Speaker cloth as fan filter?

V

vannguyen0

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Apr 10, 2008
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I put a 12" subwoofer grill on the side of my Rocketfish:

side panel

I am going to connect a 250mm fan to it. But I am super worried about dust. Just want to know if anyone has tried using speaker cloth as fan filters? I'm sure it'll definitely help keep the dust out, but how will that affect the airflow?
 
Unknown. It will depend on the fabric.

Go to your local hardware store and buy a filter for central heating/air conditioning. You can choose the filter based on the degree of filtration you want. Remove the filter fabric from the cardboard frame (or buy the unframed filter type for replacement in reusable plastic frames) and cut it to fit the fan opening.
 
running fan filters is overrated!

Just blow your case out once a week... or... Don't be dusty!



Crazy people and their dust :mad:
 
Shambler said:
Just blow your case out once a week... or... Don't be dusty!
Click to expand...

that was my initial thought... but:

1) that's toooo big of a hole to just leave open. and for some reason, the office is the dustiest room in the whole house!

2) the rocketfish is not that easy to move around... with everything installed, it's a chore to try to get it downstairs/outside to dust off.

3) i have a super huge hsf - and would like to minimize the amount of moving as much as possible.

Another recommendation was to use "open-cell foam". Might give that a shot.
 
honestly you may have the right idea by trying out the fan grille cloth, it's good enough to not hamper acoustics so why not a fan?

I just took the grill off one of my KEF speakers and put a leftover thermaltake 120mm fan I had laying around behind the grille and the airflow wasn't much lower than without, and the Thermaltake fans have lousy static pressure so you should be ok me thinks.
 
Speaker grill fabric may let air pass but not filter well. Why not just use a filter material that is specifically designed to filter air?
 
Michael Daly said:
Speaker grill fabric may let air pass but not filter well. Why not just use a filter material that is specifically designed to filter air?
Click to expand...

did you see the size of that hole? 12" wide. know anything that is specifically designed to filter air, is (semi) cheap, big enough to cover that hole, and is somewhat aesthetically pleasing?
 
That last bit is a bit of a loaded question. I'd bet you $10 that everyone's idea of "aesthetically pleasing" will be different. Personally, I'd just try the speaker grill stuff as you originally mentioned, and see how that works (for both airflow and dust buildup of course). If it's not satisfactory enough, try something else.

FWIW, the stock metal grill on my Armor's 250mm fan traps debris well enough.. But much of my problem is a hairy Siamese cat that more or less sleeps on me or the monitor much of the time (also windows open almost 24/7; no AC and weather is "nice" all the time). Between that and the front panel filters, I hardly ever have to clean dust bunnies from the inside of the case/hardware - it's mostly the various filters, and if after a really long time the stuff they're adjacent to.
 
That huge hole is so ugly that "aesthetically pleasing" is irrelevant. I have never seen a case with such a side panel opening that looks good. If you choose that kind of ventilation, looks take a back seat to functionality. YMMV.
 
You could have the fan set up as an exhaust instead of intake and then you shouldn't have to worry about dust, haha, but yeah, like others said, give the speaker cloth a try. It's tough to say how well it will filter and affect air flow, but as far as filtration, I think it would be better than nothing at least.
 
Michael Daly said:
That huge hole is so ugly that "aesthetically pleasing" is irrelevant. I have never seen a case with such a side panel opening that looks good. If you choose that kind of ventilation, looks take a back seat to functionality. YMMV.
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+1

You're probably better off buying the air filter from a hardware store like they said before and cut it to fit.
 
Should work fine for lint and pet hair, but fine dust will go through like a sieve. So depending on what type of dust you have it may not work at all. I have a heck of a time at my house because there is a lot of fine dust blowing in from around our property. Also we have pets so even though we vacuum frequently the dust gets in the air and hits the computer fast.
 
