1/0 Welding Wire Vs 1/0 Alumnium Wire

[McIntosh 10+ year member]

so your saying car amps can't put out as much as they claim?,,all of them or just the realy cheesy ones?

I'd have to assume there are reputable maunfacturers (wishful thinking perhaps). The crap I see advertised is surely misrepresented. You MUST have a large power supply to put out watts, plain and simple. Switching PS's sorta work, but for AC only (naturally). Big PS, big caps are absolutely needed to keep the rail voltage up. If rail voltage sags, so does output. I certainly sense you're "fishing" but I'm an old fish.

 

[pr-festiva 10+ year member]

nope not fishing ,just trying to figure out what your talking about

 

[McIntosh 10+ year member]

So If 1/0 Cooper Is Not 350 Amps How Many Amps Is It.

1/0 copper varies from 260 down to 195 amps. NOT EVEN CLOSE to 350. I have a code book because I'm an electrician, but I'd assume you could google NEC or national code to access table 310-16 (conductor ampacity).

 

[McIntosh 10+ year member]

nope not fishing ,just trying to figure out what your talking about

Well, take my POS Craftsman shop vac (its actually not too bad). The numbers have changed somehow, I have no idea how or why. Anything over 2 HP is NEVER gonna fly with a standard 15A circuit. Yet its rated way over that. The same has been done with stereos (home theater, whatever). The numbers can't be true, a mathematical impossibility. Frankly, I'd like someone to explain it to me. I'm not fishing either, I'd really like to know.

 

[smoka 10+ year member]

1/0 copper varies from 260 down to 195 amps. NOT EVEN CLOSE to 350. I have a code book because I'm an electrician, but I'd assume you could google NEC or national code to access table 310-16 (conductor ampacity).

And I suppose you put arcflash labels on all of your amplifiers? j/k //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

It will affect voltage drop, however. Not an issue in car audio.

Its an issue if you have an amplifier installed....

 

[smoka 10+ year member]

double post

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

BTW Einstein, the length of wire has NO EFFECT on it's current carrying ability. It will affect voltage drop, however. Not an issue in car audio. 1/0 aluminum is .201 ohms per 1000'. When I weld we always use the standard leads for hundreds of feet, never a problem. I do it for a living. You probably don't run into much of that sort of thing at Burger King. I KNOW you're talking out of your ***.

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/hilarious.gif.02a037aad04aa96f19982b298a3d70a8.gif

12k, BTW //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/woot.gif.aaa6090e619a97b6090d16dd863c5a69.gif

 

[Rashaddd 5,000+ posts]

BTW Einstein, the length of wire has NO EFFECT on it's current carrying ability. It will affect voltage drop, however. Not an issue in car audio. 1/0 aluminum is .201 ohms per 1000'. When I weld we always use the standard leads for hundreds of feet, never a problem. I do it for a living. You probably don't run into much of that sort of thing at Burger King. I KNOW you're talking out of your ***.

You can pass 300 amps through an inch of 8 gauge wire...

Longer wire has more resistance. More resistance means more voltage drop, as well as more heat being dispersed throughout the wire, which means less current carrying capacity.

 

[wgsj_fortvalley 10+ year member]

i bought the 4 guage wire from home depot just because i wanted to test a amp... each strand was real thick and there were not alot of strands.. is that welding wire?

i know for certain thats house wire man, like he said a few pages back. home deopt and lowes dont carry welding wire.

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

i know for certain thats house wire man, like he said a few pages back. home deopt and lowes dont carry welding wire.

orly? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

Is THIS what you bought at Home Depot? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

orly? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

thats CA wire, not welding cable.

wtf is wrong w/ you today?

edit: nvm. the other link was CA wire //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

thats CA wire, not welding cable.
wtf is wrong w/ you today?

edit: nvm. the other link was CA wire //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

reading > joo! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/laugh.gif.48439b2acf2cfca21620f01e7f77d1e4.gif

P.S. It must be in the water! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

might be the joose //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif

but if you go back to your original post it's a CA amp kit //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

i see what you did there

 

[loopkiller 10+ year member]

might be the joose //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif
but if you go back to your original post it's a CA amp kit //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

i see what you did there

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/tongue.gif.6130eb82179565f6db8d26d6001dcd24.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/sneaky.gif.7189749b3a3f769e8815b47e8ae87f88.gif

 

[n2audio 5,000+ posts]

Mac, Mac, Mac...

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

First of all -- Voltage drop is the KEY in a car. We're starting at 14v if we're lucky.

2nd - Look at the current demand of an amplifier...A $400 sub amp might be perfectly capable of 2000w RMS on a test bench playing a 60hz sine wave at 1% THD, but that's not what music demands.

That 2000w amp that might draw 200A on full volume tones is only going to need 50-75 on full volume music.

1/0 Copper is MORE than enough to power an amp capable of drawing 300A on peaks.

"so many car fires..." -- Really? Where?

Last I knew power wires were fused.

Home amp power supplies are a weak comparison because the power supply freq is fixed at 60 hz and it takes a much larger transformer. I would imagine some of the more powerful home amps start out with an AC-DC converter then use a switching PS a lot like a car amp. Car amp SMPS's are dc pulsed at 20k-50khz.