Hour life expectancy of Inspire 2

[z28mccrory]

Hi everyone,

I joined this forum recently because I'm heavily considering making the jump from my Phantom 4 to an Inspire 2. I do video production and photography for a living, and started incorporating aerial into my business this Spring when I passed the 107. Currently its a somewhat small chunk of my business (mainly an add-on for existing corporate video projects), but over the next year or so I'd like to really ramp up the amount of aerial work I do (potentially even make that a major focus of my business).

I'm weighing the options of buying a gently used Inspire 2 vs buying one new. Today I was presented a quite tempting deal on an Inspire 2 from a very reputable seller that has around 20 hours of use on it. I'm curious if thats considered low/high, etc. I've owned my Phantom 4 for a little over a year and have only logged a total of 14.5 hours on it in that time. I understand the Inspire 2 is a totally different platform and built with professional use in mind, but none the less I'm curious to hear how many hours people currently have on their Inspire 2's, and at what point is it time to send them in for motor replacements, etc.

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[tibook]

20 hours is decent considering reality is you get b/t 15-20mins of useable flight time on each set of batteries when you're using X5s and SSD. So long as everything looks legit, and you're able to save 25%+, sounds worth it to me. If they have Refresh on it, that should make it an easier decision.

 

[Casey53]

That's a tough question as I don't think anyone has a definite answer. Could last 1,000 hours, and it could last 10. DJI isn't known for quality controlled products and they are all over the place on whether or not something even works right out of the box too, like DOA brand new batteries. Not to mention some really crippling firmware updates either. If you could find out who made the motor you might be able to find out their MTF rate which might give you some insight as I'd expect those to be the first thing to go, but it seems there are more issues with ribbon cabling, battery, camera connections, etc.

Same for a car. You might get a good one, and you might get a lemon. I got two BMW's and one spends more time on a flat-bed tow truck than the other which never has. It's a unknown crap shoot. One refrigerator lasted one week beyond the one-year warranty (Denied by Amana.), other ran 10+ years. Go figger.

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

Hi everyone,

I joined this forum recently because I'm heavily considering making the jump from my Phantom 4 to an Inspire 2. I do video production and photography for a living, and started incorporating aerial into my business this Spring when I passed the 107. Currently its a somewhat small chunk of my business (mainly an add-on for existing corporate video projects), but over the next year or so I'd like to really ramp up the amount of aerial work I do (potentially even make that a major focus of my business).

I'm weighing the options of buying a gently used Inspire 2 vs buying one new. Today I was presented a quite tempting deal on an Inspire 2 from a very reputable seller that has around 20 hours of use on it. I'm curious if thats considered low/high, etc. I've owned my Phantom 4 for a little over a year and have only logged a total of 14.5 hours on it in that time. I understand the Inspire 2 is a totally different platform and built with professional use in mind, but none the less I'm curious to hear how many hours people currently have on their Inspire 2's, and at what point is it time to send them in for motor replacements, etc.

Thanks in advance for your input.

If not crashed or a poor specimen, I would venture to guess that an Inspire 2 will outlast it's useful field life. By that I mean that it will be functionally obsolete before you wear out parts or systems. I have a perfectly good Phantom 2 Vision+ that has over 500 hrs and the only reason it sit's on a shelf is because it's functionally obsolete. It awaits those jobs in my requests so risky that I fully expect to loose an airframe. But, it hasn't happened yet.

 

[SanCap]

Preventative maintenance is your answer. I just replaced my I2 motors (performing normally) with @ 160 hours on the motors, which took me about 10 months to accumulate. DJI's warranty is only valid for 200 hours or 1 year. Set a time frame for your usage and stick to it considering props, motors, landing gear motor, etc. There is really no reason why one could not continue to use one of these copters for years except for new technology needs and lack of spare parts.

 

[Dr. Ifly Drones]

Preventative maintenance is your answer. I just replaced my I2 motors (performing normally) with @ 160 hours on the motors, which took me about 10 months to accumulate. DJI's warranty is only valid for 200 hours or 1 year. Set a time frame for your usage and stick to it considering props, motors, landing gear motor, etc. There is really no reason why one could not continue to use one of these copters for years except for new technology needs and lack of spare parts.

