Electrofied vs insulated frogs

[grayfox1119]

What are the pros and cons for each type of turnout for DCC, insulated frogs vs powered? I am building my 1st layout ( HO) and have read so many comments, that I would like to pull it all together into one tread answer session.
Thanks in advance to all ....

[dinwitty]

DCC opposed to straight DC is sending data to th elocomotives, most equipment has enough wheel pickups that running across a short insulated stretch of track does not affect its operation.
An Insulfrog is just that, but for smaller equipment and fewer wheels for pickup, your better with a full metal eletrofrog as its called, its just an all rail frog.

The difference is an insulfrog is easier to wire, really no extra wiring to handle the polarity of the track, but an electrofrog requires some kind of polarity switching, but guarantees full wheel contact with no breaks in track current to the locos.

If your advanced in wiring, do electrofrogs, but if your not, insulfrogs.
The club I was in went out of their way to have all metal frogs, the idea is faultless operation, an insulfrog does not always guarantee perfect pickup.
So using insulfrogs, make sure the equipment you use has good wheel pickup.

Little tyco 4 wheel streetcars had 2 wheel power pickup, one wheel on the frog, its dead...

[cacole]

We used Peco Insulfrog turnouts on the Cochise & Western Model Railroad club's 20x40 foot HO-scale layout and have had no problems at all with them, whether running on DC block control or DCC.

[BR60103]

There are 2 ways to do all rail frogs. The common way is that the points and frog are all wired together -- some have both points stamped out of a sheet of metal. This means that you have a very small gap on one side with both polarities available and there is a good chance that a metal wheels will bridge that gap and cause a short. In DCC this shuts down the whole layout (or power district).
A bit more work involves separating the frog from the points. Then you need to wire the frog to a switch on the switch machine so that it is at the right polarity. Fanatics will also wire the points to adjacent stock rail. This assumes the points are separate.

[Anonymous]

Insulfrogs simplify wiring but may cause problems for some locomotives paritcularily if the frog is higher than the rail. It will lift the locomotive so it no longer makes contact. Steam locomotives are most suseptible to this. The cheap fix is file the frog until it is the same height as the ajoining rails. Metal insulfrogs can most often be wired as electrofied frogs.
Electrofied frogs provided more reliable operations as it eliminates the dead zone of the insulated frog. It needs to be wired so the polarity can be switched as required.
If you are jumping into the hobby past your ear lobes go with electrofied frogs.
If you are less serious then the insultated frogs may perform to satisfaction.
I use insulated frogs on my layout. I've filed the frogs and it works well for most applications. I've got one in the yard though that one of my Athearn F-7 has difficulty with at slow speed but I've not spent any time to diagnose yet.