Conclusion

conclusionimage

With everything now finished, it is now time for the final part of the final frontier, the end result.  First of all, I am glad that all the work is over; I know stuff like this at the same is enjoyable as it is exciting and intriguing, however so much has been done that it has been frustrating and a drag at times just wanting to get it completed.  Yeah, I don’t like having bits and pieces everywhere!  Either way, it has been a good experience doing something that I was pretty in the dark on.

The first good thing is that the whole look of the blaster compared to its previous mod incarnation looks a lot sleeker with a lot less unnecessary clutter.  Stuff like the pressure gauge cover that is now not made with two pieces of cut out plastic bottle, which made things looks tackier than having a KFC bag being worn as some pants.

Along with that the fake orange plastic cover for where the reservoir cap used to be also adds to the definition as it makes it look a bit more like what a stock blaster would look like.  The biggest thing is that with the on board reservoir now completely bypassed and straight to the backpack, the whole idea of the tubing going out of the back of the blaster as opposed to the side has really improved general comfort and design a lot.  Now it doesn’t get in the way of you compared to before, it may have made you look like you were carrying a minigun look style like in an Alien film or something, but it wasn’t the best of designs.

The strap has also worked very nicely, not really much to explain here, however a strap is always handy for a blaster this size.  If you want to carry another blaster with you given how much the Hydro Cannon depletes water, it is now possible.  It also makes getting shooting pictures and videos of it firing much easier as it makes things way more stable.

The final and main positive is the new nozzle design has worked very nicely.  Before the nozzle was rather variable when you fired it and also depending on how quickly you pulled the trigger back.  Sometimes you got a more focused stream and other times it was more broken up with less range.  I found it a problem as what I want is a long range more focused stream on something like this.  The idea of this nozzle mod was to extend the shot time a bit, but also to make things more closely resemble how a CPS 2000 stream is.  I have a CPS 2000 Mk2 as a reference point.  With the lamination wire mesh combined with the new adapter piece fitting over, the Hydro Cannon 2500 now fires a far more focused stream that has very nice consistent range.  It from a glance looks to be near 50 feet or so.  The shot time is also better, it is never going to be great, and if I had done the nozzle a size smaller I probably would have got bang on a second, alas, the shot time is around 0.8 seconds, which is still an improvement over what the original modded incarnation had.

What I am thinking is that this stream performance is with a CPS 2500’s pressure chamber, in which it is said was made to be less powerful than both CPS 2000 variants.  However put through the modded Hydro Cannon with the nozzle design similar to the 2000 in terms of that it is just one nozzle with nothing really hampering it (if anything with the Hydro Cannon’s ball valve connected straight to the firing chamber it is slightly aerodynamically superior), it feels and looks on the same level as the Mk2 is.  It all makes me think that the CPS 2500 has the same power the 2000 Mk2 has, however in order ‘scale it down’ or reduce it, Larami didn’t change how powerful they made the chamber, instead they did it through the nozzle selector design.  While it made the 5x and 10x nozzles give off a focused stream, the 20x stream on it compared to what the 2000’s produced in terms of deliverance was not as good compared to the 2000.  With the 2500 firing chamber in the Hydro Cannon 2500 FF though, as said it is different and much more along the lines of the 2000’s stream.  I’m no massive scientific expert and I might be wrong, however from having both and still owning a CPS 2000 Mk2, I do feel Larami may not have done anything to change the strength of the CPS 2500’s pressure chamber compared to the one used in the CPS 2000 Mk2.

Most of the outcome has been positive; there are some negatives that came out though.  One being that even with the glue cleaner, the pressure gauge cover still vapored up shortly afterwards from the superglue.  I can still see the gauge, however just not as clear as you can see in the pictures, it is just something that is going to be there that you have to live with.  Still looks better than the low tack pieces of fizzy pop bottle in there before.

The other problem is that you need to make as many shots as possible count, as because I don’t have enough expertise or knowledge in how to make the pump volume bigger, the Hydro Cannon 2500 FF still takes about 35 pumps to full charge up, and as you know it dumps water out in one massive shot in which you then have to pump again.

As a whole though, the Hydro Cannon is a lot more terrifying which is what it needed.  It is not perfect still compared to the older Larami blasters, however in terms of power and soakage while having a decent capacity and being comfortable to use it is on par, as well as now being a blaster than can drown someone in a flash with a successful hit.  It’s a massive change from how bad it was stock, you couldn’t even take over your own garden with it, now you can not only do that but also have a much bigger chance at taking over a neighbourhood with it too.  Stock it really did suck cock.

One thing this does show is that Hasbro really don’t make Super Soakers to the best they could be, and even with a lot of work like this there are still things that aren’t perfect.  So I’ll say this, this is more for the purpose of something interesting to experiment with, and takes a lot of work, so if you do decide to go ahead with something similar, be prepared to accept it will take a while, and that you may make some mistakes.

To finish off here's a comparison table of all three stages from when the Hydro Cannon was stock and to how it is now.

Stats
HC
HC 2500
HC 2500 FF
Reservoir
1.125L - 39.6oz
4.21L - 148.2oz*
3.7L - 130.24oz
PC
220mL - 7.7oz
600mL - 21.12oz
700mL - 24.6oz

Range
Flat
Angled
Output
Shot Time

HC
8m - 26.4'
12m - 39.6'
220mL - 7.7oz
0.3s
HC 2500
8m - 26.4'
14m - 46.2'
600mL - 21.12oz
0.5s
HC 2500 FF
8.5m - 28.05'
14.5m - 47.85'
700mL - 24.6oz
0.8s

Pumps
19
35-40
33
Pump Volume
16mL - 0.56oz
16mL - 0.56oz
20mL - 0.7oz
Shots Per Tank
5.1
7
5.3

*Combined reservoir and backpack volume (510mL reservoir, 3700mL backpack)

As you can see this last instalment does have its advantages again over the previous mod.  The capacity is obviously going to be less since it has been made backpack only, however overall maximum shots per tank isn’t great but it’s not too bad either, at least it is no worse than fully stock, and that is with a much bigger chamber as well.

Before anyone gets too excited about the slightly increased firing chamber capacity, it is not quite what it may seem.  The slight boost has most likely come from cutting the plastic piece off the end part of the casing as seen here, which in turn allows the chamber to expand a little further.  However actual effective capacity will be less, as the Hydro Cannon like with every other Hasbro made CPS blaster I have tried tends to leave more excess water in the firing chamber compared to the older Larami made CPS blasters I have a few of, so while it is still more than the previous mod instalment, it is not gonna be exactly 700mL.

The pump volume is also slightly more, which is most likely due to the slightly larger tubing going from the backpack replacing the reservoir, so the flow is slightly improved.  It still doesn’t take away from the fact that it takes a full moon to fully pump up though.

While the range isn’t much more, it is around the same really, given it is now a much more laminate stream, the effective range is improved a lot more.

You can find all the shots in the Gallery, however here's some on this page to get an idea.

shot1

shot2

shot3

And now finally, see the video here.


Is this the end?

Well, in terms of my work and take on modding the Hydro Cannon, it is time for the captain to step off that chair. However, as seen with the alternate option it does leave almost a legacy of things you might want to do if doing similar mods.  Since I am planning to sell or trade this soon since I have pretty much finished what I had set out to do, reflecting back over everything, overall, it has been good fun working on the Hydro Cannon as a whole.