The ultimate beginner's guide to PC FANS

[el_dudereno]

Hey Scrub, thanks for the great info. Can't wait to put it to good use. I found this article while looking up info on prolonging the life of PC fans and thought you and everyone using PC fans might find it useful:

http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm

Cheers

 

[ScrubNinja]

Cheers, el_dudereno. Good stuff to know.

 

[yosun]

great stuff,thanks alot

 

[aiu]

Because my english isnt as fluent as i'd want (and i know next to nothing about pc related stuff) i have a little question.

Bearing/Sleeve - This doesn't get mentioned much but sleeves often get used in the quieter fans. If you are mounting the fans horizontally (ie: blowing straight up) or even on a decent tilt, you should get bearing fans.

I have Scythe Ultra Kaze 120mm / 3000 rpm fan, is it possible to make the fan blow straight down/up or is this a bad idea?

 

[ScrubNinja]

Hi Aiu. The Ultra Kaze is listed as a sleeve bearing, so it's not best suited to horizontal position I'm afraid. I may have been a little confused with the terminology when I wrote that because sleeve is a bearing, it seems. The wiki page explains it some more.

The type of bearing used in a fan can affect its performance and noise output. Most computer fans use one of the following bearing types:

* Sleeve bearing fans use two surfaces lubricated with oil or grease as a friction contact. Sleeve bearings are less durable as the contact surfaces can become rough and/or the lubricant dry up, eventually leading to failure. Sleeve bearings may be more likely to fail at higher temperatures, and may perform poorly when mounted in any orientation other than vertical. The lifespan of a sleeve bearing fan may be around 40,000 hours at 50 °C. Fans that use sleeve bearings are generally cheaper than fans that use ball bearings, and are quieter at lower speeds early in their life, but can grow considerably noisier as they age.

* Rifle bearing fans are similar to sleeve bearing, but are quieter and have almost as much lifespan as ball bearings. The bearing has a spiral groove in it that pumps fluid from a reservoir. This allows them to be safely mounted horizontally (unlike sleeve bearings), since the fluid being pumped lubricates the top of the shaft.[5] The pumping also ensures sufficient lubricant on the shaft, reducing noise, and increasing lifespan.

* Ball bearing fans use ball bearings. Though generally more expensive, ball bearing fans do not suffer the same orientation limitations as sleeve bearing fans, are more durable especially at higher temperatures, and quieter than sleeve bearing fans at higher rotation speeds. The lifespan of a ball bearing fan may be around 63,000 hours at 50 °C.

* Fluid bearing fans have the advantages of near-silent operation and high life expectancy (comparable to ball bearing fans). However, these fans tend to be the most expensive. The enter bearing fan is a variation of the fluid bearing fan, developed by Everflow.

* Magnetic bearing or maglev fans, in which the fan is repelled from the bearing by magnetism.

 

[J23]

Hi ScrubNinja. Thanks for putting time and effort to educating us. I have almost got S&P td100 for my mini cab (10cu ft) but as I have found out here you can successfully vent a cab with PC fans. I'm trying to choose a fan that would work with a carbon scrubber. I have passive 25 sq in. intake, 4" cool tube w/250w hps, 40cpm fan on a cool tube blowing hot air out the flowering room, remote ballast. I plan to install a scrubber in a separate chamber. I'm thinking CAN FILTER 2600 or DIY screen type filter. can you advice which would work best in my situation? thanx much!

 

[ScrubNinja]

Hi dude, not a problem. Well, the Can filter works out around 215 square inches of surface area, and approx .75" thick of carbon. These are very rough because I guessed about 1" for the flange part, and the carbon may be thinner, etc etc. But we can say close enough to 215 sq inches area.

If you were doing a carbon screen type diy, that would be equivalent to a carbon screen 14.6" x 14.6". Pretty easy to do so if a screen fits better in your space, I would use that.

But having said that, you should make the screen as big as possible area - every sq inch bigger you make it is every bit easier your whole cab is going to breathe, every day of every hour, hopefully forever. This way you will have a better performance than the Can. If you really put your mind to it, you can get amazing sized screen area from not much space.

The can still looks good though. If they are refillable then you have a pro carbon filter for life, easy to hook up to ducting and generally more conventional. The only problems are that it costs more, and hopefully you can see the performance increase offered by the larger area of the diy screen method.

As for fans, look no further than Delta. They're a step up in quality from all the Thermaltakes, Scythes, etc etc, and many many steps above in terms of performance. They're loud, but you undervolt them and they're quieter.



