AEA Varmint hissing sound when bolt pulled back

I have a 25 cal Backpacker and love it. Shoots 26.7 gr slugs into a quarter size group at 50 yards. Velocity around 900 fps. My gun was filled and checked prior to shipping, you may want to ask for that.

All model airguns leak. It is not difficult to change the poppet valve. Changing it would be less hassle than shipping it I would think. Anyway the vendor needs contacted. You can find aftermarket poppets built from different plastics that are robust for around 35 bucks.
I looked I dont know, Cant find the robust ones your talking about any links you got to them?
 
If it were me I'd send it back I had the aea HP SS Plus and I had the same issue except I lined up on a raccoon that has been causing problems for a while and pull the trigger and all i got was the gun farting and needless to say the raccoon got away then after that I put a thousand rounds or so through it and then I had a problem with the trigger sticking I called up the place that I brought it from and he told me that this was normal and what it was was lead had somehow gotten into the trigger group and the trigger wouldn't work so apparently it is normal to take the gun completely apart and clean out the trigger every now and then so that the gun will continue to function the other thing I had a problem with is that I bought four mags when I purchased the gun and between 1,000 and 3,000 rounds every one of the mags had broken so I took it and listed it on air donation since it was past my return date and I found a guy that I listed all the problems on the ad and had to sell it for a pretty cheap with a nice Red Dot but I was just sick of it and wanted to get rid of it after all those problems the idea of a cheap short semiauto airgun that is foldable was awesome to me which is why I bought it but with all the problems it just wasn't worth it.
 
If it were me I'd send it back I had the aea HP SS Plus and I had the same issue except I lined up on a raccoon that has been causing problems for a while and pull the trigger and all i got was the gun farting and needless to say the raccoon got away then after that I put a thousand rounds or so through it and then I had a problem with the trigger sticking I called up the place that I brought it from and he told me that this was normal and what it was was lead had somehow gotten into the trigger group and the trigger wouldn't work so apparently it is normal to take the gun completely apart and clean out the trigger every now and then so that the gun will continue to function the other thing I had a problem with is that I bought four mags when I purchased the gun and between 1,000 and 3,000 rounds every one of the mags had broken so I took it and listed it on air donation since it was past my return date and I found a guy that I listed all the problems on the ad and had to sell it for a pretty cheap with a nice Red Dot but I was just sick of it and wanted to get rid of it after all those problems the idea of a cheap short semiauto airgun that is foldable was awesome to me which is why I bought it but with all the problems it just wasn't worth it.
Wow! thats disappointing, Keep hearing of the amount of failures on these aea guns, I caught 2 raccoons doing it in my yard a put the pellet on the female first shot was a bit low but quick followup to body no problem for a reliable gun like my bull pup av , As they started climbing a tree I put 2 to the body heart/lung region on both of em with my avenger bull pup .22, both dropped stone dead within seconds pretty clean was using crossman premier hollow points at around 28 foot pounds. Don't want em anywhere near my yard where my dog snoops around with the roundworms eggs they are known transport in my area. But looking at it from this perspective my av is only $560 with mods tax included its reliable sure it ain't backpack friendly but never failed me in over 8000 shots gets amazing groups at 100 yards tuned it in its a precision rifle that cost me 560 with tax thats few mods included, For the price aea runs closer to $1000 if it ain't reliable then il pass, thats good money for something that I gotta maintain dont like the though of that.I'd rather much own something reliable, Its really kind of deal breaker to me I want as I want all my airguns reliable a ready on the fly. I'd hate to have to miss a shot due to the gun not being reliable when I most need it.
 
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I have had several aea hp models. Assassin in 25 cal. Carbine 25 cal and an hp ss30. They all had that farting air issue. I returned or sold (to people more mechanical than me) all of them but kept my Varmint. I assumed the varmint was working is because of it being bolt action instead of semi.
Well they are offering me a replacement varmint or refund but they dont wanna refund shipping an it is $45, I wont get that back. I think il go with replacement. Might buy a spare poppet so I got it on hand, I dont know might be bad for the seals leaving it at zero for a while.
 
Well they are offering me a replacement varmint or refund but they dont wanna refund shipping an it is $45, I wont get that back. I think il go with replacement. Might buy a spare poppet so I got it on hand, I dont know might be bad for the seals leaving it at zero for a

I think quality control is the biggest issue. If you get a good one it's good though.
 
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Fwiw, pei is not a crap product, just a bad application here.

Delrin is actually cheaper but robs power from the hammer to unseat.

Peek is the better choice but is more expensive.

The AEA line is what it is. Cheap and powerful. Nothing is for free though. The action/hammer are excessively sprung to make a lot of power, able to crack the valve at higher pressures unregulated. To tune down, it gets choked in the transfer but the valve takes the same hit every shot, high or low tune. PEI just doesn’t have the impact strength to be able to do that with a smaller pin. A pin with an upset to distribute the force would be better but again, cost.

So don’t beat on AEA or PEI too bad, at the end of the day, it’s just a poppet/stem. Easily made with minimal tools. And in that platform, pretty easy to change.

Dave