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Fan vibration when blowing air upwards?

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  • Cases
  • Fan
  • Components
Last response: in Components
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June 16, 2014 2:17:06 PM

Hello all,

A bit of background:

I bought five AeroCool DS-140mm (http://www.aerocool.us/accessory/images/dsfan_14white.h...) case fans for my new case build (NZXT 810 Switch, also white, black is sooooo 2000's ;) ). While I replaced both my two front intakes and my one rear exhaust with these they have been fantastic. On my manual fan controller (down to 5v) they can run whisper quiet or cranked up to 12v for gaming, you really only hear the noise from the air pushed.

However here comes my problem, I have a NZXT G10 for my GTX 680 synced together with a X60 Kraken. I replaced the stock fans with my two spares. This is mounted to the top of my system as another exhaust. Anywhere from 5v to 12v (fan controller range) these fans "vibrate" and cause a lot of noise. Almost as if they are out of balance. But they only vibrate when exhausting upwards, not in any other direction. I've swapped out every other DS-140 I have and they all do that. I've even tried isolating the fans from my system (to rule out case vibration) and they still vibrate when mounted to nothing.

So my question to you guys, is it known for some fans to vibrate and cause noise when mounted in certain positions (such as mine exhausting upwards)? Maybe these fans just have a problem with being mounted this way?

At the moment I have put in a support ticket with AeroCool. I'm hoping they can shed some light into the situation, because it's really irritating to buy a $25 fan and not be able to use it in any direction that I want to.

On the bright side these are the best fans I've ever bought with it's CFM/Noise ratio.

More about : fan vibration blowing air upwards

June 16, 2014 5:42:58 PM

when you test then, are they always behind a radiator? Maybe the airflow is obstructed from the radiator and that cause some imbalance? I'm grasping, but that's all I got. :) 
June 18, 2014 8:25:40 AM

Karsten75 said:
when you test then, are they always behind a radiator? Maybe the airflow is obstructed from the radiator and that cause some imbalance? I'm grasping, but that's all I got. :) 


Thanks for the tip. I'll try to mount the fans above the radiator tonight to pull air through it rather then push through. Reading a bit more into this subject last night, http://martinsliquidlab.i4memory.com/Radiator-Fan-Orien..., I found that slower fans are better used in a pull config rather then having a high RPM fan doing a push.
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June 18, 2014 8:42:20 AM

soccerplayer88 said:
Karsten75 said:
when you test then, are they always behind a radiator? Maybe the airflow is obstructed from the radiator and that cause some imbalance? I'm grasping, but that's all I got. :) 


Thanks for the tip. I'll try to mount the fans above the radiator tonight to pull air through it rather then push through.


It wasn't a tip, it was conjecture...

June 18, 2014 8:55:28 AM

Karsten75 said:
soccerplayer88 said:
Karsten75 said:
when you test then, are they always behind a radiator? Maybe the airflow is obstructed from the radiator and that cause some imbalance? I'm grasping, but that's all I got. :) 


Thanks for the tip. I'll try to mount the fans above the radiator tonight to pull air through it rather then push through.


It wasn't a tip, it was conjecture...



Regardless, it fired off some brain synapses. ;) 
!