Tales from a Ventilation Lunatic

[rvpopeye]

F5 was my secret weapon for life on the concert trail......
I was going to point at it till you wrote it was your cure !
Maintain course , all ahead full.

[sternwake]

Are any of your fans a direct swap for a fantastic fan Stern?  Sounds like they are wayyyy better.

No direct swap with FF or maxairr.

Those are.pretty effective.for what they are, but if i were tasked.to do.so and handsomly rewarded, i could fill a 14x14 roof vent with 4 24v 140mm Deltas,and double the exhaust flow, and triple the noise, and quadruple the ampdraw.

Now a 24v clamp delta fan would be an awesomely powerful personal cooler, more so than the papst, but the papst can be dialed down slower and quieter.

[sternwake]

The front passenger door acrylic fan shroud, housing the two Delta 120x38mm 190 cfm fans, got a bit of a tune up today. It has been in place since late March and never turned off. Though much of the time it is at minimum speed.

The exhaust fan was thickly caked with Dust and  lint and Fiona fur/dander, the intake fan was more like impacted gray black dust.

The finger grilles on the  fans were originally  chrome. I'd immersed them in Ospho for a bit and then painted them with Black appliance epoxy, a good while ago. I did a whole batch of different size grilles at that time, 140, 120,92, 80mm 60 and 40mm. 

 These finger grilles have always rusted badly, quickly, in the past, I was hoping the Appliance epoxy  applied on new, unrusted chrome grilles, would prevent it, but all it did was slow it down, and reduce the degree.

The intake fan the grille was rusty, the exhaust fan grille was only dirty, despite also being outside.
I don't bother with Q tips anymore for cleaning, an old toothbrush gets all the dust off easily enough, especially when the blades were waxed after last tune up. 

The rusty grilles will get more Ospho and repainted.
I had more new black painted 120mm fan grilles  ready to go, but I did wax them first. 

I do remove the Hub's E clip and remove impeller to make cleaning easier. I made my own tool to do this from a pair of harbor fright needle nose pliers whose sharp ends I made a recess to better hold the ends of the  E clip, though it can still easily go flying never to be seen again. 

Years ago, I lost a clip and had to order a whole kit with dozens of different size clips just to get the one clip, but today that kit again became appreciated, as one fan was missing its E clip, and the magnet itself was holding the impeller in place. Slamming the door likely popped off the old E clip which I had used a bit too much force to spread open and remove several months ago when I last tuned the shroud.

Anyway when inserting impeller back into the fan, I found using a 1/4 inch socket can press the E clip in place,  as opposed to spreading spreading the E clip apart and getting it in its groove on the axle shaft.  I kind of messed up, using a larger socket and slipped and mashed the sealed ball bearing cover inward a bit.  I did not think it was enough  to contact the cage and balls inside, but when I put the impeller back in and a new E clip in place, the impeller did not spin as freely as it should.

So I removed e clip, impeller and NMB ball bearing, and used the edge of a razor blade to pry out the C clip, and then remove the seal. There was grease inside, but it looked a bit light.  I rebent the sealing cover back, and added some high temp valvoline wheel bearing grease , then reinstalled seal and C clip, bearing impeller and E clip, and there was still something not quite right. It was not spinning as freely as it should.

I removed impeller, installed it in the other fan, installed the E clip, and all is well.

Same exact fans, but the one impeller did not like the other fan.

Looks like I did not need to open the bearing and fix the dented cover and add more grease to it, but nice to know it can be done.

   

This bearing is significantly larger than the ball bearings which come in other 120mm fans, but not as large as the Papst fan, whose bearings are the size of a skateboards'.

I had bought a Flowbee last year, for cutting Fiona's fast growing fur, and am less than impressed with its function. 
Long story short, I added a Silverstone fan ball bearing hoping to improve function.
It did get quieter, and vibrates less, but really, the design is just poor.  The blades dull all too quickly even on freshly washed fur , and it takes far too long for them to cut the hair the vacuum sucks in. 

But it is nice to not have a fur everywhere, and it does take less time than regular clippers, especially if I hone the blades properly.  Under a strong headlamp, I can see that the very edges of the blades, do not even cross and that only in the middle of the opening is the hair actually cut.  I made the white plastic constrictor to try and keep the fur in the middle where the blades actually cross, but all it did was allow me to use the vacuum at a slower and quieter speed to achieve same unimpressive function, which is not unappreciated.
   

