Hornady Auto Charge Pro Powder Measure - Precise Powder Measuring and Dispensing, Accurate to 0.1 Gain - Features Customizable Trickle Speeds, Back-Lit Touch Screen and Built-In Bubble Level

This is really a five start but Hornady being the outstanding company they are could have put just a little more in to it. Like feet that you can adjust for proper leveling, maybe being able to use the key pad to store loading information and having a longer drain tube would be nice. But this is just my humble opinion. I am glad I have it. Saves me a lot of time. I highly recommend this products.Well this is my 5th year with my Lock N Load scale. Still working. Maybe even better so here comes the Fifth star. I still hate the Drain Tube. Made for tiny fingers and rubber feet would be nice. But overall worth every penny.10-03-2020Replacing the Hornady Auto Charger SN 52326 with the New Hornady Auto Charge Pro.I bought the Auto Charge in 2015 and absolutely could count on the amount of powder it was dispensing, granted it did take me awhile to learn how to tune it so I would not be in an overcharged mode. This is a finely tuned instrument and as all finely tuned instrument’s you need to have the patience to tune it. You need to learn the curve for the dispensing of different powders, example fine or coarse, flake or ball. But once you have this curve figured out the rest is all downhill.4.1 grains, Titegroup with 124 grain RMR FMJRN Bullets in a P320 M18Just recently I started having problems with the fps with my 9mm coming in at a very low speeds on my Caldwell Chonograph, also some of my casing not ejecting from the pistol. A good friend said “I think you are having low charge issues.” No, that is impossible my Hornady is always right on. So I started pulling bullets from their case using my RCBS Bullet Puller. My results were very disappointing. With my Target weight of 4.2, I was seeing loads as low as 3.2 to 4.2 never finding any greater than 0.1 gains over Target.This led me to the testing of the Auto Charge compared to the RCBS Beam Scale. Calibrating with the provided weights on the Hornady were dead on or the placement of a known weight onto the load cell were also dead on. What the heck is going on?The problem is when I set a Target weight. For some reason the Hornady program is capturing the Target Value while dispensing the powder and seeing it as the Measured Value. The green light comes on and it beeps that the load is complete showing the Target weight as the measured weight. I found this by leaving the pan with the powder on the load cell, push the Back/Cancel button to cancel the Target weight. The value on the read out would change to the actual measured value also by pushing the Dispense button again. The measured value appears and it resumes dispensing to the Target Value.All I can think of is we got hit with a power bump and that somehow scrambled the program. Not sure what else would have caused this.Sorry for the long rating but if you want to know why I am buying a new one this is why. Plus I am getting the latest and greatest. I am also powering this new Auto Charge Pro to a battery back-up to prevent this from happening again. If it does you folks will be the first ones to know. With all of this said the Load Cell on the old Auto Charge is as accurate as day one.

Very precise and easy to use.

Perfect the weight and everything works. Great you just cannot have your cell phone anywhere near it because of the magnetism in it.

I want to love this, but it's got some flaws. Right off, when it works, its nearly perfect. I get one overcharge in maybe 20-30. I double check occasionally with a balance beam and the charges don't vary once set by any appreciable amount. Mine is fast enough to not make me wait most of the time. So it's fast and very accurate in use. I calibrate after a 10 minute warm up every time. I also tend to make 50 rds then change the charge, and the unit has no trouble with that.Problem 1. The material of the thing is reactive with smokeless powder. The manual mentions that the clear portion of the reservoir will react with smokeless and that you should drain down any powder below the level of the clear when you're finished. While this is true, it's also true that the rest of the plastic in the unit is also reactive and smokeless powder will fuse into the plastic in a day or two. I found this out the hard way. So, ignore the recommendation and entirely drain the thing every use. Don't think ( like I did ) that I'll be back tomorrow to finish this, there won't be a problem. Drain it completely every time.Problem 2. No easy way to drain the powder. The unit has a spigot on the side with a half turn valve that works ok. The issue is that the powder generates static electricity as it slides across the plastic of the unit, and it tends to stick to the plastic. The drain is a pipe that's connected to a depression in the bottom of the unit. The drain has a non-removable cap that twists to open/close the drain. Its not really possible to get all the powder out of the tube without using compressed air and making a mess. Powder that isn't removed fuses with the plastic making the surface coarse and rough, meaning it's harder to clean every time. If the cap was removable, you could run a pipe cleaner down it, and not have to make a mess every time.Problem 3. It stops working when the shop is warm. If the ambient temperature in the shop is greater than 76 degrees F, the unit will run for a while, generally around half an hour, before simply not activating the charge motor. The unit continues to function without any indication of problems. In fact I can continue to use the scale, I can hand trickle powder into the bowl, and it will beep when I hit the correct weight, or error when I overcharge. But it will not activate the motor. The warmer it is in the shop, the faster it disables itself. It acts like there's a overtemp sensor on the charge motor that trips but doesn't alert the user in any way. I can power the unit off, blow some air over it, and it will begin working again within 45 minutes. At 76F it appears to not overheat, and I can use the machine for hours ( and I have to so I can make up for the time I can't use it ) If it is an overtemp, there should DEFINITELY be an alert, beep or LED blink... SOMETHING! Just cutting the charge motor off with no other indication... bad form! It stops in the middle of a charge sometimes! I dinged a star for this behavior, but it's really frustrating sometimes.This unit makes reloading a great experience when it is working properly. I have 100% confidence that I'm not overcharging loads, even dinky 9mm min loads within 0.02gn all day long. It's a great time saver compared to manual trickling these loads. BUT I cannot reload in the summer using it, since I have a shop that's not climate controlled. The selection of plastic that's not impervious to smokeless is a fairly big oversight IMO, but technically you should be emptying the hopper every time anyhow, so it's not a real big deal. Maybe I shouldn't be reloading when it's 80F in my shop. There should be something telling me that, not just disabling the drive motor without explanation.