Was anyone aware?

[Ub Hauled]

I had to send my Hydra 240 to CC to be fixed...
Are you guys aware that the price to fix a Hydra 240 is $150?!?!
I was like...
I am not ashamed to say I was shocked when I got my invoice.

I sure hope that they start cracking the whip on the QC line... in this case my ESC
"failed" as I was hooking it up to the batteries... 2nd time like this.

[rockwerks]

I really feel that the CC stuff is over priced and over rated at this point JMHO

[Avanti]

I wonder if it will surprise them when they are no longer selling product.
They make things up as they go.

[Bill-SOCAL]

I hate to say this because I know loving CC is almost a religious experience and all, but their main selling point is their superb customer service for WHEN your ESC blows up, no IF it blows up.

The 240HV has proven to be a very unreliable product. I know of at least a dozen like UB where they fried simply sitting idle. I have great hopes for the Etti 150 I plan to use in my DF Storm.

We'll see.

[Ub Hauled]

at this point the idea to experiment with alternatives is really sounding tempting...
This may be the beginning of the end for CC, one of the attractive things about CC
ESCs were the combo (ESC price and warranty), now, not so much anymore... I don't understand
why it costs more then half price of a new ESC to repair it.

[Avanti]

None of our club meets have gone by without one or more hydras taking a dump.
CC are certainly not the end all be all.
They have much to learn in the ways of customer service.
I use to say, at least they stand behind their junk, but now they don't even do that.
Time to move on to greener pastures.
We have other options, including the etti.
obrien threw over 200 amps at the mystery200a and it took it (though it did go into thermal shutdown, it came back to life and is fine).

[Ub Hauled]

I think CC got lost somewhere in the process of bettering themselves and keeping the quality of the product and keeping the great service they once had, in other words, they took a bigger bite then they could chew... I have to say that the Barracudas were bullet proof, I enjoyed having them.

[Steven Vaccaro]

How did they figure the problem was due to something you did?

[Raydee]

I guess our club has been pretty lucky so far with the CC ESC's. So far we burned up a couple that were USER error and I had two brick on me when I put in the 1.4v Firmware. By the way I am still waiting for Castle to come out with a fix for the 1.4v firmware that is out of wack
All the Castle ESC's that I have running the 1.3v firmware seem to be doing great and taking D wind Neu motor abuse. I will say that when I do start seeing ours frying for no reason I will be making the switch to something else. Their repair prices have went up a lot and it does seem like there have been QC issues. My biggest gripe right now is that they just aren't doing anything about the 1.4v firmware. There is a difference when going from 1.3v to 1.4v for sure and its not a good difference.

By the way the two controllers that I bricked by installing version 1.4 were both Cuda 125's. I am not sure if that had something to do with it or not.

[Stealth Assassin]

Sounds like to me that they thought they would go broke If they where not charging enough to do the repairs because there where so many problems.

[Steven Vaccaro]

UB it su*^&^s to be in your shoe's, if you feel its not your fault I would call them directly and speak to management.

Also I know this does help, but it may soften it a bit, at $150 its far less than the wholesale dealer cost we pay for them.

[longballlumber]

I can't complain about my CC 240 Hydra. I have ran an entire season on 2S with a hacker 8S. I realize the 240 is a bit over kill for that set up, but the controller has been submerged a couple of times and it still seems to be working fine. I have refrained from update to the 1.4 firmware, simply from the experiences expressed on this and the red board. Just my .02 cents from my experience with the product in question.

[properchopper]

Brother Jan, I feel your pain. I've watched as you spend some of your very precious time at the lake plug in a CC control & Kaboom. I wonder if the good folks at Castle have any real world testing experience with BOATS ? Sure, the're all RC enthusiasts, but in reality that usually means planes, helis & cars. I wonder if any of them run boats & get to see the unique demands placed on boat esc's. Should we donate an actual BOAT to them to let them get out of the lab & see what's going on in our world ?

[Steven Vaccaro]

I've had very good dealings with Castle Creations, as both a Dealer and
a Consumer.

Personally I've had a couple of melt downs with Castle esc's. Don't quote
me exactly but think 3 in total over about 6 years. 2 were due to my mistake and 1 I thought should have never blew, I explained the setup and it was
replaced for free. I have also blown other companies esc's like Hacker
and the warranty didn't work out in my favor. Basically they said I had
to buy a new one.

As a dealer, I can tell you this, I've tried to get Airplane esc
manufacturers to make boat esc's. Most would not touch it. Not sure why
technically, but most say that boats are just far too hard on esc's.

Castle has two choices, stop selling esc's to boaters or charge for what
they would call user error. As a Castle Dealer I can say I don't want
that to happen, ESPECIALLY since out of the high number of esc's we sell
each month only a very small percentage are blown. I won't say how many
we sell each month, but I receive less than 2 emails a month concerning a
Castle Creations esc problem.

A thought to ponder, a high percentage of People rightfully complain online when a problem arises. Most of us have learned that "The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease". I wonder if the same percentage of people post that are not having problem like Longballlumber did? In my opinion, they do not often.

Another thing to ask, How many people run setups that they believe will
work and are very poor choices? When a person builds a boat, he/she is basically the Manufacturer and "Research&Development Team" for his/her own projects.Some people do a better job at research than others.For example, I have been speaking to a customer by email for 2 weeks now and after all my recommendations, He has decided to run a 2 wind hotter motor than I would ever run. Castle can't help these situations.

I'm not making excuses, just stating the other side.

By the way I have probably posted all that stuff before, but I think its worth saying again.

[Flying Scotsman]

Steven, the point is that the guys that have chimed in are expererieced FE boaters and do not run silly setups.
CC does seem to have a problem with the Hydra series.
I have a Hydra 120 on 1.3 software and no issues.

Douggie