third ESC in two months. running 4s, motors are rated for it, props are 5045 gemfans so nothing crazy. first one i figured maybe i shorted something during the build. second one i was way more careful, checked everything with a multimeter before powering up, and it still let out the magic smoke after maybe 20 flights. now ive got a third one in and im scared to even arm it.

its a 35amp 4in1 and honestly maybe thats the issue? someone mentioned the brand i wont name here but its one of the cheaper ones and maybe i just need to accept that and spend more on something reputable. but also i feel like 35amp should be way more than enough for what im doing, i fly mostly freestyle not like race gates or anything super aggressive.

current draw at full throttle measured around 28-30 amps so there should be headroom. the ESC just gets brutally hot and then one of the phases goes out usually. is there something else i could be doing wrong that would cause this or is it just a garbage component situation

check your capacitors. seriously. if youre running long battery lead wires without a low ESR cap on the battery pads the voltage spikes during throttle changes can absolutely kill ESCs even when your steady state current is fine. 28-30 amps sustained is within spec but the instantaneous spikes during throttle punches are way higher and that's what fries the FETs. stick a 1000uf 35v cap on the battery pads and see if that changes anything. this is like the number one overlooked thing in budget builds.

yeah the cap thing is probably it but also ? what are your ESC temps actually hitting? like do you have blackbox logging on? because 35amp rated doesnt always mean 35 continuous, a lot of the budget 4in1s are rated at peak not continuous and there's a big difference especially when all four corners are sharing a single board and thermal dissipation is bad.

ive had good luck with the Mamba and Tekko stuff in the mid range price, not saying you need to go crazy but theres a noticeable quality jump around the 40-50 dollar range for a 4in1 vs the real budget ones. also what RPM are your motors, higher KV on 4s can push more current than people expect even with moderate throttle inputs