Before all the secondhand news from Toy Fair kicks in, I thought I’d try to get out some reviews of the newest pressurized water blasters this season. Hasbro is content with piston-type blasters for the Super Soaker line; this leaves smaller competitors the chance to shine with high-performance, budget-friendly blasters. In the case of Zuru, that means the Xshot Pressure Jet.
A Different Feel
Regardless of the plastic feel, the blaster as a unit feels solid, with plenty of room for your dominant hand. The shoulder rest molded into the back of the reservoir is adequate.
Naturally, you should always depressurized your blaster before refilling the reservoir. Not doing so may result in a blast of air to the face, if not a the cap.
Blaster Performance
The Pressure Jet holds 1360mL in the reservoir, as advertised. Shot times, however, are highly dependent on the reservoir level and the air pressure levels. Early shots will require fewer pumps for full strength, but have shorter duration. Medium to low reservoir levels will require lots of pumping for the same pressure, but will result in shot times easily exceeding half a minute. It’s just the nature of pressurized reservoirs this size. The small nozzle, of course, favors shot time over shot power. The thin stream is very consistent, however, nearly to the end of its range.
In terms of ranges, I was hitting 35′ with angled shots and quite a few pumps. The longest duration shots stayed at this distance for several seconds, and even after were hitting 25′-30′ for quite a while until the pressure dropped.