Why Don't People Convert Car ESC's For Boat Use?

[Stinger9D9]

Burst rating is 980amps on the specs.

Yeah right!

Maybe by burst rating, they mean the number at which we'll burst out in laughter while reading the specs. I think they got it wrong though. I'd have broken out laughing in disbelief at a much lower amp rating.

[Peter A]

Hi, I have a fuse 70A car esc that I have previously used in a old design (1964) 30" hull, submerged prop. It came with a 5700kv motor which was too much so I changed to 3300kv which didn't overheat esc with a cooling fan. One advantage, it has a temp cut out. Any how I have just done a conversion to watercooled with the cooling plate off a sk90, it fit perfectly where the cooling fins were. I have yet to run it in a boat (it only got finished over the weekend) but will probably put in in my proboat miss elam to test, it should go ok in that. I've done this because it was there and I could. If it doesn't work for you, just go with the good advice to get a boat esc. Good Luck.

[NativePaul]

Those peak ratings on car ESCs are funny things, so over the top they must be for picoseconds if real at all, much higher than the real life peaks you get in car use could stand.

I have done it, when ESCs were still fairly new, and boat ESCs were very limited in suitability, availability and affordability, I bought a 480amp car ESC for my boat, I knew the 480A rating was BS as it was no where near big enough and nor were the wires but it had a semi transparent case and I could see it had the same number of FETs as the 30A boat ESC I wanted but couldn't afford, so I crossed my fingers and bought it, and it worked fine but in the hot side for half a season before it burned up at about 28Amps (16 triple motor 2:1 gearbox x640 prop, 4 minute race duration. 1700mAh Nicads) I should have saved up for the boat ESC, and had to go back to a switch unit after that.

These days BL boat ESCs are made in mass production volumes not hand made like back then, and the lower complexity of software and cooling means that boat ESCs are usually as cheap or cheaper than car ESCs from the same manufacturer. While car ESCs can work if you have one laying around unused it is invariably better to buy a boat ESC than a car ESC, if you are buying an ESC for a boat.

Where better value for a little work comes in is buying air ESCs and converting them to marine use, as the software in air ESCs is the same simple stuff as in boat ESCs, the cooling solution is even simpler and they are made in higher numbers, they are nearly always cheaper from the same manufacturer, often you can spend a few bucks water cooling and waterproofing them and still come out in front. ((as long as you don't take your own hourly rate into consideration)but then if we did that we would all be driving Toysport RTRs and thinking them remarkable value for money)

[Meniscus]

Agreed. Many of the same circuit board designs are used in the airplane world. From someone that regularly runs high amp setups on 2s, most of the car ESCs can't handle the load. In fact, many of the guys that run large cars often look to boat motors and boat ESCs because the superficial ratings on the car ESCs are just that (imaginative marketing).

If you're making the investment in a boat ESC and have the available funds, choose one that has a thermal shutdown. I've seen this feature save many ESCs, even if you happen to cook a motor for some reason such as failure with any part.

[Fluid]

This goes back to brushed days. In the 1980s and 1990s (!) boat ESCs were few and far between. Novak and Tekin each built watercooled ESCs for boats - but they did not have huge amp ratings. Their car ESCs did have very large ratings, and we knew back then they were BS. I ran a couple Novak car ESCs in my 6 and 8 cell (nickel) boats and they worked - for awhile, they always failed eventually. Once Andy started building his MontanaDesign products I never looked back.



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