Lightning review

[mr. dude]

Reservoir Volume: 1230mL
PC Volume: 441mL (14.6oz)
Number of pumps: 16-17
Shot times:
On lowest nozzle: 16 secs. without dropoff, 23 secs. with dropoff
On medium nozzle: 11 secs. without dropoff, 12 secs. with dropoff
On highest nozzle: 2.5 secs. without dropoff, 3 secs. with dropoff
Range: Level 45 degrees
On lowest nozzle: 9m 10m
On medium nozzle: 9.5m 11m
On highest nozzle: 9m 11-12m
Output:
On lowest nozzle: 20mL/sec (0.67oz/sec)
On medium nozzle: 33mL/sec (1.1oz/sec)
On highest nozzle: 158mL/sec (5.27oz/sec)

This is a very good gun in my opinion. Sure the 5x is beaten by most CPS’s, but this gun is smaller than most CPS’s, so you could easily outmaneuver them, besides, the 5x can still soak someone in a second (I should know). The PC is fairly big, being larger than many of today’s Super Soakers and even some Water Warriors guns. It doesn’t take too many pumps to pump up the PC either (16 until the pressure gauge glows green, 17 until you can hear the check valve working). It has decent range, and the streams are fairly laminated. And the strap is a big plus. The pressure gauge is also a big plus if you don’t mind the placement of the trigger.

Like every gun, this gun has it’s disadvantages as well. The most annoying would be the reservoir. On a fully loaded reservoir you’ll only get about 2.5 shots. Now that’s on a fully loaded reservoir, which just doesn’t happen since the reservoir’s shape will only allow about 7/8 of the capacity to be used, and you still won’t get to that because the reservoir is opaque, so filling it without getting soaked is hard. Also, the pressure gauge’s colour can’t even be seen well in sunlight.
On the lowest nozzle you’ll still get severe dropoff, 7 seconds of it to be exact. And on the highest nozzle the shot time is terrible. The medium nozzle serves no big purpose except maybe ranged attack while still conserving, but 11m is nothing to be proud of. It doesn’t have a spray nozzle either so that reduces the “just for fun” part of it.

All in all this is a great gun. Easy to run with thanks to the size and the strap, yet big enough to scare people away thanks to the nozzle selection. While the Blazer may indeed be better in many ways, the lightning is smaller. It does however use water at a considerable rate if you’re not careful with it. I would recommend this gun to scouts and maybe even snipers.

Pros: nice size, good power, good shot times on the lower nozzles, good range, strap, pressure gauge, reasonable number of pumps, dropoff passes by quickly on the higher nozzles.

Cons: small oddly shaped opaque reservoir, external tethered cap prone to damage, pressure gauge hard to see in sunlight, electronic pressure gauge wastes batteries, PC smells like fish.

[isoaker]

Nice review! May I repost it onto the Lightning's page on iSoaker.com?