Buying used servos?

[monkeymagic9]

Looking for some personal experiences, mainly regarding:

Would you buy a used servo over the internet?

The one in particular I'm looking at is a JR z9100t for $50 bucks.. they seem to have mixed reviews on here, but seems most of the bad reviews are from people who are likely neglecting/abusing them or just repeating what they've read on the 'net with no real experience with them.

a couple of the mg995s should be in my mailbox on Tuesday, fresh off the boat from China so i can throw the twitchy, weakened axial servo in the trash. ($5 shipped.. even if they don't work at all I won't be mad) but it'd be nice if someone with some experience could step in and say "used servos are bad news" or "$40 dollars for a 200oz/in servo is half way towards the purchase of a real servo," or even "if you're not competition crawling and mostly just beating around on hiking trails, a $40 200oz/in savox/hitec is fine"

personally, my experiences in 1:1 tell me to avoid buying used electrical items of this sort for anything more than $20 bucks, because it's probably on it's last leg. Hell, my axial rig, I bought that used and have been tightening/loctiting/replacing incorrectly assembled pieces since I brought it home. But maybe it's different here...

Thanks for any input.

[AreCee]

Buying any used electronics over the internet is a gamble. Servos are subject to wear, stress and abuse. It may be OK and again it may not.

[monkeymagic9]

Originally Posted by AreCee

Buying any used electronics over the internet is a gamble. Servos are subject to wear, stress and abuse. It may be OK and again it may not.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking.

Rock crawling seems to, by nature, put a servo through it's paces.. so I'm wondering how much abuse do these high $ servos take? For $50 bucks is it worth running, knowing it may require a rebuild?

Definitely an open-ended question. But I'd love to hear some experiences. Thanks for your reply!

[AddictedtoRC1]

My crawler buddy has purchased used servos and as far as I know has never had an issue. Me personally would not buy one unless it was from a pal and I have seen that it works first. If you spend $50 now and have to put another $20 or so in it to repair it, you could have just had yourself a good "new" servo.

[Rockridge]

Those mg995's seem to work not too bad for a bashing rig.... I use them with no problems so far and for the price u really can't go wrong... Need to destroy a lot of them to = one savox

[Meatwad]

As far as used stuff, a reputable seller is ideal. I only buy used rc stuff on this site for instance.

I've run the mg946 servos for a few years now, steering and winch duties. They're happy at 7v too. For 10 bucks a pop, its a hard deal to beat.

[jeremyvinson38]

every used servo i bought has been fine , but then again they all came off here

[villainous]

i tend to only run used servos. but i do buy locally and not online. havent had a problem yet with any of my mg 5955 hitecs. the one in my scaler is still going strong, even after being underwater over night when my son left the truck outside in a puddle.....leave it to a 6 year old to thoroughly product test electronics!!

[Valreesio]

I am new to this site and cannot access the classifieds yet (grrrr) but I do buy used parts (even electronics) from other sites. I would say that if the person has a good rating or for this forum a lot of posts...then they probably are not going to risk their reputation to screw someone out of a few bucks. That being said, why are they selling it? A lot of times I ask that question and see what type of answer I get. I have yet to buy an actual used servo, but every other item I have bought that is electronic off other sites has worked exactly as they said it would...right up until the point that I get it wet and it catches on fire...or my son decides to not turn off his truck and leaves the new to us Lipo that we just bought still plugged in....DOH!!!

[Rockridge]

Originally Posted by Valreesio

I am new to this site and cannot access the classifieds yet (grrrr)......

Buy a Star($20) and suport RCC, instant access to the classifieds

[808DA6]

I've bought so many esc's and servos on here and rctech that I've lost count. Only ended up with one bunk servo and it got repaired by Hitec for free. Helps to double check a sellers rep and to stick to 'senior' members. Make sure you get pics. And if someting doesn't seem right, it usually isn't.