There’s no question that heat and electrical components don’t get along and the cooler we can keep our ESC’s the better. I’ve ran across more than one person who had an opportunity to keep their ESC a LOT cooler for no extra cost but didn’t even realize it. Enter the “aluminum ESC tray”. An aluminum ESC tray is a great opportunity to help dissipate heat from your ESC if used properly. Unfortunately, just sticking your ESC on the tray like normal with some 3M gray tape is not going to do you any good.
In the picture below is a simple and free method of helping keep the ESC cool. I’ve removed the sticker on the top of the ESC exposing the bare green anodized cooling fins on the ESC’s heat sink. I applied a very small drop of thin CA to the top of those fins and then installed the ESC upside down laying the ESC’s fins directly on top of the aluminum ESC tray. I let the CA dry and finished securing the ESC with some zip ties. What I’ve done here is effectively increase the surface area of the ESC’s heat-sink which will greatly help in reducing internal ESC temps. It’s free and works great! – Nick
