Review: HobbyKing / Turnigy XT60 Connectors

[MaciekA]

This review is not complete and will not cover the entire spectrum of everything that is the XT60 Connector. Rather, I wanted to get the ball rolling and encourage some of the other fence-sitters on ASC (you know who you are!) to finally get off their butts and try this connector out, give it a proper shake, and leave their additions here. If any of you have also tried this connector, please leave some comments below to help others figure out whether XT60 is for them or not. (If you haven't tried the connector and only want to leave cynical flames, please don't crap on my thread. i.e. don't just leave a post like this: "just use Deans lol")

On to the review..



Just before Christmas I received a huge box of goodies from Hobby King, so here I am on holidays trying some of these things out together. Since this was a group order for my airsoft crew, I ordered a ton of batteries, connectors, wiring, chargers, tools, and other assorted stuff. Among them were the XT60 connectors. Hobby King's prices are low enough on a lot of things that your thoughts of "I'm not sure I have the budget for that" quickly turn into "I should pick some up just to experiment with". XT60 connectors fall into this category.

If you ever order anything from Hobby King -- which you will once you realize there's no point in buying expensive LiPos -- you will inevitably run into XT60 connectors. Upon Googling what the heck XT60 is, you'll discover that they're what years ago many in the RC world have moved onto after Deans connectors. Like Deans connectors and as the name implies, they're rated for around 60 Amps and have extremely low resistance. RC people love them for a number of reasons, and it doesn't take too much searching to find people in that world who already consider Deans "old and busted".

Claims:

1) easier to solder than Deans,
2) tougher design,
3) open design and therefore free to produce by any company,
4) are easier to grip, disconnect, and reconnect,
5) HobbyKing/Turnigy, the company that makes them, is selling them for dirt cheap.

I ordered a pack because they were next to nothing in cost and I wanted to verify a few of these claims myself.

Quality/Toughness:



Out of the package these connectors give an impression of quality and durability. Connecting and rapidly disconnecting a pair of connectors gives distinct metallic ringing sound from the contacts like a unsheathed sword. The insides of the contacts (not sure what metal they are) look to be machined/drilled (see one of the pictures below) and the contacts feel very strong when given the wiggle test. I have only begun to use these connectors so only abusive long-term usage will reveal any issues with durability, but so far, they feel at least on par with Deans, if not better.

One area of durability where I feel XT60 has a big edge over Deans is in the quality of the solder connections you'll make, which leads me to the next part..

Soldering:



I can wholeheartedly attest to the fact that these are a pleasure to solder, even for a complete idiot like myself. I cannot understate how much of a piece of cake soldering these connectors is compared to Deans. Tin your wire, stage it in the half-pipe, and pour on the solder. Again, a clumsy idiot like me can do it in seconds, so those of you who are experts will be able to quickly solder a batch of these in minutes.



One small drawback of XT60 I noticed was the trickiness of getting your heat shrink to grip the circular edge of the contact against the Nylon connector body. This may eventually prove to be a major annoyance, though the risk of short with XT60 in practice (i.e. if the heat shrink slid off) seems much lower than with Deans and Tamiya. Also, it's possible that I suck at putting on heat shrink tubing . During soldering my gun made contact with the Nylon connector body and while the surface charred a little bit, it did not melt or deform, which is a big plus. I did not see any deformation, nevertheless, it's always wise to solder your connectors with a sacrificial connector connected, and if possible, a wire on the other connector end to serve as a heat sink.

Testing/Ergonomics/Usability/Fit:



I'm testing these connectors on my "project" AEG with a G&P gearbox, G&P M120 motor, AWS Raptor FET and a 1.3Ah, 11.1V Turnigy nano-tech series battery. As you can see, the gun I'm using has the super-long ACE stock and therefore has a TON of room for gigantic LiPo batteries, as well as room for bigger connectors. Both the Turnigy battery and the Raptor FET come with Tamiya connectors by default (!!), so naturally I wanted to swap these out, and I decided to try the XT60 connectors. During initial testing with Tamiya connectors, I observed a lot of heat at both the motor and at the Tamiya connection. The gun fired about 26 rps and about 380ft per second with Tamiya. With XT60, the heat at the connector was mostly gone, which is not a surprise given the low resistance of XT60. Subjectively, the rate of fire seems dramatically higher than with Tamiya, but I will have verify this at the chrono.



