Oh yeah the range warrior is a steaming pile. On paper it is a great idea, but everything I have tried and tried it on, it will not stay put, and requires tape and other ugly nonsense to keep it in place and in its setting; but then I couldnāt get it working in any predictable nature.
A couple mates have the hellfire, and they are decent, and look sharp too.
So far all I have read from the I-hobby hopups is that I need to try them 
Modified self 3d printed bonj hopup for accuracy, ihobby for range.
I have been trying the X-force predator V2 gels. I found they mostly are around the 7.0-7.1 range, and most were 7.1mm for me. I have been mostly using 7.5mm barrels and a couple of 7.3mm, so nothing great other than reliable feeding compared to other gels.
But perfect for me WETechs! I have always liked the wetech glocks, but never had a great time with gels, too big and they donāt always feed, and I hate ācontrolled growā because I prefer to be lazy and just grow to full size. Even a week later after just adding a touch of water they didnāt grow further, and fed in the wetechs reliably, and shot well. Probably will be the goto gel for my wetechs, and if I build something with a tighter barrel could work well.
Apologies for necroing this old thread, and apologies for the length of this postā¦ I didnāt see the point of starting up a new one. And things have changed in the gel arena since the last post anyhoo.
Pretty much for the first time, Iām having issues with inconsistent gels that have raised a few questions in my aging cranium. 
keep in mind that I donāt skirmish or gameplay, so gels tend to last me a long time.
All the hard matt gels I seem to grow these days are all over the place like a madmanās shit for sizeā¦ I know itās a common problem, and Iām not looking for the holy grail of answers, just a bit of clarification.
On controlled growsā¦ gels are made to grow to a pre-determined size which is usually reached after about 4 hours of soaking. I get that reducing the time immersed will affect the sizeā¦ naturally. But yanking them out early means they havenāt absorbed all the water theyāre capable of absorbing. Even well drained, if theyāre stored in a container with any amount of water at all surely some will continue to absorb and grow larger? So is controlled growing really only suitable for same day use? 
On sortingā¦ are there ANY size sorting devices available that work reasonably efficiently? The engineer in me cringes when I think about sitting down to a bowl of 10,000 Ultra Elites with a Vernier caliper and trying to accurately measure a slippery flexible sphere of snot.
On storageā¦ controlled grow or not, all the gels I store seem to be ridiculously inconsistent in size after a week or two. Some look more like 8.5mm diameter than 7.3 -7.5. After about 4 weeks they seem to start degrading and on my higher FPS blasters I get more explosions out of the barrel. I used to be able to store gels for at least a month and theyād be okay.
On regrowingā¦ occasionally I do attempt to resoak older batches, but they never seem to return to original growth size, usually a lot larger, and seem more prone to breaking up. So much so that I donāt bother regrowing anymore, just bin the lot.
For the record, I grow my gels in an open container of tap water for four hours, then strain well, pat dry and store in an airtight bottle in the refrigerator. Lately Iāve been considering growing them in purified de-ionised water to see if that makes any difference, I used to do that every grow but I got tired of paying for water from Supercheap or Autobarn. 
I mostly use Ultra Elites, iHobby hard gels, Riotsā¦ ironically the most consistent gels I grow are WI reds, but theyāre not up to the FPS most of my blasters produce and damn near impossible to see in flight, worse in low light conditions.
I know weāre only talking about $7 bucks per 10K gels here, but Iād welcome any suggestions for a better more consistent hard gel suitable for 300+FPS use.
Yeah, gels should really only be grown/sorted/used only as they are required and avoid storing them for long periods of time.
Because they are a Polymer structure, they are pretty unstable and once they absorb water the molecules/structures of their compounds are broken down and become more unstable the longer they are left sitting around.
Hereās a good explanation if you want some light reading in regards to compounds/structures and how the different types of water effects their growth/hardness.
The new gel sorting gizmos from WAT are getting great reviews as a quick way to get sizing done in the least frustrating and time consuming way possible 
I used to just throw a tablespoon of gels into a 2 ltr Coke bottle full of tap water, drain of the excess water by pouring the bottle out through a kitchen sieve and then pour them back into the bottle with the lid on and stored in the crisper in the bottom of the fridge.
I would use them asap, pouring them out into the old Zhenduo sizing strainers, then roll them through a tea towel to remove all major excess water before pouring them into smaller bottles specific for each size.
Days out playing field games, would load the bottles into an esky with my lunch/drinks/ice and fill my mags as required during the day.
Pretty weird and wonderful methods, but we all have our own ways of doing things and this is what worked best for me 
It might be that itās not the hardness of the gels that are causing confetti, itās possibly from the age and inconsistency in sizes instead
Thanks for that feedback, Doc
Iāve been growing them for years, itās really quite recently Iāve been having issuesā¦ dunno why, I must be getting old.
Iāll look into one of those gel sorters from WATā¦ anything to make life easier.
Those sorters from WAT are extremely good. Way better than the old strainer ones.
Absolutely not and why I ALLWAYS recommend NOT to store with water in the air tight bottle. Much to the disagreement of others, if you time grow your gels at 2.5hrs and they work perfect in your blaster. Then store the rest un dried off in a bottle full of air tight water they will continue to grow. Iāve been there tried it and tested it so do not care what others say. Dry your gels off roll around tea towel then in air tight plastic coke bottle and in fridge door and they will not change diameter for at least weeks. Donāt even open it unless using as fresh air does effect them.
Also if using mains tap water the chloride and flouride percentages do fuck around with sizes I found. Rainwater, clean, nothing, no additives = best results
Take it as you will.
