Cooling fan

[Mikekid]

Does anyone have a suggestion on a 2 to 4 inch fan I could place inside my stereo cabinet to move the air around. I tried a 3" one from radio shack, but it was VERY noisy.

Thanks!

Mike

[lynnm]

You might be able to use a power supply fan from a computer power supply. Most of these are quite but you will need to have a power adapter for the fan as they run on 12 volts D.C.

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It is meet to recall that the Great Green Heron rarely flies upside down in the moonlight - (Foo Ling ca.1900)

[boa12]

i saw one for around $50 that ran by dc off a control output from like a preamp or receiver (if u have one).

can't remember where though on net.

i just ended up putting more space clearance above the amp. 5" instead of 2" worked wonders.

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My Home Systems Page

[justin_tx_16]

try a computer fan that is said to be silent, they cost ~$30 max.

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-justin

SoundWise Support

A technical help site created by me and my fellow Klipschers

I am an amateur, if it is professional;

ProMedia help you want email Amy or call her @ 1-888-554-5665 or for an RA# 800-554-7724 ext 5

Klipsch Home Audio help you want, email support@klipsch.com or call @ 1-800-KLIPSCH

RA# Fax Number=317-860-9140 / Parts Department Fax Number=317-860-9150s>

[Mikekid]

Thanks! Think I'll try a different computer fan. The 3" one from radio shack was way too loud. Any recommendations on where I could get a guiet one? Boa, I have about 4" clearance between the top of the receiver and the next shelf up, it just gets really warm in there, probably not warm enough to hurt anything though.

Later

Mike

[justin_tx_16]

i would try Fry's Electronics or CompUSA. They have the best supply (for a retail chain). Fry's for sure having more than CompUSA, but CompUSA much more than Best Buy, CIrcuit City or RadioShack. You will be amazed at how cheap they get and how small, and still move a volume of air. You can buy some that are slot loading for computer, they are about the size of a CD drive on the front of the computer and really get the air circulating, and are pretty cheap. Try those, they look nicer. But if you do get the regular fans (they do move more air) I would get two. Put one to blow in at the bottom and one to suck air out at the top. Just an idea, this would really keep things cool. And with a setup like that you don't need fans that are so large or have such a high RPM, you can get some that are a little smaller and slower and still get great performance. And if you want to make a visual out of them... I can show you how to hook LED's up to the fans and make all kinds of cool colored circles (when the fans are on of course)

for the home theater I am making, I had an AC duct brought into the hole in the wall which will be where the rack will be placed.

It will not put heat through during the winter, just so no one warns me of that

hope i could help

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-justin

SoundWise Support

A technical help site created by me and my fellow Klipschers

I am an amateur, if it is professional;

ProMedia help you want email Amy or call her @ 1-888-554-5665 or for an RA# 800-554-7724 ext 5

Klipsch Home Audio help you want, email support@klipsch.com or call @ 1-800-KLIPSCH

RA# Fax Number=317-860-9140 / Parts Department Fax Number=317-860-9150s>

[Mikekid]

Thanks Justin, the next time I go to the big city (Reno), I'll check some of those stores.

Mike

[SOUNDJUNKIE]

Try Jameco, their catalog has quite a few with dBA and CFM ratings. You can order a cat or just go on-line.

[Mighty Favog]

Mike-

BGW makes an animal that just may fill the bill. Take a look at this.

http://www.bgw.com/metals/specifications.asp#VentPanels

Just scroll down till you see fans.

Good luck!

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Tom's Money Pit

This message has been edited by tblasing on 04-23-2002 at 09:19 PM

[Mikekid]

I ordered a Jameco catalog and I will call BGW tomorrow. The BGW setup looks like a winner (once I find out how loud the fan is)

I appreciate the input SOUNDJUNKIE and Tom.

Take care

Mike

[badbob]

Mike,

I faced this same dilema a couple of months ago. I, too, went to RS and bought/returned one of their A/C muffin fans. Too loud! I ended up going to a local electronics supply house here in Dallas (Altex Electronics). They had a whole array of fans. I ended up getting one that had the had a mininmal amount of CFM displacement. Theory: the less CFM, the slower the motor turns, the less noise. After choosing the fan, one of the store employees helped me to find the correct power source for it. (I know "zero" about electricity. You plug something into the wall it should turn on!!) I then soldered the bare leads from the fan to the leads from the power source. And whala, I had a cooling fan. I plugged the power source into one of the switched outlets on the back of my receiver so that the fan comes on whenever I turn the receiver on. Total cost was less than $15.

