Cooling fan for electronics cabinet

We have a little fan in the cabinet and we also replaced the cabinet glass insert with a decorated screen.

Muffin fans are quiet and effective. (computer type) :)

I would try to find as large a fan as will fit because the larger fans tend to run at lower rpm's and therefore are quieter. I wouldn't rely on louvers to keep an electronic cabinet cool, but are a good idea in conjunction with a fan. Check out filters to keep out the dust.

Jim Shoe wrote:
Depending on whether you're using it for 120V AC or 12V DC, grab a bathroom ceiling fan from your favorite big box HW store or CW.

:h

Thats like driving a tank over a fly :S besides bathroom ceiling fans are often extremely noisy...

The OP is wanting to cool ELECTRONIC ITEMS in an SMALL ENCLOSED CABINET, not clear bathroom odors or humidity..

The OP is looking for small "muffin" fans AKA computer fans.

These fans can be had in various voltages, speeds and configurations to suit most any application.

You can find a good selection at ALL ELECTRONICS

You select the voltage, then take into consideration the noise level of the fan (45 DB is quieter than 46 DB), the CFMs moved (30CFM is more air than 25CFM) the fan speed (affects noise level, slower fan speeds like 2500 RPM will be quieter than 3500 RPM).

I would however recommend NOT using a fan to keep your electronics cool for several reasons..

1 Reliability, fans are mechanical and tend to fail at the worst possible moment and destroying equipment.

2 Noise, while you can find low noise fans, they still tend to make noise and the lower noise fans tend to not move as much are as the noisier fans.

3 Forget to turn on/off, these fans as is have no thermostat or way of automatically turning on/off. You would need to design or find some thermostat to do this for you otherwise you drain or use batteries (if 12V).

4 DIRT AND DUST, fans tend to pull ever speck of dirt and dust that is the air right INTO the electronic item your are attempting to cool.

5 See comment #1...

I would highly recommend changing the front of the cabinet to a louvered type of doors and skipping the use of a fan.

RetiredBob wrote:
I want to install a small fan for cooling the cabinet that holds the satellite receiver, dvd player and control box. Can someone please point me in the right direction. TIA.

May I suggest an Enermax Case Fan Cooling UC-MA12 12VDC. It sports a magnetic bearing (It levitates) so it is very quiet. I replaced our 2 refer external sleeve bearing fans with these. We can barely hear them inside if we put our ear to the refer. The former fans were instantly evident when they started. A small current draw as well.

You want a quite fan like is found in a computer. Radio Shack has some 12V and 120V I believe but you will find many online. You can set them to run whenever power is available or you can add a thermostat so it only runs when the temps reach a certain level.

This site has some good stuff. AC, DC, USB - if you have a USB port handy, that's the way I'd go.

Depending on whether you're using it for 120V AC or 12V DC, grab a bathroom ceiling fan from your favorite big box HW store or CW.