Poll: Has your FX impact leaked often?

[177er]

Here's a poll for a change,
I often see people posting about their FX leaking, but given the volume of FX Impacts being sold, I'm curious to see how many actually leak within a reasonable time frame.

Over a year or two, there is natural wear and tear of the O rings, and maintenance/preventive maintenance would be necessary, but how many Impacts leak within the first year? When people tinker with it?

As an FYI, my Impact bought early last year (Feb 2021) hasn't leaked yet, it's getting to be nearly 2 years now.
I did face a problem with air leaking once, due to the valve not setting properly, because of low reg pressure (60 bar), but dry firing (without a pellet, with air in the system) plugged the leak. However, there've been no leaks from the regulator, gauges, plenum etc.

 

[Rob_in_NC]

My list...
.177 Impact Compact Bought used. Have had it for maybe a month. No leaks, no issues. Aside from PW adjusting, I've not done anything to it. Previous owner knows his way around them and has done plenty to it.

.22 Impact. Traded and have owned it a year or two. Came modified and tinkered with (as I would assume most are). Did develop a slow leak. Not wanting to mess with it, I sent to 910 Airguns. Zero issues.

.25 Impact Compact. Owned for going on a couple years. Bought new. Aside from PW and adding a 480CC tank, I havent touched it. Zero issues.

.30 Maverick (ok, not an Impact, but close enough for me). Took on trade. Not sure what was done with it. Zero issues.

.35 Impact. Bought new; owned almost a year. Arrived with barrel loose. Tighted hand nut and zero issues since.

 

[qball]

Mine finally developed a leak after 2 years of taking it apart more times than I can count, probably thanks to me messing up an oring but still pretty good if you ask me.

 

[bigHUN]

MY Impact was in bits and pieces 2-3 dozen times !!! and off course it leaked, but not a single time back for service or to a dealer. I wanted to learn all the tricks obama self.
And btw this was my first PCP and started the learning curve from the tip of the hill.

 

[gendoc]

i had my impact mkII for about a year before i sold it.
1500-2000+ shots thru it.
never even thought about a leak. it was a fine gun !!

 

[177er]

My list...
.177 Impact Compact Bought used. Have had it for maybe a month. No leaks, no issues. Aside from PW adjusting, I've not done anything to it. Previous owner knows his way around them and has done plenty to it.

.22 Impact. Traded and have owned it a year or two. Came modified and tinkered with (as I would assume most are). Did develop a slow leak. Not wanting to mess with it, I sent to 910 Airguns. Zero issues.

.25 Impact Compact. Owned for going on a couple years. Bought new. Aside from PW and adding a 480CC tank, I havent touched it. Zero issues.

.30 Maverick (ok, not an Impact, but close enough for me). Took on trade. Not sure what was done with it. Zero issues.

.35 Impact. Bought new; owned almost a year. Arrived with barrel loose. Tighted hand nut and zero issues since.

1/5 leaked? That's actually good stats. Given the prevalence of "My FX leaks" threads, I know a lot of people don't speak about their good experiences too.

Mine finally developed a leak after 2 years of taking it apart more times than I can count, probably thanks to me messing up an orange but still pretty good if you ask me.

I'd say the more you tinker with air rifles, the more the chances of easily fixing things. The FX is very easy to deal with, if you look at it that way!

MY Impact was in bits and pieces 2-3 dozen times !!! and off course it leaked, but not a single time back for service or to a dealer. I wanted to learn all the tricks obama self.
And btw this was my first PCP and started the learning curve from the tip of the hill.

I like the idea of getting a PCP and learning the ins and outs of how it works - I did that with another cheap PCP before getting the impact.

i had my impact mkII for about a year before i sold it.
1500-2000+ shots thru it.
never even thought about a leak. it was a fine gun !!

Yep! The Impact is a great piece of kit.
Just for the record, I'm not a 'fanboy' - when I made the purchase, I looked for the best option available to me in my location (not North America), that I could use with 2 calibers, and something I could get an approximate tune without fussing too much.

