Amp rack cooling

[bigevilman]

Hey guys

Just come home from a busy weekend of gigging (actually giggin this afternoon as well!) so I thought I'd ask for some advice. Whilst playing duck and drake in leeds last night, my eden head overheated and went into 'safety' mode where it cut out the backline feed so cool the amp down, protecting the valve.

That was all well and good, but at the time I havent got it DI'd into the PA, as the venue was quite small and i wasnt driving the amp hard....at all! The reason it overheated was due to the massive amount of close range lighting the venue had, so during a song I had to DI my sansamp while the guitarist solo'd. The second set I hid my head behind my cabs to keep it in the shade.

Right...my question! Do any of you have any advice on how to cool down the amp? Maybe some sort of liquid cooling system or maybe some fans to mount in a amp rack?

[wizbat]

I use a rack mounted fan behind each of my heads, you should also make sure that the head has sufficient space for airflow around it, does the amp have it,s own fan? If so work out where the air can be drawn in and where can it escape.

[chris_b]

I haven't had a problem but my amp was getting hot so I brought a 6" clip fan from Wilkinsons (about £6) and put that on the back of the rack.

[chris_b]

[quote name='wizbat' post='918638' date='Aug 8 2010, 11:40 AM']....I use a rack mounted fan behind each of my heads....[/quote]
I was looking for those. What make are they and where did you get them? Cheers.

[Ian Savage]

You need to work out (or find out) which direction the fans in your amp work (if it has them); if they draw air in from the back and spew it out of the front you want to add any extra fans blowing air in from either behind or beneath the amp (not from above, or you'll be blowing the hot air expelled from the amp straight back in). If they pull air in from the front and blow it out the back you first need to make sure there's enough space for the hot air to get out, and have any extra fans blowing cold air into the front and/or blowing ACROSS (not into) the back to get rid of the warm air as quickly as possible.

Of course, if your amp doesn't have fans a/ it is a silly amp b/ that was two minutes of my life wasted, and c/ any extra cooling you can get will be worthwhile, just keep any air you blow going in the same direction!

[Stag]

Does anyone have any suggestions on this topic when considering my amp (SVT 5 Pro) has its fan/heatsink exhaust on the left hand side, with an air INLET at the back?

[Ian Savage]

[quote name='Stag' post='919157' date='Aug 8 2010, 11:40 PM']Does anyone have any suggestions on this topic when considering my amp (SVT 5 Pro) has its fan/heatsink exhaust on the left hand side, with an air INLET at the back?[/quote]

Just remember that hot air rises, so try not to put the amp on top of anything that's blowing warm air out of the back - I take it the SVT's not rackmount if it's got its outlet on the side?!?