can I use this blower to cool my tower?

[cubby_swans]

Any reason I couldn't use this heater blower? The CFM isn't listed, but it only
operates at 1550 RPM, where the blower sold on micromatic's site operates at 3160 RPM and it runs at .40 amps vs micromatic's .30 amps.

I can get this blower here for under 15 bucks, and it has a grounded electrical cord already wired to it.


[url]http://12.153.20.74/manuals/201834E.pdf[/url]

[lunkhead]

Don't know if you've tried it yet, but in a small kegerator (1/2 barrel max) this might be a bit much. At 115 volt at .4 amps you'll have a 46 watt heater in your unit. Has a comparison I use a 24v dc blower running at 7.5 volts at .15 amps which is just a tad over 1 watt. Small units do not need a big blower. Now if you have a big commercial unit and/or 15 feet of pipe to your tower you might need something like that.

[cubby_swans]

Don't know if you've tried it yet, but in a small kegerator (1/2 barrel max) this might be a bit much. At 115 volt at .4 amps you'll have a 46 watt heater in your unit. Has a comparison I use a 24v dc blower running at 7.5 volts at .15 amps which is just a tad over 1 watt. Small units do not need a big blower. Now if you have a big commercial unit and/or 15 feet of pipe to your tower you might need something like that.

Gotcha. I haven't tried it yet. I can get a 25 CFM 12V DC blower for cheap, too. Looks like a PC cooling blower. It's got a red and a black wire. I know red is hot and black is ground, but what do I wire it to? I have a power supply that I can use.
INPUT: 100-240V~ 50/60Hz 0.4A
OUTPUT: DC 12V 1.5A
Can I wire this blower to this AC?DC power supply or the amperage way to high? The power supply label also shows, a negative sign to the left and a positive sign to the right (in circles, connected by straight lines). Does this mean the left wire going into the power supply is negative and the right is positive?

OR.... I have a cell phone wall charger that I'm no longer using. It's DC output reads 5.2V 800mA ( i assume this is milliAmperes, or equal to .8A?). I cut the end off it and it's got red and black already.... can I wire the DC blower to this? I will patiently await your expert opinion, as my wife will be ticked off if I electrocute myself.... or burn down the house.


The blower I'm looking at is
[url]http://www.nidec.com/fanpdfs/gamma30.pdf[/url]
model number is a34124

see pic of the first power supply I'm referring to.

[Duff Beer]

Your'e on the right track. Look at my post here.
[url]http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-en/trouble-shooting-beer-quality-home/2116-blower-set-up.html[/url]

[cubby_swans]

Your'e on the right track. Look at my post here.
[url]http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-en/trouble-shooting-beer-quality-home/2116-blower-set-up.html[/url]

Duh, I have 2 old PC fans sitting right in front of me that I could build a box for easily. Hooked one up to the 1.5A power supply and it runs like a champ. Now I wonder, does the 1.5A power supply SUPPLY too much amperage to the fan, or does the fan only draw what it needs (.07A in this case). If the latter is true, I could easily wire both .07A fans to the power supply, and run one to cool the tower, and the other for more circulation inside the box. Plus, I'm a computer programmer, builder. I can get PC fans free all day long.

I tried hooking it up to the 5.2V cell phone charger and it didn't spin very fast.

Also, I believe the third wire is a 'speed' wire for the PC motherboard to determine the fan speed, and can be eliminated in my case.

[cubby_swans]

man I'm on a roll today. I just realized I can pull the fan out of the power supply of this old PC here, rather than the little processor fans. I now have an 80MM 12V .19A fan that really pushes a lot of air. I think the return air from the tower will provide more than enough circulation to the rest of the box.

I still would like someone with electrical knowledge to assure me that the power supply I'm using will be OK to use. Am I correct that the fan only draws the amperage that it needs?

[Duff Beer]

man I'm on a roll today. I just realized I can pull the fan out of the power supply of this old PC here, rather than the little processor fans. I now have an 80MM 12V .19A fan that really pushes a lot of air. I think the return air from the tower will provide more than enough circulation to the rest of the box.

I still would like someone with electrical knowledge to assure me that the power supply I'm using will be OK to use. Am I correct that the fan only draws the amperage that it needs?

The PS is capable of 1.5A before it blows a fuse. So yes, the fan only draws what it is rated at & that is all the PS needs to give it.

