Sprit Progressive Springs

Was curious if anyone has tried the new progressive springs and what you think.

I just got some 72g progressive springs in, and put them in a zealio and an MX black. The “progressiveness” isn’t as pronounced as I would have guessed, but its more obvious in the mx black.

The zealio feels a little lighter than its stock 67g spring, until the literal bottom, where they’re about even. But the progressive spring gives more travel before the bump so may swap them in anyway because its kinda a cool and unique feeling

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I haven’t heard of them yet, sounds pretty cool though! So what are these like the springs in MX clears & Halos where they ramp up in weighting towards the bottom out? I’d like to give them a try but Spirit products are a tough sell for me, since there is some controversy with how he got his business started. I try to avoid buying his products because of that, but AFAIK he is the only source for aftermarket ALPS & BOX springs right now. I guess you could add these progressive springs to that too.

Yeah that’s the idea, they’re lighter around actuation and then ramp up quickly towards bottom out. Same idea as the halos, although these are offered in much lighter weights and they only go as high as 78g bottom out right now . I suspect they won’t be anywhere close to Halo True weight (maybe close to Halo Clear tho).

Hadn’t heard of that controversy, but I’m newer to the hobby. I know there were a lot of unfulfilled orders in the past, but I had no issues just now.

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I didn’t want to support Sprit, but I’ll fess up to the fact that I recently bought some S and P series springs from him to compare. Curiosity got the best of me, and it could still be a while until Catweewee’s are in stock.

feels a little lighter than its stock 67g spring, until the literal bottom, where they’re about even

Yeah I think this is how it’s supposed to be:

58 S (Actuation 48cN) - Special Edition. In between MX Reds and Blues with bouncier bottom out [Rapid Fire Edition]
58 P (Actuation 42cN) - Progressive rate version. Arrived on Oct 19. World Premier [Rapid Fire Progressive Edition]

The actuation seems to be about 5cN lighter for the P. The graph that’s on the website to demonstrate the spring difference is…misleading. Arbitrarily using Haata’s box black graph, it’s probably more like this.

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Relevant information concerning Sprit. I’ve seen nothing to date to indicate that any of these past grievances have been resolved. Because of this I personally choose not to buy from him even when he might have stuff I’m interested in, and I won’t buy his products from vendors that choose to stock them.

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I find the appeal of springs that actively cushion on the bottom great.
but i won’t buy from him for the reason @donutcat posted.

How is that concept different the the springs on the halo clear?

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That’s the reason a lot of people flat out refuse to buy his products, he basically used his first few independent GBs as start up money & still has yet to refund or fulfill the outstanding orders from them. As for nowadays I don’t know about ordering directly from him but I assume he cleaned up his act a bit since there are a good deal of reputable vendors that sell his products.

For me it’s more of a principal thing than worries about getting ripped off as to why I try to avoid buying his products. Given the choice I would rather not support someone who has taken advantage of our fellow community members. Although I won’t lie, I have bought a few batches of his springs before I knew about how he got started & recently caved in for a pack of his ALPS springs from mechanicalkeyboards.com.

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Where does Catweewee sell his/her products at? I have heard the name a lot lately & would much rather support someone who doesn’t have their name mired in controversy. Although I have not seen Catweewee’s products being sold on any of the sites I frequently buy parts from. Ever since I’ve learned about Spirit’s shady start I have just double checked that any springs I’ve bought were not from him (except the Spirit 70cn ALPS springs I bought recently from mechanicalkeyboards.com, I saw no other alternative there unfortunately so I caved & bought a pack :disappointed:) .

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CWW springs are only on switchmod.net afaik. Anyone else have a reliable vendor for good tolerance springs? This part if the market seems woefully underserved. I know the usual set of Chinese springs exists all over Aliexpress.

@Ibexlord You are right that the concept is the same, but the method is different. Cushion is basically just the differenence between the actuation point and bottom out; the greater the difference, the more cushion. Halo springs have steep linear slopes to achieve this. (At least that’s my educated guess for various reasons). They start low and end high. To create the same cushion with an exponential curve, the initial force doesn’t have to be as low.