Hope this helps, someone.

ROCK ON

[Trooper]

I found a good way to get some air movement and keep the fan quiet. Get a fan with a diameter of around 4 inches or so and a voltage rating of 24 volts DC. Now hook the fan up to a 12 volt (or so) DC supply. The motor will now turn a little slower and make much less noise but because of the size of the fan still move enough air to keep things cool.

[boa12]

yea trooper that's like the one i saw. actually can run off a dc output on a receiver or pre/pro. it was all ready just to plug into a dc control output. that's how i like it - no work.

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My Home Systems Page

[WMcD]

If I was doing this. . . and it is consistent with the above.

I'd find two 12 d.c. volt fans and wire them in series. The theory is that fans running at high speed make too much noise. Running them at half voltage and half speed will move almost as much air with much less noise.

All you have to find is a 12 d.c. "wall wart" power supply. That is the black cube which plugs in the wall.

Altex is great, just next to the Addison airport.

Perhaps you can find a knowlegeable person at the local Radio Shack to help you.

Gil

[Mikekid]

Problem here is the Radio Shack in this puny town is in to cell phones and the Dish Network and thats about it! Not much inventory at all.

I'll be heading into the city in a couple of weeks, so I should be able to find what I need there. Thanks to you all, I have plenty of ideas now.

Take care

Mike

[Mighty Favog]

Mike-

I too have been let down more than once by the Shack. Over the last 15 years or so it has become increasingly hard to find someone there that has an actual clue about what their doing. I fondly remember the days when any given employee there could grab a bunch of parts (transistors, capacitors, resistors and the like) off the pegboards and assemble a working radio or motion detector right in front or you. It seemed most of these types of people were also going to college for electrical engineering degrees or at least enrolled in some electronics vocational class at their high school.

Now I'm lucky to find someone who can look at a flashlight and tell me what batteries it takes.

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Tom's Money Pit

This message has been edited by tblasing on 04-20-2002 at 10:59 PM

[HDBRbuilder]

I have a humble suggestion on the installation of cooling fans into audio cabinets.

In my experience with amplifiers using "whisper" fans to assist in the cooling of the heat sinks, most of the higher quality ones did NOT BLOW air across the heat sinks, but instead DREW the air across them in the manner of an exhaust fan. IMHO, the reasoning for this was better efficiency in the movement of the air across the heat sinks and greater dispersion of the heated air AWAY from its source of heat.

For many years I have been building custom cabinetry and doing custom fine woodworking. On every occassion that I have been called upon to build a custom "built-in" home entertainment center or audio cabinet, I have incorporated removeable louvered panels in the "kickboards" at the base of the cabinets. Behind these were cloth filters that could be easily vacuumed.

Toward the front center of each bottom shelf was a routed opening, with the next higher shelf having its routed opening toward the rear center..and so forth and so on... to the top of the cabinet which had routed openings in it, accepting two smalll whisper fans per column, that were exhausting the heated air upward.

In some cases there was some open space above the cabinet, in others there was crown moulding installed at the cabinet top/ceiling. Whenever there was crown moulding installed in this manner, it was provided with 1/8" slots routed into the deeper areas of the moulding for the length of its span over each "equipment column" of each cabinet, these slots stopping for a distance of about 1" at each point just above the end of each column in order to provide support and to eliminate the slots closing together.....these slots gave more than enough flow to easily exhaust the heated area out of the area between the cabinet and the ceiling behind the moulding.

Also, due to the slots in the shelves alternating from front to rear on each shelf, it forced the air to flow across the equipment on each shelf helping to pick up the heat from that equipment....all of this heated air naturally rising with a healthy assist, and drawing into the cabinet cool air from floor level.

Keep in mind that these cabinets had good glass paneled doors on them, which forced the air flow to zig-zag upwards through the slots in the shelves, with minimal air being drawn into the cabinet from around the door edges

Another added benefit of having those whisper fans at exhausting at the top of the cabinet was that the little bit of noise they made was not even noticed.

I hope this idea has been of some help.