Hornady auto powder dispenser thoughts?

I have one that i dont use as much as i thought i would. It doesn’t do a bad job. You have to set the speed and the trickle start and it hardly ever over charges. I was lucky and got mine for $69 due to a mis print in a sales add that cabelas matched even after calling the other store and being told it was a mis print. Im not sure that i would pay full price for it though as i load mostly for handgun. I have read a lot of reviews of people having trouble with them but its been 5 years since i bought mine and no problems so far.

horsemen61 said:

Ok guys so the wife is wanting to get me one of these are they worth the money do they work good????

Do they over charge a lot?

Are they fast in operation?
Thanks for the info

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I have one and it is the only powder dispenser that I use and I really like mine. And Hornady stands behind their products, if you have any problems with their products they will send you a new one. Here's a video by Hornady on the unit.

Jack B. said:

Hornady stands behind their products, if you have any problems with their products they will send you a new one.

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I did not know they came with that kind of warranty. Lyman & RCBS just give a short warranty period on anything electronic.

I just recounted my personal experience in another thread this week. The short version, they are junk.

I have had 3 of them. The first had a computer failure at about 15months of service, just out of warranty. I foolishly bought another out of pocket. It had the same computer failure, but within warranty, so Hornady sent me a THIRD unit. The third unit had a drive motor or digital motor control failure, and locked up after about 18months of service.

Two other members in our state precision rifle club, out of 5 guys who have/had them, had the same computer failures.

There ARE lots of unfair reviews online where idiots can’t read their owner’s manual and don’t understand how to tune the trickle start timing, so they’ll say they over charge every throw. That’s a user error, and easily fixed.

The 3 failures I experienced within 18months of service with all 3 of my machines were NOT tuning errors. For my two units which had computer failures, the machines fault out at random; stop throwing mid-charge, won’t start the next charge, won’t STOP dispensing (pay attention and unplug it, before it runs a half pound of H4350 out on the bench), won’t respond to any commands. Unplugging and starting over would bring it back for a few throws, sometimes 50, sometimes 3. When my motor (or digital motor controller) went out in the 3rd unit, it was useless - no dispense, period.

I have had a Chargemaster on the bench for about 15yrs without fault. My second, additional Chargemaster has 5yrs without fault. I also have a Lyman with a few years on it before I bought it which has also been flawless (and actually faster and more precise than the RCBS’s).

I’m a huge Hornady fan, have over a hundred of their dies, have many other tools from them, and love my Ammo Plant, but the LNL Autocharge does not match their typical level of product quality.

Jack B. said:

Hornady stands behind their products, if you have any problems with their products they will send you a new one.

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Hornady does have great customer service, but do not be mislead by this statement.

The Hornady LNL AutoCharge has a 1yr warranty on electronics. Just like the RCBS and Lyman, and almost all other electronics in the shooting sports industry.

They only replaced ONE of my 3 Autocharge units, which died after only 8-9months, obviously within the 1yr warranty. The other two died at 15 and 18 months, Hornady would not replace them.

ETA: on the Warranty FAQ’s Page, Hornady spells out the 1yr warranty for electronic components, aka, the Autocharge.

Hornady Warranty Page for Electronic Reloading tools

I started out with one because that was the only reloading scale that I had access to. As a scale, it is okay, although mine seems to need frequent rezeroing. I found it to be obnoxiously slow, to the point where I would be using my turret press and waiting for the scale to finish measuring was the main time sink. If I tried to set the speed faster, it would overcharge frequently, especially with stick powders.
It looks like some people like them, but I have not used mine in years and even when I was still using it I just used it as a scale and used dippers to charge the pan. Not really fast, but still faster than the measure.

I have no experience with the Hornady unit. It is the first one I started looking at because of the price, but I saw enough negative videos on it to give me pause. I don't like the idea of having to put a straw into the trickler spout. I wound up with the RCBS Chargemaster Lite. It has a different design to the trickler, almost like rifling, and after one year of use it has yet to drop an over charge. I occasionally get an undercharge, but not too often. I have used it with IMR4350, H335, H110, and IMR4064 and it works well with those powders. This is the first and only electronic powder dispenser I have owned, so take that for what it is worth.

Hoopjj said:

I have one that i dont use as much as i thought i would. It doesn’t do a bad job. You have to set the speed and the trickle start and it hardly ever over charges. I was lucky and got mine for $69 due to a mis print in a sales add that cabelas matched even after calling the other store and being told it was a mis print. Im not sure that i would pay full price for it though as i load mostly for handgun. I have read a lot of reviews of people having trouble with them but its been 5 years since i bought mine and no problems so far.

