Competition heat deuce question.....
 

Ok, so I just bought a Competition Heat Deuce, 12v variety. I am going to get a 12v Hangar9 battery at Amain

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...-Charger-Combo

My question is this.....what connector do I need to hook the heater up to the battery....I checked all the Dean's plugs on Amain, and nothing looked like it would work:confused:......unless I missed something (which is very likely)

Can anyone help a brother out?? TIA!!!:D:D:D:tire:

Looking at the picture http://www.competitionheat.com/12_Vo...ne_Heater.html it doesn't look like a tamiya or a Deans plug. I'm thinking that the other end might have the deans plug, and what we see is some kind of a quick dis-connect plug.
Sorry I can't answer for sure... mine is the 110 volt version.

A few inches off the actual heater in the power cable is a special plug that replaced an old style tamiya plug on the first generation units. This plug allows you to disconnect the unit from the power source easily. on the other end is a Deans plug that you can use to hook to your battery, power supply, etc.

You do not want to leave the heater unit hooked to power when it is not on a engine head. It will get very hot and shorten the life span.

How is the general quality of the CH, and are they durable(getting banged around in pit box, etc..)?? I recently looked one over at a hobby fair, and was like "that's an awful lot of money for what this thing actually is.."

Anyway, does the Deuce version require soldering of any kind? Just need the CH, a lead battery, and a charger for the lead battery(with Dean's connectors), right? So the plugs in the pic of the Deuce at amain show that the CH connects as is to the battery, so all you need is a battery with Dean's plugs, and a charger with Dean's plugs, right?..

NO experience with Dean's plugs..

General quality is very good. I stick mine back in the small box they came in after use. Have well over 100 hours on my 120 volt model and a lot on a 12 volt version. To me they are the best thing that has happened to nitro engines in a long time. Very rare for me to crank an engine that has not been heated now.

There is a full thread of info about them:

http://www.rctech.net/forum/offroad-...-heat-inc.html

The Deans is on the end that connects to the battery. You will need a female Deans coming from your battery.

I bought an original version the week they were introduced almost 2 years ago (Psycho Nitro Blast - March 2010). Aside from a quality issue with the stitching in the first two days of use, that Eric resolved by giving me a replacement immediately, I've had nothing but good results with mine. I keep it in the case with my charger, and misc. electronic stuff. It gets beat around some, but I generally try to take good care of my stuff.

It's gotten quite a bit of use since I got it, including being borrowed by numerous people so they could see the benefits for themselves :D, and is still going strong.

I just upgraded to the Duece 120V because I got a good deal on it. Sold my original to the first person that I spoke to about it. I'm sure it will get several more years of use.

Be confident in your purchase. You won't be disappointed with the product, or the benefits you get from using it.

I would recommend purchasing a Protek 3S lipo from A Main. It already has the deans and will connect directly to the Comp Heater, its much smaller and makes portable heating much easier.

I've been to races and have seen customers that have our first generation heater and they look great, I've also seen some that look like they survived a war. If you take care of your equipment, your golden... Mine goes in my pit bag and once I'm off the track it goes right back on the engine, when I'm ready to pre heat before my next round all I have to do is plug it in.

The item needed to connect to a gel hobby battery is a Female Spade connector. One EACH needed for - and +.

I don't like gel cell batteries. They weigh too much. And fully charged they are 13.1-13.6V. A fully charged LiPo is 12.6V (which is exactly what the battery in your automobile is) and MUCH lighter. With some shopping around, the LiPo can be very close to the price of the gel cell. My starter box has a 4 cell LiPo for starting, and a 3 cell for my heater; and it STILL weighs less than a starter box with just one gel cell.

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/s...arehouse_.html
This one would require changing the battery connector.

I got one of the heaters from the first batch when they went on sale. It has the stitching issue but I never complained about that. The heater has worked flawlessly for me in the time I've had it and it does wonders for engine life.

That said, last time I used it, the wires fell out of the element while it was in use. I don't pull on the wires and I didn't pull them out. It got hot and they literally fell out from the weight of the power cable. This particular day, I had 2 CH heaters in my hand with the exact same issue. I told my friend what happened, he pulled his out and said his did the same thing. Looked at it and sure enough, wires fell out. Another guy standing there also confirmed that he had one do this as well. Obvious problem right? I contact Competition Heat and ask them about this and if it's a warranty issue. They claim this isn't a problem and that it's never happened before and it's not covered. I'm OK with it not being covered. I'm not OK with the fact that they say there's no problem when I have 2 of them in my hands that have the same issue and another one confirmed. In a group of maybe 10 people at the track that day, there were 4 of us running the CH heaters and 3 of the 4 had the same problem. 75% failure rate that day, the numbers don't lie so don't tell me there's not a problem.
Had they admitted there was a problem or acted the least bit interested in identifying a potential problem, I would have ordered another one on the spot. They made it very obvious that they weren't and made me feel like they thought I didn't know what I was talking about. Too bad I'm an EE and identify problems for a living, guess I should be fired from my job though. So I went home and fixed mine in all of 10 minutes and saved myself another $100.

Please forward us the email at [email protected]

I don't know of any product that hasn't or does not have problems or issues, what seperates company's is how they respond. Are we perfect, No, no one company or person is. The fact is we've made changes and improvements to our product, from the newly designed cover, heating element and wire to the new connector. We are always looking to build a better product and provide top notch customer service, thats why I've been in these threads since the products inception, not many other companies willing to do this. Anytime a customer has questions or problems, we've always posted our contact info [email protected] Thanks

After I ordered my stuff, I came back and read all the replies...wow. Ok, here is the plug I ordered to solder to the battery

http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...male-Pigtail-1

Let me just say I know zilch, zip, nada about LiPo batteries....I wouldn't even know where to begin.. I found that 3s LiPo on AMain, but I am unsure about which charger to get, or how to charge it once I get it.

Will this big clunky Hanger9 gel cell battery work? One thing that caught my eye was that motomatt said a fully charged 12v gel cell will be 13.1-13.6v, and in the CompHeat's instruction sheet, it says the voltage output should not exceed 11.5v??

Please help!:confused:

I would like to know about using the CH with a LIPO as well. If anyones has theres on a LIPO can you post the following please. Really thinking about getting a CH.

1. what cell count are you using ie.. 2s, 3s, 4s

2. What connector did you use?

3. How often do you have to charge the battery.

4. Any other good advice you can throw in.


Thanks

No problem... You can use your gel cell, just make sure the voltage is dropped down to 12.6V (As per the Instructions) We recommend 11.5V when using a Power Supply, reason being is it provides better heat saturation to the entire engine. Most would like somehting that heats ASAP, like a heat gun, problem is, it's not effective at heating the critical internals which is very important when they are new. After the first 2 gallons you can relax the heating standards somewhat.

My guess is you are using the battery to power your starter box along with the Comp Heater, yes?

Yes, That was the plan. As far as dropping the voltage, is there a cheap voltage guage that would do this?