airsoft innovation propane adapter

[Eeyore]

The first propane adaptor I bought from AI failed after I removed it from the tank the first time. I messaged MadMax and informed him. He asked for a picture of the failure. I received a message that replacment had been sent, which I received three days later.

[tunabreath]

I've been on the same plastic AI adapter for at least 2 years now... No problems other than I lost the duster adapter.

[13Fido13]

I've never had any problems with Max's products. Never broken a single adapter (I just keep an extra for spares just in case).

I've talked with Max personally on a few occasions, and he's always willing to talk and explain. Max is an awesome guy and his product is top notch. Don't Sh!t on the guy.

[Aegiis]

I had one break last year when I tried to remove it from the tank at the end of a game, the lower stub kinda got stuck it the bottle and fantastically came apart in about a zillion pieces.

The one I have now did it to me once, but "unstuck" without further issue.

But I am weary of them now. So I carry a Madbull V2 as a backup.

Do you know what could cause the above ?

[Brian McIlmoyle]

Often.. the issue is found between the tank and the floor and not between the tank and the mag valve.

about 40% of people I see trying to fill magazines lack the manual dexterity to do it without placing all kinds of stress on the adapter.

The reason AI went to plastic is the number of complaints regarding the "adapter fucking up my mag!!" the metal ones are not friendly to mag valves if you are hamfisted and can't seem to keep things lined up when you are filling ( which about 40% of people are) The plastic ones will bend a bit .. and break before damaging a mag. so you pooch a $25 adapter rather than a $50 mag.

the downside is durability.. I have one of the very limited edition carbon steel adaptors... its going strong 3 years later.... But a lot of people have savaged their mags on it...

[Eeyore]

Originally Posted by Aegiis

I had one break last year when I tried to remove it from the tank at the end of a game, the lower stub kinda got stuck it the bottle and fantastically came apart in about a zillion pieces.

The one I have now did it to me once, but "unstuck" without further issue.

But I am weary of them now. So I carry a Madbull V2 as a backup.

Do you know what could cause the above ?

I was told it was cause by a failure of (insert name of the plastic ring on the bottom). I was told that only a total failure of the molding should cause this, and that it was very rare. But if the same issue keeps happening, then I guess its not too rare is it.

[coach]

the older metal AI ones are great, if you can hold your tank perfectly straight to your fill valves. I got a brass one used but that version has a slight fault in that the valve/tip sometimes pops off and goes flying. simple fix was to cover it with a piece of duct tape. but, I use the plastic one at the field since I tend to leave it out for others to use. I do make sure to pack it in a bag with the red cap on! it will help protect the tip.

[MadMax]

Hey all, I got a PM from Eeyore pointing me here. I'm not on much that often these days. When you spend all day fixing machines that make airsoft grenades or tinkering in the shop, I tend to pop open the scotch and start on my emails.

I had to make some difficult design decisions when I moved to the plastic V5 adaptor. I had to balance many tradeoffs when designing this product because I had to replace the already popular V4 metal adaptor.

Cost:

I'll address this most contentious issue first since it's probably going to be the first accusation leveled against me. At the time when I started work on V5 I had seen the price of brass triple in cost from when I first released V1. I had also realized that I would find myself having to someday compete with Asian copyshops as my patent application had fallen through due to some very frustrating events so I had to bring my price down from $30 to something like $20 and add some value to the product. Not only would I have to reduce my MSRP, I would also have to significantly reduce my prices to my wholesale and retail partners so they could earn a higher profit margin on my product if I were to continue selling adaptors against my competition. The result was the GunGas kit, a neat package containing everything you need to gas your pneumatic airsoft gun or accessory with either propane or HFC134a. The duster adaptor tip was also designed to be an extension tip for those odd pistols like revolvers which need longer tips, or as a replacement tip in case you snapped off the propane adaptor tip out past the base.

The product unfortunately didn't end up becoming more profitable for AI (roughly par in terms of percentages), but we did maintain our good market share by giving our wholesale and retail partners higher percentage margins. We also dropped the MSRP to keep our end users happier.


Durability:

We had found that brass tipped adaptors were suffering from frequent damage to the top on light drops (falling to the side on a table from a short distance). Sideways hits to the top would often bend the tip or cause a ding to the very end which would cause very high leakage while filling. Users would often try to bend the tip straight again which usually resulted in the probe completely snapping. Another mode of failure of brass probes was a gradual flaring of the tip which would eventually result in very leaky fills.

Light hits to the plastic V5 adaptor often did not result in yielding of the probe or marring of the tip but the survivability from light hits was only somewhat improved. It was hoped that a plastic repair tip could provide a "free" life at no added cost to the product to repair a split tip or broken probe if the break occured further from the base of the probe.

Unfortunately the need for a slender probe to reach magazine fill valves (especially on mags for guns like the KSC MAC11) make it difficult to make very strong probes. We offer the longest filling tip (not counting companies making direct knockoffs of our product) so our adaptor can be used on nearly every mag in production. If it's not long enough for your Tanaka revolver, you can put on the extension tip.

I've made very strong heat treated steel probes, but they can damage magazine fill valves if you push too hard on them or rock the can while filling. In the end I considered the durability of the prototype plastic adaptors to be roughly comparable to the brass ones (after controlled drop tests) and went with the cheaper option which would cause less damage to difficult to replace fill valves.

Tank Gauging:

Some years ago, Coleman released some runs of propane tanks with overpressed tank orings.

http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthr...t=coleman+tank

These overpressed orings could interfere with the fixturing of a propane adaptor and prevent it from shutting off gas flow after removing the magazine so I had to include a tool to gauge a tank to see if a tank should not be used. I had provided free metal tubes which could be used to gauge a tank, but it was a crappy solution because they were a separate part which could be lost. I don't know if this issue will not arise again with Coleman tanks, but the V5+ adaptors feature an integral tank gauge.

If your adaptor has fallen apart, contact us at: exceptions@gungas.com and we'll arrange a replacement. The locking ring inside the bottle fitting should not be coming off. We had some issues with this years ago, but it should have been fixed with one of our assembly procedures. If you busted the tip dropping the tank, I'm afraid we can't offer a warranty replacement on that.

[Aegiis]

Thanks for the info. Looks like I'll be bringing my AI when I go propane shopping...

As for the warranty replacement, for me, it was last year and since then I threw it in the reclying bin...

[twsmith]

Loved my old brass AI adapter, unfortunately someone borrowed it and somehow lost the tip insert (it popped out under pressure and he lost it in tall grass while attempting to fill a mag.)

I don't mind paying the $25 for a new plastic adapter (although I thought it was metal when I ordered it off ASCMart), it's the $17-21 shipping that pissed me off. Seriously $4 difference for expresspost vs. regular parcel to BC?

No offense MadMax, but if my new plastic AI adapter ($48.92 shipped expresspost) doesn't stand up then next time I'll be looking for a metal knockoff.