Do you really need to replace the entire motor? The bearings are the only thing that have any physical wear. I check mine before each flight but, won't be arbitrarily changing hardware without a reason.

 

[SteveFPV]

Motors will last a very very long time. If they spin nice with no bearing chatter or gritty feel, then they are fine. They are the last thing I would worry about IMHO. Check after every flight and keep them clean. Worry more about the ESC's. Cheers

 

[ExpressAerial]

We have several birds out that are being used for more 6-7 minute flights than anything. Recently at ~250 flights, the set screw on the arm loosened and caused the motors to rotate inwards. Resulted in decreased flight time and drifting. We credit the rough terrain that we sometimes land on. But just a reminder to consider total flights in addition to hours when developing a maintenance schedule.

 

[maxx4wd]

Whenever we get a new bird (used or new) the very first thing we do as a company (based on personal hobby experience) is to locktight every single metal to metal screw connection and to check tightness of all other screws...even if this means removing a large portion of the covers and what not. When opened up it doesn't hurt to do some continuity checks on all the ESCs, BECs, and FCs as well. We've been modelling for years (started in planes and the like and almost 75% of accidents could have been prevented just by doing simple but tedious checks of the screws and routine checks on any and all connections). We've found that most production ready crafts are probably more susceptable to initial failures than built custom rigs just probably due to the fact that they're shipped countless miles and impacted by an unknown frequency of vibrations and external forces that were probably never intended for such a craft. With that said I'd just go through the craft meticulously and if you find anything out of the norm just refresh the part and you should be good to go. swap out those props every 10 hrs. or so for the plastic ones and balance everything out...no reason it couldn't perform for a long while.

 

[Zach Zach]

To be honest, if you're not looking for bragging rights and prestige, why not consider the Phantom 4 Pro? It's a great camera and sensor above the Phantom 4, and it's capable of shooting 4K/60. It's a fraction of the cost. And, it sounds like for what you're doing, the Inspire 2 is complete overkill. I just listened to a Drone U podcast on this - a guy was asking about upgrading and they gave the same advice - complete overkill for real estate, corporate stuff, etc.

I'd consider investing your money in better "tertiary" gear that is the bread and butter of corporate work - New Canon c200, better sound gear, new las mics, slider, editing suite..., and upgrade to the Phantom 4 Pro if you're not doing heavy aerial cinematography. It more that satisfies the needs of B-Roll, establishing exterior shots of corporate parks, high rise buildings, surrounding community establishing shots, etc.

 

[JamisonBWA]

Along these lines, what would you be hesitant to buy for a used Inspire 2 hours? We are looking at upgrading from our Inspire 1 Pro and one of the sellers stated they are using theirs 5-6 hours a day, on average 6 days a week. Obviously this is a commercial operator and likely takes very good care of their equipment, but this aircraft could easily have 400+ hours on it (still waiting to find exact number). Would this make you turn right away?

It seems like a decent deal in terms of what is included but batteries may need replacement due to number of charge cycles?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Dobmatt]

Along these lines, what would you be hesitant to buy for a used Inspire 2 hours? We are looking at upgrading from our Inspire 1 Pro and one of the sellers stated they are using theirs 5-6 hours a day, on average 6 days a week. Obviously this is a commercial operator and likely takes very good care of their equipment, but this aircraft could easily have 400+ hours on it (still waiting to find exact number). Would this make you turn right away?

It seems like a decent deal in terms of what is included but batteries may need replacement due to number of charge cycles?

Thoughts?

Thanks!

As with any previously own vehicle the odometer reading is the first thing to examine. 400 hrs in the air is a significant number for Inspire 2, requiring a scrutinized maintenance inspection. TB50 batteries with 75 charging cycles aren't worth much, generally speaking. That said, well maintained veteran may be able to make perhaps another 400 hrs with regularly replaced batteries, or may fail to perform soon. There's no way to tell ...