Case Fans Quality

[Daddy Devon]

Hello!

I am looking for some help on figuring out my case fan quality. I am working with Cooler Master SickleFlow Fans. Link: https://www.newegg.com/cooler-master-mfx-b2dn-18npa-r1-case-fan/p/N82E16835103300?Item=N82E16835103300

 

Im having an issue where the ones that i have mounted horizontally at the top of my case for air exhaust are vibrating and seem to want to fall right off the center housing. The ones that i have mounted Vertically run perfect at any RPM range but the horizontal ones start to vibrate at around 85-100% power.

 

Is there a way to solve this or am i stuck getting higher quality fans for the horizontal mounting?

 

Appreciate any help!

[Copacetic]

The vibrations might be from the bearing type (rifle). In this (albeit old) article it says that 

Quote

Sleeve fans are best mounted in a vertical position due to their lubricant system. Sleeve fans can be mounted in any axial orientation, of course, but will 'wear out' more rapidly when mounted horizontally.

I believe that sleeve and rifle bearings are similar, so the fans you have are probably best mounted vertically. You should try mounting the currently horizontal fans vertically to see if it is the mounting position that causes the vibrations. 

[Daddy Devon]

I have the exact same fan currently mounted vertically as my back exhaust and it has had no such issues at the same Temp to Power ratio as the top case fans.

I did some research as well and i think it just comes down to "You get what you pay for". 

Running a higher end Motherboard with the ability to crank up the fan RPM doesn't work well with cheaper fans.

[Izineth]

Cooler Master SickleFlow fans are rubbish.  They're sleeve bearing fans which will vibrate more when mounted horizontally because a sleeve bearing is exactly that a metal sleeve roating inside of another metal sleeve with only a thin film of oil between the two.  When you mount a sleeve bearing horizontally there is nothing to keep the oil in place and it kind of just slings out and then the bearing seizes up eventually due to lack of lubrication.

 

A rifle bearing is similar to a sleeve bearing except there is a key difference the inner sleeve has a rifling in it (a twisty groove pattern) which is theoretically supposed to help "pump" the lubricant from some sort of reservoir up the bearing around and keep it from just being slung out of the bearing.

 

FDB bearings or (Fluid Dynamic Bearings) are usually a sort of rifle bearing with some minor modifications.

 

Ball bearings are traditional bearings like you see on cars and trucks etc. These are bearings that use balls to separate the inner and outer bearing races and by using balls to do so it reduces the rotational friction between the surfaces.  These tend to be noisier but last a lot longer and they don't care how they're mounted.

 

Maglev bearings use magnetic force to suspend the rotational parts without physical contact.  These have been around for a long time but corsair has made them more popular as of recent.

 

If you want a fan to mount horizontally stick with anything that is NOT a sleeve bearing fan.

 

Sleeve bearing fans tend to need relubrication every once in a while you can usually do this by carefully peeling up the sticker on the back and removing the plug and placing a drop of sewing machine or like light weight oil in and then place the plug back in and smooth down the sticker.  The plug and sticker keep dust and garbage from getting into the bearing.

 

Hope this helps.

[Daddy Devon]

That is an awesome explanation, appreciate the help!

[freeagent]

They should change the name from sickleflow to shittyflow. Not only that but they are loud! I had every hole of my R4 stuffed with sickleflows and it was loud and under ventilated. My Meshify was next to it and I am using 120x38 industrials @ 7v and was so much quieter. Big difference between rifle bearings and ball bearings.

[thirdparty]

On 6/21/2020 at 8:11 AM, Kawaii_Desu said:

Cooler Master SickleFlow fans are rubbish.  They're sleeve bearing fans which will vibrate more when mounted horizontally because a sleeve bearing is exactly that a metal sleeve roating inside of another metal sleeve with only a thin film of oil between the two.  When you mount a sleeve bearing horizontally there is nothing to keep the oil in place and it kind of just slings out and then the bearing seizes up eventually due to lack of lubrication.

 

A rifle bearing is similar to a sleeve bearing except there is a key difference the inner sleeve has a rifling in it (a twisty groove pattern) which is theoretically supposed to help "pump" the lubricant from some sort of reservoir up the bearing around and keep it from just being slung out of the bearing.

 

FDB bearings or (Fluid Dynamic Bearings) are usually a sort of rifle bearing with some minor modifications.

 

Ball bearings are traditional bearings like you see on cars and trucks etc. These are bearings that use balls to separate the inner and outer bearing races and by using balls to do so it reduces the rotational friction between the surfaces.  These tend to be noisier but last a lot longer and they don't care how they're mounted.

 

Maglev bearings use magnetic force to suspend the rotational parts without physical contact.  These have been around for a long time but corsair has made them more popular as of recent.

 

If you want a fan to mount horizontally stick with anything that is NOT a sleeve bearing fan.

 

Sleeve bearing fans tend to need relubrication every once in a while you can usually do this by carefully peeling up the sticker on the back and removing the plug and placing a drop of sewing machine or like light weight oil in and then place the plug back in and smooth down the sticker.  The plug and sticker keep dust and garbage from getting into the bearing.

 

Hope this helps.

how about dual ball bearing? I saw arctic priced dual ball bearing higher than FDB despite the model is the same..

[Izineth]

42 minutes ago, thirdparty said:

how about dual ball bearing? I saw arctic priced dual ball bearing higher than FDB despite the model is the same..

Dual ball bearing is a fan that uses ball bearings on both sides of the stator instead of ball on one end and sleeve on the other.

The way Arctic seems to market the fans is the dual ball bearing ones are longer lasting than the FDB ones.

The CO models "Continuous Operation".

 

Honestly Arctic makes a quality inexpensive fan you can't really go wrong with any of the Arctic fans.  I have P12's in my other rig they're great.  I've used a few F12's in the past and I've not had any complaints, If I weren't running Nidec GentleTyphoon AP-72's in my sig rig I'd be running Arctic fans.