Dye LT-R Review | Best Paintball Loader For $100?

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Paintball loaders have dramatically dropped in price in the past five years alone.

While it used to cost around $150 – $200 to purchase a high-end paintball loader, now you can buy yourself one of the best paintball loaders on the market for only $100 — the Dye LT-R.

I believe the LT-R stands for Light Rotor, but I could be wrong.

The Rotor (for those who are unaware) was the first high-speed loader created by Dye and it’s the loader the LT-R is based on.

The original Rotor and LT-R are almost exactly the same except the LT-R doesn’t come with the see-through panel (used for observing the amount of paintballs in loader) and the LT-R comes with the same rotor arm as the Dye Rotor R2

The original Rotor also cost twice as much as the LT-R, making the Dye LT-R an absolutely amazing deal for the money.

Below are more reasons why the Dye LT-R is the best paintball loader for the price. 

Loads Extremely Fast

The Dye LT-R uses Dye’s patented Rotor technology to feed paintballs up to 30+ bps (balls per second).

What is this patented technology you say?

To be honest, I’m not sure..

But from what I can see and understand, the Dye LT-R works similarly to those Spiral Wishing Wells you sometimes find at the mall. But instead of a coin spinning around in circles until it falls into a small black hole, a paintball is guided through one of 8-slots and then waits for the Rotor arm to rotate around to force-feed the paintball down into the hole on the bottom of the loader. 

Hence why it’s called a force-fed loader.

No Tools Needed For Disassembly

Any good paintball loader should require no tools to be disassembled, and the Dye LT-R (Check for Price on Amazon.com) abides by those rules.

To perform maintenance or to clean the Dye LT-R you simply have to press down on the small black tab on the back of the loader and pull the two halves (top and bottom) apart. I prefer to have the lid opened before I press the black tab in to make it easier to pull the two halves apart. 

Top and bottom half of Dye LT-R

Once you have the top half separated, you‘ll want to press forward on the black tab on the end of the black floor tray. Look at the image below to see what I’m referring to. 

floor tray on LTR loader

From there, you can easily add new AA batteries or take apart the rest of the loader. A Phillips head screwdriver will be required to fully disassemble the loader from here, although you shouldn’t need to fully take the loader apart unless something breaks or you want to enable Blackops mode. 

battery pack of LTR

Unfortunately, if you want to install a speed feed on your LT-R you’ll have to remove the four screws holding the current lid in place. Look at the top-right corner of the image above to see the four screws.

Comes With Anti-Jam Features

Worrying about paintball jams is a thing of the past with the Dye LT-R.

Thanks to the Sharkfin Jam Release Trigger you can easily pull the “shark fin” backward and unjam your loader at any time. Pulling the shark fin backward simply forces the Rotor arm to move a half-turn in the opposite direction and push the jammed paintball out of the way.  

Only Requires Three AA Batteries 

One of the advantages of the Dye LT-R over the other loaders on the market is that it only requires three AA batteries to function. Whereas most other paintball loaders require either one or two 9-volts to function or a large amount of AAs. 

What’s even more impressive about the use of three AA batteries is that you can shoot over 80,000 paintballs before you have to replace them. 

Now that’s what you call efficient!

Highly Durable and Robust

After holding the Dye LT-R for the first time I was immediately impressed by how durable it felt. 

The shell of the LT-R is made from a thick plastic material and all of the individual parts feel very well made. 

There’s even an old video made by Dye where they perform a durability test on the original Dye Rotor by dropping it on the ground, submerging it in water, and even lighting it with a torch. 

The Rotor continued to function through it all. 

Comes In Eight Colors

The Dye LT-R comes in the six following colors:

  • Black/Black
  • Black/Red
  • Black/Blue
  • Black/Green
  • Black/Orange
  • Black/Yellow
  • Black/Pink
  • Dyecam camouflage

The Dye LT-R may not be the most impressive looking hopper in the world, but hey, it’s hard to complain considering the price!

LED Light Can Be Disabled

The Dye LT-R comes with a “Blackops” feature that allows you to turn off the LED light on the back of the hopper during those nighttime and lowlight games. This is a great feature for scenario players as there’s nothing worse than having a blinking light give away your location whenever it’s dark outside.

Unfortunately, this feature isn’t the easiest to enable. Surprisingly there are not even instructions on how to enable the Blackops feature in the official manual for the Dye LT-R.  

No need to worry though, I got you covered!

