KWA Piston Issue & High Five to KWA

First, I want to say this is in no way a complaint about KWA's products.

While at Operation Broken Home in Oklahoma, I experienced a failure in my (roughly) 1 year old KWA SR-10. The gun has seen many many many thousand rounds through it, primarily using an 11.1V LiPo. (rough estimate would be 40,000 to 50,000)

Prior to the trip, I opened the gear box, inspected everything. Everything looked clean, and free of signs of wear. This gear box has all stock internals, I have never had to replace a part.

The piston showed no signs of wear.

While at Broken Home, toward the end of the second day, and only about 3,500 rounds into the weekend, I experienced an all too familiar sound. A whirring, with no firing. I pulled the trigger again, and this time a whirring with a crackling, and light popping sound. I immediately put the gun on safe, and deemed by gun as "broken." I assumed I had stripped the piston.

Upon opening the gear box today, I discovered something interesting. The piston was not stripped in a traditional fashion. Typically a stripped piston has the teeth worn down to the point the sector gear can no longer grip them.

The piston I saw had its first and third tooth broken free, and a small fracture in the piston near where these teeth broke away.

I contacted KWA Technical support to report the problem to them. I must say I am hugely impressed with KWA's dedication to quality control and customer satisfaction. KWA offered to replace the piston and head at no-cost to me, and was also shipping a return shipping label as they would like to inspect and test the broken piston as they are concerned in a product or design defect.

Its good to know there are some companies out there who stand behind their product, and support their customers. I was already a fan of KWA, but this just iced the cake.

When my pistol had an issue, they took care of it in a timely manner at no cost. I have been impressed with them and will be a repeat customer.