I have a great low power tune that gives me about 200ish shots - on my MKII
1. Reg 60 bar, HS middle and valve adjuster from 1 to 4 lines depending on what you shoot.
This works for 10.34 .177s at the low setting on the power wheel, going to mid (2-3 on the wheel) allows me to use .22 as well, and going to MAX on the wheel with the valve open at 3-4 lines, I can get 800 fps on 20+ gr pellets and slugs.
I know I can tune this a lot more, but its an easy 2 way tune for me.

 

[Ctkny]

3 impacts zero problem. 4th impact leaked from dealer

 

[tor47]

The easiest mistake to do is to turn the reg adjuster screw to far, so an O-ring fails, leading to a leak. Or to turn the reg screw wrong way, or turn it till it bottoms out on the piston, damaging it, leadin to creep. Leaks do occur, and is easier to do on an impact, because it is designed to be "messed with". Also if one change gauges, leaks can occur. It was probably more common to change gauge on an impact, than on other guns, since it used to have a relative inaccurate gauge, with a hard to read scale for the reg. The new guns shipped today has wika gauges, wich in my opinion is accurate enough, and doeas not need to be changed.

 

[Vetmx]

Leaks with Impacts are at the bottom of the list of concerns. Pellet shooting Impacts are great guns. The only thing you have to ask yourself is do I need a gun this complicated to shoot pellets. My Impacts are bullet shooters and this projectile exposes the Impact. They become finicky guns.

 

[F-classmike]

No air leaks out of my M3. The only thing that it seems to be leaking is pellets. After purchasing my impact I’ve gone thru thousands of pellets.

 

[177er]

3 impacts zero problem. 4th impact leaked from dealer

1/4 isn't too bad! Hopefully you got that fixed!

The easiest mistake to do is to turn the reg adjuster screw to far, so an O-ring fails, leading to a leak. Or to turn the reg screw wrong way, or turn it till it bottoms out on the piston, damaging it, leadin to creep. Leaks do occur, and is easier to do on an impact, because it is designed to be "messed with". Also if one change gauges, leaks can occur. It was probably more common to change gauge on an impact, than on other guns, since it used to have a relative inaccurate gauge, with a hard to read scale for the reg. The new guns shipped today has wika gauges, wich in my opinion is accurate enough, and doeas not need to be changed.

You were one of my go-to people for 177 tuning when I first got my MKII - you had some posts/comments back in 2020 which explained how to tune the MK2 for a 177 and it was something that was very useful, thank you again for that @tor47. Great point about the reg damage and inaccurate gauges.

Leaks with Impacts are at the bottom of the list of concerns. Pellet shooting Impacts are great guns. The only thing you have to ask yourself is do I need a gun this complicated to shoot pellets. My Impacts are bullet shooters and this projectile exposes the Impact. They become finicky guns.

The problem is that a lot of people can't deal with leaks. Yes! It's a rabbithole with slugs, but fun. I still recall your comments way back about people slinging slugs in their backyards and it being a dangerous thing to do.

No air leaks out of my M3. The only thing that it seems to be leaking is pellets. After purchasing my impact I’ve gone thru thousands of pellets.

Haha I agree! Have gone through a lot of pellets now!

 

[douger]

Have had 4-5 impacts never a leak. Just a pellet shooter.

 

[redsqnm]

I have an impact x bought new November 5 2018 . I stopped keeping track at 27,500 ish rounds it has passed the 30,000 projectile mark …. It finally has developed a slow leak .

 

[tor47]

You were one of my go-to people for 177 tuning when I first got my MKII - you had some posts/comments back in 2020 which explained how to tune the MK2 for a 177 and it was something that was very useful, thank you again for that @tor47. Great point about the reg damage and inaccurate gauges.

