The best way to increase air efficiency is to use a barrel with a bore that matches the paintballs you are using. Because paintballs vary in size brand to brand, batch to batch, and the weather it's best to have a couple different bore sized barrels or a barrel kit.
If the barrel you use is too big for the paint, then too much air escapes around the paintball in the barrel. If the barrel is too small then the paintball gets pinched causing friction and paintball breakage in the barrel. Ideally you want the bore to be just slightly larger than the paintballs you are using.
You may also want to find your solenoid dwell sweet spot. Solenoid dwell controls how long the solenoid stays open to allow the bolt to move forward and release air to push the paintball out of the barrel. If the dwell is too high the bolt will stay open too long and let more air out than is necessary. If the dwell is too low the bolt may not let enough air out and the gun will be very inconsistent at high rates of fire and cause paint breakage. The weather can also affect the bolt speed so in very cold or very humid conditions you may need to up the dwell 1-4 points to compensate.
The factory solenoid dwell setting is 20, but every gun’s sweet spot is different. You don’t want the dwell to be too high so you lose air but you don’t want it to be too low so it dies off when you really rip on the trigger. To find your sweet spot:
- Clean the bolt and engine and lightly lubricate the bolt with Dow 33 or similar lubricant. Dirt and debris or too much lubricant will slow the bolt down and change your sweet spot timing.
- Set the max rate of fire(purple) to the fastest you want to be able to shoot. If you are playing in semi-automatic 10 or 12 bps is sufficient.
- Set the fire mode(green) to full automatic(10).
- Set the solenoid dwell(red) to at least 20.
- Test the marker with paintballs by shooting a string of 30 paintballs. Watch the paint string for the velocity to die off. If the string does not die off decrease the dwell and repeat steps 3 and 4. If the string does die off increase the dwell and repeat steps 3 and 4.
- When you find the sweet spot set the dwell to 1-2 points higher and return the firing mode to your normal parameter.