I am always willing to try out new products, even if they have a storied and ill-gained reputation. Sometimes you find a diamond in the rough, and sometimes you don’t. That may or may not prove to be the case with the new Angel Custom Kratos piston.
Reputedly this piston underwent over 2 years of R&D before making it to the market with the aim of creating, quote: “the best Airsoft AEG piston at all costs.”
On the surface, this piston boasts some impressive stats:
- DuPont Super Nylon + SAE Steel + TiN Coating construction
- Hardened CNC SAE steel teeth w/ TiN (Titanium Nitride) coating
- 48 degree WEDM cut teeth (Wire Electrical Discharge Machine)
- Stress tested to 100,000 rounds continuous with barely any sign of wear
- California Proposition 65 Warning: Cancer and Reproductive Harm
I was not able to actually find anything regarding DuPont’s “Super Nylon” on a cursory Google search or even DuPont’s website. I am led to believe this may actually be a name for a different material, such as DuPont Zytel, which is a nylon resin that can be had in a number of grades.
For testing purposes, I will be installing this piston into one of my personal Black Swan Mk.III rifles, which is often the “test bed” platform for trialing many products before adoption.
Internal Specs:
- Retro Arms CNC 8mm QCS gearbox
- Krytac 8mm bearings
- Prometheus 16.45:1 gears
- KWA anti-reversal latch
- Guarder Precision Oil Tampered air nozzle
- Lonex double o-ring aluminum cylinder head
- 3/16″ 70D Air Pad
- Lonex POM piston head
- Angel Custom Kratos piston
- Guarder SP110 spring
- Gate TITAN Advanced
- Krytac CMC licensed flat trigger
- Star Wei 16 TPA motor
- Deans plug
- MAXX TE Pro rotary hop up chamber
- Lapped Prometheus 6.03 363mm barrel
- Maple Leaf bucking, R-Hopped
Initial impressions and unboxing:
1) First of all, nobody cares about the box.
2) The DuPont nylon material seems very flexible – but not to the point where it is too flexible. I believe this should greatly aid in preventing the back of the piston from blowing out such as is currently afflicting SHS. In comparison, the SHS piston body feels a little brittle next to this thing. The nylon material itself seems to have a natural “glide” to it and it rides easily on any gearbox I’ve inserted it into.
The method of mounting the rack is still fairly conventional, though there is a full length rail on both sides of the rack for holding it in rather than a partial support like some pistons offer.
3) The rack to piston fit is fairly loose, so glue / epoxy is an absolute must (as it is on every piston with a removable rack, for that matter).
4) Weight of the piston is 10g. Not the lightest, but certainly not the heaviest. I’d definitely swiss-cheese this for any DSG applications. For your typical SSG build, this is not an obstacle to be overcome.
5) The rack comes with the 2nd to last tooth removed, which is always a nice time saver. The teeth are slightly taller than an SHS or CYMA rack from what I can see. The material seems quite strong, and has some very mild flex, but does not feel like it’s brittle. Actually, I would suspect you could chuck this rack up in a vise and get it to bend 90* and it wouldn’t snap. The Titanium Nitride coating on the rack is interesting. Besides offering corrosion resistance, technically this should also provide improved wear resistance for the teeth.
6) Price. This is an expensive piston @ $35, putting it nearly on par with the System Super Core and others. In some respects, I see this as an attempt at a luxury brand pricing strategy, which has a certain merit and strategic significance. We are most certainly in the dawn of the luxury Airsoft gun, with many contenders and brands now breaching the $1000+ price tag. But the key thing here is that it absolutely has to perform for that price.
Angel Custom has long been the brunt of jokes within the tech community – and often for a good reason. They don’t have the greatest track record, and many of the products are of questionable quality. To their credit, Evike recognizes that it’s an issue and is making an effort to bring in better products and phase out the bad ones. I do question the decision to even brand under the label, but with some blood, sweat and tears (and the all important quality control), even the worst brands can be revitalized.
Stay tuned to future updates once I’ve had some opportunity to log some serious rounds on these pistons.
Edit 1/29/19: I’ve currently logged just north of 7,500 rounds on this piston without failure. I expect to log quite a bit more this upcoming year as this gun is pushed through its paces at the local fields. At the 10K mark, I will open up the gearbox and visually inspect the piston for wear.
