Any one use them?
I did, and still have 2 sets
are they any good?
Yes, but they are very specialist and are a niche product
They are seriously fast and can empty a 100 round qpod virtually instantly
Fragile at all?
Depends. I've never damaged one in game
You don't want to be throwing them around a field, not necessarily about damage but you don't want dried grass to get inside
The pod body is not brittle
However I did leave one packed away with paint wound in. The pressure cracked the end of the helical central tube
would you recommend?
No. These are highly specialist and you can get a force feed hopper that can cope with any gun rate of fire that you can use in paintball
If you want to get the hopper out of line of sight then consider if a QLoader is realy worth it
If you want a complex project that you spend a lot of time re-tweaking then it's satisfying if you can pass the frustration stages
I started with a new QLoader (2nd model without the plastic guide ball) and to get a good feed from the QLoader on the bottom to the top feed neck without the hose kinking and jamming meant having a high loop of hose coming out, around and down into the feed. So if the purpose is to remove a hopper then you end up with a bigger area occupied by the hose, but with a hole in the middle
I added a second set to enable me to load up plenty of qpods and at scenario games I could pop back, air up, grab qpods and be back in game quickly
Then reloading the qpods when it was convenient and there isn't a big battle going on - making a point to reload at least one qpod per return to the safezone
I developed my setup getting a Spec Ops paintball horizontal QBow feed (but not the full body kit - I already had a deadly wind metal body)
The feed is fed from the front and mounts on a weaver rail. To make it align with the breech I had to grind down one of the rails to fine tune positioning
(I even had interest from deadlywind on that and they may have changed the alignment of the rails on later body kits)
I also spent a lot of time trying out different hoses. Having the horizontal feed made the hose angle more awkward; and instead of a big loop on top I had a funny shaped loop poking out the front
I finally discovered pod hoses of the right dimension. As the hose is thicker walled it kept its integrity in tighter angles and become possible to get a short neat feed from below and into the front
Once I got it all setup I basically stopped using the QLoader
To load qpods you get a 500round silo. You just pour in a whole bag of paintballs
But then to load each qpod you either hang up the silo or put it over your shoulder. Then via a hose the silo gravity feeds into a winder
You fit each qpod, and wind in the paintballs. But take care that a ball is in place with each click of the wind. If the gravity flow gets stuck you get a gap which may cause a break in the hose when you shoot. Get a gap of multiple balls and you will get breaks when the qpod accelerates at high speed and propels the next paintball up the gap in the tube
Most people discard the silo and used an electro hopper to feed the winder
Ideally it would be force fed to avoid gaps - so you ended up with a battery powered force feed hopper to load your battery free force feed QLoader
I became quicker by loading by hand. Either using a tube a few inches long and dropping in paintballs then winding in that number, or what i became an expert in which was just using the winder and cupping my hand full of paintballs over it. Grab some balls, turn some clicks, grab some more
This way I was my fastest and I could guarantee no gaps
Once you have loaded your qpods you cannot attach one until you prime the feed hose with paintballs. EG if the hose is 10 balls long then you need to hand feed 10 balls in. The last 10 balls in your qpod won't be shot, they reprime the tube for the next qpod
If you forget, and there is any gravity involved in your feed then if you shoot more than 100 your next qpod will accelerate balls into the gap and cause a break