I don't know how big your PS is but is sounds like it's working OK.

I am using a 12V .3A cell phone charger adapter to drive 2 fans. These things push plenty of air.

One is for the tower box & the other sits on top of the CO2 bottle blowing across the cold plate.

It may be redundant, but I know I'm getting maximum air circulation in the unit.

[lunkhead]

I still would like someone with electrical knowledge to assure me that the power supply I'm using will be OK to use. Am I correct that the fan only draws the amperage that it needs?

Yes the fan will only draw as much current as it needs. I never had any luck with getting any fans to blow air into my tower, I tried to funnel it down but the air thru the fan blades just wanted to stall. Did not try putting one in a box and then put the cooling tube in the box. Perhaps that's the trick, the box must act like a plenum chamber with enough volume not to stall the fan. If it works, it works. Nice to see new ideas for tower cooling, especially the inexpensive ones.

[cubby_swans]

Yes the fan will only draw as much current as it needs. I never had any luck with getting any fans to blow air into my tower, I tried to funnel it down but the air thru the fan blades just wanted to stall. Did not try putting one in a box and then put the cooling tube in the box. Perhaps that's the trick, the box must act like a plenum chamber with enough volume not to stall the fan. If it works, it works. Nice to see new ideas for tower cooling, especially the inexpensive ones.

alright... that was what I thought regarding the amperage pulled by the fan. I do plan on building a box to house the fan, and use a hole saw to cut the fan hole and a hole for the tube to deliver the air to the tower. I didn't realize the box size could stall the fan but I think I understand how that makes sense. I will definitely experiment, I have plenty of scrap material around the house to run with this. The only thing I need to buy is some tubing. I'll probably work on it this weekend, and post some results when done. Should be a 5 dollar project....

[cubby_swans]

So I got around to building my blower...

First I thought I'd build a box out of some leftover deck wood. Bad idea. The wood was an inch thick, so the box was huge with a tiny internal volume. Plus I would have to drill a giant hole for the fan, and still figure out how to mount it, as well as a hole for the hose leaving the box, and I don't own any hole drilling bits of this nature.... and I hate borrowing tools. So I scrapped that idea, back to the box drawing board.

Then I thought to myself.. "Self, you took the PC power supply fan out of a PC power supply, which is already a metal box with mount holes built to fit the fan you have in your hand." So I took the power supply apart, removed all it's entrails, and turned the fan around so that it pulls air into the box rather than blows air out of the box. I bought a tube of silicone caulking $3.99 that doesn't shrink and used it to seal up all the holes in the power supply. This worked quite well. I also bought a hose ($2.40) to run out of the power supply (it already has a hole built into it where all the wires come out to attach to various computer components).

I put this all together and it worked GREAT. Blows air out of the hose quite well. So I put it in the kegerator, only to discover that the hose I bought sucks. If it bends marginally, like when I try to route it into the tower, it kinks up and stops the air flow. That's what I get for buying the hose that was $.59 a foot rather than the hose next to it with the same ID and ED that has a support wire in it for $1.99 a foot. So tonight I'm going to the hardware store to get the hose I should have bought in the first place. I snaked the power supply wire into the kegerator next to the co2 line without drilling any holes with plenty of cord to spare to reach the same outlet the kegerator is plugged into.

I was able to unkink the hose temporarily with the whole thing installed, and it was blowing cold air off the cooling plate quite well. So with the correct hose in place, I'll call this one done. The whole thing cost me under $15, and that's with the $2.40 wasted on one cruddy hose. I took some pictures of it last night, but wanted to post them with the correct hose and completely installed and done, which will happen tonight.

[cubby_swans]

got the blower set up. Here's some pics. It's working well, in my opinion. It's been running a few hours and the tower feels ice cold to the touch.

Also, I pulled the sensor out of it's cage last night and moved it towards the front of the unit as far as it would go, and electrical taped it to the side wall. I put a large mug of water in there last night, as far to the front of the kegerator as it would go, and this afternoon, it's temp registered on my thermometer at 35.5 degrees. I just got a new keg today, letting it sit overnight to settle and get colder. The last one I got, the beer was 43-44 when I tapped it two hours after I bought it. The place I got it from must be saving on their electric bill with their cooler temp setting. It's tough, but luckily I have some backup beer in the fridge to tide me over.

