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Pretty warm in cabinet, need fan? (1 Viewer)

GlennB

Auditioning
Joined
Jan 19, 2002
Messages
7
I have a new Onkyo 600 receiver, a VCR, DVD player, cable box, & tape deck all mounted in an enclosed "entertainment center". The items are mounted top to bottom in order listed above in a 22 inch wide enclosure with about 8 in. air space above the receiver. The cabinet is pretty much enclosed with a solid glass door in front, solid side walls and the rear is solid except for a 1 1/4 in slot that runs top to bottom that is for running wires and cables. Just as I had feared, it gets pretty warm in there after the receiver has been on for a couple of hours.
I would like to remove the front door of the cabinet but my wife says NO! and I agree it wouldn't look good at all. I've thought of widening the rear slot and/or installing a small, quiet fan inside to stir the air up some.
Any suggestions? If a fan is in order, any suggestions on placement & make/model?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
Glenn Braden
San Diego
 

Timothy_A.

Agent
Joined
Jun 4, 2002
Messages
27
Glenn: I had the same situation. Some extra vent holes neatly added from top to bottom along the back wall of the ent. center improved the cooling significantly by letting the heat escape without dowgrading the looks of the setup.

...Tim
 

Troy Swope

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 1, 2002
Messages
50
I had a similar problem with my old setup, i cut a slot just behind the receiver and added a small electronics fan that plugged into the switched outlet on the back of my receiver. The fan would turn on and off with the receiver.

It kept the unit pretty cool, the cost of the fan was 6 or 8 bucks from RS.
 

Niel_JL

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 24, 2002
Messages
57
Troy,
do you have a part # for that fan? I have about 6 inches clearance above my receiver. I was looking for a small oscillating fan to plug into the receiver as well but can't seem to find any. The ones at RS don't seem to have a plug, although I may be mistaken.
JL
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2002
Messages
20
I had a problem with my receiver overheating and melting some connections within the receiver itself. After warranty work was done I went to RS and found a perfect sized fan to place behind my receiver directly in front of the rear vent. I also had to buy a plug-in adapter and splice it into the fan to make it work. I HIGHLY recommend anyone with heating problems do this before something melts inside. My receiver has a built in fan but it's worthless. Place the fan so it blows out, not into the receiver. It's better to suck the hot air out than blow air and dust in. My fan is small enough that I can't hear it and my receiver is cool to the touch no matter how hard I push it. RS will let you return the fans for trial and error so give it a shot!
 

Sathyan

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 17, 2002
Messages
298
What should be considered "too hot" i.e. a fan needs to be installed?

I have Onkyo 500. I've measured the temperature with a thermometer of the vent over the hottest part of the receiver to be 95 degrees F (room temperature is usually 75-80F) after being on for several hours. I've not noticed any ill-effects.

The receiver is on a table (open on all sides) ontop of the CD player. The Onkyo has all of its vents on top. 3 inches above the vents is my VCR - is this too warm an environment for a VCR (soon to be joined by a DVD player)?
 

Lee Petty

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jun 1, 2002
Messages
204
go here:
2CoolTek
they have a ton of fans, big and small, quiet and high output. i get all my computer case fans from here, i prefer sunon fans myself. i have a pair of 120mm, 105 cfm fans in the back of my computer, and it stays very cool. but very loud. sunon makes some of the best quality fans, and most of the time they have no motor noise, only air flow noise.
 
Joined
Jul 6, 2002
Messages
20
Sathyan,

I've always believed that heat and dust kill electronics. A decent fan will only run a few dollars and give you peace of mind. I don't think you're running too hot but cooler is always better.
 

Andrea W

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 19, 2001
Messages
777
Real Name
Andrea Whitlock
I added two cooling fans to my equipment cabinet. Details and pictures are here:
Link Removed
 

Greg_L_C

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Mar 9, 2002
Messages
126
When I built my cabinet, I ordered a lot of parts from Rockler. They have heat vents, fans and vented style grommets all for cabinets
-Greg
 

Rory Buszka

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jun 5, 2002
Messages
784
The fans to use in this are not Sunon fans. Sunon fans sound like vacuum cleaners. I recommend going to http://www.plycon.com/ because they sell a PAPST 80mm fan that only puts out 12dBa of noise. Get a pair of these and stick them in the back of your cabinet, near the top and pointing out. Then get a RadioShack wall-wart that is adjustable from 1.5 to 12 volts. Set it to the voltage that provides the best noise level and airflow.
The reason to choose PAPST fans over whatever Radio Shack and Rockler are selling is that PAPST fans are much, much quieter and have superior build quality. They will last a long time. They are sleeve-bearing fans for low noise. Many people will tell you about cheap sleeve-bearing fans (shaft rotates inside a sleeve, with only the lubricant in between) which fail quickly, but PAPST fans are high-quality and will last a lot longer. You really can't do any better for the price and noise output.
 

Chuck Paskovics

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Feb 26, 2002
Messages
98
I did the exact thing that most did. I had an old fan so I spiced it into a 18 volt powersupply and hooked it up to my switched outlet on my receiver. The back panel of my entertainment rack is the smaller style pegboard, so the holes provide nice venting. The space above my receiver has a vent as well for crossflow (This is a custom made unit). Works very nicely and is very very quiet. If anyone wants pics I can probably get some uploaded.
 

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