This is a follow up to the last post. To recap, I snagged an Anvis-9 from Nocturnality Gear on Instagram a few weeks ago. The review video is up on You Tube. The wifey dropped it and the shelf (bridge that the monoculars attach to) cracked in half. It happened while she was quickly putting them on to look through them. We'd been swapping goggles to compare them (Sentinel, dual PVS-14s, and Anvis-9) and she thought she'd pressed the release button on the mount to deploy the -9s down from being stowed, pulled them down & they popped out of the mount. Because we were swapping goggles, I didn't take the extra 5 seconds to put the lanyard on. Big mistake!
I contacted Nocturnality Gear and a few other dealers asking about getting it repaired and/or what to do. I also looked into swapping out the shelf or the entire PAS (pviot adjustment shelf). The costs were anywhere from $250 - $2,000. I had a couple of dealers tell me to buy their up armored shelves or to send it in and have them do it. I had other dealers want to sell me an RNVG or other bino housing. I decided to wait and make a decision later. I couldn't figure out to disassemble the goggle and people weren't giving up much info, so I posted questions on Instagram, AR-15, and Snipers Hide. I had two very knowledgeable members (1 on ARF and 1 on SH) give me the info. Turns out it's fairly easy to take it apart. To go all the way you need some soldering skills and the right equipment.
What I ended up doing was epoxying it back together using JB Weld 2-part epoxy. It's been about 5 days and it's holding up just as good as when I bought it. Advice I got from experienced industry people and users, was to forego the up armor, which jived with my own opinion. The up armor costs $800+ and from what I've been told and observe on my own, would not keep another break from happening. Even if the shelf held up (that's the only part that's really up armored) the chances are higher you'd break a monocular housing because the shelf did give and break instead. Why put that kind of money into it when a housing upgrade is only $500-$900 more? That would be the better option because if it broke again, now you're looking to spend the same or more all over again.
There are some killer deals on these Anvis-9s. The source of these particular -9s is ASU-NVG. They are a helicopter night vision focused company. These goggles are basically trade-ins, and after inspecting them, they are sold to dealers. They can be found at Ultimate Night Vision, Nocturnality Gear, and probably some other places. Price is sub $4,500.00. The tubes, or at least the ones I got, are awesome. High quality screen cosmetics because they were aviation tubes. Autogated and high specs. I think it's a good purchase decision.
If you are looking into an Anvis system 6 or 9, they are a great goggle, but you just need to know they are fragile and the ball detent mounting system isn't the safest. They won't take a drop whatsoever. You can't run into stuff with them. The wiring is basically exposed underneath the shelf so it's most definitely shouldn't get wet.You need to factor in the extra costs you may need to repair them, replace parts, or swap the tubes into a new housing. The way the goggle ball detent interface pops into the ball/plunger mount, it's very design means it can pop out of the mount just as easily as you pop it in. Running this type of goggle it is imperative you run a lanyard. If we had been using a lanyard we wouldn't have dropped it. They have more risk of damage then any other device we've ever used.
They're not terrible goggles. I wouldn't recommend them to a brand new user as their first goggle because a new user will more likely have more "opportunities" to damage them. You just need to know what you're buying, the risks, and associated costs. We may end up keeping these because we like them a lot. The reason is that the Anvis objectives are superior to PVS-14 objectives (even though they lose some light performance) and they only weight 17.6 ounces.
Here they are fixed!
