E12 motors at Hobby Lobby

I bought a pack of E12-4 motors on Jan 1 at HL. It was a 3 pack and I used the smart phone coupon.

No product card under the peg yet, and most of the motors were on the wrong pegs, including a bunch of E9 motors on the E16/F15 pegs. I moved them to the correct pegs (the ones with the E9 product cards).

I assume they will get a new layout and cards and will adjust as needed.

I also assume they will either sell out the E9 motors or put them on clearance if and when more E12 motors show up.

shreadvector said:

I bought a pack of E12-4 motors on Jan 1 at HL. It was a 3 pack and I used the smart phone coupon.

No product card under the peg yet, and most of the motors were on the wrong pegs, including a bunch of E9 motors on the E16/F15 pegs. I moved them to the correct pegs (the ones with the E9 product cards).

I assume they will get a new layout and cards and will adjust as needed.

I also assume they will either sell out the E9 motors or put them on clearance if and when more E12 motors show up.

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Fantastic. Hopefully this goes nationwide.

I have fading hopes that I will find F15-0's there again sometime. Not too keen on paying hazmat to order them, and no other shops around here that sell them.

I have plans to stop by the local Hobby Lobby on the way home this evening, hoping to find some year end Deals!

Were they 23.99 or 19.99? The HL by me just raised prices on the E9's.

Prices went up a few months ago on the E9 3 packs.

They do not re-sticker existing stock, so if you still had $19.99 they were there for a few months (slow selling).

All E9/E12 motors at HL are $23.99

swatkat said:

Were they 23.99 or 19.99? The HL by me just raised prices on the E9's.

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shreadvector said:

I bought a pack of E12-4 motors on Jan 1 at HL. It was a 3 pack and I used the smart phone coupon.

No product card under the peg yet, and most of the motors were on the wrong pegs, including a bunch of E9 motors on the E16/F15 pegs. I moved them to the correct pegs (the ones with the E9 product cards).

I assume they will get a new layout and cards and will adjust as needed.

I also assume they will either sell out the E9 motors or put them on clearance if and when more E12 motors show up.

Click to expand...

Just checked and my HLs don't carry them. Possibly an ordering/shipping error for your store.

Good find. I e-mailed HL a few years ago asking them to drop E9`s and sell E12's for a few reasons. I even got a response! Maybe times are a changing and not a lucky break for you SV.

Maybe Estes subbed them due to lack of stock. Or another hobby store dropped and froze the packs enough to meet Hobby Lobby specifications. Every motor I've dared to light in the last 3 packs I've gotten from there has failed in one way or another. Report back.

I asked someone about this a week or so ago. They said they did not know and that the display was going to be re-set in February.

Look for whatever big stock changes are going to happen to occur in February.


Along with big markdowns on stock no longer to be carried.

Winston said:

Just checked and my HLs don't carry them. Possibly an ordering/shipping error for your store.

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Dropping and freezing hase ZERO effect on BP motors.


Hitting with a hammer is bad.

Heating them up and then firing them 75 degrees F lower than the highest temp experieinced is also bad.

Proven with science.

bill_s said:

Maybe Estes subbed them due to lack of stock. Or another hobby store dropped and froze the packs enough to meet Hobby Lobby specifications. Every motor I've dared to light in the last 3 packs I've gotten from there has failed in one way or another. Report back.

Click to expand...

I don't know why, maybe it's a curse, maybe this has been since I bought them on the way to a launch and I normally launch on Sundays (not that time obviously). I just know I bought E9s happily for 3 years there while hearing about one CATO and suddenly I can't get a working motor. 1 pack of ejecting grains, one of ejecting nozzles, and finally an F15 with no ejection charge, haven't tried the other one. Estes has been GREAT but they haven't replaced painted models with no-paint kits so it's far from ideal.

Hmmm,

Fred, thank you for your research on cycled D12's. What is the scientific reason why E12's fail with such high frequency?

EC personal stats:

-E9's: 65 recorded burns. 64 nominal, 1 CATO (which was from a pack I got from a fellow exiting the hobby...storage, hammer strikes, etc. uncertain).
-E12's: 6 recorded burns. 2 nominal, 3 CATO's, 1 No Eject.

Can't say I'm excited Hobby Lobby transitioning from carrying the E9 to the E12. One has a good track record, but gets a bad rep because some tend to fly them in overweight rockets and/or inappropriate conditions. The other is just plain notorious for unreliable performance.

Never had issues with any Estes produced engines except for the 24mm E15's and E12's....oh well...

ECayemberg said:

Hmmm,

Fred, thank you for your research on cycled D12's. What is the scientific reason why E12's fail with such high frequency?

EC personal stats:

-E9's: 65 recorded burns. 64 nominal, 1 cato (which was from a pack I got from a fellow exiting the hobby...storage, hammer strikes, etc. uncertain).
-E12's: 6 recorded burns. 2 nominal, 3 cato's, 1 No Eject.

Can't say I'm excited Hobby Lobby transitioning from carrying the E9 to the E12. One has a good track record, but gets a bad rep because some tend to fly them in overweight rockets and/or inappropriate conditions. The other is just plain notorious for unreliable performance.

Never had issues with any Estes produced engines except for the 24mm E15's and E12's....oh well...

Click to expand...

No scientific data on E12 motors (or E9 motors). I did my testing on 432 D12-5 motors and others did different testing before and after me. Search through NAR R&D reports from NARAMs.

The first E12 motors we had had a 1/3 failure rate. I bought a LOT of them, so I built a fleet of two stage rockets to use up all of the remaining E12-0, E12-6 and E12-8 motors I had. I burned up dozens of them and I had ZERO failures. Jeez they flew high.

That was years ago by now.

Currently, we see many, many E9 and E12 launches at our club launches. Failures seem to have dwindled to nearly zero. We did have a motor fail in a clustered Delta IV Heavy at a December launch. It was an E9-4. Results were "bad" for the flight.

At our launch on Saturday, January 20, 2018 we had many E9, E12, E16 and F15 launches. All perfect. We had zero motor failures of any kind. Temps were in the 60's.

YMMV

Our Hobby Lobbys -- 4-5 I've visited from Denver to Northern Colorado, do not carry E12 motors. I guess I should ask the guy that I see in that area of my local store if he could get them. I have seen certain motors that never seem to be in stock, and when I asked him, and he got them refilled.

The stores here do carry E16, and F15 motors, and I do see F15-0 at most stores. I've never seen the F15-4, but I would find it of little value to me currently, not sure if others have found it useful? Perhaps clustered in a heavier rocket?

I've seen 1-2 catos on 24mm E bp motors at each of the 6-8 launches in the NW I attended.

I have had a small number of E9, E12, D12 and even one 29mm E16 and one C6-5(!) fail in the usual "puke your guts out and maybe also the nozzle" mode. Generally this has been on a chilly day (say upper 30s to low 40s). This is with motors that, once I got them, were stored in the house in normal temperatures but may have experienced a wider temperature range on trips to the flying field.

I'm glad to hear freezing a motor doesn't hurt it. I had a disturbing to me (at the time) discussion with someone stocking my nearest Hobby Lobby about how they'd reformulated their tempera paints so that they no longer had burst (from freezing) bottles in wintertime shipments. Of course their Estes motors are also in the same trucks.