Subwoofer caught fire while in standby?!!

[tcarcio]

It was a problem with the amps ED was useing. The same thing happened to me and that was after I asked them to replace it. Alex said I shouldn't have a problem and would not replace it unless I did. Well about a month later I came downstairs and could smell something, sure enough the cap burned up sometime during the night. They did repair it but the sub was down for about 2 weeks. After that I sold it and built my own and I'm glad I did.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I was wondering the same thing, but I think the wires on the original plate amp were a tad bit longer. The only thing I can think of is they put the amp and sub in before they finished building the cabinet.

You mean they would do the finishing part with the amp and driver in place?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Sometimes, the woofer can be tipped into the opening to connect the wires. Needle nose pliers work, too.

If the driver mounts on the outside the furthest point into the box is the magnet area and just under it is where I have seen many of the terminals. But if the terminal is lower, closer to the perimeter of the driver, then yes, that part can be inside the opening and be reached.
But, a curious event, non the less shipping with such short wires on an amp that was known to be installed in a specific sub.

 

[mike c]

i doubt they finish the sub with the amp and woofer in it.

but if you had four hands or there's two of you, it would be easy to connect the short wires. i didn't have four hands so i just extended the wires

 

[mtrycrafts]

... i didn't have four hands so i just extended the wires

Yep, the simple solution

 

[tedhontz]

eD LT/550 also catches on fire!

Ok, i bought an eD A5-350 amp but I got the upgraded LT/550 amp instead of the LT/350 amp and it is now char-broiled! But it gets better! The LT/550 tag fell off my plate amp and it says LT/350 under it! WTF! So they send me a so-called new plate amp but it has a missing screw, loose bolt, and fingerprints all over it. Oh yeah it also says LT/350 which is not what I paid for. I installed it and my sub sounds terrible immediately which is most likely from being damaged when the original amp caught on fire! But this amp shuts off all the time when hardly being driven at all! The company has now been refusing to deal with my issue. They claimed it was out of warranty until I found paperwork to prove it was not. They want me to go from a 550 watt amp to a 300 watt LT300 amp because it's supposedly the "fix" for the problematic amp. But they don't want to give me money back to downgrade from 550 watts to 300 watts....NO, they want me to pay them $125! WTF AGAIN! I'm filing a small claims suit against them and I just wanted to warn everyone against this fishy company. Come on....they ship products out that don't even have model numbers on them! Junk!!!!

 

[mike c]

Ok, i bought an eD A5-350 amp but I got the upgraded LT/550 amp instead of the LT/350 amp and it is now char-broiled! But it gets better! The LT/550 tag fell off my plate amp and it says LT/350 under it! WTF! So they send me a so-called new plate amp but it has a missing screw, loose bolt, and fingerprints all over it. Oh yeah it also says LT/350 which is not what I paid for. I installed it and my sub sounds terrible immediately which is most likely from being damaged when the original amp caught on fire! But this amp shuts off all the time when hardly being driven at all! The company has now been refusing to deal with my issue. They claimed it was out of warranty until I found paperwork to prove it was not. They want me to go from a 550 watt amp to a 300 watt LT300 amp because it's supposedly the "fix" for the problematic amp. But they don't want to give me money back to downgrade from 550 watts to 300 watts....NO, they want me to pay them $125! WTF AGAIN! I'm filing a small claims suit against them and I just wanted to warn everyone against this fishy company. Come on....they ship products out that don't even have model numbers on them! Junk!!!!

we get your point, don't bump up anymore threads.

the only reason you've been given the benefit of the doubt is because i've been there done that with eD. (and i pretty much believe you, but don't like spam)

 

[audiohonic65]

Oh! that sound's really strange but making some sense to me. Better to take care before similar happens.. strange though

 

[djm1k0]

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life here however i feel that i have to share this and see what to do if anything in the way of holding somebody accountable for this. Last night my wife and i were about to go to bed but then decided to watch one more show on TV. About halfway through the show we were like whats that smell, smells like something is burning, we looked across out living room to see a haze of smoke.... well took us a little while to pinpoint where it was coming from mind you i also have a 2 year daughter who was asleep. As it turns out it was my Elemental Designs As-250 Subwoofer.... smoke was billowing out of the sub port hole.... so i quickly unplugged it, took it outside and unscrewed the panel that holds the controls and board.... sure enough it was on FIRE... !! WTF !! We had the sub behind a chair also near a rug... had we not decided to stay up to watch that show... my house would have been on fire putting my entire families lives in danger as well as my house....This isn't good. I paid a good amount of money for this sub thinking it was a quality product, now the company is out of business, i'm out money for the sub and almost burned my house down... where do i go from here ? can somebody be held accountable ? or is my only option to suck it up as a loss and count my blessings we didn't burn our house down ? I've attached some pics of the board where it is burnt... can it be fixed if i took it to a stereo / TV / speaker repair place ?