Well thanks. I am by no mean an expert on the impact. But I have learned some by doing user errors myself. I have screwed up a reg on an FX crown which have similiar reg, by probably turning it the wrong way. It did not cause a leak, but it started to have creep.
I did have one tiny leak once on a impact, and desided to dip the action in water, to look for bubles. It was a big mistake as the internals like hammer, and hammer spring started to rust. Even it was a big mistake dipping it in water, I did see small bubles coming from the breath hole of the reg (or maybe it was from the reg screw itself, as I can not exactly remember). I had adjusted it probably just to far, as the max you can turn it is flush. I took the gun apart, and cleaned and polished the internals. Luckily I did not have to change any O-rings, as the leak stopped when I turned the reg back to lower pressures. If there was an option to choose "leak by user error", I would be among them

 

[rafr]

New power block M3 .22 600. Leaked with in 1 week. To the dealer twice and waited on parts before it was fixed. Now working great.

 

[ChRiSiS]

Three Impacts so far. Zero leaks!

 

[Bigragu]

There’s nothing wrong with dipping parts of the gun in water so long as you understand you’re going to have yo fully disassemble that gun to dry all water off but also to remove old lubes and apply fresh lubes.

Also, if you want to rely on dunking to find leaks, consider replacing your factory fasteners to stainless steel fasteners with anti seize lathered on the fastener threads.

 

[The Codger]

I would really like to select No but it's not very old. I do need to order an "O" ring kit before my luck runs out

 

[177er]

Have had 4-5 impacts never a leak. Just a pellet shooter.

That's so cool to hear!

New power block M3 .22 600. Leaked with in 1 week. To the dealer twice and waited on parts before it was fixed. Now working great.

Glad to hear your M3 was fixed. You'll get a ton of enjoyment out of it.

Three Impacts so far. Zero leaks!

Awesome! Hope it stays that way!

Well thanks. I am by no mean an expert on the impact. But I have learned some by doing user errors myself. I have screwed up a reg on an FX crown which have similiar reg, by probably turning it the wrong way. It did not cause a leak, but it started to have creep.
I did have one tiny leak once on a impact, and desided to dip the action in water, to look for bubles. It was a big mistake as the internals like hammer, and hammer spring started to rust. Even it was a big mistake dipping it in water, I did see small bubles coming from the breath hole of the reg (or maybe it was from the reg screw itself, as I can not exactly remember). I had adjusted it probably just to far, as the max you can turn it is flush. I took the gun apart, and cleaned and polished the internals. Luckily I did not have to change any O-rings, as the leak stopped when I turned the reg back to lower pressures. If there was an option to choose "leak by user error", I would be among them

I read up everything I could about the Impact when I bought it. From posts like yours, vetmx, youtube repair videos etc.
Getting the tuning right was one aspect, and the other was troubleshooting. The platform is easy to work with in case of issues.
How is your FX doing now?

I have an impact x bought new November 5 2018 . I stopped keeping track at 27,500 ish rounds it has passed the 30,000 projectile mark …. It finally has developed a slow leak .

That's a long time!! Hopefully you can get the leak fixed soon. I think an O ring overhaul for most of them is due.

There’s nothing wrong with dipping parts of the gun in water so long as you understand you’re going to have yo fully disassemble that gun to dry all water off but also to remove old lubes and apply fresh lubes.

Also, if you want to rely on dunking to find leaks, consider replacing your factory fasteners to stainless steel fasteners with anti seize lathered on the fastener threads.

I agree, the problem is when people don't think they'll need to clean and disassemble the air rifle, it can easily lead to a lot of rusted parts.

I would really like to select No but it's not very old. I do need to order an "O" ring kit before my luck runs out

One of the first things I did was order a bunch of spare O rings, and the valve stem (there were a few cases of the valve stem/o ring having issues at the time). So far, haven't needed to replace anything, but if you have a set of O rings handy, if anything does happen, you can fix it fast.

 

[tor47]

Well going a lilte offtopic here, but when I dipped the gun in water, I thought it was enough to keep it indoors, in room temperature to dry it. But the next day, the rust was alredy there, even the water was gone. Hammer, hammer spring, and trigger mechanism, was all rusted. The gun would hardly fire, because of the trigger mechanism hanging up. Tried first to spray some ballistol in the internals, to wash it out, but that did not work well. A mixture of rust and ballistol just made a thick gunk instead. I would not do it again, because of the work involved cleaning it up.