I've read your excellent report on the AGF 80 series. Sorry to hear of your experience.

My experience is with the AGF 81 series has been very different - flawless.

If I should experience issues, I'd deal with SMC Direct in the UK directly.

My suspicion is that AGF 81 series and Protek 170 are very similar. I might be wrong and I welcome anyone explaining why these 2 servos are not related.

The link I posted above goes into this concern where I have chosen to boycott AGF because they do not offer any warranty and their quality is piss poor. In contrast I do support NitroPro servos even though they are rebranded servos from AGF with a huge exception where NitroPro has upgraded and fixed all the quality issues plus NitroPro offers a solid warranty.


AGF has taught me a lesson that I will never buy electronics outside a distributor who offers warranty protection, you'll pay a little more money to get peace of mind.


Amazon also sells a bunch cheap servos and you'll get 30 days of protection from them to do a return without any fuss, though most of my problems with AGF happened around the 60 day mark

In the UK, consumers are protected by the Sale of Goods Act 1979 & the more recent Consumer Rights Act 2015. Business to Business transactions are only covered by the Sale of Goods Act (as businesses are not considered consumers by definition).

In the US, you are protected by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the act itself of the same name (FTCA).

If you buy AGF from a retailer, you are afforded all the same minimum guarantees as you are any other item.

In the UK, It has to be:

• Fit for purpose
• Free of manufacturing defects for a minimum of 1 year
• As described
• Within the specifications

The issues you experienced with the very unhelpful lady from AGF that stated the servo was 'not suitable for 1/8th use' are essentially between the retailer and the distributor/manufacturer when buy through a retailer. It's the law.

If you pay using a credit card, when such issues arise, you can usually get the credit card company to refund you while they deal with the issues. Even if you only part pay with a credit card.

AGF Warranty:

"Warranty-Only When this product is faulty after normal operation with the 12 month warranty period, will we repair or replace based on our regulations. The repair will be paid for by the customer when the damage is due to improper ways i.e. misuse, broken gears, liquid ingress, damaged leads, and modifications or beyond the warranty period. The warranty card and original proof of purchase must be included when returning the product. Failure to include these will result in the item being ignored. Note that some damages may not be economically repairable.

Warranty card download: AGFRC Warranty Card-20200327


The scope of the warranty is limited to the servos and excludes aircrafts, cars, engines and any other non AGFrc product. We are not liable for any consequential losses howsoever they are caused.

Additionally, below items void the warranty and require billing information - No exception:

* Using the product in an application it was not rated for.

* Exceeding the product specifications.

* Incorrect wiring or use inconsistent with the instructions.

* Using the wrong polarity connectors on the battery and connection wires from the products.

* Failure to attach the supplied capacitor or capacitor(s) are confirmed damaged.

* MOSFETs and or Phase plate(s) is confirmed damaged by Current-overload.

* Warranty applies to the original purchaser of the product only. Warranty is non-transferable.

* Failure to include a receipt proving date of purchase.

* AGFRC products that have been discontinued or special offer for limit quantity.

I'll go right out and say I've only made 2 warranty claims. 1 was for the clutch carrier on the Baja 5B SS. They honoured 2 claims before I just gave up and replaced the whole clutch assembly with a Turtle Racing billet enclosed system. That was a solution, rather than a rinse - repeat. The other for what appeared to be an issue with a Futaba FASST receiver. The receiver was replaced by Futaba, even though no fault was found. Over and above expectations. The issue was actually being caused by a voltage sag on a 6v receiver battery and the excessive current draw from a 'Brick' servo.

No servo I've purchased has lasted less than a couple of years, even when I was racing most weekends. That includes multiple servos on Aircraft, touring cars, buggies, truggies - lots of stuff

If there are failures on my electronic devices during competition use, I replace the item, ideally (where possible) with something even better specced.

It's entirely down to the individual, but in most cases, sending things away to be inspected etc is time consuming. On a £85 servo, it probably isn't worth the fuss. If you're racing, it definitely isn't worth compromising your championship points over.

I get why Bill Delong won't touch the AGF 80 series servos or face dealing with the manufacturer's alleged poor customer service in relation to them.

My AGF 81BHMW's have been excellent though. Because I bought these through retail outlets, I'm protected by UK consumer law.

I'll never have to deal with a stroppy commie, because I can speak to my friendly shop in Chesterfield instead - headed by the one and only, Jamie Booth!! Win-win.

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Good info here as we are getting ready for the 2024 racing season. Thank you

So, nothing from Amazon has been found to survive the rigors of 1/8 buggy racing? Thanks

Anyone tried or tore down the powerhobby lp250 ?
I would assume these are a produced by AGFRC also. Just looking for a budget back up servo to my 160TBLS since one has recently failed on me..

https://www.ebay.com/itm/30462322717...mis&media=COPY

Looks like the gear set power hobby sells is nice. No copper gears and most are only 12 bucks for new gear set and bearings. All these servos are made in China from all brands anyway

https://www.powerhobby.com/209mg---gears.html

I think Protek servos are made in South Korea. KO and Futaba stuff is still made in Japan (I think).

Thought i'd chime in an say that i've been running the GXServo x25 servos in several of my cars with great success. Other than being a bit on the heavy side, they've performed really well and would recommend.

I'd like to chime in with a thumbs-up for the blue DS servos, both DS3235SG (stronger) and DS3225SG (faster). I run them on unregulated LiPO on my GT8 car, one gave up after a year, upon disassembly I found out the motor got unsoldered - I resoldered it and it ran for another few months until it finally failed. Other one is still on the throttle.

I use them in the practice car, yes they are slower than my top servos, but for the price I'm really happy with what I got. I ordered a new low-profile H015A to try for throttle/brake, with less torque

Bump. Any new info to share on this post? Thanks

No, I own plenty of Futaba servos made outside of Japan, mostly China.

I've updated my notes here on JX which is the OEM for EcoPower:
https://bdrca.blogspot.com/2024/08/w...o-is-best.html

Thank you Bill