[sternwake]

I was doing some work on my passenger door, and reworking the Fiona perch, which rests on front passenger seat armrests.
Treating surface rust and painting the interior flat black, adding some paw traction, relocating the Oak handle......

Removing the 2 fan acrylic shroud in passenger door window, or other times just having to remove the power to the shroud,
holy crap, stale air zone, in comparison to the back. Fiona was upset that I had her perch down for modifications for a few days, and when I returned it, without the fans she was like "screw this!" would jump down, and choose the floor.

i was like 'that perch is softer, your gel cooling belly mat freshly washed, more solid, WTF!!!, then realized the fans were not plugged in. plug em in, crank them up, 'get on your perch!", and she obeyed with enthusiastic gusto. how I managed the warmer months without the front fans before, is unknown. Ignorance being blissful.

The Flowbee, one of my biggest regrets purchase wise, had become my only source to cut my own hair. I had gotten used to clippers with 10 to 12mm comb spacers for my head. However, that clipper aged, misbehaved, and accelerated angrily into immovable object. I saved its 14500 3.7v lithium battery. plugging it into the 1.5v AA powered beard trimmer is briefly, amusing.

The flowbee with new sealed ball bearing, was too slow for my own head, much less Fiona fur. It nearly met concrete floor too, just so I would quit trying to improve it.

There is a scary sharp method, for planer blades, basically one adheres 220, 400, 800, 1000, 1500 wet dry sandpaper to glass, and uses a blade holder which holds the blade at a precise angle, and is able to achieve scary sharp planer blades working through the grits. I had not gone this far, but I did have some 220 on some glass, a glass door from a wine fridge that I had used on the flowbee blades..
Glass is always flat right?

Wrong.

I happened to catch the reflected light near my sandpaper adhered to glass, and saw anything but perfectly flat. No wonder trying to sharpen the flowbee blades on this unflat surface yielded the less than stellar results.

I have a Japanese wetstone that I've tried really hard to keep flat, and spent some time with the flowbee blades, then cleaned and oiled them and reassembled the flowbee, called Fiona over, and while it does not work nearly as well as I would hope, It worked far better than ever, even when it was new, out of the box.

What is weird is that it seems that varying the buckethead vaccuum speed regularly on my router speed controller, from 6 to 8, a brief blast to 10, then back down, then up, makes it briefly work better. One might think that max speed/vacuum would always be best, but for whatever reason, varying the vacuum's speed/suction every 30 second or less, improves performance, whether the speed is increased or decreased. But this improvement fades until speed is changed again. I can't reason as to why, and thought it was placebo, just just the potentiometer spinning nutjob inside my skull, but the result is too repeatable and obvious to just be solely due to the the pot twisting lunatic induced placebo effect

The properly sharpened blades had obviously dulled by the time I was nearly done with Fiona's fur. Which is disappointing, but she got a lot of compliments on her new haircut and on the hottest days is obviously happier. At night too she does not wake up overheated, waking me up shaking, then walking across me, stepping on the balls 9 times out of 10, finding cold floor to suck the heat out of her.



I did buy some new sub 13$ cordless clippers for my own head. Instead of ~ 8 different height combs, the new designs have one or two combs, which change height in relation to the blades via a dial or slider, which makes for much less bulky storage and faster height adjustment.
Both are USB charged, yet at least one is a Nimh battery, not lithium.

This nimh one actually works better, I think the blades sweep a bit further side to side, but I can hear the motor slowing down the whole time it is running. Neither of them work very well on Fionafur, just pushing it out of the way requiring I hold it in place then saw it. The Flowbee is much nicer, but still too slow.

The Flowbee comes with a 115vac to 15vdc power supply/ wall wart. I use my 3$ slowboat 150 watt DC to DC voltage booster, set to about 15.5vdc and run it off my 18 ah AGM instead. I've taken it as high as 19v and as low as 11.5v. The vaccuum speed has more effect than the flowbee motor speed though. not much speed increase above 16.5v.

my 92mm fan hepa filter is basically always on lowest to low speed, as is my other 92mm clamp fan but at generally higher speed. Same fan but only a carbon filter sock that catches only larger dust. The latter filter gets caked quickly, the hepa filter is wrapped with the same carbon filter too, but gets loaded much slower, due to much less flow because of hepa filter restriction to flow. I wonder if Hepa cartridge is now clogged further restricting flow.
It still seems to move a considerable amount at high speeds but I rarely turn it up beyond low. its up and out of the way and largely forgotten, the novelty of quickly exhausting summer month hospital grade air, has worn off.

