Kicker KMT6 Tower speaker problem

[Oklahoma Breakdown]

So for a long time now ... and by long I mean almost two years I have had what I thought was intermittent "phasing out" of my amp on my Tower Speakers. Phil has been awesome in painting me a picture of just how these need to be hooked up. After the last time I went out and the speakers stopped working I got to thinking there had to be something else wrong. So for each box there are 2 mids and a center horn and my mids kept going out. This almost always seemed to happen when we were surfing for some reason and I thought maybe the amp was getting too hot, incorrect crossover or something.
So I took the speakers down yesterday and opened them up and found them full of water .
I want to say I have been very happy with my kicker system and after looking at the seals do not think it was a defect in workmanship. The only thing I can figure is that over time when spraying down the boat it has accumulated through the middle horn opening? Anyway so as I would have the boat ramped up in surf mode the water was sloshing over the transistors and creating a short. my question is...any hope for these? THey are badly corroded and currently inoperable. I have them opened up and drying out but not sure if there is anything I can do.



You can see rust on just about eveything. Not sure if I could just replace the transistors or do I need to bite the bullet and replace the whole system?

[philwsailz]

Brian-

You know what? I am real surprised to hear that they had water in them. That tells me you didn't have the "inflating KMT6" issue that we discovered last year, where the speakers would inflate with a change in air temp, pushing the cones out... Some of the KMT6's delivered prior to our manufacturing revision would inflate so much that you literally thought that the mids would jump right out of the enclosure!

I really wonder where the water was coming from????? Anyway...

Let those dry out for a few days and put them back together. I honestly think they will work still for you, just as original! The electronic parts in a crossover are of a fairly robust high-voltage variety, and they should work just fine, as I doubt the water can do any permanent damage like it can in a head unit or an amplifier.

You might consider drilling a VERY TINY hole, right in the gasket seam area where the two halves mate, right at the lowest point of the enclosures when they are hanging on the tower. That will allow the water to drip out, rather than accumulating.
I think the only place where the rust might cause a problem would be in the voice-coil gap of the midrange motors, if enough eccumulated where it would start rubbing the voice coils and shorting them out.

Let me know how that works, pm me or post here.

Phil
Kicker

[Oklahoma Breakdown]

LOL, that would be funny to see them inflate like that. When I pulled them apart the seal material looked fantastic. It was still gummy and not dried out. While I dont directly spray the front of the enclosure when washing the boat I thought maybe water was coming in through the horn area. Is that airtight?

Anyway, i hope you are correct and I will let you know how they turn out. When they are working they sound Bad A**

[philwsailz]

I am not sure about this, but just a suggestion:

When re-assembling them, see if you can put the face on upside-down, so that the crossover circuit is on the top of the horn rather than the bottom. I do not know if we polarized the face mounting, but if it can be put on that way, the crossover will not have a chance of standing in water! It will be interesting to know if that works out.

try it and let me know-

Phil
Kicker

[Oklahoma Breakdown]

You can barely see it on that first photo but there is a unit on the top and the bottom. Both look the same. I am going to drill out a tiny drain hole.
However it got in there this had to happen very slowly over a long period of time. Going to try them out here in a bit.....