uped ion vs shocker

[dr.strangelove]

I think both are spool value markers mate.

Nope, not really. The Ion is an unbalanced blow forward, same design as the Freestyle. The Shocker is a balanced spool valve. There's some good animations here: http://www.zdspb.com/tech/misc/animations.html that show the design differences.

*edit* You posted same time as me Anyway, keep reading at ZDS, you'll see the difference in designs. The Ion (and other EP blowforwards, like the Freestyle) operates more like an Automag.

 

[Bob]

Fairy nuff, i stand corrected! Don't know there were two types.

 

[ollgeeze]

I believe both different designs are still refered to as spool valve markers... since they both have a spool inside a body that moves forwards and backwards which is the only real defining factor so bob is right.
The difference between the two is that while the Ion bolt moves forward using the same entity of air that is going to be released from the barrel the shocker has chambers that operate the bolt movement seperately to the slug of air thats released from the barrel.
The Ion way of doing things is much simpler and IMHO more effective and reliable, I think the dm's use the same method, but i may be wrong?

 

[sie2050]

Fairy nuff, i stand corrected! Don't know there were two types.

i stand corrected too bob didnt know it was called spool valve lol
anyways their both good markers if the shocker wasnt invented id go for an ion purely cos its like a shocker lol

 

[dr.strangelove]

I believe both different designs are still refered to as spool valve markers... since they both have a spool inside a body that moves forwards and backwards which is the only real defining factor so bob is right.

The Ion's underlying design concept most resembles the Automag, which has never been referred to in it's history as a "spool valve", though by the newly defined technical definition, it could have. Until the invention of the Ion, markers operating on that design principle were dubbed "blowforwards". So I suppose it's fair to call them both "spool valves", but at the very least, they are two very distinctively different kinds of "spool valve" designs, and some differentiation should be made. For that reason, I've always heard the Ion referred to as an "electropneumatic blowforward" design. This is all very nearly irrelevant to the original topic though, and largely petty and semantic anyway (which means that in posting this, I'm only contributing to it, and thusly a hypocrite ). The bottomline is that the Shocker and Ion utilize different design principles to fire a paintball.

 

[ollgeeze]

they are two very distinctively different kinds of "spool valve" designs, and some differentiation should be made. For that reason,

Maybe we should call them blowforspool valve markers to be honest i think the only difference for most people is that they have more or less orings to put grease on =]

 

[Strawb]

I would class them both as spool markers as oposed to knock open valve designs.
The ion could be considered a simplified matrix, the bolt and operation are near identical with the only real difference (apart from quality) being the ion solenoid is soley used to return the bolt, forward motion is caused by the spool being unballanced.

I personally think it's a superior design to both the matrix and shocker and really cannot see why smart parts haven't released a high end version built to the same standard (or hopefully better ) as the shocker.

Back to the original question. Take the ion with stage 5, with the added BOB ability why would anyone take a more complicated/unreliable design.
Most of the ion issues i've seen have been caused by having to dismantle the whole marker to lube the bolt, with the stage 5 that problems gone and you get the look of a quality marker.