Help Trouble Shoot

[OStateVLX]

The past couple of weekends I have had trouble with my amps over heating in the afternoon. Its been over 100 degrees on the water and they start cutting out around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. The batteries are good they are connected to an on board charger every night and volts stay good through out the day.

This past weekend I noticed that my tower speakers sounded like they were just running off the head unit, hardly any power. The amp is not in protect mode and all connections look to be good.

Did I blow the amp?

What can I do about over heating?

[Murphy8166]

What amps are you running?

[nyryan2001]

HI- funny thing I was talking with my buddies here about a trip up to Grand Lake, my sister lives in Owasso. Is it all its hyped up to be?

Yep very hot here also. Mine cut out once a couple weeks ago... I did #1 and #2 below and they havent cut out since.

1. get some 1/2" plastic spacers and elevate your amps off their board some so there is some breathing speace between the amps and the board they are mounted to.

2. if you are floating and rocking out, leave that compartment hatch open so some air can circulate in there.

3. Upgrade your amps. I am in the same boat. Class A/B amps suck and generate a ton of heat for the power they give, especially when you run them at anything under 4 ohms, or when you bridge them. Get into Class D, G or H. Much more efficient and run cooler for those folks running amps in extreme conditions like we do. This last weekend it hit 105 ambient on the water.... in the compartment, it must have been 115-125 with the heat from the amps.

4. Consider installing amp fans.

Edited July 9, 2012 by nyryan2001

[Earmark Marine]

Also, amplifiers (and primarily transistors) may operate and dissipate heat less efficiently at lower voltages. So check the voltage at the amplifier primary terminals at the point they are shutting down. While thermal can be the main issue, low voltage can be a major contributor.

If you decide to add fans keep in mind that a fan shroud will multiply the fan's effectiveness many times.

David

[Tweeder06Wakesetter]

Wrench Monkey,

I have had the same problem. Out on the water when the air was over 100 degrees and the amp was kicking in and out and now it has turned off completely to where I have no power at all in my stereo. All the fuses are good and I'm still not getting any power. Going to have it looked at this week and will let you know what I find.

Ryan

[OStateVLX]

The amp I think that is blown is an older JL marine 300/4. My other am is only 2years old Alpine 600/5 class D, And it is cutting out.

I leave the hatch open when parked and the amps have spacers under them already.

Another thought is I only have 2 output on my head unit, I am using the output on the JL amp to power the in boats on the 5 channel amp. Would the JL amp not working cause the alpine to trip?

[Earmark Marine]

Some amplifiers have pass-through RCA outputs that are simply paralleled with the input RCAs. Some amplifiers have OP amps driving the output RCAs. I suspect that the amplifier in question uses an OP amp and if so that may or may not shut down that circuit if the amplifier only goes into protection mode. In any case, it is easy to check and verify with a set of female to female RCA barrel connectors. If the 5-channel amplifier is cutting out audibly then the two could be related. If the 5-channel amplifier is going into protection or powering down then it is unrelated to the other amplifier.

David

[cowwboy]

I ran a blower fan off the inlet vent under the windhield to my old class a/b amp. (new arc's don't need the fan)

I had a small temp switch that controlled the fan and it kept the amp that used to get burning hot to cool even on the hottest days.

You can always duplicate my system and give roy a run for his money.

Edited July 10, 2012 by cowwboy

[OStateVLX]

I was hoping you were coming to the lake last weekend to help me figure it out.

I'll mess with it again this weekend, probably disconnect the bad amp and see if that helps.

Darn, I might have to buy a new amp for the towers.

[cowwboy]

I wanted to but Rachel had to work Saturday and since we got engaged on Wednesday I figured that me leaving for the lake wouldn't be a great start.

Let me know if ya want me to come and try to figure out whats up. I can try to snag a IR thermo gun from work and grab my meter and do some checking.