I agree that maybe I was misleading in my comments about ātap waterā.
Us country folk only have rainwater coming out of our taps, which is something that I didnāt even think to consider in my reply that most people have chemically laden mains water supply! 
I donāt have advice really but a few notes recently from my experience and others, town water vs tank water definitely affects growth. A mate and I both bought a bag of Ultra Elites, I grew them for 5 hours in town water as I got home late and they are all 7.4-7.6mm. He grew them for 2.5hours in tank water and got some massive 8+mm gels but most were around the 7.6mm and a bit over that.
I also seen people have been adding bicarb soda to slow/minimise the growth of gels, but I have not tried anything like this. I like to be as lazy as possible with gels, 4 hours, 7.5mm barrels, drain, transfer to a dry bottle and let excess water fall off but not dry or touch them, and send it.
I have talked to a local tech and a speedballer, of which used white pearls, grown in hot water for 1.5hours. Hot tap water, hot enough you can touch it but cant keep your fingers in itā¦ in a big mixing bowl, then grow. I havenāt tested it yet, but they have always had very nice Pearls and work well.
I actually grow/use very few ultra hards, as I believe them to be a potential problem in aegs, seen too many people with broken pistons and gears from a barrel stuffed with ultra elites. My goto gel for a couple years has been Ausgel Strawberry Milkshakes, now they say are an ultra hard, but are really only slightly above an armourtech, and still not hard enough for gas pistol use.
My main reasons for this is they are generally 7.3-7.4mm, pretty consistent, get 3 litres of gels once grown to a bag, and if I forget and leave them, they donāt overgrow. They also store well for a month or two after, so I can grow excess for the field, and then have plenty of useable gels for farting around testing at home.
Goat gels, seem to be the current preferred gel, and recommended by many. They grow in 1.5hours, then meant to be ārestedā to harden. I found them best after a week of storage, but most are loving them a day or two later. I found them to be good, but really havenāt had much experience with them.
The original milkies are still good for most entry level budget blasters with no upgrades. An armourtechs are decent for slighty more expensive models. Though these are getting less relevant, my point is, gels are a use case scenario item as much as they are not a one size fits all.
My experience with all Ultra hards is they might as well go in the lawn a week later once the skin starts drying out, and if totally saturated are typically to big to be used a week later for the same reason. Generally I grow enough to use at a game day, and let them free on the lawn after a week or two.
Ultra hards, grow less, more often, they are not good for longer term storage gels.
In all, gels are cheap, buy a bunch and try them in things with varying soak times, if they dont work out they go well in the lawn lol!
I also found the Xforce predator v2 work awesome for wetech pistols that like undersize gels, and their snowballs are a good hard but not ultra hard gel for aegs. If I was located closer to them I would probably use their snowballs over the Milkshakes alot.
If you have an apache, ultra hards are really all you can use unless you want a good amount of crushed gel in your barrel ruining the potential accuracy of the surviving gels.
Agree with all of the above. 
cheers for the input, much appreciated.
Iāve always grown pretty much the same as @Maiphut ā¦ strain through two cullenders then dry off well by rolling them on paper towel at the bottom of the cullenderā¦ several times. Pat dry the top. Thereās definitely no water in with them when they go into sealed bottles in the fridge.
That methodās always worked brilliantly for the past couple of years, for any gels. Itās just lately Iāve noticed issues. maybe the formulaās been changed, who knows?
Iāll try growing some with de-ionised water and see if that makes any differenceā¦ Iāve got no doubt the water coming out of my suburban tap is far from pure. 
And Iāll take the suggestion of @RokSolid and grow only what I need when I need them. Hard though when you donāt really gameplay much and need gels on hand for testing out mods and such.
Iād love to be able to use milkies again, I remember when they were the muttās nuts compared to the shitters that came with the blasters. But with the exception of a VZ61 SMG at around 170 and a Vector at 250, every blaster is around 300 and turns the old milkies into confetti. WI reds are the only non-hard gels that I can use, and theyāre a maybe, X-Force Iceballs seem similar. So itās ultra-hards or confetti, which is the main reason I swapped all my inner barrels from 7.3mm back to 7.5mm to prevent barrel jams.
mm yea might be your water, have a play around with that. Chlorine and flouride percentages in mains water vary wildly. A nearby towns mains you can smell the chlorine nearly stings your eyes when you get in to town. That water grew gels erraticly that they wouldnāt feed. Mind you I shoot a hell of a lot less these days as I canāt shoot in my backyard anymore so I shoot the .308 instead. Themz the rulez
The definition of irony
I was on rainwater at Glass House Mountainsā¦ out among the pineapple farms and pine forests.
Now Iām in suburbia I can taste and smell whateverās in the waterā¦ not good.
Glasshouse, damn some gnarly 4wd tracks around there, love to go back one dayā¦
Hey there crew, just started gelsoft. Has anyone tried heavy water/D2O with their gel balls? Seems like a possible way to improve the accuracy of gel balls.
Unless you got a nuclear plant next door, no we havenāt.
Where would you get it?
Nothing gonna improve accuracy of Gels, just gotta accept the fact that they arenāt real rifles and were never designed to compete with Airsoftā¦ā¦ā¦ so just have to enjoy them for what they are, cheap/fun/affordable products that will put a smile onya dial and have fun!
Thatās valid, just thought it might be a cool bit of optimisation if someone had the commercial contacts (there are a few different industries that use d2o).
Weāve had members grow gels in rainwater, tapwater, de-ionised water, beerā¦ even urine
Big variation in developed size from all those media, no reports on significant weight or hardness variation.