Cherry-picking the Aqua Kings
Edit:
The smooth ones are really smooth and the bad ones are really bad, but there’s also quite a few in “iffy” territory.
Maybe just a bit too much lube, maybe not enough, just a bit of foreign grit, or a small bit of flash causing friction. More or less those seem salvageable but wouldn’t be my first choice.
The “bad” ones don’t seem salvageable; either obviously too tight or lots of friction, or maybe very excessive lube - either way, they don’t seem worth fiddling with to me.
So, of 142* switches:
- 18 bad ones
- 51 in various states of “meh?”
- 73 good, or at least good enough
*hey cool, a couple extra
Conclusion for the evening:
These switches are quite a bit more inconsistent than average and as such I probably wouldn’t recommend them universally. On the other hand, a switch and/or keeb enthusiast that doesn’t mind a little over-buying and cherry-picking may find these a worthy pursuit.
These really do strike me as a switch enthusiast’s switch; though I think they could also enjoy a small place at the table when it comes to commission-built high-end customs.
The good ones in the batch really are quite good, and straight out of the bag, too - but if you are buying these as pre-lubed switches, do keep in mind you’ll want a large buffer for rejects.
Now, if you plan to clean and re-lube these yourself, I think you’ll end up with far fewer rejected switches - but still more than from any more typical batch. I still think they have that in common with most of the UHMWPE stems out there - truly above average potential, but a far below average rate of reaching it.
I’m very interested to see how Gateron’s attempts at both all-clear switches and UHMWPE stems stack up to the rest.