I run a Tekin RS Pro with a Novak 17.5 SS. Now, I overheard one of the shop employees say that different a motor and ESC will work together, but not as well as they would being the same brand. He said that they can get hotter than normal, and might not have as much punch.

What's your thought?

I say it is not a very good idea of mixing up motors and esc. You should stick with one brand combo. I have a set of Tekin combos 17.5 and 21.5. And lately i replace the 21.5 Tekin for a Novak 21.5 and I can tell really quick that the tekin is way faster.

That may be true, to an extent, but i doubt it. What about all the guys running hackers? duos? Most of which seem to be totally fine. I'd say its a marketing gimmick used for a company to try to sell their motors along with their ESCs. Who knows though, maybe a certain ESC is optimised to a certain motor... But with brushed you never saw a company that advised running a certain brand of motor, did you?

What's any different with brushless?

I've run my Tekin RS with a TEkin REdline 17.5, a Losi Xcelorin 17.5, a Trinity Duo 17.5, an LRP 13.5, a Speedpassion 13.5 and an Orion 10.5.

ALL of them ran great and made great power. No overheating problems with any. Of the three 17.5's, I thought the Tekin and Trinity made a touch more power than the Xcelorin, but not much. Mixing brands is fine, just always gear on the short side and pay attention to temps until you find the optimum settings and gearing for a particular combination.

If there is an advantageg to be had sticking to one brand, it is this... When the guys at Tekin recommend a particular endbell setting to go with a particular speed control setting, they're typically talking about their own Redline motor. IF you have another brand, you have to figure out the endbell setting for yourself. Not a big deal, but if you just want to get a recommendation and go, it's best to run the motor they're talking about. If you don't mind trying things for yourself, mix and match is fine.

Don't always go by what the local hobby shop employees say... you wouldn't believe some of the completely misinformed things I've heard at my local shop... from employees and the owner both.

I agree on the hacker / duo example. The difference with brushed motor though is that brushless motors (mostly) are sensored. Presumeably it could be optimized between motor and ESC based on the sensors but don't know for sure and not sure if anyone actually does any optimization for their own brand motors. If it gave a speed increase though I would think they would.

From what I've learned. Motor ESC combo means little. The reason one may feel "less power" than another is because you have to gear differently for each motor, to get the same performance. Thats pretty much it.