Well I bought this hopper because I really liked the idea of a magnetic lid. A lot of people find this hopper to be ugly but to me its just a hopper and I like the shape of it. The lid is more on top of the hopper and makes loading paintballs a bit easier that other hoppers. Since I can't really rip more than 13 or 14 BPS this hopper was the best choice for me PLUS it won't double feed balls like the Empire reloader B. I did have the lid pop open one time during play when I dove into a bunker and landed on my gun arm pretty hard. The magnetic lid does work pretty well But I think that it could be modded to work better. I have noticed that the magnets on the lid are not covered but the magnets on the body itself are under plastic which I think lowers the power of the magnets a lot. I did a few tests with singular magnets and they work much better with metal to metal contact. I am going to grind away the plastic that covers the magnets on the body and see if it works and holds better than the way it is now. Besides my one mishap the Hopper has worked great and I have never had any problems with balls feeding.
EDIT:
Well I had a small problem with my Empire Reloader 2 having the lid pop open during a game and losing 200 paintballs so I wanted to fix it so it never happened again. The lid is magnetic and does work pretty well but I wanted it to work better. The magnets are very strong but the problem is the 2 magnets on the body are under plastic and that really reduced the effectiveness of the magnets. I went to Radio Shack and found these super powerful and small Rare earth magnets and mounted them on top of the original magnets but on the ouside of the body with super glue. Now when you close the lid the magnets on the lid touch the magnets on the body and the result is amazing. The lid stays down way better now and there is no way it will pop open again during play. Here are some pics, the mod was cheap and easy.
umm... the Empire Reloader B cannot double feed, it has rod or thing with beads (what ever you wanna call it) above the feed port that prevents 2 balls going in. also, it has the wheel thing that collects 6 or some balls at a time to pre-load them.
Thanks for the review. It was very helpful. I own a Reloader II and the only problem I had with it was the lid opening on a slide. The magnets were easy to find and very inexpensive. I even put one on the back so the lid doesn't slam shut when I flip it open.
