Is it possible to kill or damage a brushless motor?

[Saint728]

Just wanted to know if it's possible to kill or damage a brushless motor? I have a Hacker B50-11L and it was flying great with a lot of head speed for the past couple of months, then all of a sudden I don't have much power anymore? I'm using the same batteries I always use, but now I can only get about 3.5 - 4 minutes of flying out of a 12 cell Sanyo 2400 NiCd pack. I use to get 5 - 5.5 minutes when they were new. Do you think maybe the batteries are the problem or is it my motor?

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

[Tom Fiddler]

Yes it is possible to damadge a brushless motor by overheating it
I would say since your setup has been flying good for some time that the problem may lie in your batteries
Have you cycled them to see if they still put out as rated?
That's where I would start

[Saint728]

Thanks Tom, I'll try cycling the batteries and see how thy go. I've never cycled my batteries before because it takes too long, lol. :roll:

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

[Tom Fiddler]

Yes, I agree it takes along time (I'm running 3300 nimh's)
but its the only way to know for sure ..... And you can do it while your dranking :D :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Ben74]

a brushless motor can be damaged in three ways - physical impact (duh), overtemp (weakens the magnets), or overspeed (magnets detach from the shaft). sounds like your batteries are the culprit though.

[Laurens]

I heard a story of a guy who wanted to run it in in water, just like brushed motors :rolling :hammer

[OMCtechUSN]

I've had the front cover come off, gearbox and all, a hacker B20-22s. I heard from the LHS that they are real sensitive to how they're mounted, and that's probably the reason for mine doing that. It had nothing to do with water though. (i guess some people are badly misinformed, or only heard "put the motor in water to break it in", and not to do so specifically for brush motors)