Amps Overheating

[The Black Widow]

Hi Everyone,

We have 2 amps mounted inside the storage compartment under the glove box of our 24Ve. Last summer we had a lot of overheating issues and the Amps would cut out until we opened up both compartment doors to allow air flow over them.

We want to come up with some sort of venting system for this compartment and wanted to see if anyone else has done this type of upgrade or had similar issues.

Our thoughts were to install 2 vents similar to the driver side heater vents and possibly install a fan to provide extra air flow over the amps.

[jbort]

what kind of Amps? Kicker? Other? Anything covering them up?

[The Black Widow]

what kind of Amps? Kicker? Other? Anything covering them up?

I am not sure the brand but I know one is a 1600w and the other is smaller. I can find out tonight when I go home.

We do not keep anything in that compartment when it is hot.

[chpthril]

Heat will make amp shut down as they are designed to do so. But, its not always caused by the ambient air temp. There are some things that can be done prior to fans and vent tubes to reduce the amount of heat the amps generate during normal operation.

Battery voltage: Low voltage = amp work harder to maintain output = extra heat. May need to add a 2nd house battery
Cable too small = voltage drop ^
Amp load and tuning - how many speakers the amps are driving i.e. the impedance load on each chnl, determines how hard the amp is working. Running the amp's cross-over filter on Full-Pass or OFF, will also add extra load load to the amp.

To effectively do a fan or vent system, you need to try to bring in fresh air and move out the old. Simply moving the warm locker air across the amps will do little.

[The Black Widow]

We do currently have a low battery voltage issue that we are working on but this is a recent issue that wasn't around last summer when these issues were happening.

What size cable do you recommend to prevent extra work from the amp?

I checked and we have 2 Boss amps, one 1500 and one 1600

Most places we take the boat are over 100 degrees in heat. If we were to fix any issues that may be causing the amp to work harder do you think it would be ok in those temps? Or would we still need some sort of venting system?

[chpthril]

We do currently have a low battery voltage issue that we are working on but this is a recent issue that wasn't around last summer when these issues were happening.

What size cable do you recommend to prevent extra work from the amp?

I checked and we have 2 Boss amps, one 1500 and one 1600

Most places we take the boat are over 100 degrees in heat. If we were to fix any issues that may be causing the amp to work harder do you think it would be ok in those temps? Or would we still need some sort of venting system?

Without knowing the battery voltage at the time the issue pops up, its hard to say if voltage is primary cause or contributing factor. if you are playing the system alot with the engine off for a long weekend and relying on the alternator to recharge, then odds are, the battery is not getting fully recharged.

Cable size depends on potential current draw and length of both the amp's B+ and GND. Also, some amps are limited as to how large a gauge they will accept. If this is the case, then a solution is to run a larger trunk line from the battery to the amp(s), then size it down to a gauge that the amp will accept, through a distribution block, making that small gauge cable run as short as possible.

Boss Audio doesnt make a Class-D amp, so those would be class-A/B. With Class-A/B, up to half of the battery Ah consumed will be converted to heat and is a byproduct. This inefficiency can be compounded by low voltage, undersized cable, poor tuning and an overloaded amp and ambient air temp.

There are steps that can be done to minimize the load on the amps, thus reducing the heat generated. It it possible to have amps run in those air temps and not cut out due to thermal load.

*How many speakers are wired to each chnl? More speakers is more load when they are wired in parallel. This lowers the impedance and increases the output, thus increasing the current draw, making more heat and bringing down battery voltage.
*Make sure all full-range speakers are set to high-pass and the frequency is not set to low.