Viewloader Quantum Review
By Chris DeForge
It looks like we’re back! I’m looking forward to providing the paintball community with accurate, unbiased reviews for paintball equipment. There’s been some changes in the market since we left the grid, but paintball is the same sport as it always was. My emphasis on reviews is covering equipment commonly found on the market. Sometimes, these are out of production models that are still extremely prevalent in the paintball world. Other times, it will be new gear. Know that any review I give is based on my involvement in the paintball industry for over a decade, primarily as a tournament player, but also as an event organizer, regional paint distribution representative, writer (you’ve probably read some of my op-eds over on another, recently resurrected paintball site), and gun technician.
This brings me to the first review since our hiatus. I was at a local field and a field staff member showed me some items the field purchased from someone that was looking to sell some gear. Among the list were Spyder blowbacks, CO2 tanks, and the all too familiar Viewloader Quantum. The Viewloader Quantum hasn’t been in production for a number of years but I manage to see this thing in local stores, on Craigslist, and on eBay all the time. There is still a need for an entry level, electronic loader. The Viewloader Quantum is not the answer for this.
I am a big Viewloader supporter and I’ve used tons of their products, including nearly every one of their commercially available loaders. The shake and bake VL200 gravity loaders are still some of the best ones out there, due to the high feed neck. I’ve used the Evlution II and III, the VLocity Junior, the Vlocity, and the XSV Vlocity. Fortunately, tons of these older legacy loaders are still available on the market, many of them in factory new shape and in the packaging. Unfortunately, the Quantum is among this list.
The Quantum of Viewloader’s attempt at a budget loader. The retail price is a little irrelevant now since the loader has been out of production for so long but the current market worth is around 20 – 30 dollars. The Quantum uses a single 9-volt battery and most of the models are available in clear and gloss black. The clear model seems to be the most prevalent. Unlike every other model of Viewloader hopper, the Quantum uses a curved impeller which uses “CAT”, or constantly agitating technology. It’s a marketing jive that just means that the impeller is always spinning. There is no sound activation and there are no eyes to tell the board when to feed. The advertised capacity is 140 paintballs, so this loader is smaller and lighter than other models and in that regard, it’s nice for use with younger players to cut down on weight or to put on a pump gun.
The big crux of the problem is the internal design of the loader and the constant agitation. The impeller is supposed to constantly spin and feed paint into a raceway. The raceway is a separate plastic segment that goes around the main body of the loader and then follows the body in a separate channel and leads down into the feedneck. The design intent was to push paintballs into this channel so that they would constantly be moving downwards from gravity, and so the impeller wouldn’t be “popcorning” balls directly above the feedneck. The logic makes sense but the execution falls short. More often than not, the impeller spins and fails to feed paintballs. The feeding channel holds about 10 paintballs, and maybe one or two more will fall into there without assistance after that. After your first burst of shots, you’ll either have to wait for the ball stack to replenish or, if you had the loader off to conserve battery or to avoid the noise, you would have to turn the loader on. Turning it on is not difficult, but it’s annoying to do it constantly. The on/off switch is a lever style switch in a recessed portion of the left shell. Even if you wait for the paint to load, there’s a good chance that the paint will lodge itself in a way that prevents feeding, forcing the user to shake the loader. This is probably the only electronic paintball hopper that requires shaking. With consistent feeding (which never happens) the loader will probably allow you to shoot between 6 – 8 BPS.
The feeding is a major issue for any loader, and the noise is probably right behind that on the list of problems. The Quantum is comically loud and emits a constant whirring noise. Most paintball situations don’t demand quiet on the part of the player, even in woodsball. Perhaps if the loader actually fed well, I could overlook the noise factor.
Did the loader get anything right? The shell seems pretty durable and there is enough room to load paint. The lid stays on tight. The feedneck is surrounded by plastic ribs to make it fatter, presumably to accommodate a good fit on the extensive line of JT, Viewloader, and Brass Eagle branded blowbacks that lack a clamping feedneck. The feedneck itself is tall, similar to the height on the gravity loaders, to help maintain a gravity fed ballstack. Unfortunately, this is about all the loader has going for it.
Twenty dollars is an alluring price for an electronic loader, but don’t be fooled. I’d rather run a traditional gravity loader than this thing on a gun. There are plenty of other entry level electronic hopper options available that will blow this thing out of the water.
