Resin mixing gun questions, reccomendations?

I would encourage anyone buying spray equipment to go with Magnum Venus because parts and assistance are available anywhere comparatively easy.

I have never seen an account of any size use a Phoenix system, they may be OK, but they don't even have 1% of the market.

If you hire an experienced person to help you, and if they've ever worked with spray equipment, it will Magnum stuff.

Any local account that has spray equipment will be using Magnum, if they want to get ride of it you could have a complete duplicate system for parts.

 

10’8 beam
Center console. Console had a step down bed and head inside. We built 1 a week. Compsys/PRISMA stringer & bulkhead system.

to clarify ; bulkheads and stringer system installed in 45 to 75 minutes. 3 guys.

MVP Patriot 7:1 , Talon IC300S w/ VRC1000 chopper.

 

An unbiased review;
I visited Phoenix Spray Equipment recently on my way through Florida (hilariously, I showed up at their factory with another MVP MiniPro 11:1 strapped to a hitch basket mount).

Their operation is small. Their staff appears to be mostly family, with little to no turnover.

The fluid pumps are excellent. They’re very similar to the older MVP APS & HIS series fluid pumps, except the entire assembly is manufactured from 304 stainless steel instead of regular steel tubing. The takedown system is a thing of genius… the entire assembly is held together with detent pins. Removable in under a minute with no tools.

The stroke lengths on everything is very long. The Patriot has about a 2” stroke. Phoenix was 4”+ stroke length for most models, meaning, more output before reversing, meaning less wear and tear on packings.

Pricing varies, but in some cases, they annihilate MVP.

The fact that the 5000 spraygun can be set up as external OR internal mix is fantastic.

My only complaints;
Their sprayguns aren’t very ergonomic compared to the MVP Talon or Pro.

The spraygun needle design is a little outdated, but functional (to be fair, I’m still in love with the Venus rotary valve found on the “Pro Classic” spraygun).

Their reversing valves seem a little slow on some models, but it seems like their accumulators are sized properly to prevent material/initiator fluctuation? This needs some independent lab testing to verify the fluctuation, but I’m sure that they’re completely functional for 99.9% of users.

///

Do I recommend MVP? Yes.
Do I recommend Phoenix? Also yes.
Are both companies great at everything? No, they both have their niches.

My biggest gripe with MVP ; their pricing on parts is awful to sustain their massive customer service network. It’s absolutely a necessary evil, and I think they’ve been absolutely invaluable throughout my entire composites career.

Some of the custom work that Phoenix offers is absolutely amazing. I’m more than likely going to be purchasing a small 1:1 proportioner from them in the not too distant future.

between MVP and Phoenix, both companies are probably going to be getting about $75k of my money over the next 3 years for equipment. The only question is how I split it.

 

Thanks for the feedback on Phoenix. When in florida I went to a few builders that met and they used Phoenix guns. That's how I got exposure to them in the first place. They happened to be up here last summer and had the opportunity to interact with them. It does indeed seem to be a family outfit.

I'm a reluctant boat builder, namely doing projects in the winter on my own vessels. Likely averaging only about 20k-30k a year in core and resin purchases a year for the last 3 years. This next year it's likely to be about 5x that and that's why I'd like a resin mixing gun. Some products are just so time saving that it's worth having even over a short or single project.

My hesitancy is with composite 1 being the sole source of MVp products. I've not used them in some years as a supplier. I'm in the tween category. I purchased 6 drums and a pallet of coosa and cloth last year about double that in 19. But I'm not true commercial quantity, so service was blah at best. My current supplier has been very accommodating with the feast and famine cycle of my buying. Phoenix being small seems to have the same accommodation of those of us just above hobby but not truly commercial. C1 is on the list of companies that kinda rolled its eyes at me and seems to cater to the truly commercial crowd. That's fine, Its a business model that works small guys like me are a pita for sure. But I'd like to support the guys who specialize in facilitating the over the top hobbiest like myself.

KD thanks for the in depth feedback on the two systems.

 

View attachment 172993 A little history: Phoenix was started on a concept of building spray and dispense equipment from higher quality and less moving parts. Different from what was out there. How is it reasonable to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a small amount of parts you can hold in your hand? Why is equipment being machined to have higher part sales? Instead of making equipment in order to sell parts, we would build equipment to last. Not complicated, just simple. Just because you buy equipment doesn't mean you have to wait for an "expert" to come in and create downtime. Nothing you can't solve over the phone within minutes. It set us apart and business grew solely on word of mouth. To date, we have been manufacturing a wide variety of equipment for 20 + years and specialize in custom work. Building equipment is a passion of ours. Hearing from customers proves the concept that started this company. Reliable, higher quality, ease of maintenance and low replacement parts (orings/seals).
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