Amps run HOT!!

[b5i8 0]

I just got my car back from my installer today and I must say these Sundown's run super hot. After maybe an hour of playing time I almost burned my hand touching the top of the amps. I have one SAX-100.2, one SAX-100.4, and one SAZ-1500D and all three of them were equally hot. Also the SAX-100.4 shut off at one point probably due to the heat while the other two amps continued to play. Does anyone else have this problem? I think my installer is going to have to install a fan to blow some air on these things but I'm not sure it's going to help as it'll just be cycling hot air. For an SQ install they sound good, I just hope heat doesn't spoil the fun for me.

[stovebolt6 3]

weird something install wise was probably done wrong.

[b5i8 0]

weird something install wise was probably done wrong.

I seriously doubt that. My installer knows what the hell he's doing.

[loudcav 1]

well obviously he dosent cause the amps dont get that hot I push my amps to the limit and they only ever get warm

[coobies5 43]

its summertime. in the northern hemisphere....

[jonbearsmt 919]

well obviously he dosent cause the amps dont get that hot I push my amps to the limit and they only ever get warm

slow down my friend..... slow down....

first you need to ask... are thay v-1 amps????

i have two v-1's a 3000d and a 100.4....... my 100.4 gets hot to the touch.... hotter then my 3000d at times.....

my 3000d shuts down if i cramp its space.... my 3000d is lifted up 1 inch with a fan on it.... i live in texas and i have a black car...

a man once told me a inch or prevention is worth more then a mile of cure......

but if its shuting off you need to either pick it up and let the air flow... or back your gains down......

and if thay didnt ever get hot... then why would jacob remake the heat sinks.... somtimes you gotta ask your self that question before you say thats impossible.

[jbob 0]

I've had my two 100.2's in for a couple weeks and my 1500 I put in yesterday. My 100.2 on my mids gets the hottest, but nowhere near burning, the 100.2 on the tweets is overkill for me so it doesn't even get lukewarm, and the 1500d so far hasn't been hotter than the mid amp and I've been playing it fairly hard so far, thought it hasn't been for more than 30-40 minutes at once so far.

edit- the 100.2's are the old heat sink and thr 1500 is the new heatsink

Edited August 30, 2008 by jbob

[NB50 206]

Really we need more information on what your stereo consists of.

loads presented on the amps, listening style(full blast all the time, moderate volumes, light) , electrical upgrades(wiring, batteries, alternator). That would help alot.

[b5i8 0]

slow down my friend..... slow down....

first you need to ask... are thay v-1 amps????

i have two v-1's a 3000d and a 100.4....... my 100.4 gets hot to the touch.... hotter then my 3000d at times.....

my 3000d shuts down if i cramp its space.... my 3000d is lifted up 1 inch with a fan on it.... i live in texas and i have a black car...

a man once told me a inch or prevention is worth more then a mile of cure......

but if its shuting off you need to either pick it up and let the air flow... or back your gains down......

and if thay didnt ever get hot... then why would jacob remake the heat sinks.... somtimes you gotta ask your self that question before you say thats impossible.

The 100.4 and the 1500D are the ones with the new heatsink. I'll post pics of my setup when my installer finishes his install log. The three amps are very close together mounted side-by-side. My installer also e-mailed Jacob before doing the install to ask about any heat issues and Jacob said it'd be fine. BTW loudcav, why don't you just stay out of my thread. I don't appreciate your wise-ass comments.

[b5i8 0]

Really we need more information on what your stereo consists of.

loads presented on the amps, listening style(full blast all the time, moderate volumes, light) , electrical upgrades(wiring, batteries, alternator). That would help alot.

Head Unit: Kenwood DDX8019

Processor: Zapco DSP6-SL

Front Stage: SEAS Lotus Reference Set

Subs: 2 - TC Sounds OEM 10's in a sealed box

Tweeter Amp: SAX-100.2

Midwoofer Amp: SAX-100.4 bridged

Sub Amp: SAZ-1500D

Battery: Kinetik HC1400

Alternator: Stock 110amp (will soon be replaced by an Ohio Gen 180amp)

Here's the link to my install: http://my350z.com/forum/audio-builds/38266...l-system-z.html

This is my amp rack:

Edited August 30, 2008 by B5I8

[jonbearsmt 919]

i see two things that would make me say thay would be over heating.... one is your voltage maybe low... a amp that runs low on power also runs warmer....

secondly the amps are covered and thay seem to have NO air flow.... plus thay are very close..

so to me.... low voltage no airflow and raidant heat........

i would back the gains down a touch.. and get some air flow...

very nice build by the way.

