Review on Virtue Electronic Paintball Loader Hopper by Anthony Hales

Very good funnel. For the purposes of this review, I will be comparing the Spire 200 to the Dye Rotor (v1), which is similarly priced. What I like about Spire: 1) it never gets stuck. I've spilled several cases of poor quality GI 1 star paint through this hopper without a single jam. I bought this hopper on purpose because my rotor seized up trying to feed poor quality paint. 2) Incredibly easy lid change - It takes about 10 seconds to switch from corona speed to rain lid. This is a great feature when the weather changes. With the rotor it took me a good 5 minutes and a lot of frustration to assemble and disassemble the rain cover. 3) LED is very bright - The LED that indicates the battery is on/battery low is very bright and can be seen in bright sunlight. I've always found myself shielding my rotor from the sun to see if it's on. What I'm missing from my rotor: 1) Spring loaded ramp - the rotor comes with a spring loaded ramp. The spring ramp pushes the paint towards the loading port. With the winch I have to tilt the hopper backwards to fire the last 10-15 bullets. There are times when this can mean the difference between winning and losing a point. They sell a spring loaded capstan ramp but they stock it on the rotor. 2) Unload Bunker - At the end of the day when I need to unload the bunker, I usually take it off the gun and put it on my ball. tractor. Then I turn on the hopper and all my paint is in the tractor. When I do this with my winch, for some reason the winch thinks the hopper is empty (the LED is red) and feeds very slowly. The unloading of the rotor takes a few seconds. Unloading the tower takes a few minutes. 3) Chimney Smash - Close-range side hits on the clear plastic spire cap will cause it to fly away. It doesn't break and the lid pops open instantly, but it's just not fun when your opponent shoots chunks out of your bunker. As far as I can tell, the Spire 200 and Rotor's battery life are very similar. Spire is definitely my choice now. The absence of traffic jams is a big plus for me. I've never gotten stuck behind a bunker field that clears my top. At one point I took my rotor apart in the field so I could take it apart and put it back together without looking. I also know that the Spire 3 fixed many of the issues I had with the Spire 200. Knowing what I know now, I would still buy the Spire 200 and spend the $150 saved on paint.