^That's just a screenshot of some of the higher end ones. I've never used HPS so I can't advise too much on specific model sorry, but basically get a kickass delta, and undervolt it, and you always have that extra voltage (and noise) waiting to be used if ever you absolutely need it. The very very most powerful fans may still be too loud even undervolted. Depends on your stealth situation, but I have a very stealthy grow running only on two undervolted deltas with a Phat filter.

Hope that helps, let me know if you're confused

 

[BC Chronic]

Hey Scrub!! Always love reading this thread..helped me major..
This is the fan I am using right now since my delta died..its 3.3 amps, 12 volts, 251 cfm(?!) , 67db and 7 bells or something?..its at Nidec site..here is some info below..
I have to tone it down though so I need 1 of those sidewinder thingies soon..
you should see how my girl is growing..UGH..I am constantly tying her down...sort of concerned considering I have 8-9 weeks to go...

http://www.nidec.com/v12e/v12e_01.htm#te
take care Scrub

 

[BC Chronic]

Sorry...THIS is the fan setup..posted the wrong pic

 

[ScrubNinja]

Nice one dude, that's a beauty. You will need a stronger Sidewinder too probably. Yeah my TW cross was stretchy as crap but I had pretty low lighting. I would keep it mostly high kelvins like 6500k and the plant close to the lights and ....pray

 

[J23]

thanks ScrubNinja. Following your advice I figured final (I hope working) design:





what is your thought on this, guys?

 

[ScrubNinja]

Hey J23! My account has been out of action for ages so I couldn't post. It looks fantastic, dude. Have you got it set up yet?

 

[J23]

Hey, Scrub. noticed your absence. good to see you back. anyway, I had to abandon my project for a while. my girlfriend is heaving a second thought about me growing weed at home. I'm trying my negotiating skills with her. stopped at about 80% completed cab. still waiting (it's three weeks wait time now) for my seeds to be delivered. I wonder if it's missing or just delayed. still checking the forum thou. learning things. besides, it's Friday night. It was busy week. I'm sipping some booze. it's good!

 

[ScrubNinja]

Too bad broski I hope she comes to her senses! Yeah 3 weeks is a little long I think. Probably depends on the whos and wheres though.

 

[mad librettist]

Hey, Scrub. noticed your absence. good to see you back. anyway, I had to abandon my project for a while. my girlfriend is heaving a second thought about me growing weed at home. I'm trying my negotiating skills with her. stopped at about 80% completed cab. still waiting (it's three weeks wait time now) for my seeds to be delivered. I wonder if it's missing or just delayed. still checking the forum thou. learning things. besides, it's Friday night. It was busy week. I'm sipping some booze. it's good!

hey, I used this line on my wife and it worked:

"baby, when you met me I was a pothead. you did an inspection and bought the goods. Now I can either do it for 75$ an ounce, or for 600$ an ounce."

whatever you do, don't trade or do a quid pro quo. because with women it's like a credit card. there is a teaser rate, but once you buy stuff they jack it up.

 

[J23]

Hi guys. Well, I got green light from my girlfriend! I've resumed working on my cab. got new pics but my SD card reader is refusing to work so I can't post new pics. I bought smart case fan so I need to make a trip to home depot to find fittings to mount it to my cooltube. Also, I gotdelta afb0912VH (I'm gonna use it for scrubber). What else, after three weeks waiting time it turned out that seeds I ordered from Holland were returned so I reordered. Jeez, it all takes more time I expected but I'm getting there...
Bart

 

[ScrubNinja]

Haha yeah the logistics behind a grow are incredible, even for a micro. It's great though once you've got your keepers and moms and a clone army I love it. Hope you clean up with it!

 

[J23]

Hi Scrub. I was just visiting polish section of a forum. too bad that not everyone there can use your info on PC fans...

 

[ScrubNinja]

Feel free to translate and repost if you have the energy! It is a shame yeah. There's a whole bunch of people in the national forums tucked away.

 

[detoneSmoker]

hey, I used this line on my wife and it worked:

"baby, when you met me I was a pothead. you did an inspection and bought the goods. Now I can either do it for 75$ an ounce, or for 600$ an ounce."

whatever you do, don't trade or do a quid pro quo. because with women it's like a credit card. there is a teaser rate, but once you buy stuff they jack it up.

600 a zip!!!!! holy pricey