This would be of help to those who plan to participate in the upcoming tourney. These tips are with regards to basic AEG maintenance. In order to get the best of your gun's potential and it's reliability, you'll have to follow these simple procedures.

TIPS:


1.DO NOT dry fire your AEG needlessly. If there's no object loaded in your chamber to create resistance when fired, your piston will hit with the maximum force against the front half of your gearbox, that's how you crack gearboxes. Sometimes, dry fire is inevitable when you run out of ammo, but do your best to limit this possibility. Listen for the sound difference your AEG makes when it's empty and change up that magazine as quickly as possible.

2.Decompress the spring. If you fire your AEG on full auto, it's possible that your piston may stop in a position that leaves the spring compressed. This can cause wear on the spring and weaken the firepower of your AEG at a much quicker pace. Fire the AEG on semi-auto 2-3 times after use to decompress the spring.

3.Never reuse BBs! Dirt, dust, and grime can cause wear on your hopup and feeding mechanisms. Always use new BBs. If you want to reuse them so bad, save them for your cheapo spring guns but DO NOT use them again in your AEG.

4.Always shoot with a full battery. A lower rate of fire can cause the AEG to cycle incorrectly and even throw your gears out of time. When you hear your battery starting to give, immediately charge it or change to a fully charged battery. DO NOT continue to fire it until the battery is completely dead.

5.Discharge your battery before charging. It's always best practice to discharge your battery fully before charging, this will ensure you get a full charge and your battery won't retain memory. We recommend buying a charger with a discharge function for this reason.

6.Avoid contact with Water/Dirt/Sand. In excess, water, dirt, and sand can all damage your replica. Obviously this is a very active outdoor hobby and we do get dirty and wet, but try your best to keep your AEG internals and inner barrel out of harm's way.

7.Wipe down your AEG after use in the rain. Standing water droplets on some AEG parts can cause oxidization. It's best to wipe down your AEG with a towel or a cloth thoroughly after use on a rainy day.

8.Periodically swab your barrel and lube moving parts. Be warned that some lubes, even those used on your real firearms, can damage AEG internals. You need to use 100% pure silicon spray when swabbing your inner barrel. Be sure to turn your hopup down all the way before doing barrel maintenance. Use the cleaning tool that came with your AEG and insert a piece of clean fabric (like a cotton gun cleaning patch) into the small notch at the end. Apply a small amount of silicon spray to the cotton patch and run the cleaning rod down the length of the barrel, slowly pull it back out while twisting. Repeat the process until the cotton/cloth comes out clean. Most cleaning rods have a mark that indicates how far you can insert the cleaning tool without contacting the hopup, do not exceed this mark! You may also want to apply silicon spray to some of the metal on metal external moving parts, if your model has any. You may also want to apply a single drop of silicon into the feed port, run about 100 rounds through it after you do this to clear any excess silicon. (The first shots may be erratic).

9.For those upgrading gearboxes. DO NOT use silicon spray as a lube, it will evaporate at some point and you will not have lubrication at all. Use either a silicon grease or white lithium grease. We don't recommend that you do your own gearbox upgrades unless you consider yourself a mechanically minded person who might actually enjoy troubleshooting the process of putting it all back together in working order.

10.Avoid using external parts needlessly. Some external moving parts are just for looks and serve no purpose for the function of the AEG itself. It's best that you don't tamper with these too much, in some cases they'll wear out or break easily.

source: /www.airsoftpacific.com/

additional tips:
1. periodically check your gearbox for chips and cracks
2. after some time of using your stock AEG, its good to check for wear on the stock bushings and replace it if necessary.

sidewinder wrote:
5.Discharge your battery before charging. It's always best practice to discharge your battery fully before charging, this will ensure you get a full charge and your battery won't retain memory. We recommend buying a charger with a discharge function for this reason.

only NiCd batts are to be discharge...other batteries like NiMh, LiPo, LiFe are not advisable to be discharge.

Simple Guidelines

Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in an AEG is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.

Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely. In AEG application, since we don't have a
gauge it is advisable to use a lipoly reader or battery monitor to calibrate a lipo.

Keep the lithium-ion battery cool. Avoid a hot car, instead place it in a self sealing plastic bag (ziplock) & put it in a cool compartment. For prolonged storage, keep the battery at a 40% charge level.

Consider removing the battery from an AEG when not in use, this will prolong the charge level.

Avoid purchasing spare lithium-ion batteries as a back-up. Do not buy old stock, even if sold at clearance prices.

If you have a spare lithium-ion battery, use one to the fullest and keep the other cool by placing it in the refrigerator. Do not freeze the battery. For best results, store the battery at 40% state-of-charge.

hope this helps!