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I have 2 of them that I run side by side. As stated you have to adjust the trickle start time and speed before you set the load weight or they will likely overthrow most charges. I paid $149 and $159 for mine and that was on sale. The RCBS one seems to be higher rated but they were at least $100 more. i use mine for all rifle loads.
Dom

Sorry some of you don't like them. If you take time to read the instructions it is adjustable to prevent over charges with powders that don't meter well. If you do end up with an over charge it gives you an audible signal and won't load the next charge until you reset it. Mine works great, been using it several times a week for 5 years. I'll admit I've never owned any of the other brands so I can't compare. They are not as fast as the non-electric powder measures that have a throw handle but the electronic units are extremely accurate.

Mine is about 4 years old. I bought it used for $50.00. When I bought it from the guy I asked him why he was selling it. He told me because it was always overcharging. When I looked at it I found he had it set on fast. I set it on slow and slowed down the trickle. Due to a recent argument, I brought mine in last night just to make sure it ran as well as I had stated. I ran 5 100 round runs and averaged 1 overcharge for each 100 round run. Now I remember I had averaged 2 to 3 overcharges when I was at my bench.

Now, The reason mine runs as well as it does is because 1. I like Hornady products and 2. I took the time getting it to run. (and I don't use a straw)

I didn't time mine but I think it averaged 30 sec. from start to finish.

Now, one more point: If you don't buy something for your reloading bench because of the negative reviews on YouTube, your bench will be called a table.

Why does anyone use a straw. I'm not sure I understand that. If some can fill me in on that , please do.

Had good luck with mine, will serve you well IF you read the instructions and set the buffer settings according to conditions and powder being used. I always start out calibrating and then check the first few throws against a beam scale. If it overcharged it will let you know with an audible alarm. I frequently use it on all my pistol charges, and 223/5.56. Larger rifle loads I don't do in mass, so I just trickle each round.

Why does anyone use a straw. I'm not sure I understand that. If some can fill me in on that , please do.

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I'm not sure I want to get into this,

I understand Verminator's frustrations and if I went through what he went through I would feel the same way.
RCBS came out with their Charge Masters and they were always overcharging also. Some ingenious person discovered that by putting a short straw in the end of the discharge spout it ran a whole lot better and didn't over charge near as much.

Charge Masters ran pretty good with this Mod.

They also had a memory for your recipes that Hornady Auto Charges didn't have. But some of them started failing and RCBS stopped making them themselves. Now they are made in China and a member that bought one said the nitric acid in the powder eats right into the plastic and embeds itself and can't be cleaned out because they are not chemical resistant any more.

I have no idea and I have no reason to doubt him than I have to doubt Verminator's experience.

I use my Auto Charge for difficult to meter powders and for short test runs and everything else gets ran through my Hornady measure on my AP press.
My Auto Charge seems to be pretty good. It's about four years old and runs good as long as I'm not wearing my cell phone. I can put it 6' away and it runs normal.

Lyman makes one also and it has some complaints but to me they are only minor. No major failures that I heard about on this forum.
The people that have the original RCBS Charge Masters that still are in good working conditions have a good machine. The new ones, I have not even seen one and have no experience with them.
I'm just answering your question.

People used the straw because certain powders either overcharged, or didn't meter well. A lot of that was on the powder. For instance, Varget powder is sometimes a little hard to use because it clumps together, do to what I call webbing (kinda looks like it's caught up in a spider web) that is a result of the manufacturing process. I find it's helpful to stir the powder before adding it to the hopper to break it up. Straw was useful more for stick powders if I remember right.

People used the straw because certain powders either overcharged, or didn't meter well. A lot of that was on the powder. For instance, Varget powder is sometimes a little hard to use because it clumps together, do to what I call webbing (kinda looks like it's caught up in a spider web) that is a result of the manufacturing process. I find it's helpful to stir the powder before adding it to the hopper to break it up. Straw was useful more for stick powders if I remember right.

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All true!
As I remember the straw was a quick, cheap fix and it worked very well. I would have bought the RCBS if I could have afforded it even knowing that. I could barely afford the Hornady Autocharge at the time and I got it on sale for $159.00. I've been using it ever since and mine always works. Don't know for how long, but for now it is working fine. That's what you deal with on electronics. It's a crap shoot. You get a good ones or you get bad ones.
Don't put all your faith in electronic anything.
Always have an old fashioned balance beam scale sitting in the back round because when all else fails, it will always work unless the force of gravity changes. Then we are all SOOL.

tightgroup tiger said:

All true!
As I remember the straw was a quick, cheap fix and it worked very well. I would have bought the RCBS if I could have afforded it even knowing that. I could barely afford the Hornady Chargemaster at the time and I got it on sale for $159.00. I've been using it ever since and mine always works. Don't know for how long, but for now it is working fine. That's what you deal with on electronics. It's a crap shoot. You get a good ones or you get bad ones.
Don't put all your faith in electronic anything.
Always have an old fashioned balance beam scale sitting in the back round because when all else fails, it will always work unless the force of gravity changes. Then we are all SOOL.

