What's the most damaging way to to run for your ESC and motor

[jetskier]

this is my first season running RC boats and I aready have 3 and it's very addicting. So my question is.. with the good cooling water supply, same run time, battery/batteries, and water conditions which is the worst way to operate the throttle/trigger. 100% constant slow down to turn, 0%-100%-0%-100%-etc, 50%-100%-50%-100%-etc, 75% constant and 100% ever so often, or any other ways that I might of miss. I have not burn up any ESC or motor yet while operating but hear a lot of stories and this might be good info for newbies.
Thanks,

[RaceMechaniX]

Partial throttle is the hardest operation for most speed controllers. 100% is typically the most efficient and hence generates the lowest heat in the system. Smooth ramp ups and full throttle are the best conditions, but not practical for sport boating. Low speeds with poor water flow to the esc and partial throttle are areas to be avoided for long durations.

[Heaving Earth]

I've always heard this, but when I run ful throttle the whole time vs noodling around I get more heat at 100% wot. Go figure

[jetskier]

thanks, that's good to know. so I'm going at it backwards then.. I will run full throttle slow down in turns and full and when I'm almost done, feather about 1/4-1/2 throttle for about 1/2 a minute for cool down then bring it in. So I should gun it and chop the throttle when done. Guess I'm thinking of it as jetski racing combustion engine.

Partial throttle is the hardest operation for most speed controllers. 100% is typically the most efficient and hence generates the lowest heat in the system. Smooth ramp ups and full throttle are the best conditions, but not practical for sport boating. Low speeds with poor water flow to the esc and partial throttle are areas to be avoided for long durations.

[J.W. Pepper]

this is my first season running RC boats and I aready have 3 and it's very addicting. So my question is.. with the good cooling water supply, same run time, battery/batteries, and water conditions which is the worst way to operate the throttle/trigger. 100% constant slow down to turn, 0%-100%-0%-100%-etc, 50%-100%-50%-100%-etc, 75% constant and 100% ever so often, or any other ways that I might of miss. I have not burn up any ESC or motor yet while operating but hear a lot of stories and this might be good info for newbies.
Thanks,

I'll make this easy based on my own experiences...
The cooling system on most R/C boats relies on a water pickup that is either attached to the transom of the boat, integrated into the rudder, attached to the steerable outdrive or attached to the rudder bracket - see attached pix for examples - I drew red boxes around the areas in question.

On most R/C boats I've seen, the water exits the port side (left facing rear of boat), yes there are exceptions like the AQ MC. Lower priced models usually just have a hose sticking out. The better quality boats & most Proboat models have a metal water outlet like this one... http://www.proboatmodels.com/Product...ProdID=PRB2068 - the easy way to tell if your system is working correctly, is to run the boat by where your standing with the water outlet facing you, you should see a nice solid stream of water shooting out the outlet (hose or metal outlet).

With the transom mount & rudder systems, the faster the boat travels through the water, the more water gets scooped up & fed into the cooling system resulting in a cooler running motor & ESC. Personally I run the pickup hose to the ESC first, output from the ESC goes into the motor, then out.

Important factors to consider...
Does your ESC have enough capicity & overhead (consider 30% overhead a minimum) for the motor your using. Are you running 6S batteries in a boat designed for 4S (that's just an example). Do you have the correct size / pitch / type of prop?? A prop that's not properly sized for your setup (that's a whole nother subject, there's plenty of threads in this forum on that topic) can make the motor work much harder, which in turn puts more of a load on the ESC making both run hotter.

The size of the cooling hose itself. For sporting boats (not racing) in the 24"~31" range, 1/8" I.D. silicon hose like this stuff... http://www.funrcboats.com/ProductInf...tid=LARGEWATER - seems to work best, don't know why they call it "large", but it's 1/8" I.D., I have several feet of it. Keep your hoses/lines as short as possible & make sure there's no kinks - nice smooth flowing bends.

Sorry for the long winded post, just trying to cover all the bases in one shot.

[jstolz]

When you run the boat imagine yourself going around an oval course. Run full throttle down the straightaway. You can slow down in the corners. Continuous accelerations and turning draws the most amps. If you can set up a course with two buoys, you have a course to follow. As as been said in a previous post, part throttle running is the hardest on the ESC.

Really airing out the boat at full throttle is the easiest on the electronics. Ever since I started to run boats I have gone around an oval imaginary course. While racing I have had to run part throttle in rough conditions for an entire race. Luckily, I didn't damage the ESC.

[jetskier]

thanks for all replies which all makes sense. I got a good understanding of it now.

[egneg]

Not mentioned is the fact that a cap bank between the batteries and esc is a good idea. Not always needed but it won't hurt to have it.

[Southwest]

There is another factor that doesn't get looked at. This is very related to usage of motor and especially the ESC. The fets that aren't hardly touching the cooling plate don't help in cooling. Just take off shrink wrap and sand the fets flat and then use Artic Ice very thin and then put new shrink and heat till most of esc is covered. When I read this, I took the shrink off and 2/3 of fets were barely touching and some weren't touching at all. Paul Pachmeyer told me once to insert a piece of brass tubing in exit line which slows down the flow of water. Now it was 1/8" brass tubing about 3/16" long close to exit port and I tried it and wow, the water was warmer. This has its pros and cons but for me it works.