The XT60 connectors maintain a very secure connection, so my concern was that they'd be hard to disconnect. On the other hand, they have a larger and more textured gripping surface than Deans, so I found that even with slippery gloves on I was able to disconnect them easier than Deans. Tamiya is much easier to connect and disconnect, but the drawbacks of Tamiya are not worth the ease of use compared to Deans or XT60.

Finally, I found fit to be painless inside of my ACE stock, with plenty of room to spare. Obviously, this impression is heavily biased since the ACE stock has enough room for a king-size bed. In evalutating the XT60 connector for your own setup, staging it inside of your buffer tube or handguard to see if there is enough room for it will be a primary concern, because XT60 is bulkier than Deans.

Conclusion:

I'm loving these things so far, with some caveats.

I'm hesitant to convert my entire collection to XT60, for reasons that will be obvious to any readers who play on a team and need to swap/borrow batteries or guns from time to time. In addition, the biggest concern to people considering XT60 will be whether it can co-exist in a buffer tube with a battery. Deans has a definite edge on compactness, however, it suffices to say that if XT60 were shrunk to match the size of Deans, it would be a winner, hands down.

I'm going to be very tempted to try XT60 in a buffer tube. My buffer tube batteries are the 1000mAh G&P sticks, so it's quite likely they will fit. The G&P 1000mAh LiPos are exceptionally short, however. EDIT: After reading this review, a teammate convinced me to test to see if these fit in a G&P C8 buffer tube with my G&P 1000mAh LiPo battery. They fit, and I actually managed to fit a pair of XT60 connectors and a pair of Deans connectors with the battery at the same time, so 1100 - 1200 mAh may also be possible depending on precise dimensions.

For the next few months, I'm going to continue testing XT60 on my project rifle with the two large batteries which are too big to fit in any of my other rifles or any of my teammates rifles, i.e. an isolated test platform. Hopefully I will get a more comprehensive picture of XT60's viability for airsoft.

[L473ncy]

Just a question. Maybe they've fixed this "Engrish mistake" since I last saw it, but what does "Rated for up to 60 Amps and up" mean? Does that mean you can push 1000 Amps through the plugs without them catching fire and exploding in a miraculous fashion? Lol.

Anyways, I've been looking at those connectors, as well as TRX (seem to be smaller like deans) and EC3 (more or less the same size as XT60's) connectors. Hopefully I can do some testing on different connectors as well in the new years after I get my G36 review up.

As far as heatshrink goes, I'm sure once you get some practise that you'll be able to do them fast and well but what I like about the TRX connectors is that they don't require heat shrink, and like the XT60's the solder joints seem to be fairly solid from what I'm reading about them. Not to mention you can only go up to 14 awg wire on the TRX as compared to 12 awg on the XT60's (but I have seen a video of someone doing 8 awg on TRX and a photo of some guy with 10 awg on the XT60's). I know airsofters never use that thick of wire gauge, seemingly preferring 16 and 18 awg wire but the option of being able to do 14 awg or thicker wires is always a bonus IMO.

Anyways, those are just my thoughts. And I'd love it if airsofters adopted better connectors than Deans, or if they at least didn't use the stock Tamiyas like I swear that 99% of people in my area do....

"I am the 1%"...

PS: I love how the polarities are marked on these connectors... It hasn't ever happened to me but I've seen where some people have the wires wired up on the wrong side on Tamiyas (simple to fix using a pin pusher) and Deans but there's no confusion whatsoever with the XT60's and TRX which have the polarity marked on the connector itself.

[MaciekA]

Did a buffer tube test and added a note to the review.

[MaciekA]

Originally Posted by L473ncy

Just a question. Maybe they've fixed this "Engrish mistake" since I last saw it, but what does "Rated for up to 60 Amps and up" mean? Does that mean you can push 1000 Amps through the plugs without them catching fire and exploding in a miraculous fashion? Lol.

Only one way to find out ... I suspect that was a mistake.

Originally Posted by L473ncy

As far as heatshrink goes, I'm sure once you get some practise that you'll be able to do them fast and well but what I like about the TRX connectors is that they don't require heat shrink

That's a really nice feature. When I muse about what XT60 would look like without a heat shrink requirement, it would possible compromise the structural integrity of the connector, so I'm not sure if it can be refined in that direction...

Originally Posted by L473ncy

Anyways, those are just my thoughts. And I'd love it if airsofters adopted better connectors than Deans, or if they at least didn't use the stock Tamiyas like I swear that 99% of people in my area do....