 Here’s how to enable the Blackops feature on the Dye LT-R.  
  1. Push in the black tab on the back of the loader and separate the top half from the bottom half. 
  2. On the other side of the loader, push forward on the black tab until the floor tray pops out and remove the floor tray. 
  3. Remove the battery pack and the 3 AA batteries.
  4. Use a Phillips head screwdriver and remove the screw on top of the battery pack.
  5. Disconnect the battery pack and pull out the wire connecting the battery pack to the black box holding the motor and board.
  6. Use a Phillips head screwdriver and remove the two screws on top of the black box holding the motor and board.
  7. Remove the top half of the black box from the bottom half.
  8. Pinch the black jumper labeled LED and remove it from the green board.
  9. Put the loader back together and there will be no more bright blue LED light. 

Here are some of the most popular questions asked by players looking to buy the Dye LT-R paintball loader. If you have a question of your own simply leave a comment at the bottom of the page. 

Dye LT-R vs. Dye Rotor R2

If I had to choose between the Dye LT-R and the Dye Rotor, I would pick the LT-R every time. The LT-R comes with the upgraded Rotor arm (same as the one in the R2) and I always thought the see-through window was kinda pointless anyways.

But what about the Dye LT-R versus the Dye Rotor R2? 

Now that’s a different story.

The Dye Rotor R2 has a few major advantages over the LT-R such as a 15% larger lid opening, an easier to remove lid, and a multi-capacity shell that allows you to adjust the capacity of your hopper from 200 – 260 paintballs at a moment’s notice.

Of course, the LT-R is almost half the price of the R2, so unless you’re an experienced player (or money isn’t an issue) then the LT-R will probably be the better option. Unless you desperately need the extra paintball capacity, then just choose the R2 and call it a day.

Can the Dye LT-R Handle Low-Quality Paintballs?

I’ve heard it mentioned before that the Dye Rotor, Rotor R2, and LT-R can’t handle low-quality paintballs as well as some of the other hoppers on the market.

I wish I could let you know if this was true or not, but to be honest, I haven’t had any problems so far with paintballs breaking in my LT-R.

Granted, I do play magfed more often than I use my loaders, but I have used some finicky paintballs in my LT-R before and it handled it just fine. 

What Loaders Are Similar In Price?

While I believe the Dye LT-R is the best paintball loader for $100, there are a couple of other options available if (for some reason) the LT-R doesn’t match your style.

So what are these other paintball loaders around the $100 price range?

The most affordable paintball loaders (under $100) are the Valken V-Max, Halo Too, HK Army Pinokio, and GI Sportz LVL (in that order).

Loaders slightly above the $100 price range are the Virtue Spire IR², GI Sportz LVL Version 1.5, Empire Loader B2, and Empire Prophecy Z2. 

Out of all the loaders listed above, I would recommend the Virtue Spire IR² the most, although the Valken V-Max isn’t a bad deal if you simply want to save money and don’t care about maximizing performance.

Specifications

  • Capacity: 200 paintballs
  • Weight: 1.05 pounds
  • Length: 8.5″
  • Width: 4.25″
  • Height: 8.5″
  • Batteries: 3 AA
  • Feed Rate: 30+ BPS
  • Battery Life: 80,000+ shots

Pros and Cons of the LT-R

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of the Dye LT-R.

PROS

  • Durable
  • Affordable
  • Feeds 30+ BPS
  • Long battery life
  • Easy to disassemble
  • LED light can be disabled
  • Only requires 3 AA batteries
  • No tools needed for disassembly

CONS

  • Slightly heavy compared to the other top-end loaders
  • Colors are fairly basic (except Dyecam)
  • Hard to enable Blackops mode
  • Hard to install speed feed

Would I Recommend The Dye LT-R?

I would recommend the Dye LT-R to any player who wants a high-end paintball loader without the high-end price tag. 

No matter whether you’re a beginner who simply wants to play a few days a year, or a professional who wants to compete at the highest level of competition, you can’t go wrong with the Dye LT-R.

Despite the affordable price of $100, the LT-R comes with all of the premium features that you would typically expect on a high-end paintball loader. Toolless disassembly, high feed rate, long battery life, nearly indestructible shell, e.t.c., e.t.c..

So if you have a $100 laying around and want to buy yourself a paintball loader that’s capable of feeding up to 30+ bps, do yourself a favor and check out the LT-R from Dye Paintball.      

You won’t regret it.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my review of the Dye LT-R paintball loader and if you have any further questions then don’t be afraid to leave a comment below. I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Dye LT-R Electronic Paintball Loader (Black)
  • Provides every style of player a loader that retains the quality performance that’s needed to win at a price tag that’s unmatched.
  • Patented DYE loader technology that fuses top-notch functionality with mind-blowing feed rates and reliability. Patented Rotor Force Fed Technology, 30+ balls per second.
  • The LT-R sets standard for battery efficiency, powered by only 3 AA batteries allowing the hopper to get 80,000+ balls shot count.

Last update on 2024-03-29 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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Woodsball player, magfed player, automag owner, paintball sniper. Have played woodsball and scenario paintball (on and off) since 2007 and still loving the game!

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