what's the difference between...

[Special Ed Lee]

what's the difference between power feed and standard feed?

what I am looking for is whichever is most like a center feed.

THANKS :)

[mobius]

Well, neither is particularly like a CF, but the powerfeed allows you to shoot at a wider variety of angles. It also uses the plug, which can be used to shut off the flow of paintballs, kind of like a safety feature. The design of the powerfeed also has the advantage of preventing the chamber pressure from blowing the ball stack out of the feed tube, thus increasing feeding reliablilty.

If you have a choice between powerfeed or standardfeed, but not CF, buy powerfeed.

[paullus99]

You can also cut a good 3/4" - 1" off the powerfeed to get a better centerline position for the hopper & not affect the ball feed. I've been extremely happy with the way mine has worked out since I made the cut. Not only moves the hopper more to the centerline, but it also drops the hopper down a bit (so its not so high off the marker).

[Mosfet]

A powerfeed will make the hopper sit up higher than a non powerfeed assuming both are about the same length.

The standard feed has the axis of its pipe pointed directly at the axis of the Breach.
The Powerfeed sits above the standard feed, making the hopper sit higher.

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The standard feed is closest to a centerfeed inthat it feeds the balls traight into the breach in a straight line, whereas the powerfeed makes the balls take a 90* turn just before entering.

This is where the powerfeed differs the most. The powerfeed was designed with that 90* turn so that any blow back would only push the next ball back against the turn wall. In a center or standard feed, there is nothing but more balls behind the ball next to fire. This means blow back will be able to push balls back into the hopper. The Turn in the powerfeed prevents this since the force of the blowback is perpendicular to the only direction that the balls in the powerfeed can move.

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As for variety of angles, I would actually go with the center feed.
imagine a centerfeed right. Its like a vertical feed in that you have 3 45 degree angles that you can lean.
A center feed you can lean:
- left 45* \
- vertical (no lean) |
- and right 45* /

a standard right feed you can hold:
- vert /
- lean left 45* |
- lean left 90* \

a powerfeed left you can lean:
- right 45* |
- vert \
but not left 45* -- because while the next ball in the queue is above the breach, the rest are sitting on a horizontal plane, and will not roll towards the hole. This means your leaning left is limited to under 45*
As for leaning right, you can't go beyon 45* because then the balls would have to fall upwards because of the 90* turn.

On the centerfeed you could can have the feed neck sit almost 90* from the vertical plane.

This give the powerfeed a lean range of just under 90*
Whereas the center and standard feed have a range of just under 180*

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The main question in choosing the two is "Do I have blowback?"
but that can be solved with a warp feed, halo, or egg.

And that ends todays lesson.
There will be a short quiz tomorrow.
:P