So right now it is 67f according to my thermometer nearest Fiona's perch.
Of my 3 fans on intake shroud, only the papst fan is on, lowest speed.
moving forard, I have the 92mm hepa fan and the 92mm clamp fan on slowest speeds.
if the fridge compressor is running there is a 120mm Noctu A12x15 fan on its condenser
i have two 80mm fans which are not powered, they could suck fridge heat and push it out louvered vent if I choose, but I have 120mm silverstone fm 121 fan exhasuting the fridge and electrical cabinet. the louvered vent is open a bit so SS fan is pulling air through filter below fridge, throiugh condenser, and Noctua fan even if fridge compressor is not running.

Above Noctua fan in ceiling is my 190 cfm delta 120mm fan, somewhere just above minimum speed at the moment.
Up front both Deltas one intake, one exhaust, are on minimum speeds, and the 92mm clmp fan up there, with filter sock, is pushing air at 120mm exhaust.
So if fridge is not running I have 8 fans running. I could have 14 running, and most of them can be turned to 4000+ rpm instead of the sub 800rpm most are currently at.
Lunacy.

[sternwake]

The nearly idiot proof Dual 120x36mm Jaro fan mount, with included speed control, was returned to me.
The guy to whom I gave them, said he plugged it in to his ciggy port, and nothing.

I figured at worst:
bad/fried voltage bucker,
at best: poor connection/broken wire/ bad ciggy port.
not really keen on troubleshooting/ yet another task, I sent him away, I'll get to it when I get to it.



I plug it in to a known good ciggy receptacle, and it works perfectly through full speed range.
I tweak every wire everywhere trying to find intermittent incomplete circuit.
Nope, works perfectly.

Not sure when I gifted this dual Jaro fan shroud, 2 years, perhaps 3. Could scroll through this thread to find out but am not that concerned either way.
Tons of built up dust on blades, obviously seen tons of use since I gifted it.
'Come take it back!"

I was then gifted ~3.5 grams of locally grown, but poorly cured, yet still highly potent, THC.

[Cammalu]

Hey! Universe paying you back for the gifting you did?

[sternwake]

Perhaps, The Jaro recipient has always been generous with what little he has.
I mentioned I was out and he gave me a significant portion of what he had.

Think its been a decade since I had to actually buy any.

[sternwake]

The Jaro Fan recipient texted me that he's been killing his Single engine battery, as he can't live without the fans in his
yota minivan.
It has been pretty hot and humid, for this area.
I forget what they can draw turned up high, but I wired them with a ciggy plug originally, and he has to turn the key to accessory overnight to use them, and there is likely considerable amount of additional parasitic draw on battery with the key turned to accessory overnight.

Talked options, which is difficult as he is not in the drawer with the sharp chisels.

I said lets replace your group 24 engine battery with a new marine battery, I'll run new fused wire from that to the back, so he does not have to keep key turned to accessory to power fans all night. Keep old battery placed in back, charge it when engine runs via an Anderson Powerpole disconnect on engine shutdown.

Shows up with a newflooded group 27 marine costco interstate battery, too big to fit in engine compartment.

Fits between seats nicely. Sent him off for 10-2 landscape cable. Gonna drill hole through firewall. Anderson powerpoles fused at each battery. Manana, or the day after that.

No chance of ever fully charging it, but at least it will charge every time he drives, and remembers to plug andersons together. Battery might last longer than him, with his poor health.

I hooked him up with some of my andersoned/12v receptacled cords/ battery post clamps for the time being, so he can crank the fans up as needed until manana becomes yesterday.



------

I got some Delta 7K rpm 50mm x 20mm computer/axial fans.
Only needed one, ordered two, three arrived.

One is going on my powermax 100 amp adjustable voltage power supply/charger. This device came with one 80mm pusher fan thermostatically controlled. I was running it with a manually switched 60mm puller on the opposite side, but now that 60mm aperture is 80mm and next to that original 80mm a 60mm fan was too big, but 50mm was perfect.