 

[TLS Guy]

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life here however i feel that i have to share this and see what to do if anything in the way of holding somebody accountable for this. Last night my wife and i were about to go to bed but then decided to watch one more show on TV. About halfway through the show we were like whats that smell, smells like something is burning, we looked across out living room to see a haze of smoke.... well took us a little while to pinpoint where it was coming from mind you i also have a 2 year daughter who was asleep. As it turns out it was my Elemental Designs As-250 Subwoofer.... smoke was billowing out of the sub port hole.... so i quickly unplugged it, took it outside and unscrewed the panel that holds the controls and board.... sure enough it was on FIRE... !! WTF !! We had the sub behind a chair also near a rug... had we not decided to stay up to watch that show... my house would have been on fire putting my entire families lives in danger as well as my house....This isn't good. I paid a good amount of money for this sub thinking it was a quality product, now the company is out of business, i'm out money for the sub and almost burned my house down... where do i go from here ? can somebody be held accountable ? or is my only option to suck it up as a loss and count my blessings we didn't burn our house down ? I've attached some pics of the board where it is burnt... can it be fixed if i took it to a stereo / TV / speaker repair place ?

Since the company is out if business, you have no redress. It did not burn your house down, so there is no issue there.

The power supply is blown, and no it can not be fixed. Why would you want to fix it? A unit that does that belongs in the recycling center and not in the home.

Those switching power supplies in subs are known for trouble. We field more posts about failed subs than any other point of failure by far.

Go the the SVS or HSU sites and pick yourself another sub.

 

[j_garcia]

What he said unfortunately. Since there was no actual damage, you have nothing to be compensated for. The sub would likely have been out of warranty at this point even if they were still in business, so there's a good chance they wouldn't have done anything besides sell you another amp as well. They certainly aren't the only company to have this problem either. The amp on my current sub fried after almost 2 years of service and was replaced under warranty. My buddy's sub caught on fire similar to yours and he was lucky that he had just gotten home to catch it otherwise it could have burned his house down too. JBL offered him some money toward a new sub from them.

 

[TLS Guy]

What he said unfortunately. Since there was no actual damage, you have nothing to be compensated for. The sub would likely have been out of warranty at this point even if they were still in business, so there's a good chance they wouldn't have done anything besides sell you another amp as well. They certainly aren't the only company to have this problem either. The amp on my current sub fried after almost 2 years of service and was replaced under warranty. My buddy's sub caught on fire similar to yours and he was lucky that he had just gotten home to catch it otherwise it could have burned his house down too. JBL offered him some money toward a new sub from them.

Interesting. Those sub power supplies have bothered me for a long time. I think when shopping for a sub, one of the questions to ask is, does the amp have a mains/power transformer? Personally, I would always look for one that did and I admit that is the minority of subs, so it limits choice.

I would recommend that subs with transformerless switching power supplies be unplugged when not is use.

 

[djm1k0]

hmm ok, well i'm glad i shared it with everyone anyways... it was a wake up call for me, and something i wouldn't have thought to be such a hazard... sadly i'm going to miss my sub as i don't have the $$ to purchase a new one anytime soon. but at least the fire wasn't bad and no one was hurt...

 

[TLS Guy]

hmm ok, well i'm glad i shared it with everyone anyways... it was a wake up call for me, and something i wouldn't have thought to be such a hazard... sadly i'm going to miss my sub as i don't have the $$ to purchase a new one anytime soon. but at least the fire wasn't bad and no one was hurt...

Convert it to a passive sub, and get yourself a power amp on eBay. There are pages of them for all budgets.

 

[djm1k0]

how do you do that ? Safely i mean

 

[TLS Guy]

how do you do that ? Safely i mean

Buy an amp of the correct power. Most are two channel which will be fine. You will use one channel.

Remove the driver and make a hole for speaker terminals on the back of the sub. You can get them from Parts express or Madisound. Disconnect the woofer from the burnt amp. Connect the driver to the speaker terminals. Reinstall the driver. Make sure you leave the old burnt out amp in place. Remove the power cord though.

Now connect your input amp to the LFE out of your receiver, just one channel, and connect the correct speaker terminal to the new speaker terminals on your sub. Now you are ready to do your set up.