So... Why aren't my Deans plugs melting?

[FighterCat57]

... Or even getting hot for that matter?

They are only rated at 60a and I regularly pull 120a through a single connector on 12ga wire.

I have a ton of them and they seem to work just fine over 100a. This goes for the cheap knock offs too. They don't get hot, melt or otherwise either.

I'm planing on going to 5mm bullets for my high current systems, but just curious as to why a 60a rated plug is handling double current without any signs of failure.

Double E's any info?
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Kawasaki Vn1600D

[ED66677]

when you pull 120A is it constant?
I bet they are rated at 60A with some safety, I use them on my 29"mono/8XL/4S and they do get warm but that's it, I'm pulling 70 to 80A constant, 100A burst!

[Raydee]

The deans themselves won't melt but I bet IF you are really pulling 120amps continuous you will either melt the shrink on your wires or your wires will run very hot. When I ran my 4s rigger with Deans all the esc and batt wires would run hot, that was a 90amp setup. After switching to 5.5mm bullets everything ran cooler in the setup.

[FighterCat57]

Hmmm. Full throttle is usually no longer than 10 seconds, maybe 20 seconds on some of my cars. They hit about 140a and are all using 10ga wire.

Maybe that's it. Maybe it's a constant amp rating rather than a threshold?
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TOYOTA CAMRY TS-01 HISTORY

[Raydee]

Wire size is a huge factor too. I hate to sound like a broken record but in the Heli forums a well known guy there did a test on different size connectors and wire and in all cases the wire size was the most important factor in resistance and heat. I imagine fitting 10g wire on a Deans connector isn't the easiest thing to to, that is probably why most would rather use bullets with that size wire.

[Fluid]

The Deans plastic is a good heat insulator and is resistant to heat, it's the metal connector parts that matter. By the time you can 'feel' connectors they have already cooled off anyway.

The Deans are relatively high resistance and you are losing performance due to the voltage drop across them compared to good 5.5 gold connectors. Too, the Deans connectors degrade rapidly with use, increasing their resistance substantially. But run whatever you want, it's your boat....



.

[crabstick]

A Guy in our club was melting the solder off his deans connectors nearly every race with his supervee on lipos.. the races are 5 laps of a full Gas/Nitro Course... might be a bit different from the odd 10 second burst

[domwilson]

Here is some good reading on the subject... http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...tor+resistance

[scooterP]

My deans were de-soldiering constantly when running a 12L in my SV. I just figured that they could not handle the amps. I don't have any type of data logger to tell what I was pulling. I switched over to 5.5 bullets and no problems since. It's also easier to hook up batteries in series with bullets.....for what that is worth to ya....

[FighterCat57]

Good replies.

It's always an interesting subject when talking about technical aspects of things. Seems the more you learn, the more there is to learn.

I went with the deans mostly because a bag of 100 was like $20 from some place in China a few years back and still haven't run out...

I bought a couple dozen EC5 connectors a while back when I started using Lipos, but didn't like how bulky the connectors are... I still have about 40 individual 5mm bullet sets... I might start using these without the housing on bigger setups that are drawing a constant rather than burst current. I think the final resting point for everything is going to be 5.5 or 6mm polymax type bullets.
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Honda cb250 jade specifications

[AndyKunz]

A lot of guys just use heat shrink over the EC5's.

Andy

[BILL OXIDEAN]

when you pull 120A is it constant?
I bet they are rated at 60A with some safety, I use them on my 29"mono/8XL/4S and they do get warm but that's it, I'm pulling 70 to 80A constant, 100A burst!

without reading the whole thread, this answer sounds logical.
many SERIOUS high speed high current projects have been executed with Deans, especially with cars.

Not saying they're the best plug for high current apps, only saying they can handle a suprising ammount..

[FighterCat57]

FYI- I'm not having any problems with the connectors to my knowledge... But if I'm chasing around current/draw issues, I'm certainly going to be removing any potential current draw, like an underrated connector.

Like in this instance, I just removed the connectors completely and soldered in an X harness. I believe the resistance in a soldered connection is less than that of a connector. I made sure the solder did a nice flow throughout and all around.

The solder doesn't stick to the wire tie, it flows right around it.

Now, I only have the pack connectors and motor connectors. No "Y" or "H" connectors to worry about.
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Dodge custom 880 history

[LiPo Power]

Way to go and 10g wire also also help.
I just swiched all my boats connectors to 5.5mm bullet.

FYI- I'm not having any problems with the connectors to my knowledge... But if I'm chasing around current/draw issues, I'm certainly going to be removing any potential current draw, like an underrated connector.

Like in this instance, I just removed the connectors completely and soldered in an X harness. I believe the resistance in a soldered connection is less than that of a connector. I made sure the solder did a nice flow throughout and all around.

The solder doesn't stick to the wire tie, it flows right around it.

Now, I only have the pack connectors and motor connectors. No "Y" or "H" connectors to worry about.

[NativePaul]

Am I reading this right that you have been using the deans in cars at 100A? There is a big difference in the discharge between cars and boats, I run 1/8th scale cars as well as boats and having datalogged both I can say they are not at all comparable, while my cars pull 120A peaks that peak lasts less than half a second and then it steadies to a decreasing burst for as long as the throttle is held and there are frequent periods of no throttle at all, so the average amp draw is about 25A, in boats set up for the same 120A peaks the peaks are much more frequent and the whole run is the burst either not lifting off for the entire run or just lifting for a split second twice per lap depending on the hull, I will average about 80A putting over 3 times the load on the connectors.