Ambient Thermal Issues

[aka120 0]

Hello Jacob and all of the Sundown community,

Very new here, and thanks for having me.

There seems to be an ambient thermal issue and was looking for some advice. I have my 1500d mounted on the back fold-down seat in a 2003 Pontiac Grand Am SE1.

The problem is, the temperatures here are peaking @ triple digits here lately, and average temps are around 98F-99F.

Well, when I get in the car (usually around noon, lunch break), the amp is already hot, I cant leave my hand on it more than about 5-10 seconds. This is because I leave my seat folded down and the direct sunlight is shinning on the amp, however, if I have the seats folded up, and let it down when I take my lunch break, it is still about the same temperature.

When I turn the car on and play the stereo, it only takes me about 10-15 minutes to get to my house, so I don't play it very long. But, by the time I get to the house, the amp is reaching excessively hot temperatures, too hot to touch. The amp never has gone into protection mode or shutdown, but these types of temperatures greatly worry me, and I would never intentionally operate the amp with this type heat buildup. So, I try to minimize the usage/volume/duration until the ambient temperatures are more reasonable.

The amp is of course controlled by the remote turn-on lead from the HU, and is wired at a 2 Ohm load. If I notice the amp is too hot to touch, or anything even relatively close to that type of heat buildup, I will immediately shut the amp down! My other 4-channel amp (a cheap Sony Xplod amp) is usually just as hot when the car has been off, but it does not seem to get hotter like the 1500d is when in use.

Should, I try to implement a cooling fan around the 1500d, or possibly a wind tunnel? Something that would directly cool the chassis of the amp seems to be logical, but unsure of what materials and such I would need.

Any suggestions are most certainly welcomed. Thank you for your time.

P.S. Man thanks all @ Sundown for building such top-notch quality products. This is my first sundown product and I am more than pleased with it and plan to use more sundown products for sure!!! Thanks again

[sundownz 197]

A fan cooled amp rack is never a bad idea. Build around the amp and make it pretty well enclosed - put an intake fan on one side of the amp and an exhaust fan on the other side to force the direction of flow across the amp.

[aka120 0]

Just here on lunch break, and i kept my seats folded up today, and the amps are nice and cool. But its cloudy today so there wasn't much direct sunlight on the car.

Jacob, thanks for the advice man, I think its my best option to build an amp rack with cooling. Last thing i would want to do is burn up a masterpiece!

Well, back to work. Thanks again!!!!