Best 2300kv motor for a 180-210mm quadcopter

In this article you will find info and thrust results of the most popular 2300kv motors on the market. The excel data file will be updated on a regular basis. I want to say thanks to Scorpion and LDPower for sending me a sample for testing!

Test conditions: All motors were tested on the RCbenchmark 1520 Series thrust stand with a 4S LiPo and HQ5045 propeller. The ESC I decided to use it the famous FVT LittleBee 20A Pro with the F396 MCU. The ESC was flashed with the latest BLHeli 14.6 firmware (default settings). The 4S 16.000mAh LiPo was charged after every motor test.

Scorpion MII 2204 2300kv

This is a motor I have reviewed two months ago and still love it. It has great manufacturing quality and bearings are smooth. It weighs 26.3g and together with the LDPower M2204, is the lightest motor of all tested motors. The maximum thrust achieved was 900g, a bit lower (2.5%) than my previous results. The only difference in the testing conditions is the newer BLHeli firmware version. The price for a set of two motors is 44.99$.

LDPower M2204 2300kv

This is a real 2204 motor and performed as such (all other motors are actually 2205; Scorpion has a stator size of 4.5mm). Max thrust was 735g. The build quality is ok for the price of 11$, but definitely not premium. The windings look good, but the bearings is not very smooth. I actually wanted to include the LDPower FR2204 2300kv motor in this article, but all motors are mounted on one of my quads. You can find the previous results of this one here.

T-Motor F40 2300kv

I am using the 2500kv version of the F40 motor for more than 4 months on one of my quads and these motors are still rock solid. Personally I find the machining as the best one. Bearings are extremely smooth as well. Weight is 31.2g, which is fine for a 2205 motor. I like the hollow steel shaft, which proved to be resistant to crashes. Performance of the F40 2300kv was very good, but not the best – 915g max thrust. I bought the motor for 25,90€, but if you get a set of two, it is a bit cheaper.

Cobra CM2204 2300kv

The Cobra motor is the lightest 2205 2300kv motor. The quality seems to be the same as on the MII 2204 motor. I didn’t expected much power from this motor, as I have reviewed it in the past. Maximum thrust was 847g. As far as I remember I paid about 19€ or about 21$ for it.

EMAX RS2205 2300kv

The EMAX RS2205 a.k.a. red bottom surprised me with its solid build quality. The windings look good and there is no vertical play in the bell. It comes very well packaged, with two lock nuts and some mounting screws. The bearings is not so smooth, but it is fine. Weight is 31.8g. After checking the results from the thrust test, I know why it is one of most popular motors on the market: 952g thrust. The EMAX RS2205 comes as CW and CCW version. I got mine for 19.99$ from Banggood, but it is also available on Gearbest.

XNOVA RM2204 2300kv

The top part of the bell has interesting design, which in my opinion looks very cool. Personally I find the manufacturing quality as great as on the T-Motor F40. The XNOVA weighs 32.8g with the 5mm propeller shaft mounted and is the second heaviest motor in this comparison. The motor performed very well and scored 929g in the thrust test. I spent 30€ for my test unit, but if you buy a set of 4 XNOVA motors you can get a lower price.

DYS SE2205 2300kv

I have never expected that the DYS SE2205 motor will outperform all other top quality motors in the thrust test. With 958g. thrust it is definitely the winner*! It is as well the heaviest motor so far – 33.2g. Machining is not the best, but same as the T-Motor F40 it has a hollow steel shaft. The DYS motor has one great feature: the shaft is fixed with a screw and not with a C-clip. This makes motor maintenance an easy process. The motor can be bought for about 17$ here.

*Update:

Added the new SunnySky Edge Racing 2205 motors, both lite and non-lite version. As you can see on the picture below, these motors provided more than 100g thrust over the DYS SE2205. Full review of the motors can be found here.

Cobra CP2205

The new redesigned Cobra CP2205 motor offers great manufacturing quality, cool design and amazing performance. It is one of my favorite new motors. Read the complete review of the Cobra CP2205.

LDPower FR2305

The new LDPower FR2305 motors provide a lot of thrust, have great build quality and offer some nice new features, that I haven´t seen on other motors. These motors came on the market just few weeks ago back in November 2016, so make sure you read my latest review.

Summary:

Below you can find the graphic with the complete results as well as the full data in an excel file (only for private use).

Maximum thrust is not the main factor for all of us, so I decided to create an Efficiency overview of the motors too.

It is really hard to tell which motor is the best for a 180-210mm quad. The DYS SE2205 has the best performance, while T-Motor F40 and XNOVA have the best build quality. The Scorpion MII 2204 is not a real 2205 size motor and has light weight. The EMAX RS2205 is maybe the sweet spot – very good quality and performance. Price is also a factor, which everyone should consider personally. The new Cobra CP2205 and LDPower FR2305 offers great quality and second best result in the thrust tests.

If you have any kind of suggestions or ideas for other motors to be tested, leave me a comment. If you like my work, subscribe, like the Facebook page or just say thanks 🙂 I appreciate it!

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