Help disabeling a fan

OBF · « **on:** 15 Oct 2003, 10:17 pm »

I have a question that will totally display my electronics ignorance: a power conditioner I own has a fan that is so loud you can hear it in adjacent rooms. The conditioner is rated to 7-8 amps RMS, and I've never seen the meter read much above 1 amp so I'm assuming the fan is not really necessary for my uses. It never even gets warm.

So..... I can't remove the fan without taking the entire chassis apart, but there are only 2 little thin wires (same color) that dissapear into the fan body and then reappear going to the motor. One I can't follow since it goes into a bundle of about 20 wires that split into a bundle going to 2 enormous caps, and the rest go to the front of the device, either the various meters or the switches.

The other goes straight to a small plate next to the main power cord and ends in a solder joint where one of the 3 wires from the power cord (the white one, also black and green) is soldered to the plate. There is a bridge wire to the other side of the plate, and the white wire goes off somewhere else. Basically, one of the power cord wires is soldered to a plate along with the little fan wire as part of the same solder joint.

So I'm wondering if that would be power for the fan, and the other from the main switch to control on/off? Can it have a power tap directly off the incoming main without some sort of voltage adjustment? Or would one of them be a ground and the other taking power from the caps? Does a fan even have a ground?

I don't know if my description makes any sense to someone not looking at it, but I would not only like to disable the fan in a way I could repair in the future, but also learn a bit in the process.

Thanks for any advice.

brad b · « **Reply #1 on:** 15 Oct 2003, 10:36 pm »

Yes, off topic. I apologize in advance.
Brad

randytsuch · « **Reply #2 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 12:10 am »

OBF,
A fan will require two wires to make it run, a hot wire and a ground or return wire. The fan could run off of either a AC voltage or a DC voltage. BTW, a fan can run off 115VAC. If one end is connected to the AC white wire, seems like it is running from AC. I would guess the other end is going to a switched AC hot wire.

If you unsolder the fan wire at the small plate, the should stop the fan. White for AC should be the neutral side, which would be the equivalent of the ground wire for the fan.

After disconnecting the wire, I would just use some electrical tape to wrap around the bare wire, to make sure it would short against anything.

BTW, this advice is worth what you paid for it.

Hope this helps.

Randy

OBF · « **Reply #3 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 12:33 am »

Yes, that is great for free advice

But is sniping the wire off above the blob of solder with a wire cutter and taping the loose end a bad thing compared to desoldering it properly?

Thanks.

randytsuch · « **Reply #4 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 01:27 am »

Quote from: OBF

Yes, that is great for free advice

But is sniping the wire off above the blob of solder with a wire cutter and taping the loose end a bad thing compared to desoldering it properly?

Thanks.

No, since you were talking about reconnecting the fan, I thought it would be easier to desolder, but if you just cut it, you just have to strip it so you can reconnect it later.

Randy

OBF · « **Reply #5 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 02:01 am »

Ok, I got ya. Thanks Randy. The fan is disabled! Other than some serious transformer hum that was being masked by the fan, it's MUCH better. Now the drunks sleeping over in our basement will be able to pass out in relative peace

JohnR · « **Reply #6 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 02:04 am »

Another alternative is to install a low-noise fan... if you can get it out you can figure out the dimensions and the voltage will be written on it. Panaflo is I believe a brand you can get from digikey.

OBF · « **Reply #7 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 03:58 pm »

Quote from: JohnR

Another alternative is to install a low-noise fan... if you can get it out you can figure out the dimensions and the voltage will be written on it. Panaflo is I believe a brand you can get from digikey.

That would be ideal as I left it on last night and the chassis around the heat sinks did get pretty warm this morning. Unfortunately, I tried to work the thing out and it's simply impossible without removing the two dividers that run down the middle of the chassis, the transformer, and a ton of other stuff that's bolted to the side and the dividers that sandwich the fan. I've also heard of people installing a thermostat on these things, but a low noise fan would probably be easier for a novice. I guess I'll see what happens and maybe try and take it apart sometime if I have to.

Thanks for the advice.

randytsuch · « **Reply #8 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 04:03 pm »

Quote from: OBF

That would be ideal as I left it on last night and the chassis around the heat sinks did get pretty warm this morning. Unfortunately, I tried to work the thing out and it's simply impossible without removing the two dividers that run down the middle of the chassis, the transformer, and a ton of other stuff that's bolted to the side and the dividers that sandwich the fan. I've also heard of people installing a thermostat on these things, but a low noise fan would probably be easier for a novice. I guess I ...

Another option is to just add a low noise fan, if there is someplace to put it where it will blow on the heatsink.

Randy

OBF · « **Reply #9 on:** 16 Oct 2003, 08:13 pm »

Well that's something to think about. There is plenty of space in the airflow tunnel if I could find a fan that is about a 1/2" smaller than the original. I suppose I'd just need to search out a 115V AC fan of the appropriate size and then just use the existing connections? It's probably not too hard to adapt a DC fan if I knew what I was doing but I don't, and the entire thing is a giant power supply so I can't just find the little power supply area like on a normal component. So DC is probably over my head, but a similar spec AC fan is a good idea. Thanks again.