By David D. – Product Specialist
If you have a sound system in your vehicle, then it is possible you are familiar with your amplifier overheating at times. I have had this problem before with my own system and always wondered if there was something I could do to prevent this from happening. Working at Sonic Electronix has taught me some things about car audio and now I would like to spread some of the knowledge I’ve obtained to you. In this blog, I will give you some tips that will help you prevent your car amplifier from overheating.
Amplifier quality is the biggest factor when it comes to amps overheating. Higher quality amplifiers such as MTX Audio, JL Audio, Kicker, Alpine, and Infinity are designed to use the electrical power that is provided by your vehicles battery and alternator in the most efficient way possible. The high quality amps put out music, not heat like a lower quality amplifier would. Cheap amplifiers waste more power than they actually produce in sound. That wasted power turns into heat, which causes your amplifier to overheat.
Ventilation is key when installing an amp in your vehicle. Since heat rises, you should never mount your amplifier upside down or under carpet. If you can’t seem to stop your amp from overheating, you can get a amplifier cooling fan; this will blow the heat away from your amplifier keeping it running as it should. Some amplifiers, such as the MTX JackHammer amplifiers, have a fan and cooling system built-in to the chassis of the amp.
Another big component of overheating is mismatching the speaker’s power to the amp. If it’s too much power from the speakers to the amp, it will cause the amplifier to overheat. Match the load of the speaker to the amp precisely as possible, this will put out the correct amount of power while producing as little heat as possible.
Proper Installation can also cut down on your amplifier overheating. Make sure you create your own ground connection; the most efficient ground connection is when the wire is touching sanded metal. You do not want the ground wire touching paint or any preexisting nut or bolt.
Higher quality amplifiers are less likely to overheat, so keep that in mind if you are installing a sound system in your vehicle. If your amp overheats all the time, your sound system is useless.