Anyways, here's my setup.....
couldn't resist the pic of the keg

[Soprano]

Thanks for this great idea! I had all of these parts laying around. I took an old power supply that had a huge fan on it, reversed the fan, duct-taped the crap out of the box covering all of the holes. I then took a piece of beer hose, hot glued it to the box and ran it up the tower. I also had an old 12v 500ma PS laying around and used that to power it.

When running, the air only trickled out of the hose, but in 2 hours the tower was cold to the touch. My first beer that is usually more than half foam, was PERFECT! The damn thing really works! This is a Danby that I have also done the resistor mod to. It now is perfect. It seemed that for every beer I would drink, I would waste 1/4 to 1/2 in foam. I will post pics when I have time.

[cubby_swans]

Thanks for this great idea! I had all of these parts laying around. I took an old power supply that had a huge fan on it, reversed the fan, duct-taped the crap out of the box covering all of the holes. I then took a piece of beer hose, hot glued it to the box and ran it up the tower. I also had an old 12v 500ma PS laying around and used that to power it.

When running, the air only trickled out of the hose, but in 2 hours the tower was cold to the touch. My first beer that is usually more than half foam, was PERFECT! The damn thing really works! This is a Danby that I have also done the resistor mod to. It now is perfect. It seemed that for every beer I would drink, I would waste 1/4 to 1/2 in foam. I will post pics when I have time.

duct tape! Good idea! I have that. I could of done this for $8 and I wouldn't have had to wait overnight for the caulk to dry.

[madcrazy10]

Can you possibly take a pic of how you power the fan? I see you have the wires running through the Co2 tube hole but where do they go from there? I have a PC power supply but how do you start it up without plugging it into a motherboard? I'm just a bit stumped how you did the powering.

[cubby_swans]

Can you possibly take a pic of how you power the fan? I see you have the wires running through the Co2 tube hole but where do they go from there? I have a PC power supply but how do you start it up without plugging it into a motherboard? I'm just a bit stumped how you did the powering.

I took ALL the insides out of the PC power supply. The only thing I'm powering is the fan. Just clip the wires leading from the fan and route those fan lines outside the PC power supply. Those are my red/black wires in the closeup pic of the PC power supply. All you should have is an empty power supply box and the fan. Then you just have a black, red, and possibly yellow wire. forget about the yellow wire if you have one, that just sends a speed signal to the motherboard, which you do not need. Then I took a DC wall adapter power supply, such as a cell phone charger. Look for pic of the AC adapter further up the post. Your fan will say something like 12v and .19A. You just need any power supply which supplies 12v and more A(mperage) than your fan requires. There will be a sticker or stamp on the power supply which gives you it's rating.

Clip the end of the AC adapter wire that would normally connect to your cell phone or whatever else the adapter goes to and route that line into the cabinet through the co2 line hole. The wall part of the adapter is just plugged into a regular wall outlet outside the unit. The AC adapter has two wires also. I wired one to the red and one to the black from the fan. The power supply I had has a picture on it with a positive on one side and a negative on the other. I took that to mean the wire coming out of the power supply on the right was positive (and it had some print on it) and the opposite wire was negative. I do know that red is positive and black is negative, and in my experience, wires with the print on them are generally positive, so I simply twisted them together with their respective wire from the fan and it worked. The yellow wire connectors you see are where I connected my AC adapter to the fan wires.

[madcrazy10]

Genius! I'm so doing this. I have a power supply with dual fans on it and I'm going to try to get them to both suck in air.

One more question though. Do I need a DC wall adapter to creat the plug? I just can't use a normal plug as if I cut one off a lamp I am no longer using for example?

[cubby_swans]

Genius! I'm so doing this. I have a power supply with dual fans on it and I'm going to try to get them to both suck in air.

One more question though. Do I need a DC wall adapter to creat the plug? I just can't use a normal plug as if I cut one off a lamp I am no longer using for example?

you DEFINITELY need an AC adapter which supplies a DC current, as the PC fans are probably 12V DC, and a cord cut off of a lamp will supply you the wall's 110Volt AC current. Any 12V power supply to any electronic item should do the trick. You have an old cisco network bridge or something you're no longer using? I have a whole drawer full of the things at work here.

