Loud Fan

[destroyer2012 0]

So my motherboard cooling fan is loud. I mean it's not REALLY loud, but I think it's louder than it should be.

I got one of the newer ultimakers that has the fan mounted right side up (with the open circle part pointing up). I took the fan apart and applied some grease to its axle but that didn't seem to help.

Does anyone else have this issue? Has anyone tried anything drastic to make their fan quieter and/or replace it with a typical CPU fan? Does that work? I'm thinking about it but it would mean printing out a whole new fan duct.

Has anyone bought replacement fans somewhere that work in the same mount but are quieter?

[somerwil 0]

Hi,

My PCB fan is also pretty loud at startup. After a few minutes and a few kind knocks on the bottom of the Ultimaker it gets quiet again. I received a replacement fan for testing goals but this fan was basically a lot noisier so my first fan is back on my machine again.

I cannot give you a solution but I know there are more people out there with this problem.

[kris99 0]

Somewhere I have read that under normal conditions no cooling per fan is neccessary. It is made for hot summer days when the chamber temperatur is above 30°C.

So I assume you could demount the wooden top and replace the fan with a quiter one. I will do this next time I modify my ultimaker for connecting the ultipanel.

[alaris2 1]

mine is also very very noisy. I read somewhere on here that it's upside down and should be mounted the other way up to be quieter, but your post suggests this 'fix' has already been applied.

I was going to remove the wooden board holding the fan and run it either way up and see if it makes any difference in volume, otherwise was about to post as you have.

I found the plasticated card assembly for this fan to be a bit less like 'origami' and a bit more like a mess with lots of blue tape over it.. glad it's out of sight.

[chronoless 0]

Mine is also really loud. Looking for a replacement one.

Ultimaker should really provide a better quality fan.

[destroyer2012 0]

UPDATE

I replaced the stock ultimaker fan with a radial fan from an old dell power supply. Now my UM only produces a low level of white noise when on, similar to tower PC.

The fan's from a power supply that looks exactly like this, which comes from those old school micro-atx rounded blue capsule dell computers that schools are very fond of.

http://www.supernotebook.com/images/180-Watt-Dell-Power-Supply-1N405.gif

If you have that laying around then awesome, take that fan out and hacksaw the screw holes so the fan sticks out the same height as the stock ultimaker fan. I soldered a trimpot in series with the fan (I spliced it into the black wire) to allow the speed to be adjustable. Jam the fan into the wooden fan duct (It's slightly bigger than the stock UM fan but the wood flexes enough to let it fit). I fit only one screw to hold the fan in but you can drill another hole and fit both if you want.

The fan had this written on it:

NMB

Model

BG0703-B044-000

12V DC 0.38 A

DC BRUSHLESS FAN MOTOR

MINEBEA CO. LTD

[frodeheg 0]

I too think my Ultimaker is extremely noisy. However, it doesn't seem like it is the fan itself that is noisy, because if I detatch it from the machine I can only hear the air flow, not the noise... All the noise seem to be caused by the wooden case acting as an amplifier for the vibration from the fan. I will try to make a better fan attachement and see if I can eliminate the noise completely.

[antiklesys 3]

Maybe you could put some rubber rings under the screws to dampen the noise and vibrations?

[destroyer2012 0]

Maybe you could put some rubber rings under the screws to dampen the noise and vibrations?

Doesn't work. That's what I had before I switched to the other fan.

[frodeheg 0]

I sawed away 1.5 mm on each side of the fan and put silicone there instead and it helped a lot.

However I still get a little bit of vibration. Seem to improve quality of the print as well if I just detach the pcb from the bottom panel. I'll try to improve the dampening in the weekend, but If I can't remove the vibration alltogether I think I will make a separate box for the PCB just for the sake of printing quality.

[frodeheg 0]

I even get some vibration when I use 4 cm of rubber, so it seems like nothing is able to damp the vibrations on the stock fan.

It makes me wonder if they recently changed the fan (or we just got a bad shipment), because this is a really crappy fan, and I don't get the quality others get when it is attached. It is only when I print with the pcb + fan detached from the UM that I get expected quality from the Netfabb ultra quality prints. Otherwise I get a rough surface... Looks like my yodas got beard and need to shave...

[alaris2 1]

I tried printing with the fan disconnected. I don't recommend this, but the result is the first layer prints OK, the next layer has weird x,Y step problems, it starts blobbing, going rough, and the print is ruined.

this is at odds with a previous post where I'm sure someone said the fan wasn't strictly necessary except in hot climates. I was printing at 14C ambient.

I wonder if how well the fan is sealed to the board makes a difference? the plastic shroud that comes with the kit is utterly hopeless and not even slightly airtight. I have tons of blue tape down there holding the air in. yet no-one has designed an alternative on thingiverse?

I found one of those NMB fans destroyer - they're pretty good. I have two the same but 0.62A - they blow a whole lot of air!

[redmesh 0]

I can confirm the motors XY stick if the fan isn't used, and my prints are ruined. Now I have the fan on, it's working great.

[redmesh 0]

But the fan is noisy, I'm surprised there isn't a better quality fan out there.

[thereza 0]

mine went form OK to screaming - contacted UM and they replaced it. New one is way quieter.