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Amp Life expectancy

ah1966ah1966 Posts: 2
in Crown Amplifiers

For a house of worship that is continuously running CDI-1000 amps 24/7, what kind of life expectancy to expect from these amps if powered and not used?

Comments

  • ArtieD2ArtieD2 Posts: 3

    Electrical things, in general, prefer to be left on all the time. As opposed to being switched on and off constantly. You have a very good chance of them outlasting amps that continually have their power cycled.

  • ah1966ah1966 Posts: 2
    The reason I am asking I’ve got 3 out the 5 amps fail after being powered for about 4 years continuously without being turned off. Is that expected from these amps
  • tech_lawyertech_lawyer Posts: 1

    Though I've found crown to be an excellent & reputable product,
    Yes. This, unfortunately, is exactly what I've experienced with this exact same amp model. My history with both the CDI's & CTS series have been a wasteful loss at best. Here in Nevada, I've seen more of these die in our casino installs than I've seen people lose money. Between just 3 properties I'm averaging 7or 8 failures out of 10. Typically within 4yrs, some 2-3yrs. Guess that warranty was WELL TIMED, eh?

    We are seriously taking a HUGE RISK on all the newly purchased DriveCores. The ONLY reason we went with crown again is due to economy. The costs involved in ordering several dozen (per purchase) of the equivalent PowerSoft amps for EACH phase of our swap-outs, would be ridiculous. Now, Multiply that times several phases of replacement for each property, and multiply THAT by three properties.....

    We may as well become controlling shareholder of PowerSoft.

    Sadly, it's easier for us to toss the deceased crown amps into a closet & replace them one at a time from our local dealer. Then we just pay to have them all sent to the local disposal company when the closet gets full. BTW, that closet is about 300sq/ft.

    Never did hear from anyone at Harmon/Crown regarding any recall(s) until the backache of throwing out more than a hundred CDI's & CTS's made me do a little Google search.

    Moral of the story.... Never buy any product in quantity until after you've talked to other experienced owners.
    Crown certainly is not the only manufacturer with these types of failures (albeit, moreso after the Harmon acquisition.....hmmm).
    Sh & it happens. Especially with the newest first run (or every revision... Wink, wink) of new technology.

    Sadly, I've seen alot of mysterious “dead-ends“ to certain topics on Harmon's forums. A bit obvious when it comes to the meticulous manner of housecleaning done on these forums. A lot of great topics on tech issues/failures suddenly, just... end. At least they are kind enough to put:
    “please speak with a Harmon rep BLAH, -coverup- BLAH, BLAH...“

    There's better places for 'some' answers than here.
    But, it never hurts to talk to a Harmon rep. There are some great folks still working at Crown. One fella (who's name I forget [sorry] ), saved my ass when my $130,000 investment in those ”lovely“ i-Tech 6000's went to crap. They wouldn't take them back. But they ensured I didn't need to sell them on eBay for a few more years.

    Good luck my friend

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