[b5i8 0]

We're going to install a fan in the near future to help cool the amps, I hope it helps. I just want you guys to know that I'm not trying to bash Sundown in any way, they sound absolutely fantastic in my system. I'm just having some heat issues which could have been caused by the unusually hot weather we had today. Either way I think the amps probably need a fan to circulate some air.

[jonbearsmt 919]

We're going to install a fan in the near future to help cool the amps, I hope it helps. I just want you guys to know that I'm not trying to bash Sundown in any way, they sound absolutely fantastic in my system. I'm just having some heat issues which could have been caused by the unusually hot weather we had today. Either way I think the amps probably need a fan to circulate some air.

so do I... and also an H/O alt.

where are you from?

[NB50 206]

Very nice install.

Bigjons on the right track with airflow there dosent seem to be much if any. Do you notice any performance difference if you leave the carpet and center panel removed?? Fans would be a good idea along with some vents maybe.

Again bigjon has a point with the voltage issue. Is the HC1400 your only battery? In addition to your high output alternator i would consider another battery even if it was a small one, although I dont know where you could put it.

[jonbearsmt 919]

great point....

the fans will only help to a point.. then thay are just blowing hot air around... vent would be great.. but you have such a seemless install it would be a shame.....

[b5i8 0]

We're going to install a fan in the near future to help cool the amps, I hope it helps. I just want you guys to know that I'm not trying to bash Sundown in any way, they sound absolutely fantastic in my system. I'm just having some heat issues which could have been caused by the unusually hot weather we had today. Either way I think the amps probably need a fan to circulate some air.

so do I... and also an H/O alt.

where are you from?

The H/O alt is coming, I'm just waiting for Ohio Gen to ship it to me. I'm from the Northern Bay Area in Cali. Thanks for the help bigjon.

Very nice install.

Bigjons on the right track with airflow there dosent seem to be much if any. Do you notice any performance difference if you leave the carpet and center panel removed?? Fans would be a good idea along with some vents maybe.

Again bigjon has a point with the voltage issue. Is the HC1400 your only battery? In addition to your high output alternator i would consider another battery even if it was a small one, although I dont know where you could put it.

The HC1400 is my only battery. As far as installing a second battery, I think that's out of the question. I'm hoping the H/O alt I should be getting soon will help with any voltage problems. I did drive around with the carpet and panel removed with my A/C on and the amps seemed okay. They were still very hot to touch but they didn't shut off. I can deal with not using the carpet but I don't want to leave the panel off all the time as I may need to put something in my trunk one day. I think I'll wait for my H/O alt to arrive and install a fan in there and report back when that's been done. Until then, thanks for your help fellas.

[simplicityinsound 0]

hey Guys,

my name is bing and I am the installer on this vehicle. you can see my installs at www.simplicityinsound.com

I want to apologize for how the OP post came out sounding...i want to make sure of a coupla things just so things dont spiral out of control over this hehe...

I have absolutely zero bad things to say about any of the sundown amps at this point, as far as running hot, i agree they run relatively hot to the touch, but i would say no hotter than the Zapco DC reference amps i use a lot. I had told him that we should not jump to any conclusions beucase yesterday was a scorcher with well over 100degrees ambient temp wtih in car temperatures even further above that.

also, i want to add that what he meant by running hot, was not only just with the cover and carpet on, but i think he thought they ran pretty hot with the cover fully off and just exposed to air...that they seem to run hot in general...but again, i had told him that hot running amps is not that unusual, as long as it doesnt thermal on its own all the time...its fine...but that happened after this post was already made hehe

as far as having the amp installed in the manner it is...well, if you look on my ite, you will see that it follows a relatively similar pattern...majority of those installs dont have fans on them, beucae i felt that after a while, as many have said, having a fan mostly pushes air around, the ones that i do have fans on are the ones into plexi housed amp racks...etc...on those installs, there have been VERY few thermals even with the cover and amp fully on. so that hsnt been an issue...

but again, i feel that the combination of how hot it was yesterday, and the listening preference of hte OP, could have combined to make that happen, an that on that day, perhaps some of my other installs would have done the same if played under the same kind of volume and music taste.

so basically, what i am saying is, for me, personally, i would like to see the install go for a coupla weeks in normal tempratures, to make any sort of meaningful conclusion on them...

just wanted to make sure there is no misunderstandings

b

p.s. i am off to airport now for vacation so i wont be replying for a few days...

