PCB fan is dying...

[nick-foley 5]

The fan on my main PCB is getting noisier and noisier, and sometimes is so dirty that it can't even get spinning fully. It usually takes a few hard knocks in order to get up to speed. This is a heavily used machine and I'm sure it's dusty and filled with PLA bits. It's also taken some abuse from the learning curve of assembly and maintenance of the machine. Anyway...

Anyone know of a drop-in replacement that I can order from Amazon/Mouser/etc...? Particularly one which is as quiet or quieter than the original...

 

[gr5 2,210]

I don't know about replacements but you can peel back the paper and add a drop of oil. That will probably help greatly.

 

[nick-foley 5]

Well, I decided to open up the fan in order to clean out whatever was inside and lubricate the sleeve bearing. Turns out that the real problem (though the fan was dirty) was that one of the power wires was on the verge of breaking (from the abuse mentioned above) and only occasionally conducting electricity. Re-soldered those connections (Also oiled it for good measure) and now the fan works as new.

...Which is good, because after searching for a few minutes online.... finding a replacement fan seemed challenging.