Anyone used the new Lyman Gen 5 Automatic Powder Dispenser?

[RyanG77]

Anyone used the new Lyman Gen 5 Automatic Powder dispenser? I'm in the market to buy one. A friend of mine recommended the RCBS Chargemaster, and I've used his and it works great...but they are rather expensive. The Lyman Gen 5 unit looks like it does the same thing for quite a bit less money, and has a few other features I like.

I have heard that some of the older models have a long warmup period, and a few other drawbacks, but Lyman's marketing materials indicate they've resolved those issues in the new one...but I'd rather hear from the community whether it's a good buy, or if I should just keep saving for the Chargemaster. If nobody on here has used one, I guess I'll just have to be the guinea pig and post a review on here once I get a chance to use it!

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[ripcity]

I was in the same predicament that you're in now. I got the chargemaster. The reviews I read leaned towards the chargemaster. I got mine at cables for 300 dollars before a 50 dollar mail in rebate. I'm sure the lyman is better than the first couple of generations. Good luck with your purchase.

 

[RyanG77]

Wow...that actually puts the Chargemaster at the same price-point as the Lyman, good call! Still curious though how they compare. With similar prices, why choose one over the other?

 

[ripcity]

To me it seemed like rcbs had it down from the start. Lyman has 6 generation, that seems like a lot. Either of them will be great.

 

[RyanG77]

Just read both instruction manuals...looks like the Lyman has a very complex clean out procedure that requires complete dissasembly of the reservoir, powder box and feed tube. The Chargemaster instructions do not indicate that this is necessary...just dump the powder out the shoot, and feed the rest out the feed tube... are the Lyman instructions over-cautious, or is the Chargemaster just that much easier to clean up?

http://www.lymanproducts.com/lyman/scales-measures/pdf/Gen5Manual.pdf
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[spectra]

Question why don't you go with the Gen 6 ? http://www.midwayusa.com/product/73...creen-powder-scale-and-dispenser-110-220-volt

 

[RyanG77]

I think the Gen 5 and Gen 6 are the same technology, it's just marketing. The main differences are that the "Gen 6" has a compact footprint it is a little cheaper, but it is missing many of the features of the Gen 5 unit, like manual trickle, auto trickle and load memory. I haven't ruled it out entirely...but for the price difference, I think I'd like to have all of the features in case I find them useful later. I think the "auto trickle" feature is the one that I would find the most useful. It allows you to dump most of the charge using a standard powder measure, then just trickle up to the target load, cutting dispense time considerably for larger loads.