Oct 8

Written by:
10/8/2010 5:02 PM 

Now I have been running gas replicas for the better part of the 10+ years that I have been playing airsoft and I love them… I really do. But there is just something about the reliability of those electrics that always has me keeping one or two in my collection for those cold winter days or close quarter games where I need super reliability for every shot. Having only recently gotten into the CQB fad of replicas I found that my super short M4 was severely lacking comparative to the standard 'BB hoses' that are now the norm. Raptors Airsoft was there to remedy that problem though. They were nice enough to let me review the Element High Speed motor for the M4 (Long type V2) and to get my shorty ready for the upcoming OP: FEAR.

First Impressions

 

This is a very solid motor. For the first few rotations by hand I was almost sure that there was something wrong with the magnets on the inside as it was very hard to turn over. Once I applied power to it I was shocked that it spun quite as fast as it did. Turns out that the reason it is hard to turn is that the magnets are more powerful and different spacing than a regular or high torque setup that I am used to. The build quality is excellent all over. With a plastic bell housing holding a bearing for the axle it is at least as good as a Systema motor in that respect. The plastic is very heat tolerant. Application of a red hot metal pin does not cause a lot of damage, in fact it practically absorbs all of the heat immediately and retains excellent shape. This is a requirement for heat dissipation from the bearing.

The bell housing is also fully insulating brush points from the body because of the plastic material. The screws that hold the brush mounts are also insulated from the mounts with insulating washers similar to the Systema motor I was comparing it to. In all the motor was very solid and the magnets extremely powerful for the size. It was able to pick up a case of 24 drill bits through the plastic housing they were encased in.

The body of the motor is a simple metal housing with what appears to be powder coat covering all exposed pieces of it. The axle is perfectly straight and extremely rigid. It has the ability to flex and return to shape from about a .5mm bend and not have any retention of the bending perceptible. Spinning freely the motor is practically scary as it tried to jump out of my test bracket every time I flipped the switch. In all I was very impressed with the overall quality and build construction of the motor.

 

Testing

 

Testing was conducted using System standard ratio gears on 7mm bushings in a V2 gearbox using a CA polycarbonate piston. The switch was a standard TM with 16ga wires run to the motor and battery using Tamiya large connectors. The motor was housed in a M4/M16 grip.

 

As most of you know I love to test things until they break. Well this was no exception, but it was not the motor that broke, it was everything else! My testing was going to be a scientific measurement of rounds per second (RPS) measured at using 3 different voltages (8.4v, 9.6v, 12v), 2 different motors (a Systema High Torque and the Element High Speed… I know, apples to oranges), and 3 different springs (M90, M100, M120). I was planning to use a voltmeter and ammeter to measure amp draw and current battery voltage during the tests.

 

As it turns out the first test went good right up until the Element motor was hooked up. I was able to test the motors against each other using the M90 spring and 3 different voltages with no problems except I was not able to test amps draw. The Element motor exceeded the 25amp limit that my current meter had on it and let the 'magic blue smoke' out of it, leaving me with a fried meter. Still that didn't slow the testing down since I was really here to measure RPS and not amps.

 

Testing continued and the numbers for the two motors were virtually identical while pushing 8.4v through them.

Motor	Voltage	Spring	Rounds per second	% Difference
Element	8.4	M90	17	0%
Systema	8.4	M90	17
Element	9.6	M90	25	12%
Systema	9.6	M90	22
Element	12	M90	27	11%
Systema	12	M90	24

 

In all I was expecting more of a pronounced difference in speeds at such a low spring pressure. I was wanting to see such a difference that it would be obvious that the high speed motor made a big difference.

 

Failures (not on the motors part)

 

When the battery voltage was bumped up to 9.6v the first failure occurred and the gearbox housing cracked along the front edge of the cylinder. Pieces of the cylinder head went flying along with the front half of the tappet plate. A week and a half later I finally received my replacement gearbox, this time a heavily reinforced one so that it would survive the test. I also was waiting another week for a new ammeter with a 50A shunt on it that would allow me to test the amps finally. Long story short the ammeter was a dud twice from the company and they were a pain to work with so for this review we are going to have to do without amperage results. These little setbacks and investments have pretty much sealed this as the most expensive ancillary costs that I have ever put into a review. Anyhow, back to reviewing and speed testing!

 

Tests Conclusion

 

The tests were repeated with the M100 and M120 springs with no more major setbacks. Here are the results.

 

Motor	Voltage	Spring	Rounds per second	% Difference
Element	8.4	M100	15	0%
Systema	8.4	M100	15
Element	9.6	M100	22	13%
Systema	9.6	M100	19
Element	12	M100	24	12%
Systema	12	M100	21
Element	8.4	M120	12	-7%
Systema	8.4	M120	13
Element	9.6	M120	18	5%
Systema	9.6	M120	17
Element	12	M120	22	10%
Systema	12	M120	20

Speed

 

As the above chart indicates, the high speed motor compared against a high torque motor doesn't really seem to show a major difference at first. Then again 11% is a pretty big difference when you are talking about rounds per minute instead of rounds per second. At 24rps an AEG is putting 1440 rounds downrange per minute. Adding 11% onto that amount gets you 1620 rounds per minute. Coupling these well built high speed motors with other high speed components is a safe bet to get your rps through the roof. I ran this test using standard gears and standard piston to show that even in stock configuration that there is a difference between the high speed and high torque motors. As the pressure on the springs increase however the difference begins to lessen and even reverse above the M130 range in the lower voltage category (as seen in the 8.4v M120 test). Kept in the low spring pressure bracket these motors excel at what they were designed for, speed. Push them past their design limits and you will suffer drawbacks

 

Durability

 

This was something of a subjective test and cannot be quantified with a lot of accurate numbers. What I was able to gather though is that the motor is very durable and a solid performer. As a test of durability I used the motor with an M100 spring and 8.4v NiMh battery combination along with a box mag at the OP: FEAR game for 24 hours straight as a semi-support role. In 24 hours I changed the battery one time (at around 4000 rounds fired) and expended over 5500 rounds in sustained bursts (2-4 seconds). The grip never got hot and the motor was extremely efficient at using what little power it was using. After the game was over I pulled the motor out to inspect it and check for wear. In all the motor looked almost exactly like it did before the game and the many rounds pumped through it. The motor bevel gear showed minor smoothing on the faces of the gears and no rounding of the teeth. It appeared the surfaces mated quite well with the Systema gear set.

 

Conclusion

 

Overall I would have to say this is one of the most interesting reviews I have done in a while. I was expecting a bit more impressive results but it really is impressive that with minor tweaking to the same motor design that you can get more than 10% increases almost across the board with the same style of parts. For the price bracket you cannot go wrong with the Element motors as they can cost as little as half as much as their competitors yet they pack the same features and performance. In all this motor is a solid performer with excellent characteristics to build your next 'BB hose' on.