Your griping about $3 for high quality, hobby grade power plugs? Welcome to hobbys. No one said this shit was cheap. This is even more ironic coming from someone who lives in one of the most expensive cities in the nation.

Perhaps Nikko is more your thing?

"This is even more ironic coming from someone who lives in one of the most expensive cities in the nation"

Way to stereotype. Before linc calls you something colorful like freezepop, I suggest you chill that ego, and let's not turn a thread about connectors into a fight.

That's all.....

Jeeze, you are just full of wisdom, and are a real asset to the RCM community. :no: where's the rollyeyes?

I've used some of those ribbed hobby city ones, and some I got from a vendor at the ihobby expo. (lightning power) So far, I haven't had much issue except that the plastic is softer and melts much easier than the genuine deans... and the fit and finish is not as good.

I use them mainly for things like charge leads, or on my kids cars, etc... not usually for my main race car and packs. But I have used them when I was out of deans, and never noticed any power losses or heat issues.

I think the chinese packs that come with connectors are often HORRIBLY soldered... with big blobs of solder etc. I would recommend ALWAYS re-doing the solder work on these packs. Besides, the lead wires are always longer than needed, so they should be shortened anyway. I think all the long wires and crappy solder joints are a common cause of problems people have with high power electric cars.

Wow, I'd be happy if they only cost $3...my LHS sells them for AUD$9 (US$7.10 today) for a m/f pair!!

I think "freezepop" was just trying to make a joke, as the nikko comment alluded to. He may come across a bit harsh but I am sure he is just poking a little fun.

This is not a cheap hobby, and if you want stuff to work well and last the best products are necessary. I have used deans for quite a while and they have generally served me well. They could be better made, and some sort of cleaning instructions on the packet would be beneficial too. I would like a polarized bullet connector housing that could handle something like 5mm bullets. I like the idea of the ec5 connector, but I think it could be a bit bigger for our high current uses.

I am starting to outgrow deans as my setups become more refined, so I will be looking carefully into the various products available.

I'm not bashing Deans connectors, buut, what is so high quality about them??

It's just two pieces of metal melted into a blob of plastic.

Go ahead and use Tamiya connectors then and watch what happens.

I melted 4 of the HC ribbed plugs, in 4 packs. I bought them after a member here said they were just as good as Deans. They are not, and They will not handle the power that Deans will. My Deans have had no problem. BTW on low power stuff they do fine, put them behind a 50mph MT and they melt like butter.

I've used deans for a long time and I'm happy with them. I'll never use imitation deans again though, and know other guys who say the same thing. When I did use imitation ones, they were the ones that were really hard to pull apart or pulled apart too easily. The worst thing they do though is loose connection even when they are plugged in. Makes it hard to find the problem when it's never happened to you before. You check your plugs and solder joints and all looks well, but it still cuts out mid race. I pay double what real deans cost in the U.S, but too me it's still worth it to not have any hassles from them on a race day.

I use EC5's and am pretty sure they are 5mm bullets in there. They never get warm, even when racing. I've got an unmade pair here, alongside a 4mm connector, and the EC5 bullet is definately a lot bigger. It dwarfs the 4mm completely.

The diameter is definately 5mm too, I just measured it. This isn't the bent loop bit either, but the tip widest part of the tip.

IMO a lot of the trouble with chinese deans is from the pins getting misaligned during soldering. The plastic gets soft and the pins can move pretty easy if you are not efficient with the solder job. If this doesn't happen, I think the fake plugs work pretty good... and are good especially for low power stuff like charge adapters.

But the real Deans Ultras are the best way to go, and they aren't THAT expensive, relative to many things in this hobby. Check out what we pay for similar things... like balance plug leads, etc.... those things should also be $.99 or less but they often cost 2-3 bucks each. Just another example...

been there, done that (mostly for shits and giggles)

i was surprised when they were able to handle my rustler vxl on 3s, but i made a funky adaptor for my savage and they melted within 2 minutes.

While we are complaining about the price of connectors, How about the price of CC's 6.5mm bullet plugs at $5.99 for 3 pairs.

Hmm, I may have to pick some up and look at them. The HC ec5 knock offs say 4mm in the description though. I will have to buy both and see if there is any difference.

That's actually not a bad price IMO. Works out to $2 per pair and there is more material with better current-handling capacity.