Props--- what brands work?

[Rick~K]

After losing a F550 and F450 to stock 10" props breaking what brands work? I know Graupner and Xoar but what else is good that you can depend on?

Thanks!

 

[Acmach5]

I'm using plain reliable APC SF's. Work great. Just give them a balance and go flying.

 

[Dewster]

I use APC 10x4.7 props. I've read so much about props breaking during cold weather etc. I want to try the carbon fiber props that I see on some of the Chinese web sites. So far the APC props have been good.

 

[supergravy]

APC 9x4.7 work great on both f450 and f550. You will need to use a prop reamer to bore the hole to 8mm and you will need to balance them. Done properly the APC's fly as well as anything else. I have seen complaints that they are brittle in cold weather but never heard of them breaking in flight.

Another good one are the gemfan CF reinforced 9x4.7. Looks and flies like the apc's only a little stiffer. I find these to "growl" less then the apc's too.

 

[Blacksails]

Don't know what they're like on lighter craft, but I've had really nice, trouble free performance out of the xoar wooden 10x5 props on my AD8

 

[r4nd0m]

I dont intend to hijack this one but if someone could also recommend some 8" props would be very helpful

 

[Aerial Media Pros]

A really nice prop in 8", 10", 11" are the Graupner's. Priced at around $10-12 they are a real nice upgrade. If you want better quality and are willing to spend a little more. The XOAR props can be had for around $30-40 a pair. They come balanced from the factory, and the prop bore is drilled to specs. I have all mine drilled at 6mm to fit Axi and Avroto motors. The 10" XOAR I have drilled to 8mm to fit the stock DJI Motor. That is a real nice feature not having to deal with plastic reducers. The Graupners will be a little more durable compared to the softer/lighter beachwood of the Xoar's. If your prone to Cowboy landings and or tipping, then go for the Graupners.

 

[Billywiz1307]

On my 450 from Geoff's Quadcopters.co.uk, I've had a blade snap on three separate occasions in very docile flight. I'm wondering, has DJI been approached re the stock prop problem. With such a widespread obvious fault, I'm surprised that DJI are not involved with a solution, i.e. a better designed and manufactured stock prop. The stock 8" and 10" props are clearly badly designed - where the blade meets the core there is no fillet, no radius, the blade meets with a very sharp 90 degree angle. And who knows, even the plastic itself might be rubbish.
I'm not buying anymore DJI props, I just can't trust them.
Mind you, the crashes have made some pretty interesting GoPro footage that have made us laugh.

 

[Rick~K]

On my 450 from Geoff's Quadcopters.co.uk, I've had a blade snap on three separate occasions in very docile flight. I'm wondering, has DJI been approached re the stock prop problem. With such a widespread obvious fault, I'm surprised that DJI are not involved with a solution, i.e. a better designed and manufactured stock prop. The stock 8" and 10" props are clearly badly designed - where the blade meets the core there is no fillet, no radius, the blade meets with a very sharp 90 degree angle. And who knows, even the plastic itself might be rubbish.
I'm not buying anymore DJI props, I just can't trust them.
Mind you, the crashes have made some pretty interesting GoPro footage that have made us laugh.

I contacted DJI via email and they requested pictures of the props for their engineers. I sent them pic's last night, 6am their Monday morning.

 

[Billywiz1307]

That's interesting Rick, but all they have to do is fly one themselves for a bit and sooner rather than later a blade will just shear off. I've had engineer friends of mine look at it and they reckon poor quality plastic and duff design. They focused on the clean shear of the prop, flush with were it meets the hub.

Meanwhile, lets hope the designers of these props aren't involved in the Chinese civil aviation industry.

 

[Rick~K]

This is starting not to turnout the way I'd hoped it would. I emailed and ask about warranty on my lost DJI products. In the past two months I got three kits, two NAZA's, one WK-M with other parts. I lost both a 550 and 450 in two days and the F450 malfunction was in front of a group I was hoping to help a friend do a mass sale of DJI kits too. All these guys were saying they were sure the company would make it right. All I got in a reply was:
Hi,Rick, The previous props are very sensitive. Pls stop using the old props and contact the dealer for strengthened props.

