SPCR

I noticed that my rear exhaust fan (panaflo) is a bit louder than last week. Do you think removing the sticker and oiling it will improve it (or cause catastrophic, world-bending trouble)?

Hello:

If its not a build up of dust on the blades that is causing the noise, then you can try just a small drop of oil. That is if you can get to the bearings. Some are right under the sticker, and some are inaccessable. I use the oil that I already own for use in my slot cars, which has a very convenient metal applicator tube. If this quiets the fan, then it should last for a couple of months of 24/7 operation -- ask me how I know!

This brings up a point, however that I've been wondering about: I had read a long time ago that Panaflo's tend to get noisier in less time than maybe other fans do. How have they "lasted" for you?

To be fair, I had a (constant speed) Antec 80mm fan get *really* noisy after only a month or two in my speed controlled PSU (Enlight). At first, tapping the grill hard with my finger would quiet it (it was vibrating) but then after another 20-30 minutes it was loud again. And this is one that you can't oil...

Neil, with that fan in your PSU, I think u should try suspending it or using something like elestrometric fan plugs to hold it to the PSU, I had this problem with my old 486 and what I did with that was I kept on belting the computer until it was quiet (not good for the HDD mind u)

Hello quokked:

I just replaced it with the stock fan again, which doesn't have this problem. It was basically that the fan part itself was chattering/vibrating in a way that was self-perpetuating. The other tweak that I made in order to slow the PS fan down was to dislodge the thermistor from being in direct contact with the internal heatsink that it is glued to -- this helped more than anything to get the fan's speed down to something reasonably quiet. It still runs pretty cool -- the air is barely warmer than the air in the room.

Thanks anyway.