Reply from tech support

[BrianG]

Lower quality batteries have higher internal resistance, which causes ESC-damaging ripple currents at high current draw. A sort-of bandaid approach would be to add some capacitors to the input power lead (make sure they are 105*C low-ESR, 35v+, and 1000uF+). This also creates a larger hook-up spark so be prepared to replace connectors a little more often.