600Watt Amp dry the battery down

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by mmdir2005, Sep 21, 2006.

  1. mmdir2005

    mmdir2005 Guest

    Without running engine, I played about hour of 600watt amp in my car.
    Then I could not
    start the car. The battery got weaken. so I recharged the battery for
    15 min. It got start.
    Could playing 600watt amplifier of car stereo in hour dried the
    battery down? Or my battery is a weak battery.
     
    mmdir2005, Sep 21, 2006
    #1
  2. mmdir2005

    Seth Guest

    It's entirely because you were playing the stereo with the car not running.

    If you need to do that, then install a 2nd battery (a deep cycle), wire the
    stereo gear to run off that battery and hook that battery to the first with
    a dual battery isolator. This way when the car is running it is charging
    both batteries, but when the car is off the "stereo battery" is not charging
    itself from the "main battery" while it gets used to power the stereo.
     
    Seth, Sep 21, 2006
    #2
  3. mmdir2005

    nm5k Guest

    Well... heck, whatdaya expect.. 600w .. That a lot of power if it's
    truly 600 watts output. But then you have to consider that the rating
    may be for *output*. The input power rating will likely be double or
    more
    that. It's a class A amp.. So lets just say the input power rating
    is 1200w to get 600w out. You are running the amp off the battery
    with the engine off. So lets says the voltage is 12.8 volts as an
    average number. It will actually drop as the battery runs down.
    On peaks, that amp is drawing nearly 94 amps of current.
    Look a the amp hour rating of your battery.. It's probably not a
    heck of a lot more than 100 amps. So your battery life is fairly
    normal. You are going to ruin that battery if you keep doing that.
    Every heavy discharge lowers the capacity a bit. If the battery is
    old, it's not going to be as good either. Like the other guy said,
    you need to run multi batteries, and a deep cycle handles discharges
    better than a regular car battery. But even a deep cycle will last
    longer if you don't discharge it a lot. I have one I run one of my
    radios
    on. I use it here in the house, and also out camping, etc..
    I often run the radios, and also a TV, VCR/DVD player off a converter
    when camping. I keep an eye on my voltage, and charge the batteries
    when needed. I generally don't use the car starter battery to power
    my toys. I don't like getting stuck. I think my current deep cycle is

    a 105 amp hour, but I'd have to get up and look to make sure..
    I keep an automatic charger on it 24/7. It never runs down normally.
    MK
     
    nm5k, Sep 22, 2006
    #3
  4. At full volume ? Do you still hear anything ?
    600 watts / 12 volt = 50 A. So in an hour it would spend about 50Ah. *

    If your car has a gasoline engine, its battery has probably a rating of
    about 40 Ah. So it is not surprising that it discharged.


    * except that the amplifier probably did not use 600 watts. At full
    volume it would use more than that, since it is not 100% efficient.
    At lower volumes it would use less. But it should be in the ballpark.
     
    Rui Pedro Mendes Salgueiro, Sep 22, 2006
    #4
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