I contacted SVC and they said that the Panaflos are from China. These are the good or the crappy ones?

Well, I don't know if anyone really has any empirical evidence, but the "Hecho en Chaina" Panaflos have been starting to get a bad rap around here lately.

Can anyone that bought panaflos from SVC comment about their performance? Thnx!

From what I have read the Panaflos from China seems to shift a lot in quality, so you might get good or bad ones depending on the batch. The ones made in Japan seems to be a lot more consistent (=higher quality production).

I think it depends on which specific Panaflo fan you purchase as where it is made. I purchased a 92mm M1A and it was made in China. The 80mm L1A fans I purchased were made in Japan.

The lowest speed 92mm Panaflo (L1A) has a sound rating of about 27 dB-A, as compared to the 80mm L1A which is rated at 21 dB-A . I believe that the difference is because of the different RPM ratings of the fans, and not because of a quality difference related to the place of manufacture. One just has to realize that the 80mm L1A (which is coincidently made in Japan) is much quieter by design because of its very low RPM's.

Maybe I am wrong about this, but I think one would have to compare the exact same fan model made in both places, which may not be possible any more if a specific model is made in only one location.

From what I know we only have reports that do good comparisons for 80mm fans. The Panaflo 92mm fans are generally not regarded to be as good (regardless of origin country) compared to other fans.
The quality difference is not from the fan speed or airflow noise, it has to do with the ticking/clicking noises.
MikeC has also reported less consistency among Panaflo fans.
Unfortunately it seems that you need a huge amount of fans from lots of different batches to make any real good conclusions, so I do not expect that a clear answer will come out in this matter. Perhaps we will see some results from MikeC's huge fan comparison, but that will take quite a while to complete.

Hi everybody. I just got my order of 5 fans from SVC. Out of those NONE click at 12V. 2 click slightly at 5V, but ALL of them vibrate more or less. The vibrations are lesser than those of my Vantec Stealth, but lot more than some HMB fans i have. Overall- little disappointed, just my opinion.

I also order 5 panaflo 80mm from SVC but it was a long time ago, they are made in china. I believe they r L1J and not L1A

i cant tell u if they vibrate or not becasue i use EARs. but i can tell u i dont hear any clicking at 5v or 7v.

~RaNDoM

vibration can be dealt with.. clicking cant!

Thanks for the info mates...

ive got two 92mm pana's, they both click @ any voltage - ive yet to find a fan that doesnt apart from Zalman (i know i know, it is hard to believe).

its annoying that theres no general concensus about which make of fan is good, i always find out theres well known problems with certain fan types/ sizes after i buy them, altho i research here first. ah well..

I have an 80mm L1A from Japan, and it clicks at 12V, which is the only voltage I find useful with such low-flowing fans.