"I am the 1%"...

It's an awkward situation for sure. It's weird that the Raptor FET comes with Tamiya, since it's pretty much a given that most users of Raptors will be using high discharge batteries, and it's really surprising that Hobby King sells even its 11.1V "airsoft" batteries with Tamiya. What gives?

Originally Posted by L473ncy

PS: I love how the polarities are marked on these connectors... It hasn't ever happened to me but I've seen where some people have the wires wired up on the wrong side on Tamiyas (simple to fix using a pin pusher) and Deans but there's no confusion whatsoever with the XT60's and TRX which have the polarity marked on the connector itself.

Another nice thing here is that the half-pipe "scoop" that you drop is 180 degrees away from its opposing polarity. The closeness of the opposite polarity connector in Deans, along with the awkwardness of them being 90 degrees opposed, has caused quite a few mistakes for me during soldering. With XT60 I just solder, 180 flip, solder. Easy.

[McKee]

Nice review! I use the XT-60 since I bought a bunch of hobbyking batteries and figured it was easier to change 2 connectors for my guns rather than 5 for the batteries I bought. I found them easier to solder than deans but you need a higher wattage iron than for deans. Also, they seem better suited for larger wire gauges than common airsoft wires (16-18 gauge) but its nice to have room incase you have multiple wires like you had.

[Amos]

Only problem I've got with them is they're physical size... They're SLIGHTLY bigger than deans.

[SuperHog]

The HK XT60 do have a lot of advantages over deans. Although Deans and XT60 have the same amperage rating no one has actually done a bench test review.

If space is a premium, then stay with Deans.

Other wise, the XT60 is easier to grip with gloves and because they are true bullet connector, don't get hot at all compared to Deans which I have found to heat up.

The XT-60 is easier to solder for sure and better designed than the Deans.

But the Deans are available everywhere. Nice thing with the XT60, people have another choice.

[arcanuck]

Originally Posted by L473ncy

Just a question. Maybe they've fixed this "Engrish mistake" since I last saw it, but what does "Rated for up to 60 Amps and up" mean? Does that mean you can push 1000 Amps through the plugs without them catching fire and exploding in a miraculous fashion? Lol.

No, I also test batteries and graph their results, done many on RCGroups, they're good for about 80A maximum safely under the right airflow conditions, the Deans is safe for about 70A constant in test, both can handle more for short bursts but heat up and lose their grip if its too long. The motors in our guns typically draw about 30A peak or less on the compression stroke for 400 spring. I fly radio controlled jets and have stayed with Dean because its more compact but if you can afford the space, the XT60 is easier to install and detach your pack when your done a game. Can't go wrong either way.

[Air_raid]

As someone who uses these conectors for Radio Controlled aircraft and for airsoft we have pushed up to 100A through some of these conectors without problems other then they start to get warm.

[arcanuck]

Is that the 90mm F-18?

[MaciekA]

Hey guys, thanks for chiming in with the real-world data, I really appreciate it given that I have literally just started out with XT60 and am basically talking out of my ass

[SuperHog]

Had a project that would draw 50 amps (not airsoft related but now is) and decided to test both XT60 and Deans (the real USA made ones) side by side.

After 10 minutes, holy...... the Deans were hot. Too hot to hold. The XT60 were also hot, but I could hold them without burning my fingers.

Don't ask me the temps. Who cares.

I have already started to switch over the XT60 from all my Deans.

[johjoh]

Just finished installing them on my gun and two batteries.

So easy, even a caveman can do it! (Thanks GEICO Insurance Co! )

Observed a good BB RPM inscrease with the same battery and setup.

Really impressed, as for size, well I dont really care, I've got a full stock M16, and a M4 with front handguard battery placement, still no issue.

EDIT: MaciekA, how are they holding up for durability?

[MaciekA]

Originally Posted by johjoh

EDIT: MaciekA, how are they holding up for durability?

My whole team has switched to XT60 and they are holding up very well, all of our connectors are still like-new.

I think the real test will be how well they fare after 1 full year of testing. Hopefully someone will remember to necro this thread at that point and I can update with some pictures and results.

So far though, big thumbs up. These have done well at our winter games too with the gloves on.

[TPM001]

Another endorsement for XT60. Far superior to Deans for sure. The only downside is that it's a bit bigger so if space is ultra tight, go with deans. Otherwise XT60 all the way.

I also use these connectors exclusively for RC helicopters which have extremely high draw, and they hold up very very well.