Amp Getting Hot & Turning Off

[THSEADOO]

I have 2 Kicker amps installed in storage area under glove box on passenger side. They are both mounted on the back wall 1 above the other with about 3" between them. The fins are mounted in the correct position. The 4 channel powering sub and 2 tower speakers keeps turning off and then when cools down will come back on. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to stop this problem? Thanks

[philwsailz]

SEADOO-

Hey, Phil here....

Is this a factory install or one done by someoe else?

What are the EQ settings you are using on the head unit? Do you have the bass control maxed out? Also, have you tweaked any of the control settingson the amps? Where is the bass boost set?

Don't take it the wrong way, I am trying to find out if any of your friends have gone in and adjusted things. I have this guy who is always messing with my amp.... He thinks he is a joker, but really it is just a pain.

Anyway, having the setings outside of what we consider normal, with bass heavy setting in particular will cause the amp to work harder than it needs to.

For the tower section of the amp, you waht teh crossover switch set to hi-pass. If you have a crossoiver frequency control knob on the face of the amp, you want it set to 80 Hz, or even up to 100 or 120 Hz. You do not want it set lower. With the hi-pass crossover turned on, you want to make sure any bass boost control is turned totally off...

Then for the sub section of the amp, you want low-pass crossover, with the crossover frequency set to roughly 80HZ to 100 Hz. Bass boost should not be turned up mich, I really do not like bass boost past about 30%; any more and you are just working your amp too hard...


Any amp, I don't care what brand, will get hot and shut down peridically when it is run hard hard hard. Are you jamming with the thing maxed out or is it at a lower level? ALSO, are you sitting with the moto off jammming in party cove when this happens? Low voltage from a battery running out of steam will cause an amp to pull more current to make power. Low battteries are a very common reason for amps shutting down from heat.....


Let's hear back from ya on the questions I posted, and let's see if we can figure out how to get it running good for ya.


Phil
Kicker

[THSEADOO]

Hey Phil thanks for the help, this is not the amp that came with the boat I added it. please see below for responses to your questions:

1) HU set to "user" Bass 0, Treble -2, Mid 0
2) Bass control knob wired with sub at Mid position, bass knob on amp at mid position
3) I set the amp up myself, very knowledgeable about home stuff but not so with car/marine. Set the volume at 75% on HU and then backed off until no distortion for the gain.
4) The amp works fine in providing tunes for everyone while sitting still. I think it is just getting too hot pushing the 12" sub and the 2 8" towers. I didn't know if i could find a 12 volt fan to try to cool or something.

Do I want the towers set to high-pass as they are 8" woofers? I will use the settings you suggested and see what happens. Thanks again for your help!

[mutau052]

A bildge fan makes a great amp fan, you can even install it to push or pull air from inside the storage area. With a couple hoses you can actally aim the air on the spots your wanting cooled.

I don't think it would cause any electrical shielding problems if hooked up correctly.

[philwsailz]

Hey Phil thanks for the help, this is not the amp that came with the boat I added it. please see below for responses to your questions:

1) HU set to "user" Bass 0, Treble -2, Mid 0
2) Bass control knob wired with sub at Mid position, bass knob on amp at mid position
3) I set the amp up myself, very knowledgeable about home stuff but not so with car/marine. Set the volume at 75% on HU and then backed off until no distortion for the gain.
4) The amp works fine in providing tunes for everyone while sitting still. I think it is just getting too hot pushing the 12" sub and the 2 8" towers. I didn't know if i could find a 12 volt fan to try to cool or something.

Do I want the towers set to high-pass as they are 8" woofers? I will use the settings you suggested and see what happens. Thanks again for your help!

Yeah, I would turn the hi-pass crossovers on, even for the 8's. If even you set teh crossovers as low as 50 to 70, you still will remove fully one or two octaves of information that the amp will try to create, that you likely cannot hear out of the 8's anyway, especially at the end of a rope.

A fan will help, especially if you take the great pains of setting the fan up so that it can pull cool air from outside the compartment over the amps. Another trick is to install the amp on spacers so it is stading off of the mounting surface so air can get all around it. In some installs, juat the installation of spacers has had a huge benefit to keeping the amp running.

Let me ask you a fw other things. What is the woofer, is it a dual-voice-coil sub? How is it wired to the amp? Then, which amp are you having trouble with, what model specifically? Finally what power wire do you have run to it?

I know of multiple examples where an amp wired with power wire that is too small will get hot much quicker than one wired with the recommended wire size. Let me know the answers on the woofer, the amp, and the wiring, and we will see what else to suggest to make sure your system rocks solid without cycling.

Phil
Kicker

[morgan040]

I will bet you are running your sub at 2 ohms and the amp isnt rated to handle a 2 ohm load when the 2 channels are bridged for the sub.

1. What type of sub is it?
2. Are the Voice coils 2 or 4 ohms?
3. Are they wired parallel or Series?

[THSEADOO]

The amp I have is the 08ZX6504. The woofer is an MTX Marine TM1204, 12" 4 ohm. It is wired with 14 gauge speaker wire directly to the amp. The hot and ground wire are direct to battery with 4 gauge wire. The sub is bridged the towers are not. Thanks again for the help.

Phil can you tell me what material should be used for the spacers?

[BRANDNIRON8971]

SEADOO. I went down to Ace Hardware and got some rubber foot pads and loger screws to put under mine.

[THSEADOO]

Thanks I will get some of those and try them before the blower.

[EarmarkMarine]

Its particularly hard on a single amplifier when its shouldering the two most demanding sections ; the sub and tower. when possible its a good practice to try and more evenly distribute the load.
Have to echo all that Phil has advised. I've had most tower speakers on an RTA. Many start rolling off at 200 HZ and even the largest ones are totally done below 80 HZ. Keep in mind they're all in tiny pods which seriously elevate the resonance. So highpass 'em. Otherwise you're over-taxing the amplifier for zero audible gain.
Cut the bass boost all together. You're trading EQ for output and thermal stability. Choose one or the other. Raise the lowpass crossover a little which will significantly increase the perceived output and allow you to gain the amp down a little. There's alot more natural amplitude at 80 HZ than at 50 HZ. Remember You're already running half power at your crossover point.
Taking steps to increase system efficiency can produce the same or greater output with half the current draw.
The type of sub box and location may also be contributing factors in how hard
the amplifier is working.
David
Earmark Marine