Best regards,

Terry Dajiang Innovation Technology, DJI http://www.dji-innovations.com Tel: 086-0755-26656677 ext:203 Skype: terry.one

I'm still awaiting another reply. These were the 10" props also and not the 8" that I been reading about.

 

[Billywiz1307]

I'm on about 10" ones too. It begs the question, how can we identify the "new strengthened prop" as opposed to the old crappy ones that shear off in normal flight.

The annoying thing is that the DJI 450 with NAZA is that stable it's difficult to crash and all my crashes have been due to props shearing which is a joke really - that shouldn't be happening should it!

It's not good for sales and they'd be well advised to sort it, it's certainly stopped me buying anything DJI. I was about to buy a DJI 550 but they can keep them, at least until they sort the prop issue out.

 

[Rick~K]

its going to be hard for me to sale anything to the members of our club if I go back and tell them DJI told me to buy stronger props when it was a stock ARF and everyone seen it fall to the ground from a 100ft hover. I love the frames and the FC's but the supplied props are a bad deal.

 

[vinnygogo]

i realy dont see the problem! the frames, engines, esc's, flightcontrol everything is great. only the props suck. so what? you KNOW it, and the only way to deal with it is to buy a set of different props for maybe 10-20 dollars. then it is solved, and you can fly forever. so you wouldn't buy a dji f550-450 with naza, only because of 20 dollars of props?

 

[Rick~K]

It seems you don't understand. The prop problem was the 8" and not the 10". Its easy now to just buy props after you know, but when you think everything is fine and have a totalled F550 and F450 in the same weekend from not any fault of your own that is a problem. I was lucky I never had my WK-M and FVP equipment installed or my weekend damage could have went over $2600.00

 

[steph280]

I went from APC to Gemfan carbon filled and it was a pretty dramatic improvement. Plus they are cheaper, too.

Gemfan also make some cheap plastic props, NOT THOSE. Only the carbon filled ones work well. They also have real carbon props but too rich for my blood...

 

[Rick~K]

I'm going with the Graupner's, I only wished I'd known there was a problem with the 10" props. I knew about the 8" and never had a issue until this weekend, I'm getting ready to build a new hexa and use the WK-M on it and it will NOT use stock props. I like everything about the DJI's...frames,motors,ESC's and FC's. The one that failed Friday I thought was too many flights on it, but the 450 Saturday was only @ 8 flights on the props. I've seen the Gemfans, but have the APC's on right now on a pvc homebuilt. Those do good but I don't know about cold weather. I'll have to say the NAZA fought all the way to the ground to stay level, I was watching and had hoped it would have been near level just before impact and I was going to throttle up to soften the crash but it would level and flip,level and flip... it was inverted when it got to the ground.

 

[r4nd0m]

I went from APC to Gemfan carbon filled and it was a pretty dramatic improvement. Plus they are cheaper, too. Gemfan also make some cheap plastic props, NOT THOSE. Only the carbon filled ones work well. They also have real carbon props but too rich for my blood...

are those Gemfan fit and fly or do you need to modify them ... actually I am looking for a 8" prop that just fits without any modification but I couldnt find any as of yet ...

 

[Billywiz1307]

Graupners arrived today - 1326.10x5 Fantastic quality but they're like razors. Put a 3S 2200 through and it flies great and hopefully any crashes now will be down to me and not the props disintegrating.

I spoke to a DJI reseller in the North of England today and the chap says he hasn't heard of anyone with a prop shearing issue adding that he'd spoken to a person at DJI too and they also didn't say or know anything about it. They can't possibly have missed all the negative comments out there on the web about the props shearing.

So, don't buy any DJI props, is my advice.

 

[supergravy]

are those Gemfan fit and fly or do you need to modify them ... actually I am looking for a 8" prop that just fits without any modification but I couldnt find any as of yet ...

Gemfan 9" need to be bored to 8mm with a prop reamer. And the gemfan 8" are even smaller, perhaps too small to be modified.

I don't think anyone but DJI has an 8" prop with a 8mm hole. AFAIK Graupner 10" are the only alternative without doing some modification.