Opinions On Fuses vs. Circuit Breakers ... (NOT a brand "vs." thread)

[Sutliff]

Personal opinions, or factual info, on fuses - whether round, barrel-type or ANL, etc. - vs. circuit breaker use in car audio ...??

[S15_Silvia]

Every time a circuit breaker trips, the amp load at which it will later trip goes down slightly. This is because the nature of a breaker- they're based on how hot a piece of current-carrying metal inside them gets. Repeated heat cycles of the metal results in lower tolerances each time.

[Ballen194]

ive never used breakers but only have heard stories of problems like tripping before a rated load hits it etc. just stick to your basic anl fuse and forget about it.

[SnowDrifter]

Fuses, by design, are failure proof. It is impossible for it to not work.

Breakers on the other hand, can fail. Not common, but not unheard of.

Plus fuses are cheaper. Unless you have a specific application where you are constantly applying and cutting power to a circuit, use a fuse. If you need a switch you can get some fuse blocks that make fuse removal very easy. Or you can get a manually operated battery switch/isolator. Would serve the same function as a breaker but with the reliability of a fuse.

[STEALTH808]

breakers that fail are common. ive changed quite a few from customers cars.

[Rockford96]

Every time a circuit breaker trips, the amp load at which it will later trip goes down slightly. This is because the nature of a breaker- they're based on how hot a piece of current-carrying metal inside them gets. Repeated heat cycles of the metal results in lower tolerances each time.

huh i never knew that thanks for putting that out there man!