Castle hv esc recall questions not related to the recall!!

[JIM MARCUM]

I've heard that the reason Castle is recalling their HV ESCs is capacitor failures. Will adding the OFEs capacitor w/card I bought from OSE help prevent frying my last Castle 200 amp HV? And, as my Castle ESC capacitors are hidden inside the plastic case and I don't want to blow my warrantee, can I solder the OSE caps in the existing battery leads? JIM

[Raydee]

Jim just be safe and send it in to Castle and let them fix it up.

[JIM MARCUM]

I sent one of my two Castle Pheonix ICE 200 amp HV ESCs in cuz it smoked about a week before the recall. I bought an add-on cap card here from OFE, and thought I could add it to the ESCs batt leads. It's gonna be X-weeks until Castle gets it's act together & I get my ESC back so I don't want to send my last ESC back yet. Will adding the OFE caps help keep my Castle alive at all? JIM

[Raydee]

Jim I am not sure. You could try calling Castle on Monday and asking them to be safe.

[Boaterguy]

raydee's got it.
You can add them directly to the battery leads but get them as close in to the ESC as possible.

[m4a1usr]

This is for the early Ice 200's?

http://www.castlecreations.com/support/service_advisory/sa1101-hydrahv.html

John

[Fluid]

The current HV recall has nothing to do with the caps! As John stated, that problem was for an earlier recall issue. This is part of the most recent recall notice I received from Castle on August 20th:

"2. We will replace the control board in as many returned units as possible.....4. Due to the manner in which most of the ICE HV controllers and their heat sinks are assembled, we do not recommend that users ask to install the replacement board themselves."

The caps are not part of the control board..... :olleyes:


.

[Stinger9D9]

From the service advisory:

We understand that you may not wish to return your controller. Those that have served you well are likely to continue doing so; however, controllers that you may have recently purchased should be assumed to be assembled with the problem components.

If you insist on using these controllers, please be advised that the risks of continued usage begin with severe burns to you and/or others, as well as property damage to your RC vehicle or surroundings. Please wear fire-proof gloves when connecting any HV controllers that use 8 or 10 gauge wire to their power source.

They don't expound upon the "problem component", but it doesn't sound good.

[JIM MARCUM]

The ESC I'm still running is the Castle Pheonix ICE HV 200 and is less than a month old. I bought it when my other identical Castle smoked. I will call Castle - if I can get through - on Monday to ask what they think about adding an extra cap/card & if it would help or not. I've read the service advisory too, but my impression is the only ESC component that could cause a serious fire would be the caps. As most of you know, HV ESC capacitors have a history burning up with the high voltage/amp spikes we deal with in FEs. Lastly, how can the Castle caps NOT be a part of the control board??? JIM