I don't know about you, but the cleanest part of my speakers is behind the speaker grille. My speakers grille sits flush so maybe that is why. Then again I am sure fans might be able to draw dust through. Wouldn't hurt to try. I used cleanfree drier sheets in the past and those worked well for small fan openings, and it made my case smell good.
;)
 
Brokennails said:
I don't know about you, but the cleanest part of my speakers is behind the speaker grille. My speakers grille sits flush so maybe that is why. Then again I am sure fans might be able to draw dust through. Wouldn't hurt to try. I used cleanfree drier sheets in the past and those worked well for small fan openings, and it made my case smell good.
;)
Click to expand...

I have used dryer sheets too....nothing better than a fresh clean smelling PC....plus they are static free :D
 
yeah... i kinda threw aesthetically pleasing out the window with that big grill huh? it looked like a good idea in my head. oh well. i will give the speaker cloth a try...
 
I'll put a bid in for industrial HVAC filter media. I've been using that about 9 months now. Works great. Pretty cheap. High flow. Check this out:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/categories/hvacr/filters/trim-to-fit-filters
I tried several materials (panyhose, house pleated furnace filters (pleated & stretched flat), cotton batting) and this worked the best in terms of not restricting airflow.

My problem is I couldn't figure out how to make it look nice. I have it currently taped to the outside of my case, and it makes my pretty Lian Li case look like ass.

I don't mind seeing a big ugly blue fiberglass filter on the side. My problem is that I have to attach it to the case with tape. If there was a replaceable way to hold the filter on (so the filter can be replaced screwlessly) I'd be so happy...

See my previous post: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1221183
 
Viscouse said:
I'll put a bid in for industrial HVAC filter media. I've been using that about 9 months now. Works great. Pretty cheap. High flow. Check this out:
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/categories/hvacr/filters/trim-to-fit-filters
I tried several materials (panyhose, house pleated furnace filters (pleated & stretched flat), cotton batting) and this worked the best in terms of not restricting airflow.
Click to expand...

interesting... i work for a construction company - don't know why i never thought about looking through our catalog to see if we have something. thanks.
 
Hi guys,
Just joined today to ask about a matter on another topic but saw this thread. I've been fan filtering for some while now on various computers on the home network and can say that the speaker cloth / pantyhose option has some benefits. While it is true that these filters don't do a 100% job what is important is that they filter out the longer filament type dust that is the heart of the dust problem in a computer. That's becuase its those longer threads of dust that catch on the leading edge of fan blades and bridge the gap between fins on a heatsink. These then become the nucleus around which small particle dust collect and build up. Its also then easier for other filament dust to be trapped, further catching even more particle dust, and so on it goes getting exponentially worse until there is a mesh of filament dust effectively trapping all the passing particle dust. Because this build up does not happen evenly on fan blades they quickly become unbalanced, wearing more quickly and become noisier.
While speaker cloth / panthose stops filament dust but still admits particle dust, there is very little for the particle dust to catch on and most passes right through the case entirely. That which does remain forms and even patena that contributes only a small amount to slowing thermal dissapation but does look somewhat unsightly.
So if you want to maximise airflow and cooling the speaker cloth pantyhose option is OK, if you want a spanky wanky uber clean interior the go with the ultra micron filter elements.

Regards,
famo

I used to be paranoid, but now I know everybody hates me.
 
old pantyhose from your aunt. Worked great for me, I stretched them really wide for the blowhole (so when my computer is off dust won't fall in) and then medium taught for the intake ports, it worked great.


(now I have a P180 and a P182 so I'm not worried anymore)
 
this may all be a moot point - should have done my homework before I cut that ginormous hole. my heatsink is 160mm from the base of the heatsink... leaving me with very little room for the 250x250x30mm fan. the sub grill extends out another 12.5mm or so... give me a little to work with. but even with the extra 12.5mm... but I don't think it's going to fit (fan has not arrived yet... so I cannot confirm). I should have either cut the hole so that it's below the heatsink or I should have just left it alone. oh well. :eek:
 
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