WaterWar.net

Preamble: This type thread is meant to be used for members to discuss and make suggestions on various stock water blasters past and present. Each thread will look at a particular stock soaker and members are invited to give their input on what they consider works well for the blaster as well as what areas could have used some improving. As opinions on how good a particular blaster is may vary, please be open to others' opinions. If you think something is good about a blaster, give us your reasons why you think that way. As well, if you think there are aspects that could be improved, give suggestions on what sort of improvements you think would have made for a better water blaster.

Super Soaker Hydro Blitz
The Super Soaker Hydro Blitz is the largest CPS-based water blaster Hasbro Inc. has released since 2002. It features two nozzles, each with a distinct purpose. The stream nozzle produces a solid water stream while the 'Blitz' nozzle produces pulses of larger burst-type blasts. The nozzle to be used is selected through a valve arm on the left side of the blaster. The Hydro Blitz also features a top-mounted, bi-directional pump and rear-positioned, top-side trigger+grip area. It comes with a shoulder strap as well. Moreover, being one of the newer Super Soakers, the Hydro Blitz's reservoir can be expanded through the addition of a Max-Infusion Aquapack. Other stats and pictures of the Super Soaker Hydro Blitz can be found on the iSoaker.com Super Soaker Hydro Blitz review page. Internal pictures can be found on the Super Soaker Hydro Blitz Internal Images page.

What are your thoughts on this blaster? Love it? Hate it? What makes it good and what could they have improved in its design? Share your thoughts and soak on!

The Hydro Blitz, in my opinion, is "slightly above average". It's good, better than most, but not the best. I rate it above most air-pressure blasters and all piston water guns. Range/output is average for a large post-CPS-series soaker although feels underpowered. There are a handful of good and bad points.

PROS:
-Great capacity of 102 oz. (at least, that's what is advertised)
-Sufficient power to be one of the best of the "newer" water guns
-Somewhat versatile, with a small stream for range and the bigger one for close combat
-Intimidation factor against some opponents
-Strap makes things easier
-CPS power
CONS:
-Cumbersome. Handle is at an awkward angle, making you twist your hand down in a weird way
-Bad pump position. Hasbro was probably trying to experiment, but the pump makes me feel funny because I'm pulling up the weight from the top of the gun, not pushing it up from the bottom as with traditional pumps.
-Underpowered for its size--It may be good for a smaller soaker, but people expect more out of a bigger water gun
-Big nozzle has limited usefulness

We have some Hydroblitz internals at SSC for those who want to get a better idea of how this water gun works.

What's good about the HydroBlitz is that it's an available CPS water gun with a large pressure chamber and good water capacity. However, I can't say much more good about it. While I'll admit that I have not use the HydroBlitz, I have read enough about them and seen enough statistics to have a solid opinion of it.

The lack of true nozzle selector is a problem. I hate Hasbro's trend towards two-triggered or two-nozzled water guns. This adds complexity, cost, and is less useful than a nozzle selector because you only get two options.

Similarly, the small nozzle diameter of the stream nozzle is a problem. 2X is a good option, but a better variety of sizes would be more helpful in other situations.

The complexity is a major issue. Looking a the internals, I can only wonder why Hasbro designed the water gun in the way they did. There are two PCs, a two-stroke pump operated by a lever, and a crazy switching valve assembly. Complexity adds parts and cost. This complexity isn't even beneficial in my mind. In fact, I think it makes the water gun less useful as explained above with the nozzle selector paragraph.

The weird shape and ergonomics is another major issue. All I can say is that it doesn't look easy to carry. I'd much prefer something more along the lines of the old CPS series with a handle under the majority of the water gun. The strap is a plus but it's definitely necessary for this design so I'd be complaining huge if it didn't have one.

The pump on a lever makes no sense to me. The only reason I can think of to justify its existence is that Hasbro designers couldn't figure out how to fit a pump into this water gun so they put it in the middle and used a handle. I'd greatly prefer a normal pump with a larger pump volume. They can make it a two-stroke pump, but make it used more normally.

Without a reservoir cap tether, losing your cap with the new Super Soakers is much more likely. I think Hasbro removed the tether on purpose so you have to buy a new one when you lose it. To Hasbro that's profit, but to me that's evil.

The new Max-Infusion cap is pure evil. You'd think they'd keep the clockwise to open convention on all water guns, but they didn't so they could make the cap and consequently the Max-Infusion backpack incompatible with older water guns, so you have to buy new water guns to use the new backpack system. This is annoying beyond belief and is one serious reason I haven't bought a HydroBlitz. Opening it will be incredibly annoying to someone like me who's very used to normal threads. I've already suggested in my critique of new water guns at SSC to change the size of the cap rather than how it is threaded if you want to make people buy new water guns to use the backpack. This just annoys everyone if they buy newer water guns.

Power-wise the HydroBlitz is a horrendous. The riot blast nozzle is a measly 6X. My CPS 1000 nearly matches it's big blast with a stream, and that's more useful to me. The stream nozzle is 1.5X, which is good for XPs but terrible for CPS. The reported range of 35 feet is terrible as is for a water gun this size, and we know that Hasbro exaggerates their ranges so I'd imagine the true range is even worse. There's not much you can do to improve the power through modification either because the internal diameter looks dinky still. With that being said, I don't think anyone's tried to modify a HydroBlitz, so it might be promising if I'm mistaken.

Lastly, the Max-D technology used is too fragile and low performance. Go back to pull valves. They might not improve range by less than 5 feet at best keeping the diameter of the pipes the same, but they won't break down. The potential for higher flow from pull valves is significantly more important for performance than a small increase in efficiency from the Max-D valve. Max-D valves are also hard to repair when they break, the repair is unreliable, and it seems most Max-D water guns will eventually break so repair is necessary. Ditch the Max-D valves Hasbro.

I'll probably edit in more as I think of it.

The insistance to use Max-D valves is probably the reason behind the muilti-trigger systems. It is probably not possible to get a finger-powered ball valve thats large enough to support sufficient flow for large riot blasts. It seems like these guns with riot blasts sell too. As for the HydroBlitz, that just comes to show one or both of the soaker design team's incompetence as well as soaker marketing conditions. The design team's incompetence was shown previously with many other guns such as the Oozinator which couldn't sell for crap. In fact, the only people I know of who have one are me and iSoaker. (and I only have one because it was $6 on clearance)

Max-D triggers that break after perhaps 100-300 uses as well as untethered caps seem to be part of Hasbro limiting the durability of the "seasonal product" so that next summer people have to buy new soakers to use.

Overall, the design flaws in all modern blasters (SS and WW) are pretty obvious, but all we can do is keep pointing out the same things again and again to the companies time and time again and see if they ever do anything about it.

Now, I haven't actually got to handle and shoot a HB, but I've seen it at the war last sunday and know enough to make a good judgement on it. Ben pretty much covered it about the internal design and lack of power, though it doesn't seem like I'd find the handling as awkward as he does.

The insistance to use Max-D valves is probably the reason behind the muilti-trigger systems. It is probably not possible to get a finger-powered ball valve thats large enough to support sufficient flow for large riot blasts.

I remember some discussion about this a while ago. Thanks for bringing it back up. That's probably the reason behind the two triggered system from a design point of view.

Ben pretty much covered it about the internal design and lack of power, though it doesn't seem like I'd find the handling as awkward as he does.

To me, the HydroBlitz seems like it'll be held nearly like a tool box. I haven't used one but that's how I imagine it.