Ultra Quiet Pan World Mod

dandy7200 · #1 04/21/2006, 01:23 AM

Well my 50 px was just to loud. I took off the fan shroud first and that made a huge difference. If this tank was in the living room or family room I think my mod would have stopped there. Just by taking the black piece off the back it cut the noise by at least half.
Alas the tank is in my office and I am trying to acheive the silent tank so next I took the fan off completely. This made the pump run at barely audible.

Great but, I think the fan is supposed to be there for something right? Well just for kicks I ran the pump for 4 hours fanless to see how hot it would get. It was hot but much, much less than the equivelent Velosity T-2 and quieter to boot. After 4 hours it took my tank temperature up by 2 degrees (90 gallons total water). I run central air in a pretty new house so the ambient air does not change.
I decided that the heat gain was worth the trade off for the noise but, don't really want to fry the pump so I bought this.

This is a pretty hardcore P4 chipset heatsink and fan.
Put a hole in the heatsink.

The metal fins were really hot from the heat transfer as I drilled through the solid copper core, so I believe this will work good.
Strapped her on.

Hooked up the fan rated at .2 amps 35cfm and only 22db.

Fired the system up and guess what?
1. Silence.
2. Tank temperature DROPPED 2 degrees from when the original fan was bolted on.
3. Never would have guessed but the pump starting pushing more! I would say around 100 gph. I guess the motor didn't have to turn the clunky fan any more so it has more umph for turning water. I only noticed because I have my return line restricted for testing the Herbie Overfow on the tank.

Later

gath2 · #2 04/21/2006, 09:45 AM

Nice mod, keep us updated on how things go.
I would love to cut down on the noise level of my GenX pump's

Reefugee · #3 04/21/2006, 09:53 AM

Brilliant idea! Great job.

wife no likey · #4 04/21/2006, 10:34 AM

It actually dropped temp? I have a Blue Line 100 and although it may be a little bigger I wonder if this would help us out?

I was just about to setup a chiller, but may try this; possibly using a larger sink

Pete

E-A-G-L-E-S · #5 04/21/2006, 10:41 AM

man....this possibly could be done to "many" other fan-cooled pumps

TY

HippieSmell · #6 04/21/2006, 11:09 AM

I was wondering what I was going to do with my old computer. Nice mod.

uscgbeachbum · #7 04/21/2006, 11:42 AM

Did you use any of that grease stuff that PC chips use? This is awesome.

Stile2 · #8 04/21/2006, 11:46 AM

Great Mod! I'm doing that to my 100PX this weekend.

Nice!

dandy7200 · #9 04/21/2006, 12:28 PM

Glad to see there is some interest in this.
Yes it actually dropped the temp in the tank!
It took less than 1 hour to do.
Total cost was around $40.
Fan and heat sink bought at Comp USA, and AC/DC adapter bought at Radio Shack. I could have no doubt made this cheaper if I could hace waited for Internet orders but there was no way I could wait once I got this in my head.
Remember that just taking the fan shroud off reduced the noise by half so you might just give that a try and see what happens. Of course if it is in a place where fingers could get caught I might rethink that

.
I will post the specs of the heatsink/fan when I get home from work tonight.
Dan

gath2 · #10 04/21/2006, 02:28 PM

I think that you would have an increase in temperature by just removing the shroud as well. I believe this helps redirect the air over the motor. You definitely have a good idea here. Do you think it would be possible to drill a couple of more holes in sides and attach the heatsink with screws. There has to be a better way to mount it.

exmt · #11 04/21/2006, 02:50 PM

It looks abolutely great to me. Does the fan blow onto the heatsink or suck air from the heatsink? Thanks, I might do one of these on my pump.

dandy7200 · #12 04/21/2006, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Does the fan blow onto the heatsink or suck air from the heatsink?

It blows on to the heatsink. This is designed to push the hot air away from the fins. It is really the heatsink itself cooling the motor.

Quote:

Do you think it would be possible to drill a couple of more holes in sides and attach the heatsink with screws. There has to be a better way to mount it.

It is actually held in place by screws on the sides. The zip ties are there to pull it as tight as possible to the metal on the pump. Kind of like the springs that clip these to a processor when they are used for there intended purpose.

humboldt reefer · #13 04/21/2006, 06:14 PM

Awesome Idea. Ahh the possibilities are endless. If you were to use an air to water heat exchanger and run icewater through it your pumps would double as a chiller!

turtlespd · #14 04/21/2006, 06:33 PM

greatest idea ever! Now maybe ill take all my pumps out of my garage

dandy7200 · #15 04/21/2006, 08:50 PM

Here is the fan/heatsink from CompUSA
A few things that make this heatsink unique to this particular use are:
1. The bottom is completly flat. There are many others that have a raised indention so that they fit a particular chipset, and since I drilled right through the center where the chip woud be this flatness was imprortant.
2. 80mm = 3 1/8". Big enough for my pump.
3. Thick core copper and aluminum. There are several types of heatsinks many of which are in this size range have heat pipes running through them. Since I don't plan to overclock my pump I doubt I need this feature and didn't want to worry about bustin a pipe filled with who knows what.
4. Silent Fan. This one is rated at a max of 21 dba. Thats quiet!

The above link does show a old picture of the fan. The model number is the same but it looks a little differant to me.

Dan

reefarchitect · #16 04/21/2006, 11:00 PM

Great mod. I have an Iwaki and a PW 150; both keep me up at night

Thanks

danskim · #17 04/21/2006, 11:29 PM

Yeah for those who will do this, use some "arctic silver" compound or something of the equivalent. It will fill in any gaps between the metals and increase heat export.

deds · #18 04/21/2006, 11:38 PM

for even better result scrap the paint. with arctic silver you probably wont need cable ties

UFreefer · #19 04/22/2006, 01:18 AM

holy crap, i just took off the shroud and what a difference! its basically silent. 15second mod i've ever done to this tank.

dandy7200 · #20 04/22/2006, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by UFreefer
holy crap, i just took off the shroud and what a difference! its basically silent. 15second mod i've ever done to this tank.

Please monitor your pump and water temperature. gath2 had some concerns that this alone would raise the temperature. Please keep us informed.

mfinn · #21 04/22/2006, 09:53 AM

I'm going to give this a try on my 100PX-X.
I took it off my system and replaced it with a Poseidon PS4.
To cool the P4 I used a clip-on fan that you can buy anywhere.
I have had no problem with the heat issue everyone talks about.
I'm going to try this mod on the P4 also. I think that the pc fan is designed for long term use, more so than the clip-on fan. Don't see why it shouldn't work.
Great idea dandy7200

Stile2 · #22 04/22/2006, 10:00 AM

I removed the shroud from my 100PX-X last night and while it was quieter, it wasn't to dramatic. I will try removing the fan today.

Keith

jmccalip · #23 04/22/2006, 10:34 AM

I wouldn't just take off the shroud. Since the fan blades are straight, the pump needs the shroud to angle air towards the motor.

Bug_Power · #24 04/22/2006, 11:17 PM

taking off the shroud basically makes the fan push the air stright up and down.... this doesn't cool the pump. I looked at doing the exact same thing with my Iwaki 100rlt. It's a beast for noise.

dandy7200 · #25 04/23/2006, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bug_Power
taking off the shroud basically makes the fan push the air stright up and down.... this doesn't cool the pump. I looked at doing the exact same thing with my Iwaki 100rlt. It's a beast for noise.

Replace fan with heatsink.
Replace shroud with super silent fan.
Bye-bye beast

.