Qloader Thread

[Steers]

So You’re Interested in the Q-loader, eh?



I have noticed an interest in the Q-loader when I'm at triggertyme (being that Team Ballbusters is the only team with it. So in this article I will give you facts, personal experiences from a long time owner (myself), links to helpful sites, and tips. I believe that if you have any interest in the Q-loader that this thread will be able to answer the question “Is the Q-loader for me?” I’m not here to tell you that it’s the greatest loader for everyone because it definitely is not. Take from it what you can and let me know if there’s anything I could add to further make up your mind.



The very first thing you should do if you’re even the least bit interested in the Q-loader is download the manual and download the movies on the Q-loader website.

- www.qloader.com

Info that pertains to the new Q-loader upgrades will be in RED




What is the Q-loader?



The Q-loader is a clip-based, spring powered paintball loading system made by Ancient Innovations Corporation out of Anderson, CA. The Q-loader is the most unique loader on the market today. As such, it requires a bit more understanding of the way it works for you to be happy with it. It is not by any means a slap-it-on-the-marker-and-start-firing type of loader when you first get it. The user will go through a certain amount of trial and error at first and will need to be patient. Once you get all the kinks worked out (which doesn't’ take long if you read the manual and watch the movies), very little will need to be done other than actually loading the paintballs into the Q-pods. The Q-loader is available in several packages found here.

www.qloader.com

What are Q-pods?



The Q-pods are the “clip” of the loading system. The Q-pods each hold 100 paintballs and require a certain amount of pre-winds (this will depend on your particular setup, what type of paint you’re using, etc.). Once you determine the proper amount of pre-winds for your Q-pods, you can leave them set at the particular number and leave them that way until you have to disassemble them for cleaning. The new spring motors allow you to maintain pre-winds even when disassembling your Q-pods. In my own experiences, the Q-pods are very durable and I’ve only had to have a socket and screw replaced ( due to user error…hehe).

<a href="http://img380.imageshack.us/my.php?image=springmotorupgrade7pw.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/2448/springmotorupgrade7pw.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>

[img=http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/2448/springmotorupgrade7pw.th.jpg]



What makes the Q-loader great?



There are many advantages to using a Q-loader over other loaders. Many would consider the speed of the Q-loader its greatest characteristic. Because it's faster than any loader on the market today and can keep up with any marker (check out http://www.zakvetter.com/Videos/QLoa...0Halo%20Full.m ov for a speed demo). For me, speed does not matter. I could get by with a regular gravity hopper as far as speed goes. Other advantages are (in no particular order) the lack of batteries, quicker reloading on the field (pod swapping), low profile, noise (or lack thereof), M203 look when under-mounted on a SIM-4/WG-65/WS-66 or other Markers, balance in some cases (depends on your marker setup), ease of maintenance, and many mounting options with the CMS (custom mounting socket). Some might also consider the fact that it is unique to be a positive characteristic (it does attract a lot of attention).
One upgrade that Ancient Innovations is working on(which will be out in the near future) is a Tippmann A-5 kit,which will enable you to use the Qloader on a Tippmann A-5 by removing the "gas hogging" cyclone feeding system. Plus many paintball sites like specopspaintball.com and rap4.com have upgrades upgrades for the qloader to give you more custom mounting options with different markers.

As far as speed, the q-loader is the highest performance and most customizable loading system available (36% faster than a Halo B and 58% faster than an Evo II).


<a href="http://img39.imageshack.us/my.php?image=qloader25jj.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/1127/qloader25jj.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>

[img=http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/1127/qloader25jj.th.jpg]





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I personally consider the greatest characteristic of the Q-loader to be profile. I hate having a hopper sticking out, and not only does the Q-loader solve that but it helps maintain the look of an M-4 style marker (which is why people buy a milsim marker in the first place).

<a href="http://img360.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2hgwt8007177ben8ti.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/6663/2hgwt8007177ben8ti.th.jpg" border="0" alt="Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us" /></a>



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What isn’t so great about the Q-loader?



