VERY IMPORTANT!!! Castle Creations Hydra Ice Recall

[sigelitest]

Anyone know of a HV ESC at 240 amps besides castle
i am looking for one and can't find one

[Rumdog]

http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...ef-sword-240hv
Also fightercatracing sells quite a few HV escs.

[Fluid]

Lets live in the present. Their top of the line big boy high dollar esc is a turd. What is meant to be their best product is their most unreliable. People who have bought them are left with no esc as of now.

Perhaps if you knew the reason why the current HV products have issues you'd be objective. But you continue to live in the past.....

One of Castle's suppliers changed the specs on a single part of the control board, but didn't tell Castle. They lowered the strength of the part, which causes the board to fail. Now Castle has hundreds (thousands?) of HV controllers with the same problem. They are trying to repair and make new controllers, and it is taking a long time...too long perhaps. Too, the ICE controllers have been well-proven in the aircraft versions for years, and the 3D and helicopter guys abuse them about as bad as boaters do.

BTW I watched two Swordfish 240s fail in just a few runs - at the same SAW event where my Castle ICE came through with no issues after 19 sets of passes. The Swordfish racer had no logging results to see how hard he was pushing the ESCs either. So yes, I trust the ICE more than I would the Swordfish for heavy use.

But you don't care, you clearly have a hard-on for Castle. Fine, it's a free country. I just wanted folks to know the whole story so they can make up their own minds, instead of just reading a diatribe of hate......


.

[Jesse J]

My experience: I got two swordfish 120s that worked fine on 4s and very mild set ups ( like 30-40 amps mild). After a few weeks on the shelf, both - yes twin setup - did not arm and continue to not. The I recommended that a buddy use 240s and he has had repeated spontaneous failure. That said, I do have two brand new cadillacs sitting at the castle plant needing the updated parts. I can say that I understand why each of the cc speedies I have smoked; I can't explain why the each of the lower dollar ones have gone. I suspect that the "memory" for abuse may be better in the cheaper ones.

This latter point makes me wonder if it's an over rating issue and QC/QA issue, or a combination.

Whoa hot topic! Easy y'all, they are just toys. I do want to echo jays unending diligence for fairness in the story. Thus the question and me sharing my experience. Btw, I do have three dead sf escs that don't have a trade in value .....

[Diesel6401]

Here's the my opinion (and i am a big castle fan), i LOVE there motors, and enjoy (not love) there esc's. I have a ICE Hyrda 240lv i run on 6s2p and it failed on the second run (setup was a CC1717 on a x447/3) and it quit (warranted) and I don't know why. In the years of boating I myself have toasted one 1 esc and i was pushing the hell out of it (seaking 120) and it finally let go. Like I mentioned I love and most importantly I trust there motors, but I do not however trust there esc's. I also am a avid flyer and have read so serious horror stories of castle esc's failing in expensive planes. Fluid I know you are HUGE on the whole "you get what you pay for" thing, but I gotta disagree to a point with you on that. The Hobbywing esc's and I am talking land, air and sea I use them all have been simply unbelievable and amazing in every single application i have used them in. I honestly trust my hobbywings more then castle esc's. I have eagle tree data logged 170+ amps in my seaking 180 on 4s and it asks for more everytime. The Hifei esc's have been hit or miss for me for the reason that 1 drop of water ruins them. Since I have started waterproofing them they also have been simply flawless, but I still find the hobbywings the more complete value. Hifei air esc's are very very good (no water lol) and they also have just come out with a datalogging feature like the ice esc's that I cant wait to get my hands on. IMHO with dealing with RC's and that's boats, planes and cars the hobbywing esc's and gens ace batteries are hands down the best value for the money you will ever get and I choose those over Castle esc's and the gens aces batteries over other brands not because I can't afford the $$$$$$$, simply because I trust them!


