I use the original Spombs , large and small,and they are "ok"...….. They do have to land nose first to get a good opening, so if you are hitting a clip quite hard they can sometimes land side on, and not open up. But I find that after a couple of casts to a spot, you can time it just right in most cases...… After watching a few vids, learned that you get a slightly better spread of bait with the Spomb,, compared to a spod, as it nose dives into the water and actually through the bait that just came out of it, the turbulence it causes just opens the pile of bait up a bit as it sinks...… The main problem I've had with the Spomb, is loading it. It's all too easy for a grain of hemp to slip in amongst the spring mechanism and jam it up, or leave it not quite locked up. and spill on the cast..... You just gotta make sure to be quite methodic when loading it, check the mechanism is working freely, and best to use a spoon or scoop and not dip it into a bucket of particle.. My other gripe with a Spomb, is that you can only half fill them, so if you are planning to put a bit of bait out, you could be spombing for quite a while. I'd have a spod on stand by if this was the case...…… I do like them though, they are more accurate imo than a spod, for me, at least and because they are never really full up, they are generally easier to handle, less spill, tidier swim, less rat food,that sort of thing....😊
Had my original spombs for 5 yrs plus, so yes , I'd say they are pretty reliable. There are a lot of cheaper versions out there 4 quid on the bay, not sure if they'd stand up to much abuse tbh, so could be a false economy imo.