Balanced Valve ?

[PumaCarl]

Since airgun forums have been a thing people have been talking about, designing, and trying, to make a reliable balanced valve that was easy to tune for and service with very mixed results. It was a big marketing point when the Raptor was introduced (which initially had problems, now fixed) and now RTI uses one and the new Epic will use one also. I believe the Epic one is a design of Bob Sterne. With more of these things being around now for a while, are they just as reliable now, as anything else? Should we not consider, or settle for, nothing less? Is the Huben and L2's hammerless system already the writing on the wall that the industry has been waiting for? I don't follow the competitive sport/target matches much, but are benchrest shooters using balanced valves now? I am just curious about the state of the sport. It seems most discussions these days are about particular guns or companies but not a lot about where things are going. Everyone seemed to think that electronic everything was going to be it when Daystate came out with them (especially w/the Red Wolf) but the mechanical BRK Ghost really seems to be stealing all that thunder lately. So are balanced valves the new direction? Will their mtbf match the competing technologies? Should I buy one airgun over another because it uses a balanced valve or should I look for a hammerless airgun? Or maybe something else? Basically this is a who's doing what, why, and when question, and I know that they rarely get answered by anyone in the know, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

[mann]

Mostly all the balance valves suffer from some sticktion after sitting for a day or longer wether the sticktion is from a oring or poppet valve material
They are reliable now though and sticktion is minimal and in some cases can be tuned out

[3crows]

I am not noticing any significant stiction with my JSAR balanced valve Marauder. Maybe a little on the first shot of the day but thereafter, even when shooting infrequently as would be the case for a hunter, there seems to be a very good velocity consistency. I am regulated currently at 2200 psi.