My salvaged 50mm fan was too weak, so Delta!

I have 2 80mmx36mm Nidec fans from Surplus center. 109 cfm. Very powerful. 4$:
Deal alert!

https://www.surpluscenter.com/Electrical...6-1528.axd

One Nidec is on my MV-50 12v air compressor. It no longer gets too hot. None of that 20 minutes on 30 minutes off duty cycle crap most air 12v air compressors say.

The other 80mm Nidec( still unemployed) has been hardened for underhood duty, its split flow feeding the backs of my alternators cool air from in front of radiator via flexible aluminum 'pre heater hose' instead of the alternators sucking hot underhood engine/radiator heat.

Overkill for powermax duty.
So I ordered two more and each alternator will gets its own Nidec.

Because i am the ventilation lunatic.

[sternwake]

I just got the Jaro fan recipient's group 27 interstate marine battery wired up.

I fused the 10awg wire at 35 amps at engine battery, using my 10-12 yellow flag terminals (crimped then soldered), which make for much better lower resistance more reliable ATC/ATO fuse holder, than the premade inline ATC fuse holders I have employed in the past.

Drilled a hole through firewall after quadruple checking location.

The 10-2 runs from engine battery, through firewall grommet to a 45 amp Anderson Powerpole, then through another 35 amp
flag terminal fuse holder, then to threaded studs on group 27, about 10.5 feet of cable, one way.

The group 27 was drained to about 50% (12.23v, rested), and I temporarily hooked my inline wattmeter to see how much amperage flowed from engine battery to house with engine running.

This of course is dependent on the voltage that Toyota's voltage regulator allows, as well as the resistance in the 10-2 and all the connections/fuses.

Engine battery Voltage seemed to be steady eddie at 13.6v, and amperage into the ~50% depleted 27 initially spiked at 34 amps and lowered to 20 amps over a minute then settled to 15 amps a minute after that.
13.6v at engine battery 13.2v at inline wattmeter and 13.0 at voltmeter on Ciggy plug coming off of house battery, ~ 3 feet of 12 gauge.

Revving he engine had minor brief effect on voltage, as did turning the lights on or off.

This of course is totally inadequate for a real house battery system, but all he will be powering overnight is the Jaro fans and maybe charging his phone, and it took him 5 nights running the Jaros to drain the ~100 amp hour battery to ~50% SOC.

With as much as he drives, and idles, this super basic system should be able to replace what he uses overnight.

But of course 80% to 100% state of charge with lead acid takes no less than 3.5 hours ( at ~14.4v) so the battery is highly unlikely to ever reach true full charge, especially if 13.6 is as high a voltage as the Toyota ever allows, at least when the engine is warm.

It will sulfate and die well before it would, if it were regularly truly fully charged.

No idea how long it will last in this usage, but any charging is better than no charging, and he will not have to worry about killing his engine battery overnight anymore, so, mission accomplished.


Shutting down the engine, there was still 2.5 amps flowing from group 24 engine battery to group 27 house battery.
I did start the engine with both still in parallel, and the 35 amp fuses did not blow. Maybe they would if engine battery was drained and house battery more charged.

I gave him an old ciggy plug to which I had added a single decimal digital voltmeter to.

He was coveting my inline Wattmeter.
----------

I checked the tracking on my 80mmx36mm 109 cfm Nidec fans from Surplus Center dot com last night.
It said they were yet to be received by USPS.
They arrived just now.
One of them, the casing is damaged.
I've not yet powered them up to check function, and if they do, the case damage is not enough to worry me, but I am still a bit miffed as it was not shipping induced damage. They were well protected within the box.

[sternwake]

Both nidec fans were damaged. One missing one stator vane and the other with a damaged casing.
Meant to shaKe fiat at supplier via e mail,....never did.

Both spin up fine, though the one with missing stator vane vibrates more than the others.

I think i suffered a delta ffb1212ehe failure.tonight.
it quit working, but i have not.established 12v is making it to its circuit board., yet.
I was returning the window shade, below it, when it seemed.to quit, could of broke.a wire.

Lots.of.delta clones out there. Some claiming higher rpm/cfm and less amp.draw.
Suspicious.
I can return a jaro fan to the passenger door acrylic shroud,, but id prefer status quo,.as of 3 hours ago