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Cool, thanks for the heads up! I have used switchmod a few times but have never bought springs through them, looks like that’s where I’ll be headed for my MX springs needs in the future. Still need to find a reliable vendor for good ALPS & BOX springs though. I believe @mgsickler is planning on selling aftermarket BOX springs in the near future at Novelkeys, hopefully they have good tolerances & are compatible with ALPS.

I am in a similar situation - I found out about SPRiT’s reputation, but at the same time CWW springs were sold out on switchmod (and SPRiT springs have a tremendous reputation unlike their namesake). Aside from switchmod - Mehkee and Originative both stock/carry SPRiT’s springs.

I feel like we need to flag down Nathan Kim! Get in touch with 4H and see if he can run an international group buy for the springs that he ran in Korea :slight_smile: I know I would definitely be in for at least 200 in each of the two weights he offered.

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To be honest, I have not known about his reputation, but I made an order a week ago.
It’s already shipped so I guess that everything went smooth. I will let you know when I get the package.

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I received my 72g and 78g progressive springs on Saturday and I’ll be playing around with them this week. Pretty excited to see how they are. He does not that they usually will feel a bit on the lighter side compared to the same non-progressive weighted spring and this lighter feeling persists until near the end where the weight increases at a much more progressive rate.

I’m excited to see how that effects the bottom out feel. Mechanically, I think linears will see the most impact with these springs, but I’m not totally ruling out the potential of some interesting tactile shenanigans just yet.

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Thank you so very much for posting this… I’m new to the community, and I had no idea. I just purchased the P springs in three weights, and now that I know this, I’ll never be ordering from Sprit again. I will watch closely the tracking info for my current order, and if they come close to when a chargeback will prove difficult, I’ll just issue it rather than give any benefit of doubt.

People who do this are toxic to communities, and should be shamed publicly, and have their market removed as everyone identifies them as a fraud… I hope that happens here.

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Unfortunately it is unlikely in this case. This has been widely known for quite awhile, but providers of quality springs for mechanical switches are very few & far between. Especially anyone who is bringing something other than bog stock MX springs. I wouldn’t worry about your order not getting fulfilled, it seems Spirit has been on the straight & narrow since he got his start up cash from his first couple GBs. Although I personally still believe he shouldn’t be supported because of how he got his start. Hopefully Catweewee & others start providing similar spring options.

Just got my package with some other samples. :+1:

I just built a board with 78g progressive springs coupled with some pole-clipped Kailh Pro Burgundy stems in MX housings. I agree with the above that these feel a fair bit lighter than a regular 78g spring and the weight doesn’t really kick in until near the end of the press. Using them with a higher-actuation stem like the Burgundy makes the switches feel almost like Speed switches, but the increasing resistance makes it pretty easy to not bottom out, too.

Seconded that an alternative supplier would be nice to have in the community!

I was in a chat with Sprit and they confirmed that for the proper force curve, the tighter coiled side of the spring should be facing up (towards stem). I also saw this somewhere on the website recently, which made me ask, but can’t find where now.

Just wanted to share. I think I had them the other way on one of the Zealio builds which is since disassembled.

I ordered some of the v1.2’s which are supposed to be more exaggerated

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Finally got to try some SPRiT progressive springs. I tried 63.5P, 65P, 68P, and 72P in Holy Pandas. Some observations:

  • no significant change in bottom-out force.
  • significant change in bump feel. more wiggle, on the way down as well as up, that feels pleasant.

I liked the extra wiggle progressive springs adds to Holy Panda but can’t say whether their effect will same in other switches. 68P felt the best to me so I’m going to try a full board next.

UPDATE: I also tried with springs upside down (tighter part at bottom) and result was pretty similar, more wiggle.

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So I’ve done more testing with half of home row using 68P springs and noticed that progressives springs are noticeably less snappy in use, a big negative for me. Given that extra wiggle is less noticeable while in use, I am having second thoughts about trying a full board of these.

Oh, yeah. This is with tighter end on top.

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