Hands-On: Super Soaker 250

[isoaker]

Recently acquired a Super Soaker XP 250. However, the blaster I got is definitely used, somewhat abused, and far from fully functional. Its reservoir cap is missing (likely an unthreaded cap) and it cannot hold significant amounts of pressure, suffering from some leak in or around the nozzle valve. Most of its screws had badly rusted and the pump grip is chipped.

All this said, considering the abuse its seen, it is still in decent condition for a >15 year old water blaster. I managed to open up most of the blaster, but unfortunately, the area where the leak is remains inaccessible. The barrel of the blaster is clamped together not just by a number of screws, but the trigger system also holds it in place. Though I thought I understood how to disassemble the trigger assembly, my attempt to do so thusfar has only resulted in my slightly cracking some additional plastic, but making to real progress is separating the barrel halves. If I really opt to get into the barrel, I may end up sawing pieces, but really want to avoid doing so, thus am still debating whether it is worth the trouble to try to repair this old blaster.

Anyhow, posted a bunch of pictures of my Super Soaker 250 and at least got to measure its dimensions and reservoir capacity.

I'll also eventually post some internal pics, though it'll be awhile before I re-attempt accessing the nozzle valve again. Too many other things currently on my plate.

Soak on!

[wetmonkey442]

Wow, what a great find. Even after 15 years, this gun still looks like a badass. I hope you are able to repair it or restore it and post some pictures of this thing in action. This kind of soaker is just begging to be used and appreciated!

If you post pics of the internals we may be able to advise you on how to proceed with repairs.

[isoaker]

Wow, what a great find. Even after 15 years, this gun still looks like a badass. I hope you are able to repair it or restore it and post some pictures of this thing in action. This kind of soaker is just begging to be used and appreciated!

If you post pics of the internals we may be able to advise you on how to proceed with repairs.

Until I can open the barrel portion, I won't be able to truly determine the source of the leak. As the valve can be opened and the blaster can shoot to some degree, I have a feeling that some of the tubing may have cracked.

As for the rest of the internals, once stripped of the shell, it completely resembles an APH. go fig!

[GJIV]

hei isoaker, I already had to open a SS 300 and a XP 250 too. It is a bit tricky but not that difficult as it might seem to be.

First of all go and get out all screws, then seperate the trigger and the elbow, where the trigger is connected to the plastic piece, connected with the ball valve. The clue is that you can "turn" the plastic part, marked in my picture. Get away all pieces possible, so there is nothing blocking each other. Disconnect the big spring. Then, when the plastic piece is turned aside you can seperate the whole trigger from the rest of the gun.

Let me know, if you can manage this, I can take a video of how to open the gun, but just if you cannot open it with my instroduction^^

here is a pic, that will help you^^



Good luck

[isoaker]

Thanks, GJIV! I thought that was the way to do it as well, but was running into a lot of trouble due to having to deal with really rusted screws. May try again, but quick question: did you ever need to split the trigger in half (lengthwise) or were you able to remove the upper part without having to split things apart? Or did you need to split the hand-grip area of the trigger away from the rest of it?

[HBWW]

For rusted screws, try different screwdrivers, particularly the flathead which seems to work more often than not. Unfortunately, at some point they're so grinded up that you have to drill them out. Drill with the smallest bit possible (1/16" is good) and be extra-careful not to hit the plastic. Once the screw is drilled out correctly, the screw will effectively be split in half, and you can use pliers to unscrew the rest of the body of the screw from the plastic and put in a whole new screw in its place.

The 250 looks quite awesome nonetheless. If you are more concerned about getting it to work (such as for gathering performance data) than preserving its appearance, there will have to be some compromises. You could get as many pictures as you can of the broken blaster first before getting messy and potentially changing its appearance.

For the missing cap, there are quite a few solutions. The best one may be to improvise a quick fill mechanism similar to the Max-Infusion cap; you could theoretically use a check valve instead but that'll stick out quite far. I've never had to deal with this, so it's difficult to suggest an ideal solution.

[isoaker]

I'll probably try once more to open the barrel portion. I wouldn't mind getting to do some testing, but if it ends up needing to repair a substantial portion of the blaster, I would no longer consider the numbers I get as "stock" performance. Not so worried about the cap; at worst, can even just get some fitting cork and/or rubber stopper to plug the hole. This is one blaster I really don't foresee using in any form of real water fight, Drilling out screws, if it comes to that, is, of course, an option, but for that I'd need access to a drill which I currently do not have. One day I'll have a more appropriate workshop space for doing these sort of maintenance and repair activities, but right now, I'm cramped on available space.

[HBWW]

Almost all repairs made short of changing valves and/or PC's will have no measurable effect on performance. Even if you have to epoxy cracks between the firing valve and PC, that's not going to affect performance to any detectable amount.

If you have sheet metal cutters, that may also work for undoing screws, but doing it this way will damage the plastic. With a drill (if its not too much trouble to borrow/rent one), it is possible to drill out the screw without leaving a scratch on the plastics, but that requires good care.

