Lifetime of a fan?

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P T

How long does a fan usually last?

If they die, do you usually find out by having your system melt down?

Pete
 
P said:
How long does a fan usually last?
Click to expand...

If you're lucky you hear of it's impending total failure by either bearing
noise or the blades whacking into the fan frame.

Or, if you're like a lot of people, you end up explaining to the repair
tech "yeah, it was making a horrible racket there for a while but then it
stopped."
If they die, do you usually find out by having your system melt down?
Click to expand...

If you're lucky your motherboard and/or processor has thermal shutdown so
the system either shuts down gracefully or 'locks up' when it gets too hot.
 
P said:
How long does a fan usually last?
Click to expand...

That depends on a number of factors, including fan construction, and if the
fan is used as an exhaust or intake fan.

Exhaust fans are subjected to much higher temperatures than are intake fans,
and thus should be ball bearing rather than sleeve bearing fans. Later
sleeve bearing designs, such as those on Panaflo fans, bear up to exhaust
heat almost as well as ball bearing fans, but not quite as well. Even
Panasonic recommends ball bearing fans for exhaust applications.

For input fans, sleeve bearing fans are an alternative. They survive much
longer at the lower (room ambient) temperatures, and are often quieter
than are many ball bearing fans.

Power supply exhaust fans are subjected to the highest ambient temperature
of any PC fan, and should be ball bearing. They will last longer than even
the best sleeve bearing fan.

Sleeve bearing exhaust fans could fail in a matter of months, but I have
systems with ball bearing PSU exhaust fans that have been in service for
more than 10 years.

So, I guess the answer to your question is from as little as a few months
to over 10 years.
If they die, do you usually find out by having your system melt down?
Click to expand...

They usually get noisy, then *very* quiet.
 
That depends on a number of factors, including fan construction, and if the
fan is used as an exhaust or intake fan.

Exhaust fans are subjected to much higher temperatures than are intake fans,
and thus should be ball bearing rather than sleeve bearing fans. Later
sleeve bearing designs, such as those on Panaflo fans, bear up to exhaust
heat almost as well as ball bearing fans, but not quite as well. Even
Panasonic recommends ball bearing fans for exhaust applications.

For input fans, sleeve bearing fans are an alternative. They survive much
longer at the lower (room ambient) temperatures, and are often quieter
than are many ball bearing fans.

Power supply exhaust fans are subjected to the highest ambient temperature
of any PC fan, and should be ball bearing. They will last longer than even
the best sleeve bearing fan.

Sleeve bearing exhaust fans could fail in a matter of months, but I have
systems with ball bearing PSU exhaust fans that have been in service for
more than 10 years.

So, I guess the answer to your question is from as little as a few months
to over 10 years.


They usually get noisy, then *very* quiet.
Click to expand...

Then of course there are the little fans used to cool chipsets on
video cards, and in hard drive caddies etc - their "bearings" are
plastic on a steel pin. Mine all seemed to last about 100 hours.

Many ball bearing fans are rated 70000 hours at 25C, but I've also had
some ball bearing fans that lasted MUCH less.

Tony (remove the "_" to reply by email)
 
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