Particular players, like myself, would find nothing about the Q-loader to be negative. If you you own a marker and does not like to shoot a lot of paint, I think you would find the Q-loader to be near perfect for you. For a lot of people it would be the 100 paintballs per Q-pod. This depends entirely on the player of course, but any rec player or front man (possibly even middle men) in speedball should do nicely with a 5 pod setup. A back man would need more paintballs and would need to reload more often so they might be turned off by the Q-loader. It does take a certain amount of time to get used to only having 100 paintballs until you have to reload after using 150+ round hoppers. Balance is also a negative characteristic for many setups (again, it’s going to be different for each particular setup). I’ve also heard of people complaining about having to reload the Q-pods with paint. As long as you keep the rotation limiter (the enlarged white ball that I refer to as a ball stop) in the pods, you DO NOT need to re-apply pre-winds to each Q-pod. The new Q-loader does not have a rotation limiter and can maintain the pre-winds that were applied. It takes no longer than ten minutes to reload five pods when using the silo (the silo stores paintballs and is used to feed the paintballs back into the Q-pods). Ten minutes is more than enough time between games during a typical day at a rec field. Some may also consider ease of use to not be so great, but I consider that laziness. I hear a lot of complaining about the cost per Q-pod. Yes, they are fairly expensive (about $20 per), but you should keep in mind that each Q-pod is basically a hopper by itself. There are hoppers out there that are more expensive that a five pod Q-loader system. And there are deals at Qloader.com with buying alot of Qpods. Plus, everything (including their harnesses) have a life time warranty.



I do not personally have anything negative to say about the Q-loader. For my style of play and for my particular marker, it is a perfect loader. I use it on my SIM-4 and I keep it permanently attached to it. I will never use another loader on it that is currently on the market today. I am not at all saying that the Q-loader is perfect for everyone, but it is for me.



Is it easy to maintain?


The Q-loader is extremely easy to maintain. Everything can be submerged in warm soapy water to soak. The Q-loader is also under a lifetime warranty so if something breaks it can be quickly and easily replaced at no cost to you (with exceptions of course). As I mentioned before, the Q-loader system is pretty durable even for the “down and dirty” players like myself.



What can go wrong with the Q-loader?



A lot of things can go wrong if you don’t read the manual and watch the movies. I can’t stress it enough that understanding how the Q-loader works is vital to the amount of satisfaction you get from it. If you do encounter problems and can’t come up with an answer you should (in this order) refer to the manual, visit the troubleshooting page on the website, visit the Q-loader tech thread on PBNation, or ask here. If none of these places can help you, I would suggest giving Ancient Innovations a call at 1-800-910-4522 or sending them an e-mail at support@qloader.com.






Tips



I've come across a few things that come in handy when using a Q-loader. If you have come up with your own, let me know and I'll add them.



The silo can be a pain in the rear to reload your Q-pods with. Using an agitated or force fed electronic hopper in conjunction with a feed tube is much easier.
The hub can jam on the outer cap causing the Q-loader to stop feeding. This can happen due to dirt getting on it or from the hub being damaged. I apply a bit of lube to each of my hubs to keep them from jamming and it has worked well thus far.
If you don't like the white feed tubes you might see on the website, don't worry they now have a new feed tube which is translucent gray and much more flexible.
An adapter designed for the Warp Feed can be used with your Q-loader in place of the elbow that goes on your feed neck. It reduces your profile a bit more and the adapter has a set screw. You can find them here. I plan on doing this as soon as they become available again.
You should pre-fill your feed tube prior to engaging a pod to prevent the paintballs slamming into your marker and causing a break.




What Marker would work best with the Qloader?

Any marker works well with the Qloader. Angels, Auto-cockers, Tippmann, Spyder, Mil-Sim markers, Inimidators, ect......
if you go to the website you will find a "players gallery" in which you can find pictures with many markers using the Qloader. If your a sniper, aggresive-fast shooting player, or a really aggresive-fast shooting player -shooting like you want toe-tags, the Qloader can work for you.



COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS


How fast is the q-loader?
Pretty fast. The speed varies depending on the number of pre-winds applied to the spring and the configuration of the feed tube. With the maximum number of pre-winds (16) and no feed tube or elbow, the q-pod will empty a full 100 rounds in just over 1 second.

