ESC Fire!!

Brandon28

Junior Member

Hey guys, as you can see in the video my esc and motor caught on fire when i plugged in my battery. I have no clue why this happened but please leave a comment if you think you know why.

Thanks,
Brandon
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
As for the motor it seems like only one winding has overheated - burning the coating on the winding and ruining the motor.

As for the ESC, I've only had one ESC burn on me, and that was because I managed to get sea water into it. The issue may have been caused by a faulty ESC, or maybe an iron filing inside the ESC or something like that.
 

pgerts

Old age member
Mentor
Component failure in the esc if it was the first time connected.
It should not be easy to get something in the esc to shorten the circuit as the shrink is there to protect.

It will be a lot more easy to get new parts on warranty fast as it says Horizon on the esc.
Did it blow your battery as well?
 

lobstermash

Propaganda machine
Mentor
The only time I've witnessed an ESC fire from startup was due to an overcharged battery. I've had an ESC go rogue and kill motors out of the blue, and had one give off a quick pop, but never caught on fire...
 

Brandon28

Junior Member
esc fire

Component failure in the esc if it was the first time connected.
It should not be easy to get something in the esc to shorten the circuit as the shrink is there to protect.

It will be a lot more easy to get new parts on warranty fast as it says Horizon on the esc.
Did it blow your battery as well?

No my battery is ok and yea im going to call horizon hobby today!
 

rsabear

Junior Member
Over 2 years, I have had 2 x 20 Amp ESC's (unknow brand name) and now recently a brand new 30 Amp Turnigy ESC burn out for no reason. Not much you can do but to replace with new one and hope as hell every time you connect the battery it is not going to go up in smoke.
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
I've set two on fire in my school! Maybe that's why they moved me to high school, next year...
The first was in the gym. Another teacher and I were racing our planes (Wild Hawk and Sky Surfer) around on the gym floor. Its way more entertaining than it sounds!

Anyway, mine overheated. I think it was due to me attaching my keychain cam to the plane with a loop of wire around the wires from the battery to the esc. I think that induced some kind of overcurrent. I was able to put the fire out before the foam burned too much, but it filled the gym with smoke. Oops!