Circuit Breakers

[forceofwill 10+ year member]

I don't see a lot of people using these, everyone is using fuses. I personally use a 100amp breaker for my sub amp and was wondering why more people don't use them. There a major drawback? I really hate blowing/buying new fuses so I love the breaker. Just reset it and you're good to go.

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[jrz126 10+ year member]

I've heard that they can possibly stick closed. Which might lead to a small fire.

I've never had a problem with blowing fuses, I just pay attention to what I'm doing while I'm working on it.

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

Two things:

1) If you are blowing fuses, you have a problem somewhere that needs to be addressed.

2) Every time you trip the breaker, either manually or in the case of an overcurrent, you reduce the reliability of the breaker. The contacts in the breaker arc every time the breaker is tripped and the arcing causes pitting in the contact and they can also possibly weld themselves shut. The underhood fuse is there to protect your car in the case of a power wire short. Replacing a fuse that shold only blow in an emergency for the convenience of a switch that doesn't provide as reliable of protection seems a bit dumb to me. How often do you need to disconnect power to the system that loosening a screw and disconnecting the negative wire from the battery (the way you should do it BTW) save you that much time? I have NEVER blown a fuse in a car audio system. If you are careful in your install and use quality components that you don't abuse, you should never have to worry about blowing them routinely. I have never heard of a fuse failing to blow when it should have and in a wreck that is last thing I want to have to worry about.

 

[johnecon2001 5,000+ posts]

Two things:
1) If you are blowing fuses, you have a problem somewhere that needs to be addressed.

2) Every time you trip the breaker, either manually or in the case of an overcurrent, you reduce the reliability of the breaker. The contacts in the breaker arc every time the breaker is tripped and the arcing causes pitting in the contact and they can also possibly weld themselves shut. The underhood fuse is there to protect your car in the case of a power wire short. Replacing a fuse that shold only blow in an emergency for the convenience of a switch that doesn't provide as reliable of protection seems a bit dumb to me. How often do you need to disconnect power to the system that loosening a screw and disconnecting the negative wire from the battery (the way you should do it BTW) save you that much time? I have NEVER blown a fuse in a car audio system. If you are careful in your install and use quality components that you don't abuse, you should never have to worry about blowing them routinely. I have never heard of a fuse failing to blow when it should have and in a wreck that is last thing I want to have to worry about.

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[forceofwill 10+ year member]

Two things:
1) If you are blowing fuses, you have a problem somewhere that needs to be addressed.

2) Every time you trip the breaker, either manually or in the case of an overcurrent, you reduce the reliability of the breaker. The contacts in the breaker arc every time the breaker is tripped and the arcing causes pitting in the contact and they can also possibly weld themselves shut. The underhood fuse is there to protect your car in the case of a power wire short. Replacing a fuse that shold only blow in an emergency for the convenience of a switch that doesn't provide as reliable of protection seems a bit dumb to me. How often do you need to disconnect power to the system that loosening a screw and disconnecting the negative wire from the battery (the way you should do it BTW) save you that much time? I have NEVER blown a fuse in a car audio system. If you are careful in your install and use quality components that you don't abuse, you should never have to worry about blowing them routinely. I have never heard of a fuse failing to blow when it should have and in a wreck that is last thing I want to have to worry about.

Yeah, I've never blown a fuse from shorting out or anything. I just figured it would be easier. Guess I'll prolly just buy some ANL holders when I run my other wire and replace it.

 

[1loudmtherfuker 10+ year member]

I used a breaker on my front stage amp to shut it off easier when I was competing to give the sub amp more juice , helotaxi is right , if your blowing fuses you have other issues to worry about .

 

[helotaxi 5,000+ posts]

I used a breaker on my front stage amp to shut it off easier when I was competing to give the sub amp more juice , helotaxi is right , if your blowing fuses you have other issues to worry about .

Best way to do that is with a switch on the remote lead rather than cutting power to the amp.

 

[rippinitup7 10+ year member]

taken from http://www.bcae1.com:

In my opinion and from my experience, circuit breakers are less reliable than fuses (especially when the breaker is mounted in the harsh environment under the hood). Quality fuses like ANL and Maxi fuses have a solid element (no solder connections) and will almost never have an intermittent or poor electrical connection. A circuit breaker will eventually have higher contact resistance than when it was new. This is especially true if the breaker has been tripped (by overcurrent) more than a few times. If you're going to compete and can't take a chance of having a problem like a bad connection in the power line, you should use a good quality fuse. Now I know that people have had fuses blow in competition but it was because the fuse was not properly rated, not because the fuse was defective.

You should remember:1.Do not use a circuit breaker in place of a fuse to protect electronic components.