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ESC watercooling discussions have been some of the most lively ones ever. As an observer, participant, T-180 cooling plate modder, and racer who depends on ESC integrity I have some observations. Some will disagree but I'm good with that.
To begin with, just about every cooling design on most of the bread-and-butter escs commonly utilized are not very efficient given the physical layouts of the FET's and the cooling apparati and the border between them. Cutting right to the bottom line, watercooling as it's now generally configured may help some but it will never rescue a setup that overworks the esc. Get your setup correct and let 'er rip, period.
Modding the cooling plate as discussed here may have some effect but I doubt it. I've not seen any data or trials to back up claims such as : "Now, you can really squeeze all the power from your setup, your speed controller will NOT overheat and cut the power anymore. " (from the site being linked to above.) Show me some verification and I'll retract my skepticism, along with forking over the $66.07 USD the advertised modded plate sells for. Or not, given that I modded the stock plate on my P-Mono T-180 for roughly $ 0.06 cents and it has a bigger flow chamber than the one being advertised in the link.
And, while not a genuinely mass-replicated, statistically verified experiment, here's what I found :
With TWO absolutely identical P-Monos from bow to prop-nut (I know since I built them both), one with an unmodified T-180 and one (mine) with the full-flow water passage T-180 mod (pictures on request), they always could do mill + 6 laps on the 1/6 mile course when air temps stayed in the 80 degree F zone. Then one time a race was run when the temps were mid 90 degree F. BOTH boats thermaled EXACTLY at the same time and place on the fifth lap coming around the last turn. We both propped down to the same smaller prop and EXACTLY the same thing happened. I really wished that with my high-flow cooler mod that I was able to " really squeeze all the power from your {my} setup, your {my} speed controller will NOT overheat and cut the power anymore." Didn't happen
Going further, I've done experimental testing to find out ways to keep the Ltd (spec) motors from overheating and burning stators since I race several Ltd classes. Fans blowing on or extracting air to/from the motor, even made an "ice tube" to chill the water flowing to the motor can. Zilch, Nada.
So, for now, I'll sit back and see if there's some convincing evidence that there's a better way. I hope there is but until then I'll continue to configure my setups to reside in thermal happyland.
Tony
To begin with, just about every cooling design on most of the bread-and-butter escs commonly utilized are not very efficient given the physical layouts of the FET's and the cooling apparati and the border between them. Cutting right to the bottom line, watercooling as it's now generally configured may help some but it will never rescue a setup that overworks the esc. Get your setup correct and let 'er rip, period.
Modding the cooling plate as discussed here may have some effect but I doubt it. I've not seen any data or trials to back up claims such as : "Now, you can really squeeze all the power from your setup, your speed controller will NOT overheat and cut the power anymore. " (from the site being linked to above.) Show me some verification and I'll retract my skepticism, along with forking over the $66.07 USD the advertised modded plate sells for. Or not, given that I modded the stock plate on my P-Mono T-180 for roughly $ 0.06 cents and it has a bigger flow chamber than the one being advertised in the link.
And, while not a genuinely mass-replicated, statistically verified experiment, here's what I found :
With TWO absolutely identical P-Monos from bow to prop-nut (I know since I built them both), one with an unmodified T-180 and one (mine) with the full-flow water passage T-180 mod (pictures on request), they always could do mill + 6 laps on the 1/6 mile course when air temps stayed in the 80 degree F zone. Then one time a race was run when the temps were mid 90 degree F. BOTH boats thermaled EXACTLY at the same time and place on the fifth lap coming around the last turn. We both propped down to the same smaller prop and EXACTLY the same thing happened. I really wished that with my high-flow cooler mod that I was able to " really squeeze all the power from your {my} setup, your {my} speed controller will NOT overheat and cut the power anymore." Didn't happen
Going further, I've done experimental testing to find out ways to keep the Ltd (spec) motors from overheating and burning stators since I race several Ltd classes. Fans blowing on or extracting air to/from the motor, even made an "ice tube" to chill the water flowing to the motor can. Zilch, Nada.
So, for now, I'll sit back and see if there's some convincing evidence that there's a better way. I hope there is but until then I'll continue to configure my setups to reside in thermal happyland.
Tony
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