Rheostat getting extremely hot

J

Justin218

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 13, 2001
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I was using a rheostat to control the fan on my old heatsink(think it was a volcano 2 or some garbage like that), now I upgraded to a vantec aeroflow, the one with the TMD fan. The thing is, the rheostat gets extremely hot when slowing down the TMD fan, but didn't at all with my old volcano 2. It's getting so hot that it could honestly burn you. Should rheostats just not be used with a TMD fan?
TMD fan
 
The type of fan doesn't matter. What's important is how much power your rheostats is designed for and how much power the fan uses.
 
HeThatKnows said:
The type of fan doesn't matter. What's important is how much power your rheostats is designed for and how much power the fan uses.
Click to expand...

well, yeah, of course. But what I mean is, a TMD fan might be designed specifally to work at a specific voltage, and when undervolted, is extremely inefficient. I really don't know.

Epox Tech, could you explain that a bit more?
 
TMD fans still works the same as a regular fan -- current runs through an electromagnet, attracting/repelling permanent magents. Maximum power draws for both fans will be at full voltage, maximum power dissipation in the rheostat will be at about half voltage.

A shunt is just a resistor. Put it in series with your fan/rheostats and it will share the load with the rheostat. You won't be able to turn your fan all the way up, though. An inductor is a coil of wire that store energy as magnetic field; it will have no effect on a DC fan.

So, what's the power rate of the fan? The power rating and resistance of your rheostat?
 
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