Is it safe to use a higher amperage rating fuse?


Today was my 2nd attempt at trying out Synergistic Research fuses.  About 3 years ago when I had separates, including mono block amps, I bought a set of Blue fuses.  One component had a mfg spec of 250mA and the retailer said go with 315mA.  My two mono block amps each had a 6.3A.  When I installed them one of them blew upon powering up.  The retailer said we should go up to the next rating.  I was a bit frustrated at the experience and didn't feel comfortable putting higher values in my expensive components.  I felt these expensive fuses should be made to tighter tolerances than the cheap BUSS fuses I had been using.  If I remember correctly, that was the actual argument that the dealer told me.  They are mfg to tighter tolerances so a 5A SR fuse was almost dead-on 5A while a cheap fuse may actually be 5.3A or whatever.  This also was a bit confusing at the time so I sent them all back.

Okay...3 years have passed and now I have a single integrated amp which has a 5A fuse.  Much less to invest in the upgrade so I ordered an Orange.  It came in today...installed....pressed power...on and off went the amp.  DAMN!!  I contacted the retailer and SR on the same email.  This was a different dealer from 3 years ago.  The retailer said I should go to the next value up.  I said no and and they are waiting for the tracking info of my return shipment.

I did a quick search of my question before posting and saw a thread about the Red fuses and someone said they had to do the exact same thing.  Is everyone putting higher rated fuses in their gear that is worth thousands of dollars?  Is there no risk in this?  I admit that I don't know what could actually happen from that.  It seems that other things could burn up if a higher amperage fuse is in place.  I am compelled to simply stick to the mfg specs for something that I don't understand because I don't want to create problems just from a simple tweak.

Should I let them ship me a 6.3A or just be done with this?
dhite71
If only common sense were actually common..... the whole point of the fuse is to not burn your house down. Has nothing to do with protecting your precious expensive equipment. For proof of that look no further than all the millions of people who have blown resistors, tubes, transistors, fill in the blank, and not blown a fuse. Look how many amps fail while the fuse is just fine. That is not what they are there for. They do not protect against surges. All they are designed to do is in the event of some dramatic short that might cause the component to go up in flames the current draw will cause the fuse to blow first. 

That is all.  

Once you understand this then, oh but wait no common sense.

Okay, try again. Why does the fuse blow in the first place? They are all made out of very thin wire. The idea is the thin wire gets hot and burns out first. Without the fuse if for any reason the component draws more current than it is wired to handle, well at that point a whole lot of wires could just possibly get hot enough to start a fire. The whole point of the fuse is to blow before this happens. 

Committees and politicians and fire departments - pretty much everyone but audiophiles - then gets involved and that is how we wind up with all these screwy tiny little amperage ratings, in a hundred different values, when really all we need is one wire somewhere that will blow before the rest get hot enough to burn. 

Me being one of the few actually has common sense, when mine blew I didn't go up one baby step I doubled the damn thing. Why not? There are guys soldering wires straight across simply because it sounds better. I think it is great Synergistic will replace for free any that you blow. But I don't like the hassle and I know there is ZERO RISK so I bump em all up. Some of em are probably 3x, 4x whatever the stock fuse was.  

We now return you to our regularly scheduled neuroticism.
I would think you should have gotten the message by now. Making reliable accurate fuses requires a lot knowledge, science and experience which little companies can not afford. Go out and get a tin of Buss fuses the right size and be happy, you will not find a better fuse anywhere. If anyone thinks those designer fuses improve sound quality it is purely psychological. Spend your money on better equipment not garbage like designer fuses and cable elevators. 
Me being one of the few actually has common sense, when mine blew I didn't go up one baby step I doubled the damn thing. Why not? There are guys soldering wires straight across simply because it sounds better.

I highly recommend that you DO NOT do this.  This kind of thing is never good advice.  Anything you do similar is AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Fuses (and circuit breakers) are rated such that they blow or trip before any part of the circuit gets to a dangerous current. You rate the fuse or breaker based on the lowest current rating of all the devices and wires in the circuit .

In your case, the manufacturer of the connection unit determined (somehow) that the "weakest link" in that circuit can only draw 5A before it exceeds its limits. Putting in a 13A fuse would thus allow that weakest link to draw almost 3 times what it may be designed to, which leads to increased heat and then fires.

If you double the size of the fuse, there is a small risk that the fuse will not blow if the transformer and circuit are not large enough to pull the amount of current the fuse is rated for (even if there is a short).  This is similar to the scenario where an amp is pushed so hard that it clips (essentially runs out of gas because the transformer/power supply is not large enough to supply the expected current).
" Me being one of the few actually has common sense "
Talk about an inflated ego!