AEA HP 4500 MAX 357 RELEASED TOO EARLY- BE AWARE OF SAFETY + LIABILITY Issues!

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liveasyouwill

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Aug 20, 2019
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WASHINGTON, United States
AEA HP MAX .357 - MANY ISSUES.... from No Bolt Lock/Hold for Pellet Probe to folding stock falling apart repeatedly, now a massive AIR gushing leak.... and so much more fun. I have owned and dealt witrh around 36 DIFERENT Air Rifles PCPs and yet to have such a conundrum, even with Hatsan!!!!

Two weeks into my AEA.... and much more than just this... all the fun in trying to get the latest and greatest...

I have a yet another problem with new AEA HP MAX .357 , less than two weeks owned-buyer remorse.... My AEA .HP MAX .357 arrived, after three week UPS delay, with a broken gauge, 'New In Box' / Bin Tac shipped same day, UPS had Storm delays, nearing 14 DAYS, potentially ruining gauge??? As a workAround, I used the GreatWhite ExpertHPA and the Guppy tanks which have very accurate gauges. I never filled them over 4.3k psi either.

When i attach my ExpertHPA Guppy 4500(only aired to 4.3k psi) to fill/release pressure, it will NOT un-tether or stop draining, or come out of gun probe port. without force. then the fill probe, it is PULLED with force, and entire gun drains, it was at 4200psi fill clear down to near empty. I tried this three times, to fill after silicon to oRings on the fill probe applied, and then re-inserted, and tried again, after refilling my ExpertHPA ‘Guppy’ -slow-valve fill. What would cause all the tank on NP MAX to drain, rapidly, after having to forcefully pull out probe? i cannot find any parts diagram to see where a lock-up might be happening. any suggestions??? ASIDE FROM returning!??

then, as this is my 2nd AEA, i know to pay close attention to the Magazines. However, both Challenger BP 25, and this .357 HP MAX, the lens literally EXPLODED in face. It was not a one time thing, it was not just one model. It was two models and two types of magazines with HIGHLY -UNSAFE cheap poly-clear lens. Currently, i have around 36 PCP rifles i have owned/traded/returned. NEVER has a poly cover BLOWN UP. Good thing i HEARD this may happen, and i wore safety glasses. The bolt design, it must be FORCED AND HELD BACK, in order top prevent it engaging, then there is the fact there is no notch for the .357 Hammerspring to be RETAINED and held in position. The magazines repeatedly fell OUT of the breach, while cycling, and even a video showing that bolt is down and EXPLODED the Magazine. this should not have been released. YET. it is powerful and it is accurate. it is NOT SAFE.


 
In my opinion, damn near every gun AEA makes is released way too early! I bought the AEA HPBP semi-auto in .25 cal, and even the reviewers were having issues with them. I sold it at a heavy loss.

Just think about the number of airguns they released in 2021 alone. I bet you may be hard up to get parts for some of those guns a year from now. 

Better off spending your money with Benjamin, and get their five year warranty.


 
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Sounds like the check valve is stuck open. Pulling the probe out under pressure is probably not a great idea.

My 909s check valve does this on rare occasions, but it goes out in the cold and stuff too, so not entirely unexpected. I bump it with the heel of my palm or a rubber mallet a couple times, and always seems to work fine after that.

I've seen waayyyy too many issues with AEA to ever want to own one tho. Poor design, rushed to market, and triggers that would make me want to break throw it away after the first magazine. 
 
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I've only owned a couple of AEA products, a 357 Terminator (too much power for me) and currently a .30 SS Plus. Both semiauto, both worked fine for the few hundred shots I put through them. And what a deal they were compared to my just sold .30 Leshiy 2.

All that really shows is that I happened to get a couple of the good ones, both brand new, which actually worked as advertised under a modest amount of usage. I suppose that the bigger question would be average percentage of a particular airgun model's failure and repair rate, followed by their repair service options. When we used to order a few hundred new big-name brand PCs at my last job we'd consistently get 3% to 5% needing repairs due to failure of different components with the first year. Acceptable? We had no choice but to go with the big vendor, and their products usually worked as advertised. And when something broke we often got replacement part in the mail the next day.

For the most part we're going to keep getting airguns which are drop-shipped directly from manufacturers without a good quality testing, that keeps costs down and customers often demand that. Where the airgun business model tends to fail is when the vendor from which an airgun is purchased isn't able to directly provide replacement parts or a fast service option. That's exactly why some of us are the proud owners of a broken airgun acting as an 8 lb paper weight. It just isn't worth the cost and hassle of trying to fix the thing, sent it back a couple of times for repairs already and the replacements don't work either etc.

I've never needed to use AEA repair service, though Zachary who sold me the Terminator was always very quick to reply to e-mails and offers repair service.

