9700 Pro fan

[Praxiteles Democritus]

Another response had it exactly right. Oil might buy you a few
days, weeks or at best months use, but in the end it's a death
sentence for any PC fan.

Speaking from experience, whenever my cpu fan starts to make a bit of
noise I just spray a touch of silicone lubricant into the bearings and
it is quiet once again. Works for me. All fans fail eventually but my
method keeps it humming along a lot longer.

 

[J. Clarke]

Another response had it exactly right. Oil might buy you a few
days, weeks or at best months use, but in the end it's a death
sentence for any PC fan.

So lets see, you take a fan that is already dead, put some oil on it, and it
runs for a while and dies again, and the reason it died was the oil? Get
real.

 

[Tom S]

So lets see, you take a fan that is already dead, put some oil on it, and it
runs for a while and dies again, and the reason it died was the oil? Get
real.

No Einstein, in many cases a fan is simply dusty, not dead,
and blowing it out with compressed air will fix the problem.

 

[Danny Greaves]

So lets see, you take a fan that is already dead, put some oil on it, and it
runs for a while and dies again, and the reason it died was the oil? Get
real.

So lets see, oil perfectly good fan motor bushings, it runs for a wile, then dies, and the reason was not the oil?
Geeze... Its common knowledge.

Oil is just mucking up a dust seal anyway without taking it apart or oiler ports.

 

[patrickp]

So lets see, oil perfectly good fan motor bushings, it runs for a wile, then dies, and the reason was not the oil?
Geeze... Its common knowledge.

Oil is just mucking up a dust seal anyway without taking it apart or oiler ports.

I agree, Danny. I always used to strip fans down and clean the
bearings before oiling them. Your comments elsewhere on using at
least 20W oil is certainly true for ball bearings; I'd use a lighter
oil for sleeve ones. However, with lower quality fans, ball bearing
types are much to be preferred over sleeve bearings anyway.

Now I just use better quality fans like Panaflo (who have become
NMB-MAT after amalgamating with NMB - another favourite fan) and Sunon
Vapo. These have much longer life anyway, and don't need oiling,
apart from superior performance. Tom S' advice would certainly be
most apposite here.

Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[J. Clarke]

So lets see, oil perfectly good fan motor bushings, it runs for a wile,
then dies, and the reason was not the oil? Geeze... Its common knowledge.

Now why would anyone take a "perfectly good fan" apart and put more oil on
the bushings?

Oil is just mucking up a dust seal anyway without taking it apart or oiler
ports.

You haven't taken many PC fans apart, have you?

 

[J. Clarke]

I agree, Danny. I always used to strip fans down and clean the
bearings before oiling them. Your comments elsewhere on using at
least 20W oil is certainly true for ball bearings; I'd use a lighter
oil for sleeve ones. However, with lower quality fans, ball bearing
types are much to be preferred over sleeve bearings anyway.

Now I just use better quality fans like Panaflo (who have become
NMB-MAT after amalgamating with NMB - another favourite fan) and Sunon
Vapo. These have much longer life anyway, and don't need oiling,
apart from superior performance. Tom S' advice would certainly be
most apposite here.

Panasonic bought out NMB? Cool.

The Panaflos use a fluid dynamic bearing which presumably depends for
reliable operation on the fluid having specific properties. When one of
those stops turning, unless you can replace the fluid with the original
formulation you can't restore it to full function. That's a bit different
case from a cheapie that doesn't have such a precisely made bearing.

As far as "needing oiling", no PC fan "needs oiling" until it has stopped
turning. At that point oiling it might restore it to operation and if it
does it might run for hours or for years. If it does not restore it to
operation the risk is small--the fan is already dead so killing it more
won't make any difference. If it does restore it to operation then you at
worst have time to obtain a new fan.

 

[J. Clarke]

No Einstein, in many cases a fan is simply dusty, not dead,
and blowing it out with compressed air will fix the problem.

Well, Hawking, nobody has suggested that one take a fan apart and oil it
without first blowing the dust out and seeing if that fixes the problem.
So what do you do when blowing the dust out _doesn't_ fix it?

Personally I have never seen a fan so clogged with dust that it would not
spin, but I have seen a number of them that started spinning after one
lifted the label and applied a drop of oil.

 

[patrickp]

Panasonic bought out NMB? Cool.

This was over a year ago, although we're only now seeing NMB-MAT
(Minebea-Matsushita Motor Corporation - the merged company) fans. The
ones I've tried so far are like improved Panaflo ones, although I
understand they are also producing ball-bearing ones along the lines
of NMB fans.

The Panaflos use a fluid dynamic bearing which presumably depends for
reliable operation on the fluid having specific properties. When one of
those stops turning, unless you can replace the fluid with the original
formulation you can't restore it to full function. That's a bit different
case from a cheapie that doesn't have such a precisely made bearing.

To my mind, particularly as I can get Panaflo/NMB-MAT fans at pretty
much the same price as I'd pay for equivalent fans, it's a no-brainer.
No, you can't re-oil them, but you don't need to - they'll well
outlast equivalent fans anyway.

As far as "needing oiling", no PC fan "needs oiling" until it has stopped
turning. At that point oiling it might restore it to operation and if it
does it might run for hours or for years. If it does not restore it to
operation the risk is small--the fan is already dead so killing it more
won't make any difference. If it does restore it to operation then you at
worst have time to obtain a new fan.

I don't think I've ever had a fan stop working on me: the usual reason
I would re-lubricate a fan would be because it's getting noisy. But
yes, once a fan gets to the point it needs lubrication, it's on the
way out.


Patrick

<[email protected]> - take five to email me...

 

[Danny Greaves]

Now why would anyone take a "perfectly good fan" apart and put more oil on
the bushings?


You haven't taken many PC fans apart, have you?

--

Nope, but I do not recall ever having one fail. At least not in the last 10 20 years.



Generally speaking only motors over about 3hp. That have oiler tubes would I even think about adding drop or two from my
oiler. Even then only after several thousand hours of use would it be worth the risk.

Excluding industrial rated motors. Those I oil but there rated for 100% use with a locked rotor anyway.

 

[Danny Greaves]

patrickp wrote:

-- snip snip --

I agree, Danny. I always used to strip fans down and clean the
bearings before oiling them. Your comments elsewhere on using at
least 20W oil is certainly true for ball bearings; I'd use a lighter
oil for sleeve ones. However, with lower quality fans, ball bearing
types are much to be preferred over sleeve bearings anyway.

Now I just use better quality fans like Panaflo (who have become
NMB-MAT after amalgamating with NMB - another favourite fan) and Sunon
Vapo. These have much longer life anyway, and don't need oiling,
apart from superior performance. Tom S' advice would certainly be
most apposite here.

Patrick

-- snip snip --


Woops! I spaced it typing 20W.

The motor oiler bottles I use are 10w. And I believe sewing machine oil viscosity is 10w also.

 

[J. Clarke]

Nope, but I do not recall ever having one fail. At least not in the last
10 20 years.

You've been fortunate. I've had a number of them fail. Generally I replace
the fan but sometimes a replacement is not immediately available--in that
case a drop of oil gets it going long enough for a replacement to arrive,
and the one I oiled goes in the cannibalized parts bin for emergency use in
the future.

The only dust seal on PC fans is typically the sticky label that has the
brand name on it--after oiling that generally doesn't want to stick back
down.