I have the SideCar Matrix(Hydrabomb) and it works phenomenal. I have a Mobius Matrix Ion and the pull is remarkably on par. The slits in the Hydratube version are diagonal to throw the splash in the opposite direction of the mouthpiece. Even with Cranberry Extract the splash never reaches my lips.
The angle of the slits to the mouthpiece is also good, but I've been talking the intake being not very high above the water level. So it could easily overflow down by blowing into it, or even stopping your hit or lifting the tube from a hydrafoot quickly, or just by tilting it. Yes, there is that umrella guard, but the bottom chamber should stay dry. For two reasons:
1) It gets messy and steamy - looks and tastes bad. Steam in your hit can make you cough badly.
2) When there's already water it can't catch more.
So the overflowing should really be a rare occurence by user's fault, should not happen regularly.
Both my tubes can overflow to the bottom if and only if someone blows into them.
The female joint has a new recessed area to avoid joint lock.
How does this work? I know the male joint on Cloud is sligthly asymetrically ground so it doesn't easily lock and could be unlocked by rocking it back and forth. How does this work with a HT? If the same thing was done with the female joint, it could actually fit better and could lock easier.