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I have been using HIFI Tuning fuses for a while in all my equiptment.
I rearly use the power switches on the equipment, except for the mono blocs, as I power up everything else by turning on the Exactpower.
Anyway I just got a new CD player, and wanted to leave it on in repeat mode to burnin. So I turned off the preamp and other stuff individually.
When I returned the next day and fliped the switch on the preamp nothing happened, it was dead. I removed the fuse and tested it, it was open.
I replaced it with one of the regular cheap ones and everything was fine again, I played the system for a couple hours.
The next day I said, maybe that HIFI one was just defective, so let me put in another one I had from the old CD player I just sold.
I plucked out the cheapo and stuck in the $29.95 silver filament, gold end one, and as I engaged the rocker switch the lovely blue LED on the front panel just winked at me once.
Another $29.95 up in smoke.
I put the cheapo back in, played the system for hours and thats where that cheap fuse is staying.
I am not sure whats going on with that particular switch, fuse, preamp PS. Maybe the switch causes too much surge when power is applied so close to that fuse, as they never blew when I used the conditioner to turn on everything.
Maybe the silver filament just cann't handle all applications.
Either way, I think I will stick to the cheaper ones.
AB.
Follow Ups:
How 'stiff' a power supply are you operating, i.e. how many uF per rail ? You must remember that a capacitor acts as a dead short until it has reached 2/3 of its'full charge. One solution would be to add a 'soft start' circuit consisting of a 120v dpdt delay relay and a pair of 40-50 ohm R's. Wire the relay so that upon start up of the equipment the R is between the tfmr. secondary and the power supply in each channel. Set the delay of the relay for about 5 seconds with the second poles of the relay bypassing the R in each channel. At start up the R will pad the circuit limiting the current flow to the power supply. After the 5 second delay the relay cycles and bypasses the padding R's. It would also be a good idea to install a 250v 0.01 uF ceramic cap accross the contacts in the relay (4 required) to prevent arcing between contactcs as the relay cycles, greatly prolonging the life of the relay. These relays are available on the surplus market for under $10.
I have heard it said that in most cases you can (and perhaps should for sonic reasons) substitute a slightly higher fuse value (like one step up) than the one the manufacturer specified. Fuses are designed to protect circuits from damage and usually spec'd to run right at the ragged edge of failure, particularly slow blow fuses. When the circuit is operating near the maximum, the fuse wire heats up resulting in more resistance at the fuse. This higher and varying resistance at the fuse compromises the performance of the circuit.
Anyway when a fuse should fail isn't it most often due to what, from the fuse's perspective, is a dramatic or catastrophic overload or short, which would also cause a slightly higher rated fuse to "blow?"
I think you are painting with too wide a brush. I have never had an IsoClean fuse blow.
What does the distributor for the HIFI fuse say about this "sensitivity" issue?
I am talking about HIFI tuning fuses from Germany. Same 1amp value, same fast blow. I have never used a Isoclean, they are only slow blow.
AB.
Yes the same was found by Modwright (preamp) users. The Modwright has a large initial power-on draw, and it also was blowing some exotic fuses, but not the particlular brand it ships with.
The recommended workaround as to use the exact type it ships with. Another non-recommended solution is to use one of the exotic fuses of a slightly higher rating. However this could lead to trouble as the higher value fuse might be in spec to its blow rating. And if a sitution arises where it needs to blow, it might damage your equipment before it does.
Another fuse tweak is to tighten the clip strength of the holder by deforming it inwards first, cleaning the fuse contacts, adding a small amount of contact enhancer to the fuse, then using a small amount of heat-shrink around the fuse holder, which clenches the clips together even more tightly and it vibrationally dampens the fuse/fuse holder assembly.
You are correct different fuse materials have different "blow" charactistics.
I wrote something here a year or two ago about fuses material blow characteristics and how they sounded.
I suspect the unit really needs a slow blow fuse to allow for the power-on surge and the reason they dont blow when you power on the power-station is that it cant deliver the full surge current at powerup to blow the fuses.
Chris
So with the power already sitting at the switch, the surge is greater than when the Exactpower is turned on from a cold start to power everything? Hmmm, still sticking with the cheap one, the difference in sound doesn't justify the cost.
AB.
"So with the power already sitting at the switch, the surge is greater than when the Exactpower is turned on from a cold start to power everything?"Um, the power isn't "sitting at the switch". Current/voltage does not flow from the outlet in your PC until the switch on the component is engaged that then allows the circuit to "draw" power from the PC or from the wall outlet, for that matter. In addition, the component/circuit will only "draw" what power is needed to operate the circuit.
If your using your PC to power up all the components in your system at one time, your initial power draw at start up will be vastly greater than if U powered up each component sequencially/seperately.
"Hmmm, still sticking with the cheap one, the difference in sound doesn't justify the cost"
If a fuse is manufactured to a specified rated current draw/flash over voltage, then it stands to reason that it wouldn't matter what the conductive metal or fuse element is made of, it should blow when the capacity has been exceeded.
Still, your observations with regards to the fuses do induce some thought pondering.........
Cheers
"If your using your PC to power up all the components in your system at one time, your initial power draw at start up will be vastly greater than if U powered up each component sequencially/seperately."
If thats the case, why doesn't they blow when I power up everything from the power conditioner.
AB.
I think you missed the point i was trying to make.
Kenster is correct at the intial current drawn by each component is higher when each device is powered up separatly. But the combined current delivered to each component when they are all swiched on and the powerstation switch is thrown is some what limited by the powerstation unit itself, hence each component is not able to draw the full inital current surge from it, so the current to the devices is not as high at this intail stage. The actual current surge can be many times the the running current (depending on the individual devices power supply's design).
But I agree at $25 a punt they are not worth it imo.
btw
fast blow fuses are in the 10-50msec range
slow blows are about 250-500ms.
fuseology is a bit of science in itself using different materials ranging from nickel, mild steel, tungstun steel to bronze,brass and copper,silver and gold and there alloys. So the chances are that each has a different sound on different equipment. (not that my toaster seems to care:).
Chris
I have mono tube amps that eat ceramic fuses. I put in the glass slow blow and everything is fine. Same value, both slo blow.
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