19" rack / rackmount quiet cooling fan ?

[cashhewn]

Do any among ye use cooling fans in your racks of gear?

I'm not talking about video rendering farms or server racks here, but just something to get the air moving a bit. For example I have several compressors that generate quite a bit of heat, my favorite vocal compressor has 11 valves in and of itself! I haven't owned the gear long enough to have had to change valves yet but I'm thinking ahead, as sometimes they stay on for hours at a time tracking or overdubbing or mixing and I can feel the heat through to the outside of the rack (I do have minimum 1U space on either side of said devices).

Do you think it would make any difference in extending the lives of valves / tubes in the gear or the gear itself?

If so, can any of you recommend from personal experience a quiet, 19" rack mount fan that has lasted a while in your setup?

Thanks!

[sonics]

I don't know how quiet off-the-shelf rack cooling systems are. When I needed to do this I purchased low-noise computer fans and a blank panel and made my own cooler.

[cashhewn]

@sonics - thanks, I had pondered this but could you elaborate on how you fit the computer fans into the blank panel and how you powered them?

[ajay_m]

Noctua make very quiet fans. They are normally 12V powered and hence a 12V 1A wall wart will power probably a couple of their fans. I have one fitted to the back of an IKEA kitchen cabinet housing a 3d printer and it does a great job, I think it's 4 inches in diameter.

[ef37a]

Cashhewn, I would think carefully before fitting fans as a soon as you do you will suck up all the crap in creation. That will coat everything and make it hotter!
Equipment designed with fans usually uses filters and you will find instructions for cleaning or replacing them in the manual...but WHO RTFMs ! So the filter clogs and airflow is severely restricted and the kit would probably have been safer without the fan!

To mangle the words of Lord Klevin (I think it was) unless you measure the temperature in the rack you don't really know if you need forced cooling? I have a very handy digital meat thermometer that would be ideal for the purpose.
You will not shorten the life of valves by running them at say 70C. The components that suffer worst are electrolytic capacitors but even here my experience is that they last decades even in compact valve amplifiers.

But, if you want to have a go a pair of 12V 'BQuiet' 80mm fans won't set you back much and as said, a 12V SMPS line lump is cheap and readily available.

Dave.

[cashhewn]

Ajay and Dave,

Thanks so much for this info.

It was great to hear the “dissenting opinion” Dave, I hadn’t thought of those arguments and they are sound.

Hmm, food for thought.

Seeing as how all my racks are well ventilated on the sides, open on the back, and I have ventilated 1U, 2U, or 3U ventilated panels between everything, I might just leave well enough alone…

Thanks folks for your input, it is much appreciated.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I'd also encourage natural ventilation where possible.

No fan can ever be completely silent, and when installed in a panel you have a sound board to amplify that slow sound level into something more annoying. Add a second fan and you now have beating to worry about too...

So space out the products to allow good airflow, and don't put the hottest unit right at the top of the rack!

[sonics]

@sonics - thanks, I had pondered this but could you elaborate on how you fit the computer fans into the blank panel and how you powered them?

I used a wide blanking plate, and anti-vibration mounts for the fans. Nuts and bolts replaced the supplied screws, and power was from a cheap 12V PSU I purchased. I used fans with speed controls, but you can buy a controller to do that if you want external control of that. It created a nice, silent flow of air from front to back. I'm not sure it was essential, but it was an easy project and didn't do any harm. (Dust filters fitted where possible, too.)

I did something similar to get airflow over those old, hot UAD cards in my tower computer by fitting a silent fan into the side of the case!

[ef37a]

I am a great believer in the principle that the clever people that design our gear know what they are about and if a piece of rack mountable kit needed force cooling it would have it built in or something would be specified in the manual.

You don't want the hottest thing right at the top but 1U down and anything with a "clock" in it right at the bottom.

I was many years ago involved in doing heat rise tests for the development of the Blackstar Series One amp power control unit. I casually asked Bruce (the then Tech' director, now sadly no longer with us) "why not just fit a fan? I was then treated to a good ten minute lecture of the manifold drawbacks to equipment fans!

Dave.

[cashhewn]

Hugh- thanks for that advice, it’s like you have a window into my studio: I actually do have my hottest running unit at the top (though a U of space above it…maybe a rearrange is in order!)

Sonics- thanks for the specifics, much appreciated !

Dave- this is the kind of anecdote / experience that is so valuable, thanks ! I should’ve thought of all the nightmarish muck the fans might bring in (in a photography studio we once ruined two “trash can” Mac Pros with a studio full of haze/hazer juice, sad)