I have always been a fan of circuit breaks instead of the typical inline AGU fuse holders.
For a start whent hey trip there is no need to spend the money replacing fuses
- They are eaiser and faster to switch on and off for isolations
- They will accommodate any size cable with the corerct lug so no need to change when you go from 4 gauge to 0 gauge
-
However a friend of mine (much more knowledgable on Car Audio than i) Yoda level in fact, has always been against them but we have never really discussed why



The other day I heard clipping through my sub with the system at a moderate level (ok pretty loud but still it should play loud I have 2 batteries and over 3000rms of amplifier power to deliver)

After extensive fault finding it turned out to be low voltage at the amplifier.
Now my system has dual battery’s Odessy + Optima Yellow in the boot + 1 farad capacitor all the right sized cabling etc so it should be fine,….
After much investigation with the car running (or a power supply on)
- 13.8v at the front battery
- 13.8v on one side of the circuit breaker
- 13.0v on the other so there was a .7volt drop across the circuit breaker, then by the time the voltage reached the rear of the car it was down to
- 12v or 11.8vat the rear battery
- 10v by the time it was at the sub amp (when playing) hence low voltage.



I removed the Circuit breaker and used a standard gold fuse (old doddgy one) BINGO 13.7v at front and rear battery, 13.5 at the amp and still around 13v when playing full volume…..

I spoke with my mate he said circuit breakers are inhenently poor in their design and never to use them. He recomends AGU style fuses (which happen to be the most expensive) but I will never be using circuit breakers again.


PS anyone want a 70amp circuit breaker……. LOL
Problem solved

Last edited by pyroay on Thu Jun 30, 2005 6:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Conductivity problem, this is?

Right you are.
When i first found out there was

Fear, that lead to anger, anger lead to hate ......(well maybe just a bit more anger) .......which led to suffering (as i burnt my hand on the hot Turbo while fitting the fuse holder...)

But now the system has plenty of force...


I would go as far saying the force is strong in this one....

i think for this one too much star wars humm

yeah my mate reckons there awsome ,i told him i dont like them i'll stick to my fuse ,and then i laughted at him when something when wrong with his system ,turned out the be the breaker

Curcuit breakers are not as "quick acting" as fuses unless you are using the "slow blow" type. So if ever a problem occurs some serious damage could be done by the time the breaker does drip or even worse it doesnt.
Like any switch or breaker they have contacts that carbon up or simply get dirty.
Guess we all learn somethings the hard way but thanks pyrol for letting us all know

nice info guys!

as usuall aaron you are our Yoda, the fuses you speak of are they the wafer style ones?

Thanks

Yes screw down style, i personally have not had a problem with the AGU (normal gold fuse style) ones but it is not uncommon for the fuses themselves to fall apart over time, i have seen it happen to others.

AGU are normal barrel type fuses, properly known as 3AG iirc
ANL are the wafer stule screw/bolt down ones