News flash!!! Castle is shipping out the hydra ice 200hv escs.

[JIM MARCUM]

23 Nov 2012:

I received my two Castle HYDRA ICE2 200 HV controllers back today. They look great & I will test them this week.

You can tell them by the new stickers "HYDRA ICE2 HV 200' & a small round sticker stating "CEHV2" on the bottom of the ESC. I sent my ESCs in a couple of weeks before the recall came out, so I was in the front of the line. Others should see their Castle HV ESCs shortly.

Thank you Castle! Great customer service, American designed, and they really do stand behind their products. JIM

[osprey21]

They've had mine since Aug 26th - hope it gets here shortly.

[liteumup69]

Lets hope so, They have my pair since august as well, for a ESC that cost this much I would have thought it would have been quicker service..........

[Fluid]

The problem was out-of-spec parts - and literally thousands of ESCs to rebuild. Marine ESCs make up a tiny portion of Castle's business (there are 100 aircraft ESCs for every marine version sold). That's a lot of warranty work....after waiting for the correct parts to arrive. Something like this could sink a company.....



.

[Rumdog]

Maybe they should have done a better job of inspecting the units, before they wrapped em up and shipped them to the user. This should have been caught in house.

[Doby]

Maybe they should have done a better job of inspecting the units, before they wrapped em up and shipped them to the user. This should have been caught in house.

Yup..

[srislash]

Hope the run of 240's are next.

[Steven Vaccaro]

Maybe they should have done a better job of inspecting the units, before they wrapped em up and shipped them to the user. This should have been caught in house.

If it was that easy. Visually inspecting a part is one thing, electronic components come with another set of challenges. Anyone that hasn't spent some time in an electonics assembly facility has no idea of the issues they face. I spent a couple days at a place that built some radio frequency stuff in the 90's, not an assembly line I want to be on or the guy that's in charge of trying to keep track of all the tinny parts.

[Rumdog]

We're talking about their product. They designed it. They know what parts are supposed to be there. that is their job. If you're going to out source the work, or have it done overseas, once a product is shipped to back to the "supplier" it is normally mandatory to have it inspected. Should go through QC first. Soon as it enters their shop it should be visually inspected, and tested. If they can't and won't do that, their prodiuct is no better than those coming from China, designed in China. This giant failure is proof that this company needs work. If I'm paying extra to buy American (which it isn't) I expect a well engineered product, that has been inspected and put through testing. It's just a hobby, but this crap wouldnt fly in the automotive, or medical field would it? For me, I have had great success with Chinese esc's.

The fact that RC boating is a small percentage of the hobby in general should have nothing to do with the quality of a product, nor the speed of warranty claims. Castle messed up.

[Steven Vaccaro]

We're talking about their product. They designed it. They know what parts are supposed to be there. that is their job. If you're going to out source the work, or have it done overseas, once a product is shipped to back to the "supplier" it is normally mandatory to have it inspected. Should go through QC first. Soon as it enters their shop it should be visually inspected, and tested. If they can't and won't do that, their prodiuct is no better than those coming from China, designed in China. This giant failure is proof that this company needs work. If I'm paying extra to buy American (which it isn't) I expect a well engineered product, that has been inspected and put through testing. It's just a hobby, but this crap wouldnt fly in the automotive, or medical field would it? For me, I have had great success with Chinese esc's.

The fact that RC boating is a small percentage of the hobby in general should have nothing to do with the quality of a product, nor the speed of warranty claims. Castle messed up.

Things happen. I'm SURE of only ONE thing, they didnt want this to happen.

In the end Castle is still tops in my book. Look at all the imported esc's that have had issues over the years. When was the last time you heard them recall all the dead ones from around the world? Also, when I have an issue, there is someone there to help me. Try getting in contact with SeaKing for detailed support answers.

[Rumdog]

I agree. I wouldn't even attempt to get a warranty from Seaking. However, I've never had one fail, other than from submersion. And that was one time. Castle's last line of HV marine esc's was a fail too. I don't remember them ever doing a recall on those.

Obviously the 30-60 dollar esc's out of China in the past 5 years have been junk. But ever since they put the Seaking label on it (whatever brand does make it) it has been a great line of esc's. They have the simplest programming with the card of any esc. And I can buy it for under 100 dollars. It will easily power any 6s and under boat Ive built / run and do it well.

I've had castle's that do well also. 120 lv's, and 240 lv's. But even buying one of those used will cost me twice a Seaking, or Swordy. Plus right now, it is hard to even buy a Castle product unless it's directly from them. As long as I'm buying my "Chineese" esc's and motors from a U.S. distributer.... that is helping me, and him. That means I dont care where it's made. As long as it works well for my app., is inexpensive for me, and is putting a little cash in a U.S. importer's pocket, I'm fine.

[DINO7]

and HIFEI s customer service worked excellent for me.one 200A that stopped working and one 240HV that burned 1 phase, repaired fast and send back to Greece in one week with minimum cost..great communication too with Michelle from HIFEI.

[JIM MARCUM]

Castle is an American company. They designed the HV ESC. but their supplier fouled up. It's to Castles credit that they stood behind their customers, issued a blanket recall, did the technical prouduct tests of the new HV ESC versions, and did not release them to customers before they were sure the problems had been fixed. This cost Castle BIG bucks, but they kept their word and fixed the problems. And shipping the new ESCs back to their customers has begun. As to being being built in China, WTF??? Show me any American electronic products that don't have at least some Chinese built components. JIM

[Doby]

Thats what a consumer would expect for the price they charge.

[Rumdog]

I don't care where it is manufactured. I just want a product that works. I surely won't buy a product just because it's made in the U.S. either.
Maybe they should have checked a percentage of the first lot of esc's.