[madcrazy10]

I'm having a hard time trying to find a 12V DC adapter. I have a bunch but they all output 5v or 9v. I may have to make a trip to radio shack or home depot.

[cubby_swans]

I'm having a hard time trying to find a 12V DC adapter. I have a bunch but they all output 5v or 9v. I may have to make a trip to radio shack or home depot.

You can use the 9V for now. I had mine hooked up with a 5V at first. The fans will just spin slower than top speed. Then keep an eye out for a 12V one, maybe from your work or a friend who has some electronic junk and you can replace the 9V one then. Otherwise you may be spending 20 or 30 bucks for something people throw away every day.

[amaruenterprise]

Pretty cool setup cubby. Thanks for the info. Think I will copy.........

got the blower set up. Here's some pics. It's working well, in my opinion. It's been running a few hours and the tower feels ice cold to the touch.

Also, I pulled the sensor out of it's cage last night and moved it towards the front of the unit as far as it would go, and electrical taped it to the side wall. I put a large mug of water in there last night, as far to the front of the kegerator as it would go, and this afternoon, it's temp registered on my thermometer at 35.5 degrees. I just got a new keg today, letting it sit overnight to settle and get colder. The last one I got, the beer was 43-44 when I tapped it two hours after I bought it. The place I got it from must be saving on their electric bill with their cooler temp setting. It's tough, but luckily I have some backup beer in the fridge to tide me over.

Anyways, here's my setup.....
couldn't resist the pic of the keg

[welper]

Using the old PC PS is an awesome idea! Too bad I just got rid of an old boat anchor that I kept tripping over. As I was researching kegerators, I stumbled onto this site and this is awesome! I am getting ready to purchase a three year old Summit kegerator off of Craigslist with twin towers and it seems that the only thing I need to do is cool the tower. I hope it keeps my beer cold as I like very cold beer! (33 degrees) With the twin towers, I can have two pony kegs at the same time, can I have say, Fat Tire and Coors Lite in the kegerator at the same time, or will I have problems with one or the other due to CO2 pressure and temp?

[lulu]

This might sound really stupid, but don't they just sell a cooled tower? I'm not really all that handy, and I would looooove to just hand a kegerator to my man and have it actually work. Thoughts?

[lunkhead]

There are plenty of units that come with cooled towers. Check it out here, [url]http://www.micromatic.com/kegerator-cid-5.html[/url]
Scroll down the page and begin at the $995.00 and up units.

[nitchimon]

Greetings all.

I had the Vissani and since I am a Coors Person, found out like many other that the standard Coors Kegs do not fit. Took it back and found that at Sams Club they had the Danby DKC645BLS. YES! A coors Keg will fit !

So I bought it, got it home, no mods. The unit refuses to go below 64 degrees. Ran it for 24 hours, nothing inside.

The cooling plate on the back refuses to get cold and the compressor almost glows its so hot.

I think I got a defective unit. I popped the sensor out and moved it up towards the top of the unit. Still 64 degrees nothing colder.


Thoughts ?

I'm thinking of taking it back. They had 3 other units in stock at the time and might switch to another.
With all the complaints about the Vissani, when plugged in, the temp dropped within the hour and overnight it was at a chilly 37. I think the Danby is defective.

Again, thoughts?

tia!

[the sandman]

This PC PS idea is great. It helped me out a ton. I had an old junction box laying around and I tried drilling holes in it and all sorts of combinations... couldnt get any flow. it was too constricted.

I have an AC fan. now inside a gutted old PC power supply box. The only thing I did different is swap out the fan that was in the box and put in my AC fan. It moves 32cfm. I am doubting it gets that much moving at 5 feet though. I left the switch and AC male connector in the box and just hooked up my 2 fan wires to the 2 switch wires. Using the old plug from that power supply I just plugged it in the wall. Works perfect.

Now I am using an old freezer on top fridge. So I am going to cut the male plug off the end of the cord I have, and wire it directly into the power inside the fridge. I think I am just going to disable the lightbulb in the fridge and use that power source. I just have to disable the on/off door switch.

THanks for a great idea!

[the sandman]

Something else I did to eliminate the wait time on silicon to cure. I went to autozone and picked up some metalic tape. $4 for a roll. I covered all the holes with that from the inside. I guess it is the same as duct tape, but I wanted a cleaner look...not sure why it will be buried in my fridge.