I will be adding a 55" wingspan T-34 balsa plane (next year, after my son's heart surgery) to the fleet and with being said the plane will be equipped with everything I trust, that means spektrum radio gear, hitec servos, gens ace batteries and yup a Hobbywing esc!

[Rumdog]

Did you buy the Swordy's from OSE Jesse?
I'm not sure how I'm being unfair here. I have experiences as well. I'm no SAW racer either though.
I feel like the only reason anybody supports thes esc's so strongly is because Castle is a U.S. company.
I recieved a DOA from the first batch of Swordfish HV 240's. Returned it to Steve, and got a new and upgraded version that performed flawlessly within 2 weeks. From what I've seen, the Chinese companies are great at fixing quality issues with their product and getting the new units out quickly.

[Diesel6401]

Did you buy the Swordy's from OSE Jesse?
I'm not sure how I'm being unfair here. I have experiences as well. I'm no SAW racer either though.
I feel like the only reason anybody supports thes esc's so strongly is because Castle is a U.S. company.
I recieved a DOA from the first batch of Swordfish HV 240's. Returned it to Steve, and got a new and upgraded version that performed flawlessly within 2 weeks. From what I've seen, the Chinese companies are great at fixing quality issues with their product and getting the new units out quickly.

I think that's part of it. I know myself I try to support them, because of that but it is hard to support all the us companies. I do try to avoid Apple, HP and some other major US companies based on there relations with Foxconn, but it's damn near impossible. I love Vizio TV's and am a Amazon kindle fan lol... Can't win them all, Samsung rocks though!

[Jesse J]

Yes Ose, one was replaced but I didn't feel like pushing Steve to keep replacing them. He seems confident and said that over 95% (I forget the exact stats), worked flawlessly.

I misspoke: I mean complete. Don't take my comment against you; your experience adds to the whole story and that is what I meant.

[sigelitest]

thanks rumdog that will be my next buy at payday Hope OSE still has them in stock by then

[Moxus]

Cheap ESCs, way to go!

I got to agree that cheap ESCs is the way to go.
The T-180 is the only ESC that have been able to stay up to my abuse (6s - 2200kv Leopard motor in a Surge Crusher) for a prolonged period, and it costs nothing.
A friend of mine wanted to save money, so i pushed it a bit further: a 200A Suppo (HobbyKing) airplane ESC that we converted for watercooling, waterproofed, and stuck it into a Apparition hull with 6s setup and a 1650 kv Leopard motor.
It's too working flawless after one summer of absolute abuse.

Maybe CC works too, but why pay the extra money when the cheap stuff does the job just as well?
And warranty is no valid argument for me. 3-4 weeks waiting time is just not acceptable for me, thats half the summer and I don't got that time to wait. So I would just buy a new ESC anyway.

[Jesse J]

Opinions aside, has ANYbody received their controller back yet? I was told "a few weeks" a month and a half ago....

[sigelitest]

ice ice

I was told 2 weeks last mon

[6BOOST]

240 HV just went back to castle i got 2 runs on it. seems very expensive for two runs it was only 1 month old.has anyone found one by another MFG that is the same amperage and voltage. I want to buy it as a back up while i wait. oh now i have a 5s that is a 4s because of the ESC guess u can never have too many 4s bats

It's interesting that you had an issue with it and it's not one of the ones that are part of the recall....... Could the issue (or other issues?) relate to more than just those they have listed? I have 2x unused 240hv's, I don't think I will be using them anymore:-/

6BOOST

[sigelitest]

hmmmm

Yep must have been a bad batch the HS said they sent 10 back out of 20 and they were blowing bats or the ESC boards were burning through the shrink wrap. Fighter cat has one and swd fish

[Fluid]

Let's not confuse the two types - Hydra240HV and HydraICE200HV. There were well known issues with the old Hydra240HV controllers, most guys bought the Hydra180HV instead and had good luck. Don't know the reason so many 240HVs were bad, but it is unrelated to the current recall.


.