Just wanted to see some opinions pros and cons on both and what you think is best. Just not sure what to invest my money into.
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NOT a ZW-C.
https://ogrforum.com/...d-zw-controller-help
I've answered more threads than I can count in the last week with failures related to the ZW-C, ouright output failures, broken pin failures, known legacy mode failures. No parts are available and few people are willing to repair them.
Definitely go ZW-L. I have one and love it. Keep in mind the ZW-L isn’t for everyone, it’s a cool piece but you can be just as effective with a 180W power house and LEGACY PowerMasters
Just to be clear, what I'm saying is that unless you get some insane deal, get a ZW-C known to be working, with 2 180Watt powerhouses, at or for the price of just the bricks, and it has the upgraded legacy processor, and the upgraded pot brackets, you might then later find yourself in one of these problem threads.
In and of itself and being a transformer it was not the worst thing ever. Being basically 4 TMCC powermasters, and using the 180 Watt powerhouses which in theory have the good circuit breaker protection, this was innovative during the TMCC era.
The problem is, now, in 2022, very limited if any parts and support, it has some fragile areas that are prone to breaking (throttle pot brackets), and inductive voltage spikes- maybe even electrostatic discharge (it is winter- dry air, sweater season- carpets) can and does kill the outputs on these. Again, take the age factor in, the fact of how much abuse one might have seen, lack of parts, lack of people willing or able to service at a price, it's very hard to say yeah- go out and buy this and make this the center of your layout power and control system in 2022.
If you have one- great, keep on running and enjoying.
I have to agree with Vernon here, I had a couple of the ZW-C controllers, but after seeing the fact there are no parts or service information for them, I sold them before they croaked. I personally run primarily command and just use the PH180 bricks through the MTH TIU.
ZW-L.
Cool piece with much power and no problems.
ZW-L has been bullet proof for me... it cuts track power before the breakers trip. Actually, I have never had any of the breakers trip on it. I occasionally like to run PW... and, the tactile feel of the handles in conventional mode is great (the little kids around here like to Gomez my MPC era 5 buck flea market locos).
We have two ZW-Ls and only good things to say about them. Zero problems.
At $999.99, I hope they're good!!
