One way to start a real heated debate is to mention the name Hobby King!

WARNING, this is a long post!

byrne1157 – No matter how you pose the question or explain your preferences there are some that are not going to be swayed period. For someone to compare an 18MZ to a Turnigy 9X is like comparing a Maybach to a Fiesta, they both get the job done, both are reliable but the guy driving the Fiesta probably can't afford the Maybach and even if he could he's probably more financially savvy than the Maybach driver anyway.

So, I have already been kicked out of one forum because I for one like Hobby King and am not afraid to admit it. I was kicked out because I called someone out who absolutely slams HK every chance he gets but has never owned any of the stuff or most likely never even seen it in person. He drinks the Carden/DA koolaid and anyone with a different opinion is not welcome at that forum. (I guess I didn't make it perfectly clear that besides all of the Hobby King stuff I have I also have the Cardens, DA's and all the rest of the cult required equipment to be a part of that group.)

I'm not going to try and count how many HK orders I have placed over the past couple of years but I started buying from them back when they were Hobby City and I'm now a Platinum Elite customer. Initially I just purchased hardware like screws, hinges, latches, connectors, wire etc. I never stepped over the line into electronics, engines or airframes till one day – I was out at our local club and a couple of the guys there had foamies that are manufactured locally. I called the guy making them and went to pick one up. He had everything in stock except the battery so I bought the complete package which included a Hobby King motor, speed controller, servo's and 8 channel Orange Futaba receiver.. On the way home I stopped at the LHS and picked up a battery from E-Flight (which cost almost as much as all the rest of the stuff combined) I put it together and flew the snot out of it but needing more batteries and not having the ability to charge LiPo's and not wanting to spend a fortune on a charger and batteries I ordered a couple of batteries and a charger from Hobby King. 8 days later I had them in my hands and now I could fly without borrowing a charger. One thing I noticed immediately was that the Hobby King (Turnigy) batteries which are the exact same size and C rating as the E-Flight had a heck of a lot more power and after flying them to the ½ charge point I had figured out for the E-Flight they were only about 1/3 discharged. So I set about some experiments and ran the motor on a test stand for exactly equal times on both batteries and after several times the HK batteries always had more capacity left in them and provided almost 4 oz more static pull than the E-Flight. I have now run Turnigy batteries against E-Flight, Thunder Power and many others and the Turnigy's have always performed as good or better than the name brands. I now have Turnigy 2s batteries in everything for the receivers and ignitions and have not had a single battery failure yet except for 1 E-Flight battery that puffed and died on charge number 23 and no I never ever take a LiPo below 50%. And FWIW all the rest of the electronics in that plane have been going strong for over two years and even spent a night in a tree with very heavy dew and I can't count the number of times that plane has been crashed and rebuilt.

I have since been equipping all of my planes with HK stuff from the servos to the receivers and the one and only crashed plane since that time was a scratch built Waco that went in because the MPI (American Company) receiver battery failed on the second flight. It was a brand new battery with the brand new Gold Peak cells that I had propperly cycled 3 times. All the rest of the electronics in that plane were HK stuff and they are in another plane now that has had well over 100 flights since then without a glitch.

I have had a few issues with HK stuff, I had a 100 amp speed controller smoke on the bench while setting up the plane. Still not sure if it was defective from the factory or if we did something wrong when installing it. I have had one Corona servo that would not return to center at the same rate as all the rest when released from full deflection. It traveled out to the end the same speed but was slow coming back so I took it out and placed it in my dead servo box (which BTW has several Futaba, Hitech and a few JR servo's in it.).

So, is Hobby King good for the hobby? They're good for me and the members of the club I fly at who aren't drinking the big brand koolaid have had exceptional results with HK stuff.

Would I recommend them? Well that depends, is the person asking one who has to have instant gratification, probably not, I'll send them to the LHS but is the person asking someone who will not call me tomorrow because the order they placed this afternoon hasn't arrived and they can be patient and fly something else for a few days, then yes.

One thing to remember, Hobby King is basically a wholesaler to the public and therefore they do not have a 50% margin in their merchandise to support a large call center in Illinois to provide customer service or technical support. If you want to pick up the phone and call someone to hold your hand so you can feel all warm and fuzzy then do not order from Hobby King, you won't get that kind of service. If you can figure out how to replace a spark plug and tune a gas engine without calling Technical support in Illinois then IMHO the gas engines they sell are an excellent value but if you need someone to hold your hand so you can get the aforementioned warm and fuzzy feeling again then do not use HK stuff. Same goes with posting questions on forums, if you say that you DA is running poorly and need some advise on setting the needles you will have plenty of people offering help but if you say your HK motor is running poorly you will have to wade through a hundred negative posts chiding you for buying a motor from HK to find one person willing to help. A poorly tuned motor will not run right regardless of whether is was made in Arizona or China.

