Impact air cushioned light stands.. help!

I bought this Impact Digital Flash Umbrella Mount Kit months ago to start learning OCF. It was pretty much the cheapest kit I could get that came with what I wanted, so I didn't expect it to be very high quality. (reviews said it was cheap, but did what it was suppose to)

So basically I'm on my 3rd set of RMAs because the "air-cushioning" on these stands is horrible! (I think?).. Trying to extend or collapse these stands is next to impossible. Some of them will bounce back down after I pull them out, and some after I finally get them pulled out are impossible to push back down (they actually will pop you in the face if you are not careful). Even if I hold pressure on them to collapse them it will just pop back up when I let go. I had to get a bigger box to send one back once because it would not collapse. Trying to make small adjustments to the height of these is the biggest pain in the butt!

Question is: should I just spend more money on some better quality stands? Should I scrap the air-cushioning and just get normal ones? Or is this something that has to be "broken in" that I'm just not aware of?

Any help would be appreciated!

I am using a set of 13' air cushioned stands, (not Impact's) and they are pretty easy to extend; they do take a bit more "pull" to get them extended, but not a lot. When I am finished, I just loosen one section lock at a time, and allow the weight of the strobe (Einsteins, or Quantum battery and Vivitar 283) to allow the section to drop down. Sounds like yours are "fighting back" a bit too much!

The air cushioning is a nice feature, and without it you must be able to control the "drop" of each section as the flash is lowered. While nice to have, the feature is not necessary.

I have some Impact stands. They're as good as they cost. I now have and use Manfrotto 1052bac stands for most of my speedlite work. Well worth the extra $$$, IMO. Plus, the stacking system makes transport very easy.

+1 on the Manfrotto stackables

Phototeacher wrote in post #16214851
I am using a set of 13' air cushioned stands, (not Impact's) and they are pretty easy to extend; they do take a bit more "pull" to get them extended, but not a lot. When I am finished, I just loosen one section lock at a time, and allow the weight of the strobe (Einsteins, or Quantum battery and Vivitar 283) to allow the section to drop down. Sounds like yours are "fighting back" a bit too much!

The air cushioning is a nice feature, and without it you must be able to control the "drop" of each section as the flash is lowered. While nice to have, the feature is not necessary.

Definitely agree it is "fighting back".. it's trying to kill me! I am thinking of trying to get a refund credit and purchasing some Manfrottos without the AC since I am tall (6'2") and I'm only interested in 6-7' stands at the moment - I can just assist in lowering them by hand.

v35skyline wrote in post #16214862
I have some Impact stands. They're as good as they cost. I now have and use Manfrotto 1052bac stands for most of my speedlite work. Well worth the extra $$$, IMO. Plus, the stacking system makes transport very easy.

I looked these up and they look great! But I saw that the set of 3 was receiving reviews saying they were built a little different than if you bought them separately, any knowledge of this?

I use Linco stands. Hell of a value.