Adding an exhaust fan (1 Viewer)

[Lyle Marshall]

Has anyone here ever added an fan to their receiver?
If so tell me how they went about doing it.


Thanks,
Lyle

 

[Thomas J. Coyle III]

Hi Lyle

There are many ways to add a fan to a receiver. If it is mounted in a cabinet then you might want to put the fan(s) in a cutout in the back of the cabinet and suck air from front to back across the top of the receiver. Another way is to put the fan(s)under the receiver and blow air up through it. I recommend dc type fans that are used in computers. They come in various sizes and many of them have a speed control or a thermistat to govern the speed of the fan depending on the cooling requirements. The use of dc fans requires a dc power supply, but you can find +12vdc wall warts that will do the job.
Presently I have two 120 mm speed controlled fans blowing air from the bottom to the top of my Outlaw 7100 amp. I built a Vellemen thermostat kit that turns the fans on when the temp sensor gets to about 80 degrees. The temp sensor is mounted on the top of the amp over the right and left channel drivers. I also provided cooling for my Outlaw 950 prepro. I purchased a computer fan assembly that mounts in a standard 5.25 drive bay. It has three small fans in it. Since they are very noisy at 12vdc, I built a small voltage regulator using an LM317 adjustable regulator. I used a second Vellemen thermostat to control the fan assembly. The fan assembly is mounted over the top of the 950 and sucks air out of the vent holes in the top of the case. I know that this might sound complicated if you do not have soldering/metal working skills, so you might just want to stick to some stock dc fans that control their speed with built in temperature sensors. Hope that this helps.
Regards,
TCIII

 

[Jeff Meininger]

I did something similar to Thomas' setup. My receiver already has an internal fan that turns on when it gets too hot, but this fan is LOUD and obnoxious. I wanted to find a way to suck out the heat to prevent the fan from coming on at all.

Front: boxybutgood.com/temp/venthood1.jpg
Back: boxybutgood.com/temp/venthood2.jpg

It's just a box built out of 1/4" plywood. I mounted a "silent" 80mm PC case cooling fan (with thermo-speed-control) to the back of it, and power it from a selectable-voltage DC adapter. If I want more or less cooling (or more or less noise), I can adjust the voltage slider on the adapter.

So the box sits on top of the receiver, covering all of the top vent holes. It sucks the hot air out of the top, pulling cool air in from the sides and bottom.

With the fan on it's slowest setting (all but inaudible), I can delay the internal fan from kicking on for about 2 hours. With the fan on one notch higher (audible, but still much quieter than the internal fan) I get about 4 to 5 hours.

 

[Ronnie Ferrell]

Jeff,

Pretty slick setup there! I bet if you added 1 or 2 more 80mm fans and ran them all off the same thermo-speed-controller so all came on at the same time, you could keep the receivers fan from coming on at all. Also I would think that 2 or 3 "silent" fans on there lowest setting would be quieter that 1 set to spin faster.

They don't have speed control, but Panaflo FBA08A12L1A fans are really good, quite fans.

Lyle,

If you happen to have an Armoire or large cabinet, don't just mount a fan to the back hardboard of the cabinet. The hardboard will act as a soundboard and amplify the fans sound. Been there, done that. Rubber mounting grommets help. But the best way is to hang/suspend the fan by string or rubber bands in front of the hole in the cabinet.


Ronnie