What’s the most reliable ESC?

I know this is very hard to figure out but what do people think is the most reliable ESC or ESC vendor?

I realize this is going to depend a lot on people’s experiences. For example I see a lot of negativity towards Flipsky but I have a board running an Flipsky 4.2 and it’s been pretty rock solid although one of the capacitors has actually been loose for a long time! I recently got a MakerX DV6 and only one side of it is working right out of the box which is pretty shocking. Based on price and perhaps amount of usage in kms, one might think Stormcore (damn they are expensive).

I ride pretty long distances, often by myself, often into remote areas, and sometimes at night. I carry tools, and a fully-inflated tire on a rim in case of a flat but recently started thinking about carrying a spare ESC just in case. Or possibly switching to single units instead of a dual.

Part of this is also that I would like to run higher motor max motor current. I’ve been playing it safe with the Flipsky 4.x at 75A per side but ideally would like to push beyond that with another ESC. I do have a Xenith and a Flipsky 200A (the big one they are no longer selling) sitting around but worry about reliability of both based on some stories, including stories of cutouts on the Xenith.

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Stormcore 60D has been rock solid for me. It was definitely expensive but I wanted to drop something in and forget about it. I haven’t had any of the missing settings issue either. My only concern was the anti spark, but the guys over at Lacroix said they would send me a new one if it ever blew and that CS alone made me pull the trigger.

As far as something that would never fail or carrying spares… yeah I’ve heard running singles is much more robust in that sense. I picked up the single TB6 after hearing good things, when they were still available, but never really got around to using them.

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I think stormcore is your safest bet nothing is full proof though

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Yes of course. Nothing beats having some kind of redundancy in place. I have been leaning more towards Stormcore and I am figuring that a lot of the people using them are pushing them pretty hard at least in Lacroix boards.

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What battery you got?

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OG focbox on 12s. Geared right. It’s a beautiful thing. Unitys suck.

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can confirm

i am not bulletproof

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IMHO the most reliable ESC is the one whose settings aren’t typed in too high.

Run anything at lower power levels and your reliability generally will go up a lot.

So of course the make and model matters a lot, but I feel like what you do with them could be a bigger factor than which one you choose, within reason.

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10S on one board but building 12S on another.

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A great option for reliability is single controllers too, this way in case one goes you can generally still get home on the other

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Yes for sure and installation and usage, especially WRT heat, will also have a huge factor.

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I also here the maker X is a good budget option, but iv never used one. might be more limited on heat sink and enclosure options.

Maker-X makes hella reliable stuff in my experience. Only one I’ve ever managed to break was my own fault for getting water on the power rails.

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MakerX DV6 has been rock solid for me.

I don’t really think there is a perfect answer to this question though, but like brian said, the lower your power, the more reliable they seem to become.

I have one friend on Flipsky original 4.12’s that still runs. I also know someone who has killed 3 100d’s in their lacroix from riding hard. So who even knows.

Been hearing good things about the new Makerx line D60/D75/D100 with the switch as well

To this day I still have never run a stormcore because they’re way too expensive

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Hate to say it but my Unity’s have been flawless for 3 years. Still on the original power switches.
Both of my boards on 10s5p.

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Only thing I’ve found wrong with the D75 is the 10-15 second boot time

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I feel like there have got to be like 10+ “most reliable ESC?” threads by now on this forum :laughing:

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I wanna hear more about the most reliable modors or the most reliable BMS.

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That’s easy:
Radium 6485 and Flipsky Battlehardened series below 63100 size
Daly dumb BMS and LLT smart BMS

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I optimistically disagree. There’s gotta be something better.