Why should I get an electronic hopper for my semi auto marker

I've come across this question a lot. Why should I get an electronic hopper for my semi-auto marker? Will an electronic loader help a semi-auto paintball gun? The answer is yes. I'm not saying go drop $100 on an expensive force fed loader mind you. A simple agitated hopper is all you need. Here's why.

First is better feed rate. More often, even the mechanical markers you can buy are pushing a rate of fire that's faster than a gravity feed. You're probably only getting about 5 balls per second. I've seen current mechanical markers stating 8 balls per second. That leaves you at the mercy of your hopper. Every agitated hopper that I've seen rates 10-12 balls per second. That's more than fast enough to keep up with your marker and shouldn't put you back more than $40.

Second, the "shake and shoot" problem. You're in a fire fight shooting away and suddenly, the feeding stops. Well, the gravity loaders have the tendency for balls to block each other from going into the feedneck. So you have to occasionally shake the gun and loader to get the balls into the feedneck. Very bad situation if you're slugging it out. The electronic hopper churns the balls so that they don't get hung up on each other. You pull the trigger, marker fires..no more gaps in your firing.

Third, most mechanical markers don't have eyes. The bolt doesn't know it needs to wait for the paintball to finish loading before firing again. The partially loaded paintball will get chopped by the bolt. Your recourse in that situation is to feed the balls faster than the marker will shoot. This will reduce the chance of chopping a ball. Think of one of those huge rotating doors at a hotel where you have to jump in and shuffle along with it. They don't stop for you, you can only get in there as fast as possible or risk loosing a body part. Other automatic doors have beams or pressure sensors that knows right when you're approaching and not to close on you. Same concept for the paintball marker - get 'em in faster to reduce the chopping risk if you don't have eyes. Again, an agitate hopper should feed at least 50% faster than most mechanical markers out there. With an electronic loader, you're less likely to experience chopping due to slow feeding and popcorning.

Finally, you reduce the chance of "popcorning". This happens on a number of markers where air pressure from shooting the marker will vent back up through the feedneck. Gravity fed hoppers are more prone to this since they're not the most consistent of feeders since it can leave gaps in the stack. An electronic hopper will feed more consistently to assure there are maximum balls in the stack so that the popcorning is minimal since the stack should always be full...thus maximum weight pushing down.

So if you have a semi-auto paintball gun, an electronic loader is definitely recommended. You'll only need to get an agitated hopper to get the desired results. If you can afford or know you will upgrade to a marker needing a force fed hopper, then you can invest for now. You'll still benefit even on a semi-auto mechanical marker.