What fuse does your psu cable use?

centauri

centauri

centauri

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3 Jan 2009
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17
When I checked the kettle cables from my 2 pcs I had a 13A fuse in one and 5A fuse in the other.

What should be the correct fuse to use?

What fuse does your psu cable use?

Thanks
 
Strange that some psu's have 13A fuses in them when 5A is enough to provide 1.15KW of power, would have thought that is a safety hazard.

Just put in the lowest rated fuse that provides the power of your psu + 20%, which in most cases is 3A.
 
Use a 3A fuse, if you have a very power hungy system (500w+ actual power draw) you may need a 5A one. If you have one of those crazy 1.5kw PSUs and actually use most of its capacity you'll need a 10A fuse. A 13A would do in a pinch but the PSUs IEC connector is only rated for 10A.

edit: before anyone tells me 10A fuses don't exist, they do... they're not very common though. Manufacturers should be using them for 'kettle' leads but I guess 13A's are easier to source... :P
 
^ A 10A fuse will blow when used with a 3KW kettle. :p

5A is fine, 13A is fine also, just don't use 3A. :)

I've blown 3A fuses before due to high inrush current... Not all PSU's have soft start...
 
ChrisLX200 said:
3 or 5 at most - However if you like a big bang when your PSU expires then by all means go for a 13A.
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Makes no difference to how big a bang it makes!

Fuses are only there to protect the cables, nothing else! Wont save your PSU or your PC from a mains voltage fault as they're inherant disconnetion time is too long to prevent damage should the fault occur across the transformer... In theory (and mostly practice) if your house is compliant with recent wiring regs your RCD/RCCB/RCBO on your consumer unit should go out before a plugtop fuse has time to blow in the event of a PSU failure.
 
used to work for a company building pcs and we were only ever allowed to use 5a, all the 13a fuses were binned. me i'm not really bothered either way.

MW
 
Lumeycom said:
Makes no difference to how big a bang it makes!

Fuses are only there to protect the cables, nothing else! Wont save your PSU or your PC from a mains voltage fault as they're inherant disconnetion time is too long to prevent damage should the fault occur across the transformer... In theory (and mostly practice) if your house is compliant with recent wiring regs your RCD/RCCB/RCBO on your consumer unit should go out before a plugtop fuse has time to blow in the event of a PSU failure.
Click to expand...

Recently had new house wiring, but 12months prior to that I had an Enermax 650 blow up. First, it quietly blew a 3A fuse, then a 13A fuse (only one I had left to try it with) caused fireworks. There was no damage to other components luckily (Enermax being well protected) but with cheaper PSUs might be a different story and a big bang could arc directly to the rails. Not had another go since the new consumer unit so will have to see. I can't see the point in running with a fuse rated higher than required whether using a RCD device or not, it's also not a requirement to have RCDs at all unless the wiring is new.
 
Merely saying a fuse is provided to protect the cables from overload and fire, not to protect the connected equipment nor the user ;) As far as british standards go 13a and kettle leads is just fine :)
 
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