cooling fans

Capt_Cully

Capt_Cully

Active member
I'm planning on 3 or 4, 4" fans. Anyone know a good source or brand to look for (no icecaps, too much $$$)?

Any reference on how to wire them into a single plug would be appreciated greatly as well.

Thanks!
 
PC supply stores are the way to go. Newegg, tigerdirect, etc. You'll need a power supply on the cheap and I'd suggest mpja.com for that. Since I know noise is an issue for you, lookup the decibel rating on whatever fan you choose. Scythe makes some stupid quiet fans, but they're a little pricey... You can either put the 4 fans in series and buy a 48V power supply. Connect each red to black and then leave one pair (red/black) unconnected and hooke that to the power supply. Or you run the fans in parallel with each red tied together and connected to the + terminal and each black tied together and connected to the - terminal. I'd go with a parallel setup for redundancy.
 
look for Computerfans with low RPM's they usually are quieter. If you have room for 5" fans you can get really quiet ones for not too much money ($20 each)

Waffleman
 
I run these fans, powered by a transformer similar to this one. The fans I ordered, the transformer I bought from Radio Shack. The fans are all spliced into the single cord and plugged into the same timer that control my lights.

They have a soft hum, but are not audible from more than a few feet away.
 
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I like the plug n play aspect, but I don't want to take up 4 slots on my DC 8. I'm sure most of these options are quiet, but I appreciate the technical input. My old Maristar fixture's 3 inchers sounded like a jet air liner. By comparison, I'm sure most will suffice. They all get noisier as the dust collects, but those Maristar's, whoo!
 
Mine is one outlet too. The daisy chain together. Get the wire covers and they don't collect any dust so far. Each connector has an input and output molex connecter. That power supply can easily handle 6 fans. They sell a 5 amp ac dc for $5 more.
 
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Let me know what you finally did with this...
When I started purchasing parts for the LED fixture I had plans for, I looked into a lot of fans. I'll try to dig up what I purchased. I spent a lot of time looking into so called "quiet fans".
 
What kind of lighting were you cooling with them? Were they in a hood?

The link to your power source is no longer valid, can you show me another example?

Thanks!
 
4xt5 retro, yes, they are in a similar hood to the one shown in my build thread (similar design, just not nearly as well crafted).

If you go with 12v fans, then just pick up a 12v AC power adapter from radio shack or wherever (something like this). Just make sure it's rated for the load your fans will put on it.

My fans are 70milliamps each and I run 4 of them, which is .28amps. So I went to radio shack and bought a 12v AC adapter rated at 1amp. I cut off the end, wired the fans in parallel and have been good ever since.
 
$11.99
http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/644855-box_fan.html?source=googleps


644855-box_fan.jpg


Just be careful of the possessed outlet when you plug it in....

electric-wall-outlet-receptacle-and-cord-plug-thumb10451768.jpg






Or get 4 6" 120v fans, plug them into a computer power strip. Wire up a ceiling fan "dimmer" with a plug to feed into the dimmer and wire a receptacle from the dimmer to plug the power strip into. Plug the dimmer into one DC8 outlet for control. Power up the DC8 and adjust the dimmer to get a good quiet flow.

The 6" fans will be able to move more air, but you will be able to slow them down and make them quieter than any 4" fan out there.
 
Walter, I could easily grab some 140mm fans. Some of them look like they move serious air at similar dB ratings. A lot of them look plastic and flimsy. Will there be issues with salt water and longevity.

The generic 120's I had in my 180's hood sounded like a 747 getting ready to push.
 
I run SilenX fans hooked up to a fan controller. I think they are 80mm. There are 4 of them (2 going in, 2 going out) cooling my 8 bulb tek fixture. The controller allows you to turn up and down the voltage going to each fan, thus controlling their speed. The controller is "hot wired" to an old computer power supply. They are dead silent. The easiest thing would be to hook up the fans directly to a "wall wart" power supply.

Remember, if two fans move the same amount of air, the smaller one will move at higher RPM and tend to be louder.
 
Capt_Cully said:
Would something like this work? It is 12V AC and good to 1.5A, but it's 4 pin where the fans are 3 pin. Does that make a difference if I'm going to splice them together? (going with 4 fans BTW).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812123309

I like that white one Walter.... but 4 of them in the canopy might be just a touch conspicuous.
Click to expand...


That connector is a molex connector. Like what old hard drives and cd-rom drives used. It is also pretty large. I think I used these fans http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835226005
They're 12 volts (like most case fans) and draw .16 Amps each. So, 4 of them draw 12 volts and .64 Amps. Any power supply that is rated for 12 volts and greater than .64 amps will spin the fans at full power. I would probably use http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882115177 if I didn't use my current setup.
 
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