General

I have had two CATOs of E12s prior this service bulletin. And two destroyed rockets. These were all on older lot numbers than covered in the service bulletin.

If you look at the MESS database, you'll see that the E12 tops the list of motor failures by a wide margin: https://www.motorcato.org/latest#most

It's not a motor I would fly in a rocket I care about. You can't depend on the older lot numbers being reliable.

While I'm glad Estes is finally accepting that they have a problem, it's disappointing that it took over 10 years of well above average MESS reports to finally take minimal action. Offering store credit isn't good payment for my destroyed rockets.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. A month or so ago I could not find any E12-4 engines available from Estes or other online vendors. I have a couple at home that I have had for over a year so they should be OK, but I will check the date codes.

Evidently this is recent, and if you haven't seen it by now here it is. There seems to be a recent issue with a few lot numbers regarding the Estes e12 motors.

Click here: Kaboom!

Not listed on the Estes site, this particular lot number: 1K12534200

also appears to be problematic. See this TRF post: Estes E12 Engine Service Bulletin... Thread starterHammster Start dateYesterday at 6:20 PM