Amp feel hot and quits working

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 10, 2007 6:52 pm Post subject: Amp feel hot and quits working

The boat & amp are brand new - we went most the day and all was great. Toward the end of the day the speakers off this amp (in picture) quit working - the amp felt hot and when it cooled down, the speakers driven off it started working again (four 6" round and one 10" woofer)

What would cause this? Bad grounding, or just a defective amp?

macdaddy07 · Criminal Joined: 05 Jun 2006 Posts: 57 City: houston

tons of things can cause a amp to over heat. make sure nothing is around the amp so it cant ventalate, and dont store it in a box to where it cant get cold air (you look alright on both those) also dont store it in an area with another heat sorce. another reason may be your wires are to small. what gage wire do you have, and how big of an amp is that, 300W? JL audio is a very good brand, one of the best. dont see why it would overheat.

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 10, 2007 7:41 pm Post subject:

The amp is factory installed - I would hope they know if the environment is right for it there or not?

Probably have to take it back to the dealer, electrical isn't my forte'

willgeorge · Newbie Joined: 01 Nov 2004 Posts: 28 City: Maplewood

take it back id say. if its new the dealer should fix it for you id think

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 10, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject:

Yeah, the dealer will take care of it, no problem - just hate taking it back Crying or Very sad

Oh well - gotta have tunes Laughing

jjaszkow · Posted: Jun 11, 2007 4:26 am Post subject:

A few additional things to check:

1 - If the gains on the amp are maxxed out, this could be the source of the problem.

2 - If the load (speakers) is wired incorrectly causing too low impedance, that would also lead to this.

Both SHOULD be fine if this was factory installed, so I'd probably talk with the dealer about it as well.

acurtis_ttu · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 499 City: Houston

Those amps are natorious for getting hot....they wrie so much to them that the amp is being pushed very hard. you may want to look at addign an additional fan or getting antother amp just for the sub.

But none the less chcek the wirign, I've seen some stuff come out of the factory incorrectly.

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 11, 2007 11:14 am Post subject:

jjaszkow, Thanks - that's something I can handle (checking the gains) - lol If they are maxed, what do you think, back them off 1/4th?

acurtis_ttu, I may have too, but not before putting the builder to the challenge of getting it right - lol

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

chaz28o, thermal overload protection.

Open the hatch where the amp is if you are running it for long periods of time (aka parked at ski beach for hours).

Turning down the gain won't help - you will just end up turning the volume to compensate and the net effect will be the same.

Aside from putting in some cooling device like a water cooling or ventilation system, I doubt there is much your dealer can do for you.

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 11, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject:

It took all day before it crapped out - I turned it off when it did and it was quite cooled down - but within minutes of turning it back on, it shut back down

The dealer better be able to do something - cuz it's a pricey "perk" on the boat, and not being able to use it won't fly well Shocked

jacoviii · Newbie Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 21

ok if it is a four chanel amp 2 chanels run 4 speakers
so ch 1R is at a 2ohm load & ch 2L is at a 2ohm load
the load is not the big prob it it that you 4 6.5 are playing to much bass / mid bass
turn the HPF up 150 or so

the othe 2 ch are briged to run the sub right see if the sub is 2ohm 4ohm or 8ohm
if it is 2ohm or higher your ok
if it is 2ohm the amp only will see 1ohm not good
singel 4omh would be the best or duel 8ohm

it takes a lot of the amp to play loud bass
the higher the freq the less work the amp has to do
if you get another amp just get a small 250w for the sub and run the 4 ch for the highs

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 18, 2007 5:12 am Post subject:

They think it's blown a speaker and that's sending some odd signal to the amp, and causing it to shut down?

It gets fixed this Saturday - when I had the boat out over the weekend, it didn't work at all nor did it get hot.

Glad the speakers in the tower worked. That amp is getting the job done Cool

Commodore · Ladies Man Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 11636

I dunno, but let me know when you figure it out. My amp for my sub is doing the same thing. My first conclusion is excessive heat, but there is no way to get air flowing into this area unless I drill port holes. But maybe an aux fan blowing on it would help.

jjaszkow · Posted: Jun 18, 2007 7:25 pm Post subject:

Sounds like something shorted to me ... I ran into a few speakers that seemed to short out when blown, but that was REALLY rare.

chavez, I'm not as familiar with JL amps as I am with RF, McIntosh and Eclipse, but I ran into quite a few situations where the input on the head unit was overdriving the amp (Eclipse decks and other high output head units are notorious for this). In my experience it's best to match the gains to the deck (ie lower max input voltage == higher gain setting). Granted in all cases, the clipping is pretty audible when the input voltage is over the input sensitivity range of the amp, but apparently some of the people who buy this stuff can't hear it Razz

.

Edit: http://www.bcae1.com/gaincon2.htm has a pretty good explaination about properly setting gains.

wesgardner · Posted: Jun 20, 2007 6:37 am Post subject:

haugy,

The thermal overload circuit on some may be a bit TOO sensitive...all your wiring is first rate I assume?

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

jjaszkow, I'm a couple days late but I agree with what you wrote.

chaz28o, new boat + warranty = let them fix it. Don't mess with it if you can help it.

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 21, 2007 5:31 am Post subject:

chaz28o · Posted: Jun 23, 2007 3:47 pm Post subject:

Turns out - it's the flippin battery

Put a new battery in (supplied free from the dealer) and it's ran fine all day

Gotta have tunes

Or I guess I should say, slaps Laughing

ckligor · Soul Rider Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Posts: 454 City: A-town

I don't think that is going to fix the problem long term. You are over driving the amp just like other people said and it is going in to therm. Keep me posed if it continues to keep working in the long term. The next extremely hot day sitting at the beach running at a decent volume will kill it again

acurtis_ttu · Soul Rider Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 499 City: Houston

If yrou battery was bad , it woudl never fully charge. If yoru batteries are never fully charged your amp will run hotter. keep it charged and you shoudl be fine. As yoru batery voltage decreases yoru curent draw increases...creating more heat. Keep you voltage up and yrou amp will be mroe effecient.

chaz28o · Posted: Jul 25, 2007 12:00 pm Post subject:

It ended up being the battery switch (two battery set up) Who makes them, Perko I think?

Anyway the switch sometimes would let battery # 2 charge (always # 1) but eventually it wouldn't charge the # 2 battery enough to power the amp to work. The light was on the amp, and the amp was hot (as acurtis_ttu eludes to) but it did not work

Swapped the switch, charged #2 fully - and it's not been an issue since Cool