Does the q-loader use batteries?No, the q-loader is spring-powered.

Will the q-loader feed past my detents?
No, a properly setup q-loader will not feed past your paintball-detents. This is because the q-pod feed geometry automatically increases feed pressure as a paintball begins to feed, and then decreases feed pressure after it is chambered.

Will the q-loader mount to my marker?
Most likely. The q-loader was designed to retrofit onto most markers that do not have an integrated feed system. Markers with an integrated feed system may require some customization in order for the q-loader to work. Optional mounting brackets are available that will increase the number of ways a q-loader can be mounted to your marker.

How many rounds of paint can a q-pod hold?
100 rounds.


WHAT THE QLOADER IS ALL ABOUT

Standard Size Clip
Replaces standard reloading pods and works with some existing harnesses and belts.

Constant Feed+Pressure
Maintains paintballs in constant alignment and pressure regardless of the marker orientation.

30+ balls Per Second
Feeds paintballs faster than any hopper system, because each q-pod is loaded with a presorted stream of 100 rounds.

Increases Maneuverability
Allows the marker to operate smoothly at any angle and even while being shaken.

Lower Target Area
Reduces the player target profile by mounting the loading system under the barrel.

Silent Game Play
Feeds Paintballs silently and reduces paintball rattle by isolating every paintball within a helical drive tube.

Robust Construction
Utilizes stainles steel and polycarbonate constructions and is designed to deliver over 1,000,000 paintballs during it's life.

Ultra Reliability
Reduces jamming, miss feeding, and ball chopping and other problems associated with loading systems that sort paintballs while firing .

Zero Batteries
Each q-pod stores enough energy to feed 100 rounds, which means you'll never run out of power.



If you have any questions, comments, recommended additions/amendments/subtractions go ahead and post them here. I will edit this thread as necessary. If anyone has questions in regards to the Q-loader, refer them to this thread to keep it all in one thread.


Thanks a lot!

[Rembrandt]

Great post. Alot of nice info.

[Dracula53]

A lot of info is right. He is right though. I have an A-5 and can not use the Q-loader (yet), but I have shot 3 markers with it on them. A Ariakon Sim-4, a Tippmann 98, and A spyder with a electronic trigger. The spyder was cool the Q loader was abel to keep up with it every step of the way, with no chops! I'm not just saying this becouse we are sponsered by them, but I realy like it just as much as a realy like a Halo Hopper. The Qloader is a top notch lodeing system for a much lower price and dosn't eat up batters in fact there are not batteries. To prove that I'm not just saying this I will tell you the draw back that I have found with it. The Reloding! it is a bit of a pain to prewind your hopper and get the right number of winds right, but once you have it right it realy is worth the case of paint and the couple of min. worth of time.

[Steers]

For those who have A-5s and are interested in the qloader, don't worry.
Qloader will soon (within this month hopefully) have a Tippmann A-5 kit which will replace the gas hogging cyclone feeding system.

I've updated the above post and have put a pic of a setup.

[scpaintballer01]

id like to try one, but im a conformest and think im gona stick to the regular hopper

[Dracula53]

sure I don't see why you couldn't at 64 we can let people try it out (preferably with there own paint) at the crono range. :icon16:

[Steers]

HEY YALL! GOOD GAME WITH SUPER64!!!

Some saw the qloader in play and the qlaoder given away at the end ceramonie.

This is the Thread to check it out if your interested in it. It will hopefully give you all of the info you need!
Please check it out (I know it's long) and let me know what you think!

Thank,

Ben

[Steers]

http://apg.cfw2.com/article.asp?s=APG&content_id=7068

Here is an article from APG about the Qloader in one of it's past issues.

Enjoy!

[Steers]

http://apg.cfw2.com/article.asp?s=APG&content_id=7068

here is a link from APG's report on the Qloader, it was in a past issue.

Enjoy!

[Steers]

When talking with AIC,

I learned that they are planning on making a custom mounting kit for the Tippmann 98.

So in the future there will be an A-5 and 98 kits for Tippmann Markers.