Over heating amp

[JunkTitleGolf]

Ok well, my amp overheated tonight and went into thermal protection and shutdown. But the thing is I was only pushing one sub and had my bass boost all the way up and my hu was at 20 out of 30 (or so). Is there anyway to stop this from happening again. Currently the amp is mounted on the back of my rear seat and folded down. I have a port that is blowing over it but I guess that isn't enough. Also my amp doesn't have a fan on it...strange.

[bjboertje]

turn the bass boost down.

[bjboertje]

Originally Posted by JunkTitleGolf

Also my amp doesn't have a fan on it...strange.

How many watts is the amp? Mine has no fan and is 1500 rms and doesn't even get warm.
PA isn't that good.

[JunkTitleGolf]

I'm running it at 440 rms right now per channel and I'm only using one channel. Is there any mounting variates I could do, like raise the amp up so air pass under it or install a couple of fans nearby?

[PaulD]

the best mounting positions are straight up or the normal flat. Fans can help move a little more air over it.

[NAVY IC]

the fins really do work, it's not going to keep it ice cold, but sending some fan air through the fins will help that much more...

[PaulD]

my first thing in your case would be to find out why it is overheating so much. Either you have it mounted in a position that isn't allowing good cooling or you or running a low impedance load and running the volume up to max (in relation to the amp, not the headunit volume).

[JunkTitleGolf]

They suggest mounting my amp either horizontal or vertical. Mine is horizontal on the back of my rear seat. The seat is laying down. I'm running it at 2 ohms right now but the amp is 2 ohm stable in stereo mode. Could it possibly be that I am running at 2 ohms but since I only have one sub hooked up it isn't in stereo mode?

[PaulD]

if you have the amp bridged, each channel is only seeing 1 ohm

[CBFryman]

bass boost down, check your gains, check your impeadances, amps shouldnt need air moving over the heat sink if there is good ventelation unless it is a bad design.

Originally Posted by KickinAudio,May 24 2006, 07:18 AM

[snapback]182542[/snapback]

if these arent over heating yours shouldnt be either.

[JunkTitleGolf]

Well, my sub has dvc and they are each 4 ohms each. Lowest I could go would be 2 ohm each (right? I have pos on side a connected to neg on side b). I'm not bridged and I had a friend redo my gains and everything. Hasn't overheated since then. Well, that I can recall. My bass boost is about 3/4 or so. I adjust it to each song.

[RickwithaTbird]

if you have one positive connected to the other negative, and the other two directly to the amp, then you are running the voice coils in series which would put it at 8 ohms. It seems like it would be difficult to overheat a 2 ohm stable amp with an 8 ohm load. I don't know what you did, lol.

[JunkTitleGolf]

Maybe I have it the other way. I can't remember. I will check whenever I can. But it hasn't overheated for a while now.

[PaulD]

basic accepted fact of engineering ....... lowering the operating temp of a device by 10 C (appx 18F) will double the items life span. So proper mounting and ventilation/ cooling is important.

[sr20de4evr]

The most common causes of overheating are:
impedance too low (apparently not the case here)
bad mounting position (probably not the case here)
or bad clipping (with 3/4 bass boost and probably similar gains, this is the likely culprit)