Speaker wire question?

Hey all,

Would really appreciate your input on something as I am pretty new to this stuff and learning.

I'm doing this cooler speaker build, and have been kind of following a YT video to do so (have purchased the same products he used in the build etc.). He seems to know what he's talking about as he's done a lot of these type of builds.

The set up consists of two 5.25" 90 watt speakers, and one 8" 400 watt sub. These will be powered by a small 8.3ah 12V battery.

MY QUESTION: he uses 18 AWG wire for this system (including the sub). Will 18 gauge wire be good enough for the subwoofer? My initial thought was I would need 16 AWG, and was a little surprised to see he used 18 for everything. Does the 18 work for this set up (including the subwoofer) because 1. they are really short runs (1.5ft) and 2. has a really small power source?

Or should I ignore what he used, and get 16 AWG? I have a bunch of 18 laying around, so if it would  https://vidmate.onl/ work I would prefer to use it over buying a new spool.

Thank you in advance for you knowledge and wisdom. I really appreciate it!!

I got this,...

If you have lots of 18 gauge wire, cut 4 lengths of wire to the lengths you need.  Take a pair and twist the ends to make one wire set and then do the same to the other pair.  You now have two speaker cable of an equivalent 15 gauge.  An 18 AWG  has a wire cross section area of 0.823 mm2.  Put 2 together yields an 1.646 area.  (I did this on 12 AGW cable yielding an approximately 9 gauge speaker cable and was an improvement for my subwoofers.)

All depends on length..

It's fine, but it's rare I use anything less than 16 gauge. 

Also, check out DIYaudio for questions like this, lots of helpful builders there.

18 wire is good for 17 amps max and about three amps for power transmission. That battery spec indicates a power consumption of 0.1kwh which is the same as a 100 watt bulb on for an hour. So the amperage drawn is less than one amp. Appears that even 18ga is overkill.

If the wire quality is the same, there's no harm in using larger gauge....might even be some benefit.

Parallel the 18g to the sub if in doubt.