Javaman

I'm pretty sure that anytime you reduce the pressure you always increase the consumption per shot.

The first loss is because of simple physics... 20ml of 850psi gas has more energy potential to it then 20ml of 400psi. It simply isn't possible for less gas at a lower pressure to accelerate the paintball to 280fps speeds.

The second loss, with less effect is the blowby past the paintball. If you put a well matched paintball into a barrel and very lightly blow air in it, air will rush past the PB without even moving it since there is usually a gap 90degs from the seams. Give it a quick hard burst and it will hardly take any air at all to get it to pop out. This effect is less profound when running pressures in the hundreds since the ball will expand to fill the barrel but there will still be more blowby with a softer hit (It takes longer to expand the ball to fit the barrel)

The third cause of loss is more dependant on the equipment setup, most notably a barrel with lots of porting. when using the full 850psi the ball will be moving close to the max speed with a minimal amount of barrel travel. (for argument's sake lets say 8 inches) A low pressure gun will take more barrel length to get the ball up to speed while at the same time loosing much of the pressure due to porting. This means that more air will have to be used to account for this waste.

Keep in mind that this is my opinion based on experience and not scientifically tested. It certainly does make sense though.

It really comes down to personal preference. Low pressure=Quieter gun, less chance of ball break at the cost of efficiency (which becomes worse the lower you go)

In my case efficiency isn't very important to me since I shoot a minimal amount of paint and CO2 is cheap so I run around 550PSI mostly to give my tank some breathing room before I get shot dropoff from temperature drops. (If I shot a lot efficiency would matter not because of the total amount of shots I get per tank, but for the fact that wasted gas cools the CO2 tank quicker) For people paying $ to get HPA filled, efficiency might matter but then again the cost of air is miniscule compared to paint and gun/upgrade costs.

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Javaman

A lot of people running low pressures end up using the strongest mainspring they can which ends up defeating one of the purposes of low pressure.... To reduce ball breaks. They end up with more chopped balls. Even worse the gun now has more kick to it then before thanks to the strong spring smacking around the striker.

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rampage

I would like to make my nexion into low p what do I need to get? and about how much am I talking about spending?

KingFikiElectra

Oh but the osiris is a diffrent story. Those r scary.

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Bryon

Javaman, you said too much to quote... so I'll just paraphrase. Yes what you said about lower pressure having more consumption in all cases is correct. The problem is that at really high pressures the gas flowing into the gun shuts the valve prematuraly, thus the bell curve I mentioned earlier.
Also, although your point about the porting is correct, paintballs usually finish their accelleration at around 6 inches. From there on the ball propels itself. So, only in the most extremely wastefull situations does pressurized gas escape through the porting.

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Javaman

Thanks for the feedback. I have to stand by my theory though that it takes more barrel length for PBs to accelerate when hit by a low pressure, thus leading to wasted air through the porting.

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KingFikiElectra

Yup hes right. The high pressure is more of a quick pop of air. When a gun fires in LP its pushes the ball forward rather then a quick shove. And more air is wasted through the porting but the shot is much smoother.

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lovetocheat69

Originally posted by HP_Lovecraft:

” Low pressure" is not what people claim it to be.

It does not increase efficiency by itself. In fact, the guns with the WORST efficiency on the market are also the LOWEST pressure guns.

In theory, a paintball gun should get the same number of shots regardless of tank pressure. It tanks the same amount of ENERGY to accelerate a paintball to 300fps.
In reality, it is the shape of the pressure curve, as the valve opens and closes, that dictates how efficiently the energy inside the tank is transferred behind the ball.

As a result, the pressure itself has little to do with efficiency. The goal is creating an efficient pressure curve, by balancing all the factors. For example: hammer weight, spring tension, LPR setting, airflow (upstream/downstream). The ability to manipulate the dwell also creates another variable, etc.
In the end, you might end up with a gun anywhere between 200psi and 1000psi. This number ONLY represents the point of balance within the system.

Anyway, LP WILL NOT make your gun more accurate, or give you more range.
It may make your gun more quiet, but might also LOWER your FPS, and create a starve situation.

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Javaman

Could someone explain the pressure curve to me? I'm at a loss as to what it is.

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Bryon

Not pressure curve, velocity curve. It is a mathmatical graph of an equation, specifically the equation for input pressure and velocity, in the shape of a bell. It is more of a concept then anything else, because it applies to all (striker/valve) markers but with different numbers. Thats where sweet spotting comes in. The goal of sweet spotting is positioning your input pressure at the exact point at the top of that bell. I hope that helps you.

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paintballjunk12

agreed