WHY MY AMPLIFIER POWER WIRE MELTS AND HOW TO FIX IT

Almost all car audio amplifiers have a power wire that feeds the amplifier with electricity. This wire has to be long enough to reach from where your battery is located all the way up to where you installed your amplifier.

However, this wire might only be 10 or maybe 20 feet long and usually, amps are installed somewhere in the trunk of your vehicle.

If your amplifier power wire melts, it can cause serious problems with your amplifier because it gets way too hot and might even melt. Here we discuss your problem Why my amplifier power wire melts and how to fix, it that many people are facing.

Let’s dive in…

WHY DO I NEED A POWER WIRE FOR MY AMPLIFIER ANYWAY?

Your car’s electrical system can only handle a certain amount of current flow. When it comes to powering your speakers, your head unit, and all the rest of your equipment, you don’t want to go over the recommended amperage limit.
These are usually 15 amps for small electrical parts and up to 80 amps for bigger electrical parts like your starter motor. If you exceed the amperage limit then you might damage or even totally destroy one or several of these components in your vehicle.

This is why you need an amplifier power wire. It acts as a relay that ensures that your car audio equipment will not exceed the amperage limit of your car’s electrical system.

WHY DOES MY AMPLIFIER POWER WIRE MELT?

Electrical Short Circuit – a short circuit is when the electricity goes from one place to another where it’s not supposed to go. This happens if you have electrical wiring nearby that is touching the power wire and causing a short circuit. What happens is that the wire heats up and might even burn or melt if the problem isn’t fixed quickly.

Too much power: This means that your amplifier can receive more power than it should and this will cause an overload on your wiring therefore, the wire might get too hot and start to melt.

Bad installation: If you installed your amplifier wiring incorrectly, this can cause a whole lot of problems such as melting wires and in some cases, it might even cause fires.

Bad insulation: When the insulation on your wire is bad or has been damaged, this can also cause heating and therefore, even more, heat problems to occur.

Poor quality Wire: If you bought a cheap and low-quality power wire, it may start to fail and the insulation will go bad after a short period of time.

Coiled amplifier’s Wire cause melting: In certain conditions, a coiled wire will overheat and melt due to the current through the wire generating so much heat. This is often observed when plastic or vinyl insulated electrical cord has been coiled too tightly.

The explanation for this is that while a straight wire has a one-dimensional heat distribution along the wire, a coiled wire has a three-dimensional heat distribution. If you’ve ever put something cold on an inflamed area, then tried to use it again only to find that it’s still hot, you understand how difficult it is for heat to dissipate in two dimensions.

High heat: If you live in a place that gets really hot during the summer, then your power wire might start to fail because of the high temperatures.

Long exposure to water: Since your power wire isn’t waterproof, it can cause problems with your ignition system and when the insulation gets wet, it will melt.

Related Article: How to Connect a Subwoofer to a car stereo without an Amp

HOW TO PREVENT YOUR AMP WIRES FROM MELTING?

Be careful what you place your power wire on. You want to make sure that it won’t come into contact with anything hot such as the heat from your exhaust system, from other wires coming from other electrical parts, and even from something as small as a light bulb.

Be careful not to coil the wire too much. This may cause a short circuit and you don’t want that to happen. When coiling the wire, make sure that you coil it up in an unnoticeable way so that it won’t interfere with anything else.

Using high-quality solder will ensure that your power wire will last for a long time and it won’t cause problems like melting or any other issues.

Make sure you wire your amplifier properly and take all precautions necessary. If the insulation on your power wire gets wet or damaged, then it will cause problems to both your vehicle’s current system as well as with your stereo equipment.
Don’t use the same power wire for both high-powered electrical components such as a high-powered subwoofer and for a low-powered electrical component such as speakers.

The voltage and current will be different and therefore, your power wire can work with either one of them for a limited amount of time (e.g., it will burn out). If you do use the same power wire for both high and low powered electrical components then make sure that its gauge is high enough for the high powered electrical component.
Your power wire should have a low resistance rating so that you don’t lose too much power.

You can use an amp wiring kitto help protect your power wire from melting due to heat or short-circuiting due to improper installation of your stereo equipment.

AMP WIRING SAFETY TIPS FOR DIYERS

Here are some more or less common “tricks” we do not recommend unless you know what you’re doing. And if you do know what you’re doing, at least double-check to make sure you aren’t about to blow up your amp!

Rubber Bands: These are great for keeping your wiring neat and tidy, but not so great for attaching to hot parts of your amp. The oil inside the rubber will oxidize when exposed to heat, which is really bad news. And besides, rubber bands can break down over time with exposure to strong solvents like lacquer thinner used in spray cleaners or contact with some paints.

