What's a better investment?

[Shdsteel]

Alot of people have spent over $1000 for the Sport/Hobby.

Yes, but (in my case) not on 1 gun. I've probably spent close to that on about 8 different guns. Then again, I've also made money by flipping a few guns, so that has to be taken into consideration.

Personally I'm looking to keep my primary for 10+ years

AEGs can be just as durable. I've got 3 sitting in the safe that are pushing that age, all TMs. The SOCOM 16 could do with a good tune up, but it's gone through 3 owners (that I know of) and is still running great. A friend of mine has a couple of ICS MP5s that keep on going, despite closing in on the decade mark.

You seem sold on the P*, though. It's a good choice, don't get me wrong, but as others have said, they do break.

It's basically the innards of a paintball gun modified to work in a body designed for a gearbox. O-rings can and will fail. Micro switches can fail, as can the circuitry in the boards. They still require maintenance that will require some tech knowledge or a trip to someone who works on P*s. Air tanks also have a built in life to them. Most places won't fill a tank that is out of hydro. Having multiple tanks is also a must if you plan on going to a very long game.

When all is said and done, it's your choice and a P* isn't a bad one. There's just a lot of people that prefer the pick up and go quality of an AEG.

Most of those issues being "worst-case scenarios" of course.  But hey, everything breaks down at some point, right?

[Exarach]

Well, not tank hydro dates.
Those are US gov. Set in stone.

[sabertooth]

fusion engines will only brake due to operator error, polarstar have done tests where they hook it up to a compressor and ziptie the trigger down for more then 2 million rounds. as for amount of rounds being able to be shot, if you have it set up correctly and a average sized barrel you can get 4000-5000 rounds out of a 90/45 tank. if you plan on shooting a lot what we have is a 110cbf steel tank that we use to fill our tanks for milsim games.

[Dayton]

Ok, well, not going to get into the argument of which is better. I love my P* and its consistency and reliability.
Maint is easy, and so are repairs.

As to the argument that Polarstars are expensive to repair...

WHAT???

First of all, I put my P* together almost 2 years ago, and I've taken it apart once. Yep, that's right, once. The reason? I decided to finally clean the nozzle and Poppet. Time taken to do so: 20 mins.

Second, there are only so many parts in a P* System. But they are not that expensive to replace considering how long they last.

Firebase Regulator: $90 to replace (never heard of one failing yet, they are a great regulator)

Solenoids: $60 to replace each one. I've heard of 4 or 5 in the country needing replaced outside of the warranty.

Fire Control Unit: $100 to replace (I've only seen one fail, and that was due to a certain someone soldering their wire leads reversed... That no longer happens though, P* put in a diode to prevent this from happening)

HPA Tank: Cost varies. ($50-160) You should be able to get at minimum 10 years out of a tank. But sometimes things happen. (also, as for the "some shops wont fill a tank that is passed it's hydro date" False! A TANK THAT IS PAST IT'S CURRENT HYDRO DATE SHOULD NEVER BE FILLED!)

If these are too expensive for you to afford repairs, then the P* wasn't really an option for you in the first place.


I agree that carrying a tank on my back and a hose to my gun is somewhat a PITA, however, the benefits outweigh the negatives.

The Polarstar is very reliable. The newest ones seem to have some kinks, but they seem to always get worked out before the warranty period is up.

They are also easy to maintain. A couple drops of the right oil in the reg before each game, and a dust cap on your inlet hose when not in use, and you'll be set for more bags of bb's than you can keep track of.

The key is learning how it works, and to be patient dialing it in. Once you get it dialed in, leave it the $%^& alone! The polarstar is not an accuracy machine. It is a consistent and reliable machine. Accuracy has nothing to do with the fusion engine. I know of several guns on these forums that are AEG's and far more accurate than my P*. That's because I simply haven't taken the time to get my accuracy dialed in as much as some others.

That's all I have to say. Gotta hit the sack. If you have any questions PM me, I'll answer them if I can. If not, I'll tell you where to get the answers.

[SmoothOperator]

Do you think a custom 1000$ DMR (Todays parts) will last and preform well for the next 5 years? Or will airsoft guns/upgrade parts all be better by today's by then?

[nukeduster]

fusion engines will only brake due to operator error, polarstar have done tests where they hook it up to a compressor and ziptie the trigger down for more then 2 million rounds. as for amount of rounds being able to be shot, if you have it set up correctly and a average sized barrel you can get 4000-5000 rounds out of a 90/45 tank. if you plan on shooting a lot what we have is a 110cbf steel tank that we use to fill our tanks for milsim games.

Not entirely true, but for the most part they are pretty bulletproof. I have, 6 polarstar guns at last count, and about a dozen AEG's ranging from $150-2500 per gun.

Do you think a custom 1000$ DMR (Todays parts) will last and preform well for the next 5 years? Or will airsoft guns/upgrade parts all be better by today's by then?

You can make an AEG last for a long time, if you are willing to spend that kind of money. There are always innovations coming out to make airsoft better, but in general nothing revolutionary has come out to make them hugely more durable other than indie mods like sorbo/aoe/radius windows/etc.


They both have their pros and cons.

Polarstars, for me, sound awesome. They sound like a 22 or even something bigger if you overvolume them a lot. There is nothing that says 'airsoft' about it when it comes to its sound. Sure, there are a lot of other pros to the engine, but the sound is what sold me on it. The tank on your back, you don't even notice, nor do you notice the hose of a polarstar, even if you are running sling-less, I've never noticed the hose while in a firefight.

Aegs, they have the pro of using a power source that fits inside the gun. An an overall system, this generally makes them weigh a few lbs less and use less real estate on your back. For most airsoft events, this is a non-issue since you aren't hauling multiple days worth of gear/food/ammo/etc with you in your pack. For multiday ops like East Wind, this becomes an encumbrance.

Both can be made to be similar in accuracy if you have a specific weight BB and FPS you are tuning for. Polarstars have the benefit of being able to adjust for both weight and FPS much more easily than most AEGs, but this is not universally true.


End of the day, try out both, and see which you prefer. To reiterate, its the sound that sold me on P*s. You can tune aeg's to do what you want out of them, but you can't replicate the sound (with one exception, of a device that does not exist yet in the USA.. and it adds considerable weight).