Blowing Fuses. Dennis Had Inspire 300B SET


I was disappointed this evening, as I was listening and all of a sudden I blew a fuse, and I don’t have a manual. I don’t know if the fuse is a fast blowing fuse, or a slow blowing fuse. The one in there is a two amp, and the fuse itself is a zigzag not a straight fuse I replaced it. And it blew again and I saw the rectifier tube had a reaction when I turned it back on. Does anyone have any experience and can anyone give me some advice thank you. 

128x128Ag insider logo xs@2xmoose89

Yes. Thanks. I did, and it toasted another one, stopping the others I guess from warming up. It is self-biasing amp. 
 

to be honest, I have two tube amps, and it’s the first time I’ve ever been listening in the middle of a session and for the first time with this Dennis had amplifier, that the amplifier failed or any amplifier turned off so I guess that’s the way it works when that happens. 

I am not sure about the 2amp fuses? Is it right to have a SLOW BLOW fuse as the main fuse? It looks like that is what was present since I bought it used?

Power fuses are usually slow blow. 2A sounds reasonalble but 3A would not be unusual. 2A is 240 watts. Your amp will pull more current warming up and may actually pull more than 2A for a slort time, thus the slo blow.

I would try a 3A slo blow but first I would replace all tubes. the cause of fuse blows in tube amps is almost always a bad tube. The first suspect was the rectifier because you saw an anomaly there, but it could have been challenged because of a short in one of the tubes it powers. I always have spare tubes, maybe not a spare set of my premium high quality tubes but a spare set of cheap but known good tubes.

Sizing a fuse by the OEM is not generally the precision engineering that you would think. the signal path is carefully constructed with components chosen carefully to achieve the desired result. but the fuse sizing is often a bit of kentucky windage as the designer balances protection of the component with reliable power to the component. some OEMs will put more margin between operating current and fuse current than others.

Even if you try a 3A fuse and it works, I’d try to figure out what changed and fix it. that is harder with autobias. If, on the other hand, you have a short in a tube or similar fault, the 3A will blow just as fast as the 2A.

I like manual bias, partly because you can look at the tube current for each tube.

good luck

Jerry

If the rectifier is what initially failed look for a capacitor linked to the rectifier and then check its condition.

DeKay