Is there a point to this meander? I don't happen to own Hatsans because I've read so many bad things about them but there are probably many thousands of satisfied owners. And if I bought one chances are that I'd get a good one. I like my AEA SS+ in .30 and would like to try the 45 when it finally comes out in semiauto - their semiauto kit for some of their other single action models works between some models. But I am also willing to let a couple hundred first buyers report any common problems in the model. AEA has been redesigning and moving new products into the market very quickly and the performance (especially semiauto) vs price equation is in their favor.

By this time next year I'd expect a V2 of AEA's new 2022 45 which has some of the growing pains worked out. Whatever happens with the particular model, AEA is one of the companies which is prodding the industry to advance technically or to risk being left behind.



JP


 
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I have designed new mags for the .357 AEA HP. I had a customer send me a factory unit. OMG...the quality of the AEA mags in grossly terrible. Mine are made from PETG and soon to be back in a customer's hands for further testing on my design. 

The bolt or cover countersink and terribly inaccurate and way out of spec in my mind

.
20220121_133253.1643614259.jpg


20220121_133308.1643614268.jpg

 
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I have designed new mags for the .357 AEA HP. I had a customer send me a factory unit. OMG...the quality of the AEA mags in grossly terrible. Mine are made from PETG and soon to be back in a customer's hands for further testing on my design. 

The bolt or cover countersink and terribly inaccurate and way out of spec in my mind.
Click to expand...

Is that a prototype? You seem to be having an under extrusion problem in the last pic.
 
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heavy-impact/ 

its not under extruding. that recess area has a support as it gets printed and its not giving the cleanest release that it should. trying to get the setting tweaked in as I have been fighting the support releasing on all sorts of different prints. I run a bltouch on my ender 3 pro. so this are as they should be.
Click to expand...

Have a look at the QIDI version of Cura, I like it better than Cura https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s7TyUp9k1e6_-XZJKeA4KanktKGOhGHG/
 
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I'm sorry for the difficulties with the gun. I had one of your difficulties, the magazine. My magazine shattered also in 18 degree weather. Other than that, the gun has been very nice for me. I like much more than my AEA Challengers. After I tuned it for a 230bar fill and am getting three shots of 830fps, 840, 825 that are nearly touching at 75yards, I can't expect much more from a $600 gun

I have bought two magazines from dannya1a. I'll test them and let everyone know how they do.






 
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When i attach my ExpertHPA Guppy 4500(only aired to 4.3k psi) to fill/release pressure, it will NOT un-tether or stop draining, or come out of gun probe port. without force. then the fill probe, it is PULLED with force, and entire gun drains, it was at 4200psi fill clear down to near empty. I tried this three times, to fill after silicon to oRings on the fill probe applied, and then re-inserted, and tried again, after refilling my ExpertHPA ‘Guppy’ -slow-valve fill. What would cause all the tank on NP MAX to drain, rapidly, after having to forcefully pull out probe? i cannot find any parts diagram to see where a lock-up might be happening. any suggestions??? ASIDE FROM returning!??



Click to expand...

The gun is very simple in design. I've had a few guns with the same fill issue. It always is the little tiny fill valve not landing into the hole to seal correctly. I just reset that little pin inside the fill port. Then often there is a screw inside of it that adjust how far the tiny valve will go inside the gun. If it goes to far, I often does not fall back in when the air is cut off.


 
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dannya1a said:
I have designed new mags for the .357 AEA HP. I had a customer send me a factory unit. OMG...the quality of the AEA mags in grossly terrible. Mine are made from PETG and soon to be back in a customer's hands for further testing on my design.

The bolt or cover countersink and terribly inaccurate and way out of spec in my mind

.View attachment 192938

View attachment 192943
Click to expand...


Hope you will make a left side loading one, it would solve 2 huge issue's many people have with this rifle.
 
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dannya1a said:
hmmm. wonder if a simple mirror flip would easily allow for this to happen. or if there is more involved to the spring wind direction as well
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You should make the direction of the spring tension/direction the same as it is now, it will solve the issue of the mag coming out a little when you cycle to the next slug (me and others have this issue).
The mag won't come out anymore then, as a matter of fact it is pushed in against the barrel.

It's a big mystery to me why AEA made a right side loading mag, it's just stupid.
 
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Harold999 said:
You should make the direction of the spring tension/direction the same as it is now, it will solve the issue of the mag coming out a little when you cycle to the next slug (me and others have this issue).
The mag won't come out anymore then, as a matter of fact it is pushed in against the barrel.

It's a big mystery to me why AEA made a right side loading mag, it's just stupid.
Click to expand...
Can you explain a little more about this I feel like I'm having this problem on my terminator 30 cal. Where the the mag comes out a little bit while cycling and and it chipped. It happened to 2 magazines now actually.
 
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