Increasing the value of the motor from Castle?
 

Actually this question is for all of Towerhobbies rose from Castle

Question: temporary or permanent phenomenon?
or increase is associated with some sort of appreciation of the magnets

Most likely the same reason the repair kits ( new rotor + bearings ) jumped in price- the cost of raw materials for the magnets has sored upwards..

Yes, but sorry for the 254 dollars
it was too hard to get by 160-170 and 250 in the light of this all just move to engines from China and type tenshock leopard who breed like rabbits

Hmm, towerhobbies pricing does seem to have jumped rather alot- I don't imagine the Chinese motors will stay so cheap for much longer, or they may start cutting corners to keep costs down.

The motors are still ~$160 over at amainhobbies, and the systems are ~$270 still- you dont have to buy from towerhobbies, but it's worth keeping an eye on prices everywhere to see if they increase...

It has everything to do with the price to neodymium. The price has nearly tripled in the past 6 months. A very large percentage of the cost in our motors is in the raw material of neodymium. Companies that make inexpensive motors tend to use much less of the material, so their costs have not increased as dramatically. Rare earth minerals in general have been rising across the board. I would expect everyone's motor prices to increase in the very near future.

Without getting too much into international politics and economics, when a country produces 97% of a particular material in high demand and they cut production by 35%, prices are going to soar; and anyone dependent on that material is going to suffer greatly. We held out as long as we could in raising prices, but it has simply become too much to absorb and a price increase was inevitable. As long as neodymium prices stay high, don't expect prices to come down any time soon. We were priced very competitively compared to other manufacturer's of the same quality, now our prices tend to be more in line with our competitors.

I'm sure when Pat gets back from China, he might be able to provide more details on the issue.

Thomas Porfert
Tech Support
Castle Creations

Commie bar-stewards... :lol:

Thanks Thomas

Has this delayed production on castle motor and ESC systems?

What about cobalt magnets? Would they work in this application and/or be a less-expensive option?

Well, cobalt has also almost doubled in the last six months... and is still much more expensive than neodymium... So no advantage.


http://www.metal-pages.com/metalprices/neodymium/

Shucks... :lol:

Personally, they could triple the price and i would still buy. I look at other things as much as the price, Castle's Customer Service is top notch and i feel i'm paying for that as much as materials. Y'all can buy Chinese, if you want, good luck getting it fixed or replaced

yeah....i'll always use castle motors too.

i look at it this way...a good nitro engine will run every bit of $300-400 with the pipe another $80-100.

these motors are still much more powerful than the nitros and last a hell of a lot longer.

it also kinda makes me wonder if Caslte is just the first US company that has to hike up the prices...i wonder if novak and tekin will follow suit.


kinda seems like China has the monopoly of neodymium right now and with more and more hybrids needed, they can charge whatever they want to. i think i read they support something like 90% of the world's supply.....

that sucks ass.

Don't forget too that most of the worlds Lithium deposits are in China & Korea- pretty much holding the world to ransom regards greener power...