Quieter hotend cooling fans? Hi, I recently managed to make my motors almost completly quiet. Now the loudest part is the hotend cooling fan. I had played around with a 50mm fan and an adaptor that I regulated down to ca. 60% max speed with a small voltage regulator. That worked well and I never had issues with cooling but it still wasnt as quiet as I hoped. Now hearing that the prusa mk3 is using brand noctua fans I thought again of the topic. In addition I changed my effector/hotend carriage that doesnt have enough space for my old solution. So im wondering if someone has out some thought into and found maybe a good balance between bigger fans, slower rpm and noise. Cheers https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790008#msg-790008 Sat, 08 Aug 2026 18:33:17 -0400 Phorum 5.2.23 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,793161#msg-793161 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,793161#msg-793161
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the_digital_dentist
A resistor or a few diodes will drop the voltage and slow it down a little, reducing the noise level.

Or for about $1 you can get a small buck converter to drop the voltage an adjustable amount and tweak it until you're happy with the noise level.

As I'd said earlier - it would take quite a few diodes to drop the 24v enough to make a difference! I gave up after 5 diodes.

In the end I went for the second approach - I bought a couple of these for very little money. The description is rubbish - the regulator chip and the schottky diode are both rated at 3A not 5A - but I only need 100mA - 200mA so I don't care. Managed to drop the fan's wind roar to a gentle background whisper, while still getting a steady breeze behind the E3Dv6 cooling fins. I've printed a couple of test pieces with no sign of the filament jamming (though I haven't tried ABS yet).

Printed a simple little case for the board that bolted to the 2020 extrusion in a convenient place - nice.]]> David J Reprappers Sun, 22 Oct 2017 06:13:08 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791415#msg-791415 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791415#msg-791415
lRBD1dh.jpg

Looks Good, (be even better if it could do some milling, probably pcb's no problem, but do you think it would cope with alu, it seems sealed enough.
]]> MechaBits Reprappers Fri, 06 Oct 2017 19:58:58 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791410#msg-791410 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791410#msg-791410
The whole concept is senseless overkill but it is also a ton of fun. I'm interested to see exactly what the speed/quality limits of FDM look like when motion is not a limiting factor.

[imgur.com]

At first it seemed like a straightforward project since the linear stages do most of the heavy lifting, but I ended up going overboard trying to build a frame/enclosure of matching quality so it has become a bit of a doozy.]]> 691175002 Reprappers Fri, 06 Oct 2017 16:51:06 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791406#msg-791406 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791406#msg-791406
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691175002

Wat U got there, some serious kit.
]]> MechaBits Reprappers Fri, 06 Oct 2017 15:18:55 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791388#msg-791388 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791388#msg-791388


Quiet blower fans are harder to come across, I think the only option there is scaling down the voltage/duty cycle.
]]> 691175002 Reprappers Fri, 06 Oct 2017 11:21:00 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791310#msg-791310 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791310#msg-791310
Or for about $1 you can get a small buck converter to drop the voltage an adjustable amount and tweak it until you're happy with the noise level.]]> the_digital_dentist Reprappers Thu, 05 Oct 2017 22:18:22 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791277#msg-791277 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791277#msg-791277 David J Reprappers Thu, 05 Oct 2017 15:35:17 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791268#msg-791268 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791268#msg-791268 dc42 Reprappers Thu, 05 Oct 2017 14:07:22 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791247#msg-791247 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791247#msg-791247 What stopped me was the fact that even the radial fans are still quite loud even when they dont have the high peak loudness of the axial onnes.

That said, I was looking for high quality radial fans to also quiet down the model cooling but it was much harder to find. I guess the case modding community doesnt really care about radial fans.]]> sungod3k Reprappers Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:56:21 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791240#msg-791240 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,791240#msg-791240
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the_digital_dentist
A resistor or a few diodes in series will drop the fan's voltage and reduce the speed and noise level.

It would take quite a few diodes to drop the voltage enough to reduce the speed on a 24v fan! :)

I took the alternative approach - I peeled the label off the old fan that screeched on start-up and put a tiny drop of thin oil on the sleeve bearing. Seems to have cured the horrible noise for a while. I'm still going to investigate how I can use a 50mm radial blower fan in place of the axial one... quieter, and much better at forcing air into a restricted space.]]> David J Reprappers Thu, 05 Oct 2017 11:20:47 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790285#msg-790285 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790285#msg-790285 https://youtu.be/7VudIDiXQaI?t=33m14s]]> sungod3k Reprappers Fri, 29 Sep 2017 11:10:59 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790265#msg-790265 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790265#msg-790265 the_digital_dentist Reprappers Fri, 29 Sep 2017 08:31:26 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790264#msg-790264 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790264#msg-790264
I've currently working out whether I have enough room to fit a snail blower to the X-Y carriage, without it colliding with the frame of my CoreXY printer. It's going to be a tight squeeze...]]> David J Reprappers Fri, 29 Sep 2017 08:28:36 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790194#msg-790194 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790194#msg-790194 the_digital_dentist Reprappers Thu, 28 Sep 2017 20:35:39 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790190#msg-790190 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790190#msg-790190 [www.ebay.co.uk]
i dont know if you could chain one or 2 to this and still use it. a bit pricey used to be a few quid.]]> MechaBits Reprappers Thu, 28 Sep 2017 19:31:50 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790139#msg-790139 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790139#msg-790139
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The use of the supplied 30mm fan and duct is highly recommended, the supplied fan has adequate airflow (4-5 CFM) and the duct is specifically designed to aim that airflow at the fins of the heatsink.

The noctua fan I was talking about has [noctua.at] has "Airflow 8,2 m³/h"
If I calculate that correctly

Amount : 5 cubic feet per minute (cu ft/min of flow rate)
Equals : 8.50 cubic meters per hour (m3/h / flow rate)

Which I would say is enough, but doesnt allow any further speed/noise reduction.]]> sungod3k Reprappers Thu, 28 Sep 2017 12:15:42 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790030#msg-790030 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790030#msg-790030 [www.amazon.de]

Now the question only is how much noise they really reduce.

I just measured with my phone and i get 40dcb, while noctua promises 17, that would actually be quiet good.

I also asked on the e3d forum about air flow volume, lets see if its comaprable.]]> sungod3k Reprappers Wed, 27 Sep 2017 14:15:29 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790011#msg-790011 Re: Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790011#msg-790011 the_digital_dentist Reprappers Wed, 27 Sep 2017 12:48:15 -0400 https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790008#msg-790008 Quieter hotend cooling fans? https://reprap.org/forum/read.php?4,790008,790008#msg-790008
I recently managed to make my motors almost completly quiet. Now the loudest part is the hotend cooling fan.
I had played around with a 50mm fan and an adaptor that I regulated down to ca. 60% max speed with a small voltage regulator. That worked well and I never had issues with cooling but it still wasnt as quiet as I hoped.

Now hearing that the prusa mk3 is using brand noctua fans I thought again of the topic. In addition I changed my effector/hotend carriage that doesnt have enough space for my old solution.

So im wondering if someone has out some thought into and found maybe a good balance between bigger fans, slower rpm and noise.

Cheers]]> sungod3k Reprappers Wed, 27 Sep 2017 12:39:40 -0400