School me on the Ego

[Rollout]

Is there a breakdown of the history of the Ego? I’m just curious in the differences in the models and which are more desirable, quirks,and faults.
if there’s a write up someplace? I’d love to give it a read if there is.

[Chuck E Ducky]

New LV platforms are awesome in every way. That LV2 shoots like a wet dream.

My favorite year will always be the 07/08/SL74 it’s a much tighter setup they are rock solid reliable. My 08 has more paint threw it then the average paintball player will ever shoot. With the LP valve LPR 1.5 turns in from flush stock settings with an Ultralight. Things to watch for are screw holes in the solenoid. Grips were sticky and wear out with use people replace them with aftermarket ones that didn’t take into account the solenoid sits directly behind the upper front grip screw so if you over tighten or use one to long you just made your ego a paperweight as noise cost more then what the marker is worth if you can find one. LPR and HPR positions seats can go missing at this point they degrade with time. We have a member here that remade them so you’re good on that for a good long time.

Main thing to remember with any electro Planet Eclipse marker if you have an issue 99.9% of the time you need a new name brand fresh battery.

My least favorite of the ego line is the 09/10/SL94 I would stay away from those. There were work arounds but long gone today good luck if it wasn’t updated. Mine snapped its ram scored the ram housing. Never shot right after that. I was sponsored at the time so PE swapped it out but I immediately sold it and shot my 08 for the rest of the season. Till the Geo2 came out.

The Ego11 and CSL were awesome markers especially with the DART kit. It added more mass to the bolt and allowed lower pressure took the bark out of the ego platform at the cost of some efficiency. Something the ego dose not have any issues with. So it’s an easy sacrifice and really smoothed the marker out. The Ego11 shot much different than the earlier egos. It was much longer than the earlier markers and Jack worked hard shoehorning internals in to the thing to get the web of your hand closer to the barrel line. They point super natural.

05/06 were great markers but parts are getting really hard to find. They were heavy compared to the others but great shooters and very reliable.

[Magmoormaster]

Unlike some other yearly releases, the Ego had substantial changes each year beyong just external milling. I don't know the full details of each release, but I do know the braoder strokes.

2005 - First ego
2007 - major steps made to make the gun smaller. The frame is pushed up into the body. Lower tube is much smaller in diameter.
2009 - steps made to improve shot quality instead of ROF. I believe this is the yer they removed the QEVs on the ram.
2011 - introduction of the adjustable solenoid. Each side of the noid has an adjustable flow limiter that allows you to speed up or slow down the ram movement
2012 - LV1 comes out, which has A/T pipe instead of macroline and the lever valve. LPR is also integrated into the body instead of sitting outside

In 2006, they released the Cure bolt,made to improve paint handling. As the years went on, they improve the bolt design. I think by now they're on the Cure 5 bolt? I don't know what improvements started when but they have things like two o-rings on the front of the bolt, and ramp on the top to prevent stack clipping.

In 2007, they came with the 2 piece shaft barrel. Earlier guns had a one piece. The Shaft barrel evolved over time with longer bore lengths, and were later offered in smaller bore sizes. The Shaft4 has male threads on both sides of the back to increase the length even further. A Shaft FR is now available that takes freak inserts and various Shaft tips.

At some point, I believe it was on the Etek line actually, they added the Deftek Offset Feed system, where the feedneck is offset from center by a few millimeters. This stops paint from bouncing up after it hits the bottom of the breach. By 2007, this was a standard feature of all eclipse guns and still is to this day.

The only "quirk" that I can think of is that one of the earlier on/offs had a tendency to shoot out their innards when degassing. Their ASA's were called OOPS ASA's in reference to this. This, of course, predates the POPS by quite some time.

I found this thread on PBN which helpd ID various models:

https://www.pbnation.com/showthread.php?t=3778478

[Trbo323]

I just discovered today that PE didn't invent the lever valve.

Zap zxs600e

Well, as far as I know they were the first. Haven't seen any other examples of "thing hits lever, lever opens valve"

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

[Chuck E Ducky]

That lever definitely smoothed operation out. Allowed for lower pressure and less mass and allowed the grip to get closer to the barrel line. Something that really improved how they feel in your hand. LV platform shoots really really good. If I was going to buy a new marker today it would be an LV2. I just don’t play that type of paintball much anymore.

[Rollout]

Thanks for the info guys, I appreciate it.

[Greentorpeedo]

I would probably go LV1.6 or 2.

1.6 has a solenoid you can maintenance. Big difference is if you want the pipe or no pipe. Honestly I kinda like the pipe. It gives a wider point of contact, but it's preference.

[latches109]

egos are the AKs of paintball, they shoot semi accurately, faaast, loud, and super reliable. You can burry it in sand and it will still shoot.

Tim's 3 finger semi-auto savagery sums it up - (I own this one)

[Impactfour]

I quit competitive paintball right around when everyone and their mother had an ego that sounded like that one. I just had some serious flashbacks to 2008.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Dye UL and the LP valve and it takes the bark right out of em.

[Cyberpyr8]

I love that you can adjust the settings so much on a LV to get whatever type of shot you want. I normally take mine and drop the pressure from 80 to 70 and lower the dwell and put the heavy rammer in them. It will shoot so smooth that it won't hardly kick at all. I've had them shooting so soft that if you didn't hear it you wouldn't know it was shooting. I like a little feedback these days but you can get that too. Go on youtube and look for madman's tuning guide for LV's. It's crazy what you can set them to do. I've tried most of his setups on that video and it is hard to believe they are capable of getting that much of a difference out of one marker. Truly a great marker.

I have shot a LV2 and it comes factory shooting really smooth. If they weren't so much I would go ahead and buy one. I don't really care about the AT pipe but the older LV's do worry me about bad solenoids. They have ones that have to be replaced if they have issues. The 1.6 and 2's have a new solenoid that is serviceable and supposedly better. I had a 1.6 but honestly, I could never get the efficiency and smoothness out of it like I can an older LV's. I just went back to an older LV and will probably stick with it until I can afford a 2.

[imped4now]

LV1.6 or LV2 is what you want for the SMC solenoid.