Maximum safe temperature for Motor and ESC???

[JCAustralia]

G'dday everybody

Guys I had a fantastic day at the pond yesterday running my Aeromarine Challenger. I recently started using Lipo and the boat was literally flying on two 2s batteries.

Did some tuning and was constantly monitoring the motor and ESC temperature. I used a smaller prop that I normally used with the NImh battery as I was concerned that things might get too hot inside...... One blade of the plastic prop I used was even torn-off because of the huge torque.....

On my third set of batteries the temperature of my Motor and ESC were both 65 degrees celscius (149F) and to be safe I decided to call it a day. Heard a few stories about ESC burnt out and motor being demagnetised at high temperature......

Question:

What is the maximum safe temperature for the ESC and Motor we can run the boat before the components start failing? Can it go above 100 degrees celscius?

Thanks

JC

[Make-a-Wake]

G'dday everybody

Guys I had a fantastic day at the pond yesterday running my Aeromarine Challenger. I recently started using Lipo and the boat was literally flying on two 2s batteries.

Did some tuning and was constantly monitoring the motor and ESC temperature. I used a smaller prop that I normally used with the NImh battery as I was concerned that things might get too hot inside...... One blade of the plastic prop I used was even torn-off because of the huge torque.....

On my third set of batteries the temperature of my Motor and ESC were both 65 degrees celscius (149F) and to be safe I decided to call it a day. Heard a few stories about ESC burnt out and motor being demagnetised at high temperature......

Question:

What is the maximum safe temperature for the ESC and Motor we can run the boat before the components start failing? Can it go above 100 degrees celscius?
Thanks

JC

No. If you dont have a temp gun, use the 5 second method. If you can hold your finger on the motor can for 5 seconds you are ok. Thats usually around 130*. I would be worried over 140* personally.

[RIPFENCE]

149 is definately not safe opereating temps..shoot for 135 absolute max for esc and motor..

[Fluid]

The maximum tolerable temperature clearly depends on your components. A cheap Chinese motor will probably demagnetize over 150*F, yet a Neu is perfectly safe to well over 185*F. This is measured on the motor can surface or the endbell, not the water jacket.

ESCs are different too. A multiple board ESC will tolerate lower measured temperatures than a single board will. 135*F is probably as hot as you would want to see on an ESC board.

Remember that the temperature of a component will drop before you are untaped and can get the IR gun on it. In a recent heat my ICE200 showed a maximum internally logged temperature of 190*F, and by the time I got untaped the logged temp was down to 155*F. The IR gun showed 135*F. If all I used was an IR gun I'd think I was safer than I really was.....


.

[JCAustralia]

Guys

Thanks a lot for your opinions.

I'm glad I called it a day when the motor was getting to 149F

The change from Nimh to Lipo is so impressive......

My watercooling plumbing is pretty good (I think) and I would not want to change it.....

In order not to overheat my current setup should I change to a smaller prop or would it be ok to run the boat at say a maximum 3/4 throttle?

Thanks

JC

[jcald2000]

3/4 will kill the ESC, smaller prop is the answer for the lipo power.

[jac4412]

Best way to run your boat is at full power. Kinda going against logic, running at half power will be worse for wear on the ESC and your system.... It's still drawing from the batteries. Running at 3/4's would actually cause the ESC to "run harder". If youre running that hot, that prop is not good for your system anyways. As others have mentioned typically the "safe zone" is anywhere from 100-130 degrees. Anything more than that and youre asking for trouble.

[questtek]

I owuld NOT advise this but I ran a 4000KV Hobby King $11 outrunner yesterday in a DF 23" Sniper on 3s and you can see the temp in the pic of the Eagle Tree Data Display. Incredibly, this motor survived almost 185F with no apparent damaged based on continued runs.

[m4a1usr]

I sure do like the Eagle Tree panel. So easy to see all the data. Where do you have the t/c attached Joe? Gotta luv a data logger.

John