All time most powerful

[kevin71127]

What is the all time most powerful super soaker?

[DX]

Stock - CPS 2000

Modded - Unsure, though my 21K with 95 balloons was up there

Homemade - Supercannon II

[Ben]

Actually devvo described a 300 PSI bladder tank water gun that could shoot 25 to 30 meters so Supercannon II doesn't really fit the bill any longer. Though no one can afford the bladder tank needed to do that.

[cantab]

Obvious and hopefully not silly question - how do you define 'power' in a water gun context? I think isoaker has a definition but am not sure I fully understand it.

[Ben]

iSoaker's power is range multiplied by output. What we just said is more subjective than that. I give range heavier weight than output because I could easily make something designed to get really high output. I could make a formula I guess but it's not really worthwhile because iSoaker's works.

[Silence]

I wonder if the water guns devvo spoke of were portable or stationary. If you ask me, you definitely have to be able to carry a water gun during a water war for it to count, even if it's still impractical to use.

[cantab]

Yeah. Static or vehicle-mounted weapons should be ranked separately from carryable ones. No doubt shoving a big reservoir, engine and pump on a trolley could make a beast of a gun, but it wouldn't be fair to compare that with something like Supercannon II.

That said, I believe even Supercannon II requires an air compressor. Perhaps we should categorise blasters that can be pressured by hand and those that require external pressure separately. That would place SC/QFD-only blasters in the latter category of course.

So rough outline of categories I think, in order of expected increasing power:

Person carried, person or self powered. Anything that can be filled from basically any water source and used. Includes motorised guns if they carry enough fuel/battery to empty their reservoir.

Person carried, externally powered. Anything that can be carried, but requires an external source of pressure. Supercannon II, SC Power Pak.

Trolley-mounted. Anything mounted on a vehicle that a person can reasonably push, but that's too heavy or bulky to sensibly carry. Can have its own pressure source or require something else.

Vehicle-mounted. Anything mounted on a motor vehicle, or trailer that cannot be reasonably moved by hand. Fire hoses (when taking water from the truck) and riot control water cannons would fall in this category.

Static. Can't be fully freely moved while firing. A garden hose connected to a tap is such.

[Ben]

Interesting categories. I'm not sure how they could be expanded or changed aside from some overlap between the first two categories.

That said, I believe even Supercannon II requires an air compressor.

It's not required but makes operation easier. Switch the air coupler with a schrader valve and you can use a bike pump.

[Silence]

Yep, Supercannon II was just pressurized using an electric pump for convenience. In a sense it's more like a water balloon launcher than anything else, at least in terms of relative range and pressurization.

If you want to categorize water guns, it may be easier to just do it by how they work. So there could be a difference between separate chamber, pressurized reservoir, pre charger, and post charger (a.k.a. water cannon). Things like onboard reservoir vs. backpack vs. none (like in Supercannon II) also make a difference.

At any rate, the most valuable distinction would be between low shot time and high. Having high range with over a minute of shot time (as in some of Ben's CPS homemades) is different from having high range with under a second of shot time (as in the CPS 2000 and Supercannon II).

[C-A_99]

For the Supercannon II, is it possible to mount a bike pump onto it for onboard pressurizing? Kind of like what I'm trying to do with the 50mm WBL I've been working on. The pumping would get stiff, but the point is, it takes less time to pressurize (don't have to disconnect the pump or anything) and is ready to use at any time.

iSoaker's power definition fits very well for the most part, but going by that definition, a bucket attack has almost twice the power of a CPS 2000. Perhaps it doesn't place enough emphasis on range, but doing so would make it start to become subjective.

Edit: See iSoaker's post below.

[Ben]

For the Supercannon II, is it possible to mount a bike pump onto it for onboard pressurizing? Kind of like what I'm trying to do with the 50mm WBL I've been working on. The pumping would get stiff, but the point is, it takes less time to pressurize (don't have to disconnect the pump or anything) and is ready to use at any time.

Sure, you can modify the design to do that. There's nothing preventing that. I was originally going for something similar in the CP45 CAP water gun I've been working on, but the pump was removed in my mind after I switched to HPA tanks.

[cantab]

Well, you could always raise range to some exponent, to 'weight' towards it more.

[isoaker_com]

One caveat on the power definition used on iSoaker.com; it's not simply just range multiplied by output. It is actually range * output * acceleration of the stream. However, for stock soakers, I make the assumption that stream acceleration is basically equal. Now, when you get into the realm of hand-thrown objects (i.e. water buckets), rate of acceleration would definitely be different than that of a stock water blaster. As for homemades, I'd say water blasters like the typical APH or CPH probably have similar acceleration profiles, but big cannons like the Super Cannon II can probably accelerate water more quickly, thus should even get a higher power value than simply output * range alone.

[cantab]

I've just worked out a completely different method of calculating water gun power. See thread in the physics forum, http://forums.sscentral.org/t5130/
I think it's more scientifically rigourous, however it may be less practically useful. Far from placing more importance on range, that doesn't feature in the formula at all!