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Yeah, never had to use the straw. I've had good luck with the Hornady, the interference factor can play in though. Cells phones, temperature, the slightest breeze, etc. The secret is still to learn how to adjust the buffer though. I like it because I'm OCD about loading and have to weigh every charge, and oversee that each load has powder before I seat a bullet. Like you said, your rolling the dice on anything electronic though.

Just to through my experience with the RCBS Chargemaster lite over the past year. Found it on sale at Cabela's for a good price. My original one did not throw accurate charges, the zero floated all over the place and would not stabilize. Called RCBS customer service and they asked a couple of questions (my diagnostics helped speed things up) and authorized a return and exchange. I have always had good luck with RCBS customer service. Few days later a new one arrived in the brown truck. This one worked exactly as I had hoped immediately. I use it for my precision rifle loads weighing each one and verifying on a Ohaus 10-10 that was accurized and is dead on. Over the past year I have thrown thousands of rounds without issue. As others have said read and understand the manual, do not use in breezy areas (fans in summer, heater blowers, etc.) and it works well. Let it warm up, calibrate after warm up and watch and maintain the zero. Mine doesn't drift hardly at all at operating tempature over hundreds of rounds.

Of course some powders work better than others; if it is a hard to meter powder you may be off a tenth of so. I use mostly stick and ball powders and have had great success.

I love it for weighing each precision load and also use it extensively for load workups when I need to throw 3-10 of each of several loads at a specific weight. It works great as for this and is much faster than using the Ohaus and trickle charger.

I've never needed a straw. I just make adjustments to the unit to overcome any metering issues. Its made to be adjustable so you don't have to use other tools. Just have to know how to adjust it.

I have had my CM1500 for 3 yrs now. I have 2 neighbors who bought the Hornady one and both had to return them for warranty repair in less than 1 month after purchase. The replacements have not had any issues to my knowledge.

I use a brass insert instead of a plastic straw. The plastic straw seams to have a issue with static from time to time. The straw/brass allows the dispenser to weight the powder without going over due to 3 kernels falling at one time make you over shoot without changing the parameters in the scale/dispenser to slow it down. I also found if you just restrict the inlet helps a lot so the can not stack up to start with. I have just a 3/16" hole in my brass straw insert, this has worked good for me. Most of these are threaded on the end. There is a guy on eBay that sales inserts that screw in into the drop tube, with different size openings.

Mine may be two years old, used for rifle loads. I am content with it.

I use the scale on it when setting up the LnL powder drop for handgun or the Mec 600 Jr. for shotgun shells. No problems.

I picked up the Hornady Lock-n-Load Auto Charge for a decent price at the local PSA, I think 25% off marked price. I'm using it regularly and like it.

As others have said, you can set throw speed, trickle speed and how many grains short of target weight when it switches from throwing to trickling. I set to medium throw speed, switch to trickle 1-1.5 grains short of target and a slower trickle speed. I then check the charge on an RCBS 5-0-2 for precision loads but not for plinking ammo.

I occasionally get an overthrow but only one out of 20 or 30. I put it on the balance scale and pick a couple granules out. No big deal. The longer stick powders are more predisposed to overcharges. I didn't get any with pistol ball powders but I switched back to metering those, I just wanted to try it out.

I think the reason some people rig a straw and the cause of most overcharges is because the threads inside the throw tube are standard right hand and it revolves counter clockwise from standing in front of it, meaning the threads are drawing the powder back in until it lets several go. I had 10-15% overthrows at first until I learned what settings to use.

I also had frequent overthrows and drift when I first set it up until I saw the curtains moving. I shut off the AC and put the cell phone in the next room and got much more consistent results. I have incandescent lights in the reloading room, not florescent. I've heard that can cause trouble.

On precision loads where I check against the balance beam scale, most throws are between 3-4 granules of exact. By the time I trickle a few in or pick a couple out and dump it into the case, the next one is waiting. Once I've determined optimum charge weight centered within a node, a couple granules is not going to trouble me. If you're as OCD with charge weights of all loads as I am with precision loads and will always use a trickler, just use a metered thrower for speed. If +/- 0.1 grains is good enough, go ahead and let her get you an auto dispenser.

No experience with any of them but researched a lot and if I get one, it will be the Chargemaster Lite.
Clear winner in the "Best bang for the buck" catagory. Although I am working on my own auto trickle charger for my beam scale first.