yukonpete

My Feedback: (4)

Got my brand new Saito FG-14 last week and the ignition system was dead right out of the box. So I had to send it back for replacement. Wish saito's quality control was in order!

MercerAUST

I've heard good things about Saito engines, but maybe getting parts is hard. I've been waiting on a replacement carby body for the FG-14 for over 4 months now.

NM2K

My Feedback: (14)

If power is applied to the ignition module, but the spark plug lead isn't properly fastened to the spark plug, which is properly placed in the engine, the EI box can be fried the very first time the sensor passes by the magnet. Nothing Saito can do to eliminate the human factor just yet. The human doing the frying may not be the current owner. It could have happened before shipment to the West.


Ed Cregger

rhd-RCU

My Feedback: (36)

I have been waiting six months for Supertigre parts and they still say end of July.

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

Products fail, due either to a parts defect or a user defect. Doesn't matter who makes it. If someone has only bought one engine, how would they know that a company's quality control is not effective? If they had bought 5-10-or 20 and a large percentage did not function I could understand someone making a poor QA statement.

MercerAUST

I guess I'm hoping that someone connected with Saito will take pity and help source the part! I love the engine, but waiting 4 months for a key component part while knowing that the same engine seems to be in stock is too much.

There are now plenty of smaller gas 2 strokes on the market, but Saito pretty much has the 4 stroke gasser market wrapped up at the moment. I can't wait for other brands to release smaller 4 stroke gassers so there is a bit of competition.

MetallicaJunkie

same here, i would love a 120 sized 4 stroke gasser for under 300

MercerAUST

I was very pleasantly surprised when a distributer for Saito in the US contacted me with information about the parts I want. This is service beyond the call of duty!!

yukonpete

My Feedback: (4)

Actually it's my second saito. First was a Saito FA-115 about 1 year ago and that was faulty out of the box also. The muffler was cracked! So to me thats poor QA!!

YUKONFLYR

Saito has warranty, but you gotta pay 25 bucks to send it back and wait the time. Time that is eating away at a very short flying season. Also to consider is the cost of the Gas vs the cost of the Glow motor. Since the gas is considerably more it does not lead to warm and fuzzy feelings when you lay down 500 smackers and it comes out of the box dead as a doornail! Then you have to further lay out more in shipping just to get it running, that extra layout just adds to the frustration of the purchase. There is such a demand for small gas motors in this hobby that when you get one that is dead, well its frustrating! That leads to comments about quality control. Saito could have used a RXcel ingition instead of their own brand. Everyone likes their own brand.

Pete, I hope Saito makes this right and quick!

Pete Bergstrom

YukonPete,

Hi1 Can I asked what method you used to determine that the ignition was dead?

During testing we discovered it is very easy to plug in the battery leads from a typical 4-5 cell pack backwards. This does no damage as there is no third pin in the ignition unit wire, but it does lead to a non-functioning ignition because there is no power. I was frustrated for about 20 minutes until I reversed the battery leads and the previously dead ignition jumped to life.

if you haven't yet packed it up you might want to try this.

And don't forget, as mentioned previously ....DONOTpower up the ignition without the sparkplug connected. Any rotation of the prop hub past the magnet will cause the ignition to fry itself without somewhere (sparkplug) for all that voltage to go.

One last tip, we have been using a two cell lipo for a power source lately with great success and are in the process of changing the label on the ignitions to show 6-8.5v for an input voltage. All the ignitions already sold will also operate on a two cell lipo as there was no design change to accomodate this.

Pete

Pete

yukonpete

My Feedback: (4)

I checked the battery lead and it was connected the right way. My flying buddy also checked it. We removed the spark plug and held it against the engine to test for spark ( after spending 30min playing around with the engine ) and there was no spark.

I have sent my engine back to my LHS and they are going to replace the ignition or send the engine for service repair.

Thanks