The Flywheel Debate: Part 2

First of all: WOW!  All I can say is thanks for all the gobs of comments, insight, and input from everyone!  There's a LOT more information here than I had anticipated, so it's taken me about a week to try to process it and see how to best deliver my findings.  Here we go!

I'm breaking down my initial post (found here) and using information collected from roughly 40 comments submitted.  Using points raised by comments that were posted, I'm able to weigh in more on the Pros and Cons initially set out in Part 1 with a series of counterpoints.


The Cons:

• Noisy!  Flywheel Motors tend to emit a lot of sound.  Not only does this kill any stealth you may want to achieve during a game, but it can also distract the user from others approaching.
• COUNTERPOINT:  It seems this noise also can be intimidating during games.  Players have noted that, especially in voltage-modified blasters, that the mere sound of this blaster's presence can rattle their opponents nerves.  
• Less Mod Potential.  Most Flywheel driven blasters are limited by what you can do to increase performance.  Voltage Modifications lie at it's core, and there's a limit to what you can do, especially if you don't want to burn out the motors.
• COUNTERPOINT:  There is quite a bit more you can do with these blasters with more extensive modifications that I overlooked.  Motor Swaps and modifications to the flywheels themselves to improve performance are more commonplace now.
• Wheel Lag.  When you first start up the blaster, the flywheels need to get up to top speed, which can shave a second or two off of potential reaction time in some situations.  There's also that lag between shots of recovering flywheel speed in-between each shot.
• COUNTERPOINT:  Voltage Modified blasters suffer less from this problem.  The wait time in-between shots on a Stock Blaster is about that of a single-fire plunger-system blaster anyways.
• Semi Auto Only.  With the exception of the Nitron, Flywheel Systems haven't been designed with a Full Auto function.  It can get tiring, especially on higher capacity blasters, shelling out each dart individually.
• COUNTERPOINT:  Semi Auto fire can be as quick, if not faster, than some automatic electronic blasters.

The Pros:

• Compact Design.  There isn't much to a Flywheel-driven system, so even if the blaster is quite large, minimization isn't too far off to help you cut it down to whatever size you need.
• COUNTERPOINT:  Limited internal space for improvements (larger battery pack, better flywheel motors, etc)
• Quick and Easy modification.  As long as you've got higher voltage batteries to hook up to your Flywheel-driven blaster, it's really simple to increase performance.
• COUNTERPOINT:  Reliance on Batteries runs the risk of running out of power during games. Motors can also burn out if they're running too much power.
• Ease of Operation: turn it on and fire!  With one hand operating the blaster, your other hand is free to do other things like recover darts, fire a second blaster, or give your nearby teammate a high five.
• COUNTERPOINT:  Again, reliance on batteries.

In general, there's been a lot of excellent points.  I'll quote just a few of the ones I really found helpful and insightful.

torukmakto4: Flywheels certainly don't have "less mod potential" in my book. They can compete with any other stock class/HVZ type guns for velocity, and that's with stock motors being used in an entirely reliable manner. Often, that is achieved more easily and cheaply than with springers. Furthermore, no one said you have to use the "limiting" stock motors.

Anonymous: The main problem that I have with flywheel guns is their noise and latency, which makes them pretty useless in indoor wars, unless you're charging someone with them, and hence, not worried about stealth. When I am in an indoor war, I often come across someone waiting behind a wall, and by the time that my flywheels spin up, they have heard me and turn the corner. (Of course, I can't have my flywheels on all the time, because people would then hear me.)

Anonymous (2): I've been pondering the noise issue and if these things can be made more quiet somehow. Noise is fundamentally transmitted by vibration, so strengthening the shell and putting some sort of grommets and maybe even a rubber (or silicon?) seal where the shell comes apart seems viable and promising, but I haven't had the free time to try it out yet. DynaMat makes a spray (used on car stereo systems to reduce vibration and improve sound) that I think would be viable, and truck bed lining may work as well.