As for the cap, I'd personally prefer something that seals reliably but also reliably allows air intake, but of course, that's under the assumption that it'll be used for battle. For testing, it's probably not necessary.

[marauder]

I'm glad to see you now own this great blaster.

The enemy had one in Vermin War 2 and it was a formidable weapon.

[Nitro123PG]

http://cgi.ebay.com/1990s-Super-Soaker- ... dZViewItem

Should've waited a bit more iSoaker, could've had one in better condition.

Oh well. These are rare, and I thought more time would pass before another one popped up.

[mr. dude]

Okay, I've tested mine (I call him Timmy), though didn't do any range testing (shot it indoors).
I'll open with a complaint, the balance on Timmy is pretty bad, he gets back-heavy when fully loaded, the strap sort of makes up for it I guess.

Pumping takes no time at all, I think it takes me like 10 pumps to fully pressurize him, the pump does have a bit of resistance behind it, but it's nothing substantial, anyone who can carry Timmy can also pump him easily.

Now, shooting, there is such a big kick behind the streams, even the fan blast stings on impact. The nozzles are 1x, 3x, fan, and shower, I would expect range on the 3x to be impressive but I can't confirm anything yet.

So yeah, I'm happy with Timmy, good buy on my part

[marauder]

I'm looking forward to your range testing. I have always wondered how much better the 250 and 275 are over other air pressure guns. I saw the 250 used in Vermin War 2, and saw Scott use the 275 at Downpour 2011, but I really have no experience with those guns other than that - and even there, those guys were on different parts of the battlefield from me.

[mr. dude]

Even just considering the size of the PCs, you can tell there's a clear difference in power, each one is just a bit bigger than the SS 100's PC and there are two of them.

[isoaker]

@mr. dude: glad you like your Timmy! The XP 250 is indeed an impressive blaster, but I can't say I've ever been fond of the forward-lever based triggers.

[mr. dude]

Range tested out my window today, and only tried two nozzles before I accidentally shot into my neighbour's window and had to disappear (how was I supposed to know it was set to fan blast...)

Anyway, range on the 3x looks good, I eyeballed it as anywhere from 37'-43' (arbitrary numbers really, but it's definitely in that zone). More to come at some point in my life...

[mr. dude]

New update, still lacking solid numbers but it looks like the shower nozzle gets a better range than the others. I'll hope to get around to doing a range test before the end of the summer.

[marauder]

Very interesting that the the shower nozzle gets the most range. I was not very optimistic about the lever style trigger, but I ended up doing pretty fine with it on the 300 at Downpour. Don't get me wrong, I'd still prefer an ordinary trigger, but it's not so bad. Having high end air pressure guns really makes fights a bit more interesting. I am contemplating replacing the pressure chambers on the Pool Pumper Blaster and giving it a nozzle mod. It already holds 40 oz, which is a lot, but I could probably up it to 60 if I replaced 2 of the PCs with the PCs from my XP 150 that I fired the nozzle off and into the canal haha.

I know some people *cough* DX *cough* like to go CPS 2000, 2500, 2000, 2000, 12k and yeah, those are all really powerful, but I find it a lot more interesting when there's a lot of diversity in the weapons on the battlefield. It'd be really awesome if you could make it to a community war with the 250.

[SEAL]

I know some people *cough* DX *cough* like to go CPS 2000, 2500, 2000, 2000, 12k and yeah, those are all really powerful, but I find it a lot more interesting when there's a lot of diversity in the weapons on the battlefield. It'd be really awesome if you could make it to a community war with the 250.

Hahaha. The only problem with that is, the people with the "interesting" blasters are usually the ones who get hit first. I learned that when I used the 270 in that first round we had at Hydropocalypse... And yeah, mr. dude should totally try to make it to Downpour. You're only a few hours away, correct?

[mr. dude]

It depends on what you want the blaster for I guess. If you're trying to compete with the range of a 2k, then you'd better be able to match it, but if you want to make the most of other qualities, I'm sure it's doable. One of the nice things about heavyweight air pressure blasters is that they can get a good soak without using as much water as most CPS peeps.

And yeah, mr. dude should totally try to make it to Downpour. You're only a few hours away, correct?

I haven't been following the Downpour thread too closely, where will it be held? I'm an 11ish hour train ride away from NYC, not too bad, I'd just have to plan it well.

[marauder]

Hahaha. The only problem with that is, the people with the "interesting" blasters are usually the ones who get hit first. I learned that when I used the 270 in that first round we had at Hydropocalypse... And yeah, mr. dude should totally try to make it to Downpour. You're only a few hours away, correct?

I wouldn't exactly consider an XP 270 an "interesting" blaster, as it's very common. I did pretty well with my 300. That's more along the lines of what I'm talking about. But either way, I just find it a lot more interesting when there's a variety of weaponry on the battlefield. There's a reason we don't make up tactical scenarios where every gun on the battlefield is a 2000.