Amp getting hot.

[Macdizzle23]

hey guys. i recently put my sub and amp into my vs wagon, i use the back of the wagon alot for sleeping so i thought i would tech screw the amp to the floor under the passenger seat, so i can just remove the sub without stuffing with the amp,

anyway around town if i have the music quiet its fine, but when i have it cranking after 20mins or so i can smell the amp getting really hot its even so hot to touch.

any suggestions on what could the issue be here??

the smell doesnt worry me im just worried its gunna light up or something lol..

cheers.

[wraith]

What sort of amp is it?

[VTSSDUDE]

Has the amp being getting hot since you bought it or since you have screwed it in?
What is the power rating of the amp? Maybe your sub might not be right for it or it might just be a cheap amp.
Cheap amps use dirty soldering, have a lack of heatsinks for internal components such as the transistors, etc and they are prone to over heating because of it. Does the amp have a fan? Or you could look at modifying the amp case and attaching a fan to it?

[Macdizzle23]

its a 600 watt kenwood amp and the sub is a 12inch kicker.. i had the same set up in my old car and it was fine only difference is head units, the amp in my old car was bolted to the back seat, i have only noticed it get hot since ive put it in my wagon couple weeks ago..

[Jonah 101]

Can you turn the amp down and raise the sub volume on the HU.

[MAG00]

Can you turn the amp down and raise the sub volume on the HU.

? How does this help ?

To Macdizzle: Model numbers go a lot further than "X watts Z brand", so what are the model numbers? How old is it? Is it still under warranty? Does moving it out from underneath the seat rectify the issue?

Under the seat the amp is likely to experience a lack of air flow, being on carpet doesn't help either as carpet would insulate it, rather than drawing the heat away from the amp. You may have to relocate it to solve the issue.

[Jonah 101]

I figure the only variables are amp location (as you metioned) and how the amp and HU have been set up.

[MAG00]

Good thought process, but what you suggested doesn't make sense.. Are you referring to adjusting the gain?

[juzzyx]

How hot are we talking? my monoblock pioneer gmd8500m gets a little bit hot after idling for 3 hours on full volume. My 4 channel fusion CA-AM41200 class a/b gets extremely hot after idling for 3 hours on full volume. You cannot touch it without burning yourself. Although it gets extremely hot, my speakers have never cut out, and the amp has never gone into protect mode.



MAG00, what 4 channel amp are you using? And how hot does it get after you crank it for a while?

[Jonah 101]

Good thought process, but what you suggested doesn't make sense.. Are you referring to adjusting the gain?

yes adjusting the gain. I have a Pioneer 760watt, you can cook eggs on that damn thing and it hasnt blown up yet!

Question, could using speaker wire thats too thin make the amp run hot?

[acarmody]

yes adjusting the gain. I have a Pioneer 760watt, you can cook eggs on that damn thing and it hasnt blown up yet!

Question, could using speaker wire thats too thin make the amp run hot?

I'm no real expert but I would imagine that the wire would get hot and increase the resistance, thus making the amp cooler because of the raised ohms its seeing.

[juzzyx]

Interesting... I've just tapped into the stock speaker wires and ran them back to the amp. Very good point you make there acarmody.

[MAG00]

MAG00, what 4 channel amp are you using? And how hot does it get after you crank it for a while?

Using an Alpine MRV-F545, nearly get's too hot to touch after cranking it, as does my Audison LRX 1.1K monoblock. Realistically the amp should be able to cope with the heat, and may have certain features to deal with it (protection mode, thermal activated output decrease etc.), however we haven't been told what amp it is so I couldn't tell you.

I'm no real expert but I would imagine that the wire would get hot and increase the resistance, thus making the amp cooler because of the raised ohms its seeing.

Decent theory, but I think the results would be extremely marginal anyway (otherwise we would have to take the resistance of wires into account when wiring up subwoofers etc.). Main issue you will see is wires over-heating etc.

[acarmody]

Decent theory, but I think the results would be extremely marginal anyway (otherwise we would have to take the resistance of wires into account when wiring up subwoofers etc.). Main issue you will see is wires over-heating etc.

Yeah I get that. It would go from 4-ohms to 4.01-ohms, and then your car burns down