P13c30fch33s3: I'll just put in my opinion:
-Noise: pro/con - intimidation and fear factor, distraction/diversion, gives away position
-Revving up: con - requires max rev for max power, rapid fire reduces range
-No need to prime/chamber: pro - allows faster ROF (semi or full auto), wieldable with one hand which allows for greater maneuverability, multitasking (e.g. picking up darts), reduces potential for jamming and misfiring (firing mech is much simpler)
-Battery operated: pro/con - easy to mod for higher ranges if desired, lose range over frequent usage (batteries lose charge)
-Flywheel firing mech/electronically powered: pro/con - less complicated mechanical internals to break/damage, more electronic components that may be damaged, reliant on electronic components so loss of power renders blaster useless, can work with slightly damaged blasters, easily converted to use stefans

Eroomdivad: At the moment my favourite blaster in my arsenal is my Stryfe (orange-trigger), so I'm leaning in favour of flywheel. But when compared to a Strongarm (grey-trigger) there is a definite loss of accuracy in the Stryfe, even though it is US-grade Elite not AU-grade. As far as I know all flywheel blasters have this problem, so you may want to mention accuracy at one of the cons. I am aware that a Retaliator barrel may improve the accuracy, but I don't have one so I haven't been able to test it.

Asamere Tali: In tight hallways these flyweel guns are scary, and make the best rush guns ever, bar none. They make good hold out guns and can stop rushes dead in their tracks almost effortlessly. A spare battery or two is the only small cost to reliance, but hey pockets are made for a reason. At my college a few people rock these flywheel blasters and they have their advantages.Same time however, If yea hear them you can lay up an ambush, but that's all your skill. Then there's the longer distances, and 2 well placed shots can trump a rain of darts...Unless you cant hit for anything that day anyway.(It happens to everyone).  In my opinion (that probably doesn't matter) I feel it comes down to three things. Playstyle, how you like to run. Scenario, were you are during the engagement. Familiarity  need to know how your blaster likes to work if you hope to hit anyone at all anyway.

Chris Cross:  I'm not sure if anyone has pointed out this advantage of flywheel blasters, but it definitely is a pro that you can eject a clip any time (either to reload or to check your ammo status) while with plunger blasters you have to move the boltsled back first (with the Stampede being the only exception I can think of).

Irishknots:  The true driving force behind the flywheel kick has been OUR demands. We essentially asked for improvements, for new blasters and Nerf responded. Maybe not in the way all of us would have liked, but they responded. High ROF, check. Semi-auto, check. Clip-fed, check. Customizable, check. Promise of Full-auto? Almost check. Nerf went the most economical way to meet our demands: they designed around simple system, that was easy to maintain, clean, and meets our needs.

Andy W:  The benefits of Flywheel blasters depend on three factors:- Player style; the NERF club a play as part used have a guy with an over voltaged Rayven and he carried two sets of dual 18 round jungle clips. He would aggressively charge at the other team and on few occasions took out the entire other team (up to 5 / 6 players). The noise produced by his flywheel blaster was not an issue, in fact as few people have mentioned already it had an intimidation factor/suppression for some players. The NERF club plays in large hall with inflatable paintball barricades.
- Availability of darts/discs; you need a large disc/dart supply to get the full benefit of a flywheel blaster due to their rate of fire and generally lower of accuracy. Going back to the above example because our club has a large stock of darts this player could carry as many darts as he had clips to fill. If the darts/discs were not available in such large numbers his flywheel driven Rayven would not have been nearly as effective.
- Game type; I use a Stryfe for all HvZ games and it is excellent. The rapid rate of fire, no need for stealth, ease of reloading combined with the compact size makes it the only choice. However, for a game type such as “6 shot elimination” the flywheel blasters are not a popular choice.

In the end... I still don't have a clear answer regarding "Flywheel Blasters are the Best" or anything like that, but it wasn't really the reason I got into this.  There's a lot of situational advantages and disadvantages when it comes to these blasters that drive the players to either flock to them or leave them on the shelves.  That's the real beauty of all of this.  I think that all of the input I've received on this topic is proof of one thing though: Flywheels are definitely a big player when it comes to blaster choice for Nerf.  Moreso than some would like to admit!  So when new blasters are announced and it turns out to be Flywheel instead of a plunger-system blaster or an air blaster, the haters have to consider that there are a lot of folks who are interested in these for obvious reasons.  It's not a niche gimmick for Nerf anymore.  It's got a following!

As for me?  I switch blasters often enough that I can't say I prefer one to the other.  Certain times, a Flywheel blaster is fantastic to use.  Other times, I want a manual-prime direct-plunger rifle.  I don't know many Nerf fans who own JUST Flywheel blasters or JUST plunger-system blasters.  It's all Nerf and It's all good, as far as I'm concerned.  HOWEVER, the more you know about the blaster you're using, it's advantages and disadvantages, the better you can utilize it in games.  Thanks to all your input, we've got a pretty detailed rundown of all the Pros and Cons of Flywheel blasters.