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EES Sonic and Hydroblade... destroyed

Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:25 am
by VAJMH
Both of these soakers were whores and they are now dead. I was just about to heap praise on the hydroblade for using normal sized screws, it seemed likt it was going to be a snap to open... Then it turned out that the pump cap was INSANE. There is no way to get it off without breaking the gun. None. So I did that and drilled out one deeply recessed screw.

And then I found out why the gun had been failing to fire: I saw the MD Trigger. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I should have given up then and there, but after an hour and a half of putting it back together, screaming at the trigger, taking it back apart, and so forth, I was so mad that I tightened one of the screws in too much... I couldnt get it open a second time to try to fiddle with the trigger valve further no matter how I tried that screw just wasnt coming out. CA99's voice echoed in my head "a system of random stuff inside" really sums up the max d trigger system. I eventually hulked the fuck out and destroyed everything.

The EES Sonic's problem was that it fired with every pump.... Except that upon opening it I discovered that the trigger was only connected to the stupid noise making equipment. The EES Sonic is a shitty piston pumper with annoying noise making equipment to make it even worse. And to find this out I had to tug out several stripped screws. Oh, and the ones that kept the batteries in were also stripped so the batter chamber cover ended up breaking off.

This gun went in the garbage too atop the broken corpse of the hydroblade.

I'm not sure which I hate worse, the gun with the max d trigger or the gun with the trigger that would have made annoying noises if I could even put batteries in it. I'm glad they're both gone, frankly. and I'm not even going to try to fix the damn XP Backfire. That thing is going straight out the window.

I dont know what purpose this thread serves. Maybe some people will get a laugh out of my two hours of suffering and rage. Or maybe it'll serve as a caution. I sure as heck cant give any advice on repairing either of these guns because clearly thats the opposite of what I did...

Re: EES Sonic and Hydroblade... destroyed

Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 12:55 pm
by isoaker_com
The EES Sonic's problem was that it fired with every pump...
That's not a problem; that's a feature!

:p

:cool:

Re: EES Sonic and Hydroblade... destroyed

Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:45 pm
by VAJMH
I wish I'd checked up on the darn thing before I took it apart, but I just assumed that the awful pump n shoot "technology" didnt occur in super soakers before Hasbro attacked. Should have gone to Isoaker first...

Re: EES Sonic and Hydroblade... destroyed

Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 6:38 pm
by cantab
http://www.isoaker.com/Info/history_presupersoaker.html
The oldest Larami-made piston pumper they know about is from 1982. Even after the invention of the SS50, they still produced some piston pumpers under the SS name, including the (in)famous Big Bottle Blaster.
And Hasbro bought Larami in 1995.

Re: EES Sonic and Hydroblade... destroyed

Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 8:54 am
by ncog
hey man the xp backfire is cool, i can still remember dueling my friend across the road in the early 2000s with it (he had an SS 100) and wishing the backfire wasn't so terrible in comparison.

fond memories, must say i do have a soft spot for my backfire (which still works!) even though it was awful...

Re: EES Sonic and Hydroblade... destroyed

Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:42 pm
by VAJMH
Hmmm its interesting seeing the history, now I can see how the big bottle blaster and the ees sonic fit in... I guess I had a rose colored history of SS because I had literally never owned a super soaker that I viewed to be crappy. I guess me/my dad were good about picking because between the 50, MDS and 175 all I owned as a kid were the pretty good ones, but I had seen the really good ones too... Somehow neither me nor my friends ever came in contact with the awful ones, so I guess we were blessed.

Re: EES Sonic and Hydroblade... destroyed

Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:16 pm
by C-A_99
I posted an important update on Max-D systems. Lubrication can help the ball valve open though I haven't tested whether it can help a leaky ball valve seal. I've had trouble with pump/nozzle/other caps before but I've always been able to get them open no matter how much plastic I had to destroy to do it.

Sometimes patience is the only way with some of these things. The guns I can't fix are left for spare parts for the future instead of the garbage can. You just never know when you'll regret it when you need that spring on the Max-D Secret Strike's top trigger.

I never got into soaking before 2006 and before that all I had was an SC 400 and squirt gun. For the first war, I got a cheap piston pumper and was stuck between deciding on the Overload and Flash Flood. (the Overload's fan blast gimmick looked like it would accomplish the same task as the FF's riot blast, I swear) I must've been lucky or something because I pixed up the FF. Since then I've had my share of buying poor soakers but none of them were as bad as the Backfire, EES, nor any of the newest SS's. I'd say my worst buy was the Piranha but I did a PC replacement and now it performs ok. (with some other problems though; I might have to switch to spherical CPS instead of using a 2L bottle)

While I may have gotten lucky with the FF vs. Overload choice, I thoroughly researched water blasters from then on to see what was worth getting, thus I can't say I've made a purchase awful enough to regret seriously but there are just a few out there that I would consider taking back for the money if I could. After all, that money could still go to good deals on medium CPS's.