HOTAS Products Manufacturing Quality and Prices

I've been putting off getting a HOTAS setup since beta, but planned on getting an X-52 Pro at some point. Two things I've noticed that are not encouraging me though:

- Prices of HOTAS products are actually going up?? dammit.
- There seem to be a LOT of people saying that the HOTAS setup they invested in broke... which makes me wonder if the popularity of the game and consequential popularity in HOTAS hardware has exposed a shoddy quality issue?

How many of you have had a HOTAS or joystick break on you? I certainly don't intend to invest $150 in a product that I cannot rely on lasting and does not provide adequate warrantee coverage.
I'd be really dissapointed if I invested in a setup, and a year later it broke down and was not covered by a warrantee.
 
I use CH Products stuff. Very sturdy, high quality plastics. Don't envision it breaking any time soon
 
Bought a Saitek X52 Pro

Took 5 months after ordering to actually be in stock then broke and was exchanged under warranty.
 
I bought a Saitek FLY 5 Hotas joystick and one of the buttons fell off last week. Admittedly it wasn't super expensive (~£35) but I expected to last more than a few months. I've replaced it with a Thrustmaster T-Flight (see it here) which is just miles better than the Saitek joystick in pretty much all aspects.
 
I bought a Saitek FLY 5 Hotas joystick and one of the buttons fell off last week. Admittedly it wasn't super expensive (~£35) but I expected to last more than a few months. I've replaced it with a Thrustmaster T-Flight (see it here) which is just miles better than the Saitek joystick in pretty much all aspects.

Saitek didn't replace the defective one?
 
I'm using the Saitek X55. A nice HOTAS. Had bad luck with the joystick but the throttle is very good.
I just replaced the stick and carried on...

PS. You will always find someone who had bad experiences with a specific product.
 
i bought the saitek x55 rhino, very pleased with it.

Stuff wear out in time, depends on time and how rough you are on it :)

since its plastic with some metal parts and all, i expect mine to last at least 1-2 years.
 
With Saitek you just got to be very careful with the lower-end product (anything lower than x55)... even their high end stuff might have quality problems let alone the lower end.

There are no such problems with Thrustmaster and CH on the other hand those products have good quality at any price range.
 
My x52 was off ebay, so clearly had a few miles on it when I got it and one of the buttons on the throttle is hanging off but still works, and otherwise seems pretty sturdy. Touch wood, no regrets yet, makes the game a lot of fun, combined with the edtracker.

I got addicted and now I couldn't not have one. :)
 
I'm also on the X55, well pleased with it, it seems sturdy.
There's some small issues with squeeking and the throttle can be a little stiff, but all in all I'm satisfied with it :)
 
With SC and ED being around, the top end Hotas setups, Warthog and X series are extremely limited and supply and demand kicks in. I expect they are also ramping up production a little that may cause some quality issues. I had to hunt the net high and low to get my Warthog, found one in France and got it shipped to me for Christmas, took 2 weeks.

But if you can find one, the Warthog is amazing and very solidly built.
 
VKB products. Everything else including CH just a crap if to compare with VKB.

VKB DON'T offer full HOTAS so it technically doesn't count... as you STILL needs to buy Warthrog or CH for the throttle (and if you are going to do that you might as well use the Warthrog since quality of both is on the level)
 
I am using full CH setup with pedals and throttle, my stick is about 10 years old and its still as good as new. They are not the best looking, but they last for years.
 
I use a CH Throttle and Fighterstick after trying out many different combo options out there. It's a little pricey but I haven't regretted buying both of them since. Only small point is that using the included software can be kind of hard to understand. Luckily there's a community out there for their products (CH Hangar and others) that have made pre-built templates which make it pretty easy to get started. Used them myself initially.
 
Back
Top Bottom