Growing Gel Balls - Achieving Consistent Results
Gel balls are the one constant for all players in our hobby, however most players find from different brands, batches & packet grows they can be wildly inconsistent. This is true for both veteran and new players. This blog post is our attempt to provide an informative and an easy to digest guide on how to achieve the best grow with your gels, with explanation as to why we’ve come to these conclusions or just a concise here you go do this option as well, depending on how you want to look at the problem. So if you want a short version, look to the end of this post for our recommended growth method specifically for Summercat gels in a best case scenario.
Growing Gels
The long version of the best method to get gel balls growing the same every time and consistently is controlling the variables in which the balls grow.
Brand. Every brand has a different level of consistent quality and this can also come down to each shipment batch the gels are created in and that is consistent for every brand. So the first thing you need to quantify is the quality of the batch you are working with. The recommended solution to this issue is buying one bag of a current batch, test it to make sure they grow as expected. Then buy in bulk from a single batch so you know that every bag you grow from that batch should grow the same under the same conditions.
Water Quality. This is a big one that many people don’t consider. Water quality plays a vital role in the gel ball growing process, impacting the size, consistency, and overall quality of the hydrated gel balls. Using the right type of water can significantly improve your results and ensure optimal performance in your gel blaster.
Tap Water. If cost or availability is a concern the next option is tap water, but it is worth noting home to home, suburb to suburb this can change older pipes will contain more contaminants. The best way to control this variable factor is to use a TDS Meter. While this won’t tell you what is in your water, it can tell you how contaminated it is. Generally speaking a reading of 90 PPM or higher is not recommended for use with gels (distilled water will read zero). An alternative to tap water is bottled water. While not as good as distilled water, it should have a consistently lower PPM level brand to brand.
Old Gel Water/Rain Water. If at all possible, avoid previously used water or rain water. During the growing process gels do shed some chemicals into the water they are growing in and thus, will affect gel growth going forward for the same reason that contaminated water will.
Temperature. Water temperature plays a crucial role in the rate and consistency of gel ball expansion. While room temperature water generally works well, slight adjustments can help fine-tune the process for optimal results. Warm water accelerates the absorption process, leading to faster growth however, excessively hot water can cause the gel balls to disintegrate or become too soft. Cold water slows the expansion process, requiring longer soaking times. Beyond the rate of expansion, temperature also influences the gelation process at a molecular level. A decrease in gelation temperature slows down the calcium diffusion rate within the gel balls, resulting in a more regular internal structure and increased rupture strength. This means that gel balls grown at lower temperatures may be more durable and less prone to breaking.
Water Volume. Volume of water to gel growth is the final major factor. While no real consensus exists on the best ratio of gel to water, the one constant is that you need enough water to grow the gels at a minimum. A general rule of thumb is to use about 500ml of water for every 10g of dry gel balls.
Soaking Time. Allow adequate soaking time for the gel balls to fully hydrate. Most gel balls require 3-4 hours, but some may need up to 6 hours or overnight soaking. The required soaking time can also vary depending on the type of gel ball (super soft vs. harder) and their size. Super soft gel balls tend to absorb water faster, while harder gel balls may require longer soaking times. Similarly, smaller gel balls with a higher surface area-to-volume ratio will hydrate faster than larger gel balls.
Water Stirring. The longer the grow time the more chance the gels will have to shed contaminates into the water which will settle in the bottom of the bottle right next to your gels, so every hour or so it's recommended to agitate the water, move it around this will also help stop some gels from sitting at the bottom the entire time vs the ones on the top of the gels which will have different grow rates due to differing factors in exposure to the water.
What all this rambling on gels and water comes down to is the simple factor that controlling all the factors and keeping them consistent will provide a consistent growth of gels game to game, packet to packet.
Storing Hydrated Gels
Proper storage is essential to maintain the quality and longevity of your hydrated gel balls. After soaking for your allotted time, drain your gels as best you can, store them in an airtight container to prevent evaporation and shrinkage. Keep the container in a cool, dark place, away from direct sunlight and heat sources, to prevent degradation and maintain their hydration levels.
Our Recommendation
So here we come to the simple part, what do we recommend you do? For one batch of Summercat Hardened Gels, which is currently our standard gel:
Two bags of gels 5L of distilled water
Grown for five hours in fridge cold water and stored in a fridge
Bottle stored on its side to spread out the gels as much as possible and flipped every hour
Drained and stored in an airtight water bottle.
For us, this resulted in gels grown to 7.3mm with a consistency of 97% and 1 single overgrow. This method produced a batch of acceptably hardened gels which ran in:
LDT G36
DB HK416
Rhino Revolver
AW P320
WM GBBR (Gen 1 Magazine)
Cyma Scar
A&K M249/MK46/M60
EMG (Azraels release) TTI 2011.
E&C G17/19x Variants
(All GBB used Red warwolf gas)
All of these had no failures and also continued to run 8 weeks later from a WM GBBR with warwolf black without failures. Going forward, this is the standard we will be using for growing gels while following our guide above for new batches to possibly adjust grow times depending on the sizes we need to have.
What you can take away from this is that you can swap out any of the suggested steps with alternatives, but you need to take account of them and test.
Grow. Your. Gels.
So you know the results you will produce while keeping your method consistent from grow to grow.