My much anticipated Guardian regulator arrived Thursday, and luckily today I was finally able to really dig into it!
Hilariously, it arrived in "Bong Configuration" with the 1/8" NPT Swivel installed upside down. It did not come with a macro fitting, but it would have been wasted on me if it did since I strongly prefer steel braided gas lines. It did come with a small baggie of replacement seals if needed.
Disassembly was an absolute breeze, the bottom cap unscrewed with minimal effort and zero tools so that was a huge plus. Lube was a hair light, but definitely present in sufficient amounts to function. Here is a peak at the guts, there is a thick "o" ring in the center silver piece that is held in place by the spring. There is also a seal on the tip of the piston inside the washer stack.
Pressure is adjust via the threaded piece in the bottom. Unscrew to increase pressure, screw in to decrease pressure.
Like Nova's other regulators, there is a 10-32 set screw running through the center of the pressure adjuster to find tune your PSI. It's a nice feature to have since using the larger threaded piece can lead to some pretty big pressure swings if you aren't careful. If the 10-32 set screw isn't engaged though, it CAN fall out. I would recommend throwing a dab of blue loctite on it just to make sure it stays were it's supposed to.
Now for the meat and potatoes, I figured this would give a pretty solid ball park of how consistent each reg was.
I used a fresh bag of HK Army Level 3 paint (approximately 0.675). The test gun was my Vaporworks Gen 1 Defiant with a 12" freak barrel with a 0.679. Tank was a 68/4500 with 950 psi output.
nobbie333 graciously loaned me his fancy Garmin Chronograph that records all the shots and sends the data to your phone. Hands down the best chrono I've ever used, it gave some really accurate readings. (sadly, it couldn't catch all the shots while ramping at 13 BPS, but there was no noticable shoot down with any of the regulators tested.)
I changed absolutely nothing on the gun except swapping out the HPRs. I used a gauge to set the pressure to around 230 psi before installing each reg. Each reg got 75 shots.
Here are the results:
Empire Regulator (CP Gen 1 Clone)
Spread: 23.9
Standard Deviation: 4.9
Palmers Fatty Stabilizer
Spread: 19.6
Standard Deviation: 4.4
Nova Guardian
Spread: 18.6
Standard Deviation 4.4
On a hunch, I disassembled the guardian, cleaned the factory lube off, re-lubed it with good old Super lube, and re-ran it.
Super Lube Nova Guardian
Spread: 18.3
Standard Deviation 4.3
So there you have it. I am extremely pleased with these results. I think most people kinda figured that the fatty stabilizer was more consistent then a CP clone, but the Guardian matching it straight from the factory, and then actually beating it when lubed properly is impressive.
So my initial impressions of this reg are extremely good. It is less expensive then a Palmers Fatty Stabilizer, doesn't have the silly side air in let, has better performance, and has far easier maintenance then just about any other regulator I've worked on. It has been left on my Defiant as a result, and should hopefully see quite a bit of field time in the near future. I'll update this if there are any wear issues or if it becomes less consistent over time, but I'm not anticipating any problems.
Hilariously, it arrived in "Bong Configuration" with the 1/8" NPT Swivel installed upside down. It did not come with a macro fitting, but it would have been wasted on me if it did since I strongly prefer steel braided gas lines. It did come with a small baggie of replacement seals if needed.
Disassembly was an absolute breeze, the bottom cap unscrewed with minimal effort and zero tools so that was a huge plus. Lube was a hair light, but definitely present in sufficient amounts to function. Here is a peak at the guts, there is a thick "o" ring in the center silver piece that is held in place by the spring. There is also a seal on the tip of the piston inside the washer stack.
Pressure is adjust via the threaded piece in the bottom. Unscrew to increase pressure, screw in to decrease pressure.
Like Nova's other regulators, there is a 10-32 set screw running through the center of the pressure adjuster to find tune your PSI. It's a nice feature to have since using the larger threaded piece can lead to some pretty big pressure swings if you aren't careful. If the 10-32 set screw isn't engaged though, it CAN fall out. I would recommend throwing a dab of blue loctite on it just to make sure it stays were it's supposed to.
Now for the meat and potatoes, I figured this would give a pretty solid ball park of how consistent each reg was.
I used a fresh bag of HK Army Level 3 paint (approximately 0.675). The test gun was my Vaporworks Gen 1 Defiant with a 12" freak barrel with a 0.679. Tank was a 68/4500 with 950 psi output.
nobbie333 graciously loaned me his fancy Garmin Chronograph that records all the shots and sends the data to your phone. Hands down the best chrono I've ever used, it gave some really accurate readings. (sadly, it couldn't catch all the shots while ramping at 13 BPS, but there was no noticable shoot down with any of the regulators tested.)
I changed absolutely nothing on the gun except swapping out the HPRs. I used a gauge to set the pressure to around 230 psi before installing each reg. Each reg got 75 shots.
Here are the results:
Empire Regulator (CP Gen 1 Clone)
Spread: 23.9
Standard Deviation: 4.9
Palmers Fatty Stabilizer
Spread: 19.6
Standard Deviation: 4.4
Nova Guardian
Spread: 18.6
Standard Deviation 4.4
On a hunch, I disassembled the guardian, cleaned the factory lube off, re-lubed it with good old Super lube, and re-ran it.
Super Lube Nova Guardian
Spread: 18.3
Standard Deviation 4.3
So there you have it. I am extremely pleased with these results. I think most people kinda figured that the fatty stabilizer was more consistent then a CP clone, but the Guardian matching it straight from the factory, and then actually beating it when lubed properly is impressive.
So my initial impressions of this reg are extremely good. It is less expensive then a Palmers Fatty Stabilizer, doesn't have the silly side air in let, has better performance, and has far easier maintenance then just about any other regulator I've worked on. It has been left on my Defiant as a result, and should hopefully see quite a bit of field time in the near future. I'll update this if there are any wear issues or if it becomes less consistent over time, but I'm not anticipating any problems.
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