Anyone else repair their old fans?

M

munkle

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jan 16, 2005
Messages
11,799
I hardly ever buy fans, if my fans are slow or start to rattle I usually take off the back sticker and add a little oil and they are like new again. Anyone else do that?
 
Last edited:
Haven't done that, but I do have a decent collection and would hate to junk them because of a rattle. What kind of oil do you recommend?
 
scihon said:
Haven't done that, but I do have a decent collection and would hate to junk them because of a rattle. What kind of oil do you recommend?
Click to expand...

Lol, I use anything, vegetable oil, motor oil, wd-40, pam, castor oil. Probably shouldn't use vegetable oil since it spoils, but I haven't had any problems with it. I would say the best would be something not as viscous as vegetable oil but more viscous than wd-40. If it is thick the fan slows down some, if it is super runny the oil drys out quick.
 
I oil them once a year in the yearly "run the mice out" cleaning.

I got a nice little bottle of "turbine oil" at Home Depot which is a very high quality low visicosity general purpose oil and put some in a cleaned out squeeze bottle that held ink for ink cartridge refills that has a metal needle with cap. Handy as hell all over the place.

Almost anything is better than nothing, have not bought a large fan in years. Its the little bastards (60mm and smaller) that I cant keep running. Guess the high rpm's need more than once a year attention.
 
BillParrish said:
I oil them once a year in the yearly "run the mice out" cleaning.

I got a nice little bottle of "turbine oil" at Home Depot which is a very high quality low visicosity general purpose oil and put some in a cleaned out squeeze bottle that held ink for ink cartridge refills that has a metal needle with cap. Handy as hell all over the place.

Almost anything is better than nothing, have not bought a large fan in years. Its the little bastards (60mm and smaller) that I cant keep running. Guess the high rpm's need more than once a year attention.
Click to expand...

I think it is the cheap small ones, I have a thermalright 40mm that has been going for 5 years, had some other small ones need to be oiled after 1 year. Also how do you get the stickers to stick if you oil them that much? I pretty much only get two oilings at most if I am lucky out of the stickers.
 
I used to back in the day. Anymore, just buy a new one.
 
Wipe with an alcohol pad to get off any spilled oil of and a bottle of rubber glue from Staples (stuff is hard to find now its the old school stuff to reseal letters etc, old office supply stuff). My bottle must be 10 years old. Will peel right off the next year. Every now and then a sticker will not stick or rips, I just make a new one (its just a dust cover anyway) out of anything laying around and glue it on. I love the fans with the little rubber plugs. Wish ads would tell you if the fan had them.
 
I use a drop or two of Mobile 1 Full Synthetic 10w30 motor oil.

It works great, I always have some around from when I change the oil in my vehicles.
 
Silicone and Mobile 1 Synthetic sound good. Be sure there are no detergents in it. Since my wife is a seamstress the is always sewing machine oil around so that's what I use.
 
EricFX1984 said:
done it many times actually
Click to expand...
Agreed. Simply remove the sticker & plug to get at the bearing/sleeve. A small dab of straight 50 weight oil does the trick every time.
Multi viscosity motor oils are too thin (10w 30 etc ...) at room temp for my blood.
 
Hmm, I always used gear oil (last car liked to sip on it), at 85-90w you think it's too thick?
 
I also use motor oil to lube my fans (5w30 conventional).

My room gets pretty hot during the summer, and my fans are still working fine after being used for 5 years. :)
 
I usually disassemble my fans for cleaning once a year along with my PC (im weird :p)

Its pretty easy, use a needle to get in between the plastic retaining washer and pop it off (be careful or it will pop off and fly across the room). Also this washer is pretty universal between fans. I lost one for my Scythe Slipstreams when I was painting the fan blades and I just re-used one off an extremely old 80mm fan and it worked perfectly.

Then just slide the prop-shaft of the fan out and you are good to go. I blow out the motor with compressed air and clean the prop-shaft, blades, and fan housing with rubbing alcohol. The oil gets grimy after a while from dust and dirt so I like to clean out the "bearing" area with rubbing alcohol and a paper towel too. If you have fans with actual bearings (the ones in my zalman heatsink are removable), you can just remove them, and soak em in some motor oil.

I usually use Vaseline to re-lube the shaft and bearing as it is thick and lasts for a long while. Something runnier (motor oil, etc)would be appropriate if you dont want to disassemble your fan though. This has worked very well for me and keeps my fans running in tip top shape. Make sure you clean the blades of the fan too, dust buildup will disrupt the airflow over the blades.

I used to use bicycle chain oil (the nice stuff) when I was lazier though ;)
 
After a year or so my fans look filthy and a potential biohazard so I just chuck 'em.

Recently had the entire blades & hubs of a 120mm case fan just pop off while running though. Didn't understand the noise I just heard 'til I saw half the fan sitting on the floor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top