Hey Guys,

Just thought I would let everyone know that we’ve been doing some testing with the XXX-Super Silver brushes… First, let me start off by saying that these brushes deliver great power, whether your application is stock, 19 turn or modified these brushes get the job done….Ok, with that said here we go.

We used three separate parameter for grading these brushes. 1) Performance, as in overall power. 2) Commutator wear/discoloration/carbon buildup, are grouped into one category. 3) Brush wear, just how many runs are possible …

For our test motor we decided to go with an aggressive setup to put these brushes to the test. We chose to use a DC Ti based 7x1; set at 20 degrees of timing, stiff silver springs and geared at a final drive ratio of 8.75 (on a 120x50 high bite asphalt track).

The actual composition of these brushes isn’t harder than other brushes, but the special lubricants used to decreases brush wear makes these brushes a BITC* to break in initially… So after 600 seconds @ 1.5v on the motor break-in stand we were ready to hit the track.

Our initial thought was “these are pretty good”, acceleration and top end were comparable to when we used quasar brushes, while the lap-times were also right on par matching our fastest lap of 12.3 seconds. Nearing the 5-minute mark we expected the motor’s performance to start fading, especially with 20 degrees of timing, well we were wrong. The motor stayed strong throughout the entire 5 min run and finished with a 12.5 second last lap, with 20 seconds left on the pack @ 30 amps.

After the second run was complete, with pretty much the same results as the first, we decided to tear the motor down for inspection. Upon inspection the comm had an ever so slight orange hue above and below where the brushes contact the comm (this is normal), and a grayish blue tint where the brushes would ride. We were shocked to find almost no carbon build up on the commutator, as most brushes just decimate the comm in this aspect (as most of you know who have used quasar brushes before). One pass on the lathe and the arm was good to go (defiantly less comm wear than regular brushes).

The brushes showed absolutely no signs of discoloring or glazing. A quick cleaning with a fiberglass comm stick and they looked as good as new… After assembling the motor for the second time it was no longer necessary to break the brushes in for 600 seconds, as the brushes are now already seated to within .001” of comms current diameter… After a quick break-in of 200 seconds and we were back on the track….

We continued our test for 18 more runs, while truing the comm every 2-3 runs. After compounding a total of twenty runs on 1 set of brushes we were ready to call our testing session…

After looking over our notes and composing our thoughts here’s the final verdict:

Actual brush wear was a total of 1.10mm; just over half the brush-life was consumed during our twenty run test session. We estimated that another 10 runs would be probable before the brush became too short to function. Final inspection of the brush would still show no signs of discoloring/burning (we felt that was impressive due to the aggressive motor setup & gearing)…. Overall performance in this parameter we gave the XXX bushes an A+…

Commutator wear, discoloration & carbon buildup were infinitely better with the XXX brush, when compared to that of the standard copper/silver/carbon brushes we’ve been using for years. Yet when compared to the Reedy Plutonium brush or the CS brush we thought that the actual wear imposed on the commutator could have been slight higher with the XXX brushes….. In this parameter we gave the XXX-Brush an A-

The overall power was quite impressive. We’ve tested all the other super-silver brushed on the market today and have yet to find one that we felt was this powerful. If we had to rate the XXX Brush against the other super silver brushes on the market we would defiantly say this one is top dog… We gave the XXX-Brush an A+ in this parameter…

Final Thoughts

If one we’re to compare the XXX brush against some of the other super silver brushes on the market today, like the Reedy Plutonium Brush or the CS Racing brushes their outcome could differ slightly from ours, depending on their testing conditions. Take into account that the Reedy & CS brushes are twice the price of the XXX brush weighs heavier in favor of the XXX compound…

Curtis.