Gas vs Electric gun maintenance/reliability

[TheyCallMeRambo]

Coming from paintball i have a hard time feeling manly with a gun that does not kick at all and makes electric sounds. Therefore im pretty much dead-set on purchasing a gas operated gun.
That being said do they require alot more maintenance and/or are they alot less reliable??
Thanks

[Danke]

The groundwork for how to maintain gas guns has already been laid. The last year has seen the early adopters do the hard work and now it's just a mater of having a few spares along for the day and reading up on the gas gun service threads once you've picked your brand and style.

[Kos-Mos]

They are worlds appart.

You MUST do maintenance every time you take your gas gun out, otherwise it will break very fast.
It will also wear out and break for no reason randomly.

You can run an AEG for years without any maintenance and it will run strong (if you buy something decent and prepare it OK).

[Frost_505]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeRambo

Coming from paintball i have a hard time feeling manly with a gun that does not kick at all and makes electric sounds. Therefore im pretty much dead-set on purchasing a gas operated gun.
That being said do they require alot more maintenance and/or are they alot less reliable??
Thanks

As a fellow GBBR fanatic, I wouldn't recommend getting a gas operated rifle as your first airsoft rifle, unless you are fimilar with them or have the money for upgrades. Sure they're more realistic than AEGs or EBBs, but in terms of reliability they're not the best. The constant fluctuations in the FPS will constantly drop as the mag cools down with every shot.
I, myself coming from the bb and pellet gun scene, didn't run into any major problems with GBBRs as they were quite similar to what I usually worked with. With the proper knowledge, maintaining a GBBR is quite easy.
With upgrades they can be decent guns to run in games, but with a GBBR your restricted to CQB or indoor games, because of the fluctuations in the FPS. Not necessary saying you can't run a GBBR outdoor, but you'll be out gunned really fast.

[GSK88]

Originally Posted by Frost_505

As a fellow GBBR fanatic, I wouldn't recommend getting a gas operated rifle as your first airsoft rifle, unless you are fimilar with them or have the money for upgrades. Sure they're more realistic than AEGs or EBBs, but in terms of reliability they're not the best. The constant fluctuations in the FPS will constantly drop as the mag cools down with every shot.
I, myself coming from the bb and pellet gun scene, didn't run into any major problems with GBBRs as they were quite similar to what I usually worked with. With the proper knowledge, maintaining a GBBR is quite easy.
With upgrades they can be decent guns to run in games, but with a GBBR your restricted to CQB or indoor games.

I wouldn't say you're restricted to any types of games provided you can fire within the FPS limits of the venue. It might even be easier since you can swap uppers in literally under 10 seconds for most AR styles GBBRs.

Reliability is a coin toss, just like for AEGs. Now you're right that AEGs tend to be more reliable but I've had more lemon electric guns than gas ones... And I've had quite a few of each.

Coming from paintball you should already be familiar enough with the type of maintenance needed to properly run a GBBR. The rest is budget and willingness to actually follow through on maintaining it.

Open up a gas gun, it's fairly straight forward vs opening a mech box multiple times to trouble shoot it (at least it was for me...)

[Basic-Wedge]

Don't be hating on AEGs - they're a good gun choice for children, the elderly, or the infirmed.

[Ozone06]

Originally Posted by Basic-Wedge

Don't be hating on AEGs - they're a good gun choice for children, the elderly, or the infirmed.

+1.

And to have as a back up if your GBB goes down

[audi_bhoy]

I own a KJW M4 as a primary since more than 2 years, I must say that I'm very impressed at how bad I deal with it and how well it is still running fine. I have a KWA MP9 as a backup which is also GBB. I don't play in the winter/cold days so I don't need an AEG for those times. I had a lot of AEG in the past, as said it's a hit or miss, since little things can go wrong...

[BennyBoy]

I didn't tighten something fully on my GBBR, came loose just before a session started. Dismantled my rifle and had the part re-tightened in less than 3 minutes.

The biggest things I would say with going gas is;
1. shots are not as consistent as AEG
2. only choice in mags you have are real caps
3. mags are heavy
4. mags are expensive
5. mags may leak if not taken care of
6. less choices on mags
7. much louder than AEGs

I'd say with #2 being the biggest issue, let's say you carry 10 gbbr mags, that leaves you with only 300 rounds. 1 hi-cap mag is well beyond that, two mid-cap puts you beyond that as well. You will be outgunned vs any AEG but it's still hella fun. You gotta think more about what you're doing, when is a good time to shoot, when to hold your fire..

I started out recently and it was with a GBBR, I was almost always under pressure by AEG users but made for some good times.

Best answer is based on your play style.

[Chris26]

I own a WE M16A3 and it's my first and only gun I have ever owned for 3 years. I absolutely love this thing. At first, learning how to properly maintain it took quite a while but once I figured everything out, it was all smooth sailing from there. I've only ever had my gun break down on me once (internally) then the tinted lower cracked so I bought a metal one.

Gbbr's are mainly summer time guns (or at least in 10+ degree weather). I don't really game that much in the fall, winter or spring unless there are those odd days that are above 10 degrees Celsius (which are rare).

I can't really tell you much about AEG's other than they are low maintenance guns if you get a good one out of the box (according to what I've read about them)

I would suggest if you want a Gbbr to be your play style, then accept the fact that you can/will be easily out gunned in skirmishes and you gotta enjoy stripping the gun down and cleaning it after every game (at least in my opinion)

[Ready]

If you're absolutely deadset on getting a GBBR as your first gun and nothing can change your mind then You should READ EVERYTHING about gas guns here on ASC first. This website is a bank of information and should be more than enough to help you start up.

And to answer your question, yes. You need to take apart and clean your gas gun almost every game, and sometimes in the middle of the game if it gets very dirty.

[dj2l8b]

Ive got a WE RATech M4. Like many say GBB's are summer guns but you can run other types of gases like Propane wih right adaptor. They do need more love than AEG's but make sure you pick a brand that has a lot of after market parts. WE tends favour a lot of people mainly due to the fact they are easy to repair and they have shed loads of parts on the market; even at a cheap price.

[Rommen]

I've been running a KJ M4 same as audi_bhoy and love it. From what I read and my experiences it seems alot more reliable than the WE, especially the mags and trigger group. The reason it doesn't have alot of upgrade parts is because it doesn't need them; the trigger group, bolt, etc are good to go OOTB. The only thing you will need is a velocity reducer, and Cradle Airsoft makes a nice kit for the KJ. The KJ is also compatible with AEG front ends allowing you lots of customization options there. Electric guns have their pros too and I do own a few, but my love is for my KJ M4.

[McCrea]

I did own a KJW M4 for 2 years, was a really nice and reliable gun. The only downside of it, was the loader for the mags.... When you bring your gun to a game and you don't have your loader... can't use the gun, that sucks...

[Blackthorne]

Unless you are handy stay away until you can spend some time with a friends:

• Mags almost all leak from the factory and have to be repaired. This is an ongoing problem.
• Small stock components break as they are made of cheap materials, these will need to be upgraded
• FPS variance with gas has already been covered

The list goes on. IF you are handy however, they are WAY easier to work on than an AEG, especially if you are even passingly familiar with the real thing.

They function on a more simple system with less parts to troubleshoot.

Not my first choice as an entry level gun, but for most once you like me you'll love em.