How good are CanFans.....the brand

[Wedge Antilles]

I'm looking to get a 4"inline fan.....I know Vortex and Elicent's are great and recommended, but how are the CanFan brands...The closest hydro store only sells these....I have not heard too much about these, good or bad news.......Stealth(sound) is most important, but I will be hooking up a speed control, if need be......Thanks....Wedgey

 

[yamaha_1fan]

I have a couple and they seem to be working fine. As far as noise goes, I cant say, thats not high on the list and I got alot of stuff going.

I think Vortex, Can Fan, Elicient are all pretty reliable and decent fans. Everyone seems to have their ups and downs with them all as far as noise.

I believe there are 2 Can fans now, the old style and the new Can Fan Max

 

[Germanator]

Max fans are the business. The last time I went into my hydro store I was shown a video on youtube of a can fan and a vortex back to back sucking against each other with a dollar bill hanging to see which fan would push and which would pull the dollar. Can won after a short time...

 

[Wedge Antilles]

Yamaha and Germanator, thanks for the help....I guess you really can't go wrong with any of the 3..If I do get the CanFan, I will definitly get the Max version.....I'll give it a few more days and try to get a little more input for deceiding

 

[PonicalChillin]

I believe the MAX fan is only available in 8" and up. That being said - they do KICK major ass!

If your going for stealth and going to be using a speed control go with the Vortex. Are work great with a speed control - unlike the Can which will make more motor noise once the rpms are turned down.

 

[indicrazy]

I have a 6" HO canfan, it works fine. If you want to slow it down, and not run wide-f'n-open all the time, I would recommend using a variable transformer (aka variac) instead of one of the cheap fan control boxes. With a variac, the fan can be slowed to make essentially no audible sound at all, completely silent.

With the cheaper speed control boxes you get at hydro shops, the fan makes an annoying buzzing sound which gets louder the more you attenuate the motor, louder than my ballasts buzzing. I guess the little boxes are not much cheaper though, I've seen chinese made variacs in the 5amp range as little as $40, which is what the nicer speed controller boxes go for. Definitely look for a variac type controller if you can, they are way bigger, but you can use them on more things than the brushmotor-only controller boxes, which are essentially just light dimmers with a fuse built in...

 

[Wedge Antilles]

Thanks Pon and Indi...I think I am just going to get the 4" Vortex.....With shipping, it still works out to be about $50 cheaper than getting the CanFan at my local hyrdo store.....Hey indi, this variac you talk of, do I need to take apart anything? I'm not the handiest of people...Is it just a bigger box for the speed control?

 

[indicrazy]

No, you just plug it in, it should have an outlet to plug the thing you are dropping the voltage to on it, you just plug the fan into that. Just google variac, or variable transformer, you should be able to find something reasonable, don't go overboard as you aren't going to be controlling test lab equipment, lol. They can get spendy.

The cool thing about the variac is it allows your motor to draw the same amperage it needs, just drops the voltage, so it doesn't 'brown' out the motor, so you can use them on just about anything. I also use one to control my monsterous circulator, which would otherwise be causing a small hurricane - it's an industrial grade fan - I drop it down to about 40-50 volts and it's just a gentle spring breeze, and commercial fans have constant use rated motors so they last forever, compared to the sleeve bearing junk you get at home depot, which will burn out fast and seize up and possibly catch on fire if you run them alot, heh, or even a little as I've often found.

I couldn't use a dimmer box on it, as it has big ac powered perm magnet motor, and would burn out as you starved it of amps.. Using a variable ac transformer doesn't hurt it, it'll probably out last me, lol.

 

[Budweiser13]

Variacs work good http://webtronics.stores.yahoo.net/ensavat.html

 

[Wedge Antilles]

thanks guys, seems simple.....stealth is the utmost important thing!!!

 

[guest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYbLub3Iw2c&feature=related

Can Fan vs Vortex Fan (granted these are 8") but the video speaks for itself.

 

[BeeBee]

Fans

Fans

Can fans are quite good. Go with the best combination of price and fan capacity that your budget allows.
For you fan aficianados, check out the Fantech FKD series. The FKD8XL beats the Vortex, Elicent, and all other 8 inch fans I have seen and used. It ought to--it's twice as expensive. Quieter than Vortex, Elicent, or Can, it doesn't move a lot more CFM at zero back-pressure, but when the air is ducted, split, turned in different directions, filtered, etc., the FKD8L continues to move the air much better than the others.
The FKD12XL delivers 2000 CFM more quietly than any other fan., but be careful--it's dangerous!