[sundownz 197]

Hey guys - my internet is so slow here at home I was barely able to log on at all... so hopefully I can post.

In any event, I would say just adding an intake fan on one side of the amps and an exhaust on the other side they will be just fine (one towards the subs, one towards the back of the car). An 80-120 mm computer fan for each would likely do the job. You have to create a flow - as the installer mentioned, just having fans blowing around doesn't do much good - but, creating a flow across these heat-sinks (especially the new ones) is very effective.

Running covered is pretty challenging for any amp, IMO, and none of the amps in the line run any hotter than any other amp on the market in a given power range. Usually the comments I get about the Class-D amps is that the run ice cold - it also depends on the usage patterns of the customer, ambient temperature, etc.

[b5i8 0]

Hey guys - my internet is so slow here at home I was barely able to log on at all... so hopefully I can post.

In any event, I would say just adding an intake fan on one side of the amps and an exhaust on the other side they will be just fine (one towards the subs, one towards the back of the car). An 80-120 mm computer fan for each would likely do the job. You have to create a flow - as the installer mentioned, just having fans blowing around doesn't do much good - but, creating a flow across these heat-sinks (especially the new ones) is very effective.

Running covered is pretty challenging for any amp, IMO, and none of the amps in the line run any hotter than any other amp on the market in a given power range. Usually the comments I get about the Class-D amps is that the run ice cold - it also depends on the usage patterns of the customer, ambient temperature, etc.

I will say this, for the price they sound damn good for sound quality. My subs have plenty of headroom and I don't need to play them anywhere near their full potential as it's just too loud for me (in a good way). The SAX-100.4 paired with the SAX-100.2 running my front stage sounds phenomenal. The Seas can go very very loud and play very very clean run off those amps so kudos to Sundown. For comparison, I have listened to very similar setups with DLS Ultimate Series amps and I can't tell the difference. I almost want to say my setup sounds better but I think that's just because this is my car. Thanks for your help Jacob, I look forward to using these amps for a long time.

Edited August 30, 2008 by B5I8

[95Honda 486]

LOL, how could anyone ever complain about heat issues with an install like that?

Don't get me wrong, it really looks awesome, you definetly have an installer that has a ton of attention to detail and takes pride in his craftsmanship. But as far as performance, that has to be about the worst thing you could do to an amp if there is no forced air cooling... Other than totally seal it up.

This thread should have never even started.

Edited August 30, 2008 by 95Honda

[cx-7heaven 7]

I have my 2 100.2's under my front seats in Georgia. They are bridged mono to my 2 front comps. They run warm when I crank it, but never get hot and have never shut down, so it probably is a combo of the ambient temps, and maybe that cover panel as well.

[KU40 173]

LOL, how could anyone ever complain about heat issues with an install like that?

Don't get me wrong, it really looks awesome, you definetly have an installer that has a ton of attention to detail and takes pride in his craftsmanship. But as far as performance, that has to be about the worst thing you could do to an amp if there is no forced air cooling... Other than totally seal it up.

This thread should have never even started.

I was thinking all the same things. Those amps are crammed so close together and basically sealed in a tight spot. No way they WON'T run hot. The middle amp is losing about 1/2 of its heatsink because it's contacting the other amps. The two on the outside are losing 1/4 from the same thing.

You need to put some fans in there.

[loudcav 1]

if I were you Id find a way to vent them with that install its foolish to think you will be OK in Alaska mabe not Cali

[kmanian 0]

LOL, how could anyone ever complain about heat issues with an install like that?

Don't get me wrong, it really looks awesome, you definetly have an installer that has a ton of attention to detail and takes pride in his craftsmanship. But as far as performance, that has to be about the worst thing you could do to an amp if there is no forced air cooling... Other than totally seal it up.

This thread should have never even started.

I totally agree, and having the cover off only exposes the top of the amp, all the fins in the sides are basicall ineffective, decause they can't transfer the heat to cooled air. I would guess that effectively 50% of the cooling capacity is gone even with the cover off. cross flow from one end of the amps to the other, with a source of fresh cool air is 100% necessary.

Great looking install, but definately installer error, fairly easy fix though.

[jonbearsmt 919]

the OP stated that jacobs was consulted before the build... keep that in mind guys.