Seaking 160 pro blew up

[Rgrove]

Hello all. I just put together a hobby King Lucas Oil arr deep vee with a hobby wing seaking 160 pro esc and a 4s 5000 lipo (water cooled) i ran the boat once, and all was well...cool temps at motor, esc and battery.
Today I was getting ready to run it again; hooked up the battery, and taped up the hatch. Then I heard a sizzling sound and a loud BOOM. When I opened the hatch up, one of the caps blew out. It popped with enough force to crack the hull/deck joint on both sides (I had added some finishing epoxy around the joint from the inside).
So aside from it scaring the crap out of me, and now being p**see, what to do now?
From what I've read, hobby wing will tell me to pound sand, and certainly won't reimburse me for the hull. Hobby King has no liability, obviously. So some questions:

How common is this for a boat that's just sitting waiting to go in the water while being taped up? I've been doing FEs for many years, never had this happen.

Any ideas if the hull is salvageable? Best course to fix it?

Recommendations for an esc that doesn't detonate and blow the deck off?

What causes this?? Battery leads weren't extended, boat wasn't running, and a 160 should have been more that enough, esp for the ONE previous run.

Any thoughts/ideas are really appreciated. Worst part is we are on vacation, and my son wanted to race mine against his shovelnose hydro. Any repairs need to be done with minimal supplies, etc.

I'll try to post pics a little later.

Thanks!

[ray schrauwen]

What battery exactly are you running? Can it be checked that there are no bad cells?

I haven't heard of water cooled battery packs in a while. They are sort of fad ish or useful for some in Europe for extra long run times but many do it themselves.

[Rgrove]

It's a new venom pack, charged/balanced with a Hyperion duo, cells checked out as balanced.

Its my first water cooled pack; was about the same price as a regular one, and I figured it was a bit of extra insurance for longevity.

[T.S.Davis]

Venom needs to get out of batteries. Cooling them is bad for lithium cells.

I have a pair of dead 160's. Didn't blow up though. I would be surprised if it was battery related.

[Rgrove]

Yeah, i cant see how it would be battery related in this case. Cells were balanced, and the boat wasnt even being run, just getting it ready to put in the water. To say im p**sed is an understatement....

At this point, im thinking a raider 150 or turnigy 120, thin zap & epoxy to seal the seams back up and try again? Happy for any esc recommendations...

[T.S.Davis]

I'm pretty fond of those Raider. We tried one of the cheepy version that look the same but aren't the Raider too but it went crazy. Then what? Send it to some ebay guy to get it replaced? Not gonna happen. At least with the Raider we have OSE to back us up if something goes wonky.

[kfxguy]

Let me ease your mind (well it won't but I'll try lol) stuff happens. We've all had our fair share of that. When it comes to this hobby, sometimes your lucky for a long while and sometimes not. My theory is, maybe the esc was stressed before and it was just on the verge of going and when you plugged the battery in it finished it off. I've flipped a boat and the esc went out. More than one. $300 escs. No smoke, just a flip. What we are doing is very hard on electronics. Think about how hard it is for you to run (yes run like your running on land) in water. You can't. Imagine all the drag forces on a boat. I had a $400 esc blow up (like an explosion!) on me when I put the boat in the water and started to take off. It moved maybe 5 feet and boom. Nothing changed in that setup, been running for over a month. So moral of the story....stuff happens man.

[kfxguy]

I'm pretty fond of those Raider. We tried one of the cheepy version that look the same but aren't the Raider too but it went crazy. Then what? Send it to some ebay guy to get it replaced? Not gonna happen. At least with the Raider we have OSE to back us up if something goes wonky.

I'll second that. I like those escs a lot. If you compare them to a seaking 180, the design of it and the wiring are all the same. And they drive the same, just a much better cooling arrangement and lower profile.

[Rgrove]

Thanks to everyone for the responses. Yes, I understand that sometimes things just happen. Im more upset by the collateral damage to the hull. I ran the boat once prior to this incident, just for a brief shake down run, barely any time at WOT (but also not puttering around either; i know how that can be hard on components too). Had good water flow, etc.

Good to hear about the Raiders. I think Im down to the Raider or the Dynamite 120. Not including price, any thoughts? At the moment, I can get the Dynamite faster (on Amazon), and since we are on vacation on a big lake, that matters.

Any idea if i can strip the water cooling stuff off of the Venom Lipo? I knew it was overkill when I bought it, but found it at a good price, so figured Id give it a try. Unfortunately the cooling tubes on each end move the battery a little further forward, so probably wont help the CG. At this point, it seems the water cooling is a nice to have, not a must have for this application

Would leaving a LiPo plugged in and the ESC armed for too long cause a cap to blow? Ive plugged batteries in and taken my time getting the hatch sealed and the boat launched in the past, sometimes letting the boat sit on the dock for several minutes with other boats/ESCs. Could that cause a problem?

Any idea how to best remove the black goo and STINK thats left in the hull??

Thanks again for all of the help!

[T.S.Davis]

Rubbing alcohol works but even better is fast orange hand cleaner.

[ray schrauwen]

That's new the fast orange... Thx, if I need it

[ray schrauwen]

Thanks to everyone for the responses. Yes, I understand that sometimes things just happen. Im more upset by the collateral damage to the hull. I ran the boat once prior to this incident, just for a brief shake down run, barely any time at WOT (but also not puttering around either; i know how that can be hard on components too). Had good water flow, etc.

Good to hear about the Raiders. I think Im down to the Raider or the Dynamite 120. Not including price, any thoughts? At the moment, I can get the Dynamite faster (on Amazon), and since we are on vacation on a big lake, that matters.

Any idea if i can strip the water cooling stuff off of the Venom Lipo? I knew it was overkill when I bought it, but found it at a good price, so figured Id give it a try. Unfortunately the cooling tubes on each end move the battery a little further forward, so probably wont help the CG. At this point, it seems the water cooling is a nice to have, not a must have for this application

Would leaving a LiPo plugged in and the ESC armed for too long cause a cap to blow? Ive plugged batteries in and taken my time getting the hatch sealed and the boat launched in the past, sometimes letting the boat sit on the dock for several minutes with other boats/ESCs. Could that cause a problem?

Any idea how to best remove the black goo and STINK thats left in the hull??

Thanks again for all of the help!

Maybe. I've only once seen a boat plugged in waiting for a race and it spontaneously burst into flames. I think it was one of Howard Tuckers riggers at London, Ontario.

[CraigP]

This sounds like the cap hit dielectric breakdown. This can happen easily with capacitors, especially ones that aren't well suited for the extreme task they are required to fulfill. The fail mechanism happens like this:

The cap gets too hot and swells internally, but doesn't have enough pressure to vent the top. The pressure causes a thin spot in the dielectric, which is the thin insulator used between the plates inside the capacitor. When the cap cools, it contracts pressing that thinned out dielectric harder against the plates. Then you apply voltage. That spot is so thin it starts to warm, breaks over and WHAM! It happens all the time in power supplies and high power servo drives.

I'm not impressed with the little dinky caps many of these manufacturers use on their ESC's. A capacitor's ESR, or Equivalent Series Resistance, is in direct proportion to it's physical size. So when there are small caps, there better be a bunch of them, or their resistance is too high and they will over heat, then fail.