Suppose you have a repair that requires soldering in a very tight space. You might consider using rubber bands to hold the components in place while working on them. Make sure the components are firmly in place because if they can move around even a little, there’s a chance of getting shocked by touching the wires against the chassis.

WARNING: Don’t use rubber bands to hold components together while working on an amplifier that has its power supply connected! The rubber bands will keep you from feeling (or seeing) live AC current at the power transformer. If you’re going to use rubber bands, disconnect the amplifier from the AC outlet first!

Ruler and tape measure: We have all used a ruler to mark out a wire for cutting, but it’s also easy to use the wrong end of the ruler when measuring placement on an amp chassis or between components. The metal side might be magnetized from handling metal screws and contain sharp edges that will cut your insulation.

Pens and pencils can also leave marks on the surface of your chassis that will be difficult to remove and could interfere with safety grounding.

Paper clips and staples: Paper clips, in particular, can leave small, hard to detect bumps in your solder joints (and in some cases, the paper clip itself might melt when heated). Staples make great clipping points for speaker wire, but be careful not to use staples with a thin “leg” on the end that will pierce your insulation.

Electrical tape: So what’s wrong with electrical tape? Well, it’s electrically insulating and has a strong tendency to melt when heated – all bad things. Electrical tape generally can’t take the heat of soldering and shouldn’t be used to wrap components.

Hacksaw blades can leave small burrs on their cutting edges that will damage insulation when you go to strip it away, so don’t cut wire with a hacksaw! Use a quality wire stripper instead.

Zip ties are great for marking off speaker wire runs, but they’re made of non-conductive nylon and shouldn’t be used to attach metal parts together. They can melt at solder points!

A cheap speaker cable sometimes has the wire insulation crimped onto the wire, leaving small bumps that will prevent you from getting a good solder joint. A higher-quality cable will use either glue or a folded-over wire

Shrink Wrap tubing is great for keeping your amp looking neat, but leave it alone when soldering. The heat will melt the insulation on most tubing. Also, avoid using electrical tape to cover shrink wrap tubing (see above why).

Also Read:

Ported vs Sealed – How to Choose the right car subwoofer box

11 BEST BUDGET CAR AMPLIFIERS [A GUIDE & REVIEWS 2023]

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN FIXING YOUR AMPLIFIER POWER WIRE?

This is a guide on how to fix up your power wire that has gone bad and use either a lighter, match, or welder for this purpose.

This should not be confused with the first time you solder and shrink wrap the wire onto an amp’s terminals which I covered in how To: Solder Amp Power Cables. Only, don’t do the second I mention in that article because it is a stupid thing to do and will cause you headaches.

Remember: Soldering, shrink tubing, and electrical tape are the only safe method for splicing wires together. Never use a lighter or any other open flame device to splice wires, otherwise, you might end up burning your house down.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, it’s important that you pay attention to your power wire. If you do so, then you can prevent your amp wiring from melting because it will be able to last for a long time.
Thanks for paying attention! We hope you have gotten enough knowledge to prevent this serious problem about melting amplifier power wire. We have tried to guide you correctly as per the expert’s experience.

If you feel something more, feel free to ask and drop a kind comment below. Our expert will respond to you as soon as possible.
We only request to you please share this article with your relevant friends who are finding to solve this issue in the future or now.

FAQS:

Q.1 Why is my amp wire melting?

Answer:

The amp is drawing too much current for the wire to handle. This could be noted in one or more of the following ways:
-bad or intermittent sound due to inconsistent voltage at two points in a resistor circuit
-a sharp pop when turning the volume up, followed by static sound for a few seconds, followed by normal operation
-burning smell followed by another burning smell after 15 minutes or less of silence between playing songs on an iPod. All 3 are bad signs that your amp is into seeing all sorts – not just music vibrations.

Why are my speaker wires melting?

Answer:

You are most likely using gauge wire too thin for the amount of power being sent through it. The smaller the diameter of your wire, the more intense heat will build up.Higher gauge wires conduct better and have less excess heat loss making them a wiser option to use in most cases.

Q.3 Why does my speaker wire keep burning?

Answer:

The most common causes of wire burning are excessive resistance and insulation degradation. Other possible causes include the speakers becoming too hot or damaged in another way. Insulation degradation can happen when the speaker is exposed to temperatures above its design limits, for example when it is set too close to a heating vent or fireplace, left out in direct sunlight for long periods, stored outside during the summer months with no protection from sun exposure, etc.

A speaker’s input impedance has an intimate relation to leakage reactance which contributes towards power loss(energy) coming from an amplifier to a load (speaker). This relationship is caused by “ac” waveforms traveling through wires gradually losing energy while passing thru capacitors formed between each twist of copper