I'm not brand loyal, I have a new GP Waco with an OS33GT gasser, all Futaba digital servo's and Turnigy batteries and I also have a KMP eBay reject Yak with a RCG (Hobby King) 55cc engine, Corona servo's, Orange receiver and all HK hardware that up till this past Sunday has been flow at least a dozen times a week without a hickup. Sunday on flight 4 I had my first dead-stick which after further examination was a result of not having tuned the high-speed needle and running too lean. I tore the motor down, it's perfect inside, put it back in the plane and was just running it this morning. 3 20 minute runs and it's not had a hickup yet but it was way out of tune. Was that the fault of Hobby King – I think not, it was my responsibility to check the tune which I did not but then again if I had been flying my $2200 Edge with the $700 DA motor maybe it would have tuned itself and I wouldn't have had a deadstick. Oh but wait, I have had over 6 deadsticks with the OS gasser so I guess that theory doesn't hold up either.

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ORIGINAL: byrne1157

Thank you for the welcome,Maritza! Well, I must say, we all have our opinions, and they are just that. Opinions, I've been taught, are neither right,nor wrong, just someone's belief based on either thought, or experience. Now down to facts. I will repeat myself so that you will understand what I am basing my OPINION on. My experience has shown me that if I had said I would use a futaba radio in a jet, nobody would have a problem with that. I said in my earlier post that I own a Futaba 6ex. So I guess, Maritza you might say that I have used ''proper equipment''. I trained using my friends Hitec radio. My Turnigy has an excellent ''high quality'' feel to it. The gimbals are smooth and tight. The programming is easy, and has all the mixes I need to fly any aircraft. It also can be programmed for Helis. The range checks I have done show me that the system is good for AT LEAST 1.500 METERS. I have NEVER experienced a loss of control. That cannot be claimed by *pektrum. It is NOT a cheap little toy store radio. Have you ever used one? Sounds like you haven't. In 5years, or maybe 10, maybe you guys will accept it. These are made (figuratively) just up the road a little way from where yours are. If you want to find out, spend the price, and test one. You might be surprised.

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ORIGINAL: Ron101

There battery packs have been hit or miss.... some really good, some dead when they showed up
but all dirt cheap. The one thing they have done that is good for the modeler ( I think) but bad for competitors is get the prices to come down on many products.

Thunder Power has the best packs out there but had to really drop there prices to compete with hobby king.... you can buy three hobby king packs for the price of one thunder power

With that said you may need three if the first one is dead and the other two are not that great. I've bought many packs for them... some have been very good, low internal resistance, good balance, perform just as well as the good brands.

I have also had some that won't stay in balance, so bad you can't even 2c charge without going into safety charge... also had two 6s 5000 packs I bought for $140 bucks show up just garbage. Had to get rid of them and hobby king wouldn't do a thing for me.

There 10 and 12 gauge silicon wire is great and really cheap.... I also use there EC5 conectors which are dirt cheap and work great. I get them for a buck a set instead of $7 here.... and I can't see the differance in them.

never order if not in stock, only use EMS shipping and they have been pretty good.... I'm sure I'll chance getting more of the packs in the future, but for high amp stuff I'll stick with thunder power.

that's my 2 cents

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ORIGINAL: iflyrcmodels

Personally have had to bad run ins with Hobby King. Customer service issues though, not product issues. Personally I prefer Hobby Partz which offers the same low prices but much better customer service

We have to accept globalization since is here to STAY , not only in our hobby but bussiness to.

We are used to thinking only in our countries physical boundries, but  there are bussiness as Hobby king thinking GLOBALLY.

They are making the hobby afordable for a lot of cunsumers Globally.

Quality yes and no depends on category.

Price: Great.

 

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ORIGINAL: LittleBob

Simple poll

Do you think HobbyKing are good or bad for the hobby.

Give reasons either way as you wish

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ORIGINAL: madmodelman

Are you saying you would fly a jet with a Turnigy Radio?

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ORIGINAL: ZX11

I am all for free market and it's benefits. So hobby king is fine for me. Bring on the competition and don't whine or point fingers if you lose. Otherwise, we would still be using original Kraft radios on AM bands. Standing in line to buy from a few protected companies isn't for me.

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ORIGINAL: sidgates

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ORIGINAL: ZX11

I am all for free market and it's benefits. So hobby king is fine for me. Bring on the competition and don't whine or point fingers if you lose. Otherwise, we would still be using original Kraft radios on AM bands. Standing in line to buy from a few protected companies isn't for me.

The Hobby King model (type of distribution) has nothing to do with why Kraft went out of business. Kraft and all the other US radio manufactures closed in 1983. US manufactures were charged about 300% more for components that could only be purchased from Japan at that time compared to domestic Japanese producers cost. Add the component cost to much higher labor costs and there was no way to compete at that time. There were approx. 1000 people directly employed by US radio manufactures in the early 1980's. Just one small contribution to our unemployment numbers.

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ORIGINAL: luv2flyrc

I was recently approached by a new club member who wanted help setting up his new Turnigy 9X. I wasn't looking forward to it as here's me with my 2 x JR12x's, who generally considers anything less to be junk.

After playing with it, I was genuinely surprised at how capable his 9 channel $53 radio was! It had a fairly solid feel to it as well.

I have no idea what or how reliable its 2.4gig radio link is, would never consider it myself( I like my $1500 toys) but, i could see that it could probably satisfy most modellers needs. Quite surprised.

Mike