide. Enjoy your stay at SSC! :)
My "arsenal": Customizable APH, Storm 600 pistol (still haven't finished fixing this), launcher- Model:AB1.0(Decommissioned), AB1.5, soon AB 1.1(2"rebuild) maybe ill get something else in the future
My site Image My website/forum is back up and running, for the most part after it having been deleted in october

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C-A_99
Posts: 1502
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:09 pm

Re: I'm amazed.

Post by C-A_99 » Tue Jun 24, 2008 9:53 pm

Theres 2 primary factors that determine range: the nozzle size and the pressure backing it up. (theres a ton of other factors such as pipe diameter, shape of nozzle, etc. that I'll get into later) Larger nozzles have better range potential since they need more air resistance to break up. However, obviously, without the backing power for it, the stream won't fly very far. But if there's too much power, the stream will be very fast and break up quickly, which can be solved by using a larget nozzle. Overall, stream lamination is how well the stream stays together; turbulent flow, or low lamination, is usually with fast streams that break up easily, while well laminated streams tend to stay together better, thus increasing effective soaking range. (not to be confused with maximum range) Some soakers (generic term for any pressurizing water blaster) have the muiltiple nozzle selector so the user can choose between different amounts of water expenditure. In many cases, the largest nozzle on a selector is too large for effective range, as seen on the CPS 2500 and many Water Warriors blasters. See iSoaker.com to find details on any soaker.

Shooting in bursts is actually a good thing in many cases as that helps conserve ammo. Personally, one of my own rules for soaker usage during wars is to never let the pressure chamber fall below a certain level, with a few exceptions such as during emergancies, soakfests, and other cases when a lot of water needs to or should be released at once. (such as a full CPS 2000 blast or a blast from the Flash Flood or Arctic Blast's large nozzle)

Now, the old CPS's with cylinderical pressure chambers tend to have those riflelike designs, possibly the type you're looking for. However, those are also the popular blasters and are pretty expensive unless you persistently search and find a good deal. CPS's with spherical chambers tend to perform pretty well too, and tend to go for less on eBay.

I can't really explain all this all that well right now, but some of the others on the forums should be able to.

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SSCBen
Posts: 6449
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:00 pm

Re: I'm amazed.

Post by SSCBen » Tue Jun 24, 2008 10:28 pm

Welcome to SSC MidnightSon117!

The rotating nozzle selectors essentially rotate a disk with a bunch of holes leading to tubes on it. The disk seals against a sealing face connected to the valve. That's pretty much how they work. Buy a water gun with a nozzle selector, disassemble it, and take a look if you want something more hands on. That's the best way to figure out how anything in a water gun works.

Most of your options for new water guns are explained already. It comes down to options:

1) Buy water guns currently available. However, these water guns aren't as good as they used to be.
2) Modify water guns currently available, but realize that the power-up you can expect is very limited.
3) Buy older water guns. This gets very expensive though.
4) Build your own. Some people don't like this because you have to built something.

If you ask me building your own is your best bet to get something great at a reasonable price. The APH Spector linked to or some variation of it would probably be great for you.

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Silence
Posts: 3825
Joined: Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:01 pm

Re: I'm amazed.

Post by Silence » Tue Jun 24, 2008 11:52 pm

First off, welcome to the forums. :)

I'm not sure what you mean by "air reservoir" - or at least, I'm not sure of its equivalent in our admittedly ad-hoc terminology. You may be referring to what we call the "reservoir" or what we call the "pressure chamber". If you're confused, check out our How Water Guns Work article or the Name the Water Blaster Parts topics one or two.

I'm guessing you're referring to the pressure chamber, which gets filled as you pump the water gun. You're right - if you shoot in bursts, you won't need tremendous capacity there. But still, the ability to have enough shot time with lots of output (or just plain shot time with any output) is valuable.

Ben offered a good explanation of how a rotating nozzle selector works, but interestingly, there aren't any really worthwhile water guns worth buying to check it out - I only know of maybe 2 or 3 current water guns with nozzle selectors. They're all made by Buzz Bee Toys/Water Warriors, and they're solid but they lack the output you're looking for. Instead, you could look at pictures from, say, iSoaker's CPS 3200 review, particularly these ones:
Image
Image

Inside a water gun, a single "barrel" tube sends the water to a round plate in the front with a bit hole in it. Another round plate, which you can see in the pictures, has lots of nozzles in it. You rotate the selector to align the appropriate nozzle with the hole inside.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to build rotating nozzle selectors like that for homemade water guns. Homemade variants use screw threads and different end caps with differently-sized holes. It's more convenient but less desirable, naturally.

EDIT: iSoaker, thanks for the pix. I hope they don't suck up much bandwidth. :cool:

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Drenchenator
Posts: 807
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2004 12:00 pm

Re: I'm amazed.

Post by Drenchenator » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:42 pm

Welcome to SSC!

On top of what others have said, I recommend you read some of the articles in the physics section, specifically the Water nozzles and efficiency article. It should explain most of what you need to know. You may also want to read my new Internals Explained article, which details what each part of the water gun does.
The Drenchenator, also known as Lt. Col. Drench.

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