Sunon fans (part II)

[RJARRRPCGP]

Continued from:

https://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3823

but everyone of the 40mm in sensetron psu for swi prototrak m2 are locked up.

Sad, but true, my 2007 Sunon Maglev locked up in 2013.
Replaced with the same model, but manufactured in 2006.

The 2007 Sunon locked up while in the Asus Maximus II Gene when using a Wolfdale.

(Was fine when using it with the Asus P5QL Pro with the Conroe E4500 in 2012)

[stj]

Re: Sunon fans (part II)

6years for a 40mm is actually damned impressive.
in 24/7 applications a regular sleeve bearing 40mm fan usually wont last more than 2.

[c_hegge]

Re: Sunon fans (part II)

I've had pretty poor luck with Sunon lately. I've seen a few 80mm and 92mm fans from them fail. Most recently was a 92mm on a Dell/Hipro 400W PSU. One of the caps was bad when I opened it up and noticed it too.

[mockingbird]

Re: Sunon fans (part II)

I'm running a long-going experiment to see whether sleeve-bearing fans which are greased with high quality lubricant can outlast ball-bearing fans with mediocre quality bearings, which Sunon Maglev falls into. Mind you, better than average Chinese/Taiwanese ball-bearings, but not as good as European/American/Japanese (And maybe even some high-end Taiwanese or Chinese) bearings.

I've noticed that the fans with the mediocre bearings, like Thermaltake AF series, develop a quiet hiss in the bearing after a while. Probably poor quality grease was used in it. Either way, if you want to rejuvenate a ball bearing, you need to immerse it in motor oil or something in a vacuum chamber.

I keep re-greasing more and more sleeve bearing fans... Lately I've gone even a bit further. While cleaning and re-greasing a Topfan 90mm variant, I broke the nylon snap ring. Now if any of you have taken apart fans, you know what I'm talking about. Problem is, these are impossible to purchase. So what I did was I used a 2.5mm (inner diameter) x 5mm x 1mm washer like this:



The problem is, these washers are too thick to fit into the groove on the shaft. The trick is to glue the washer to some hard surface (Use rubber cement because it peels off easily afterwards), and then thin it out with a dremel. The best way to make the split in the washer is to use an old fashioned razor blade:



What you do is heat up the sharp side until it's red hot (I used a lighter torch for this), and then slice through. It needs to be done this way because the cut has to be a slit, and using cutters would warp the surrounding nylon.

Now, if the sleeve-bearing fan is poor quality, like cheap plastic, or it doesn't have a rubber/plastic cap on the hole underneath the sticker, I don't usually bother with them. Speaking of stickers, if the sticker loses its adhesiveness, I clean it with charcoal fluid (to remove any remaining adhesive), clean the surface of the fan really well, and then glue it in place with rubber cement, making sure to use the glue on the outer part of the sticker, so that it doesn't cover the plug.

I have to say, I'm really starting to prefer refurbished sleeve-bearing fans over cheap Chinese ball-bearing garbage. My next favourite is the Coolermaster rifle-bearing fans. So far, I have an 80mm model in my case, and I'm pretty pleased with it. The only drawback is that rifle-bearings have a sort of a slightly noticeable hum to them compared to sleeve bearings.

[c_hegge]

Re: Sunon fans (part II)

^
Rifle bearings are just sleeve bearings with a few grooves on the outside of the bearing which are used as oil chambers - similar to a Fluid Dynamic Bearing

[mockingbird]

Re: Sunon fans (part II)

You're right of course. But it looks like Coolermaster made a few other modifications to the basic sleeve bearing design (Wider shaft and "protect rings"):



It's been working great so far. I can't remember if I re-greased it or not, or whether I just peeked inside...

[momaka]

Re: Sunon fans (part II)

... While cleaning and re-greasing a Topfan 90mm variant, I broke the nylon snap ring. Now if any of you have taken apart fans, you know what I'm talking about. Problem is, these are impossible to purchase.

I have a simpler method - cut a piece from a regular staple used for paper and bend the piece into a C shape. And that's it.

I also have two fans where I didn't install nylon c-clip (due to loosing it or it breaking due to heat generated when the fan seized). In both cases, the fans had strong magnets to hold the rotor in place and the fan was not to be oriented with the rotor facing down.

Now, if the sleeve-bearing fan is poor quality, like cheap plastic, or it doesn't have a rubber/plastic cap on the hole underneath the sticker, I don't usually bother with them.

Well, I've encountered Supperred fans with heat-welded/heat-pressed plastic plugs on the back. No way to open them other than drill the thing out - and I did. The 80 mm Supperred fan in my Inno Power (Macron) MPT-301 is still going strong probably more than 5 years now after I drilled it like that and oiled it. Granted that PSU barely sees any use at all. But the fact remains that the oil inside it has not dried out and the fan still spins as if I oiled it yesterday.