Lubing your paintball gun is absolutely necessary for any marker owner. How often do you use your paintball gun? There is no doubt, lubing your paintball gun periodically is the most important maintenance you can perform on your marker. If you play with your marker (i.e. shoot it with paintballs or Reballs) 3 or more times a week, you should lube all moving parts every week or so. At a molecular level, it really improves the longevity of your internal o-rings, and in turn, improves your air efficiency and overall gun accuracy. If you don’t know what that means or how the guns even work, just take my word for it. Like taking care of a car, you change your oil every 3,000 miles; like taking care of your paintball marker, you lube your gun every week or two.
I personally recommend only two types of paintball gun lube:
I really only suggest using these two lubricants, but for a reason. The Sl33k lube was developed by Dow Corning, the world’s leading manufacturer of silicone-based products. It really comes down to another molecular level, where only certain kinds of lubes “treat” your internal o-rings with “respect”. The Smart Parts Sl33k and Dye Slick lube have the correct “thickness” that most paintball gun bolts need in order to work efficiently. In fact, when we were in Atlanta for the paintball tradeshow, one of Dye’s regional reps claimed that the Sl33k lube really tops most other gun lubes out there.
Take care of your gun and it will take care of you 😉
While Dow33 is a decent lubricant, it usually has problems in cold weather. Also the breakdown time is rather short compared with more modern lubricants.
In summary, there are a lot of better alternatives.
I agree with Bill. My Sleek sucked in cold weather.
I really liked Hater Sauce for spools. But I use Dow 55 now, because the slight swells in orings are better for sealing in my gun.
From what I can remember also, Smart Parts Sl33k and Dow Slick lube are the same thing: Dow33.
LurkerLube and Hatersauce are better choices for guns that require grease.
Thank you. This is really good advice. Lubricating my marker frequently has not been on top of mind. I will definetly recommend this to fellow paintball players.
As for the best lubricant to use. I guess there are lot of different products on the market and will need to research what the best lubricants are.