Changing the fan on the Ooler.

[SomeSloth]

I have a ooler, which is basically a large pump to water cool you bed with - nice stuff. The only problem is the fan is trash and makes a lot of noise. I read on an Amazon review that some guy just took the old fan out and put a noctua in. So I bought a new fan and disassembled the ooler, but now I see that the fan should have been a 3 pin, but I'm unsure what type of 3 pin it is (2. Picture white 3 pin). It definitely isn't anything standard from the PC world. So please help me identify what type of 3 pin that is and if i even can make it work with a 4 pin noctua fan.

[mariushm]

The original fan is designed to work with 24v and consumes up to 0.3A (so 24v x 0.3A = 7.2w

 

The connector should be ground - 24v - rpm sensor / lock warning / whatever.

Most likely the black wire is ground, the red wire is voltage and the yellow wire is rpm sensor or something. If you have a digital multimeter you can easily figure out which pin in the header has 24v .. put the meter on dc , put the black probe on ground (the - side of a capacitor, that black wire that comes from the power supply.

 

Your Noctua fan is designed to work on 12v - if you connect it to your device, most likely it will be damaged and stop working.

 

The fan's code FD1238SM makes me think it's a 120mm x 38mm thick fan with sleeve bearing so you can go to a distributor of electronic components and buy a suitable fan ... see digikey.com , mouser.com , farnell.com/newark.com , rs-components.com , tme.eu

 

example digikey link, 24v fans 120x38, sorted by noise level : https://www.digikey.com/short/rwh39vz5

 

However, keep in mind that the product may actually need a minimum amount of air flow or pressure to go through it, so maybe there's a reason a 7.2w fan was chosen.

so maybe skip over those fans at the top of that list which are very low noise but low rpm and consume only 2-3 watts, move down a bit and get something closer to 7w ... if you want it more silent you can always add a resistor to limit the current and make it more silent.

 

I'd be comfortable recommending this fan for you : https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/delta-electronics/AFB1224HE-F00/2560468

comes without connector ..black wire is ground, red wire is voltage (7v...27v, 24v nominal), blue wire is rpm sensor

 

 

[DAWTcom]

Only after taking this apart and finding this model number did i find this thread....im in the middle of doing the same thing except ive opened it before buying the fan. Curse that Amazon review that why im here too!

 

Anyway, im curious if i can connect 2 fans in serial...or perhaps a less stupid idea is to use something to step down the voltage https://www.longan-labs.cc/2050003.html

 

[Gistro]

Hey guys, I am in the process of doing the same thing (replacing the fan). Did you guys have any success in doing this? And which fan did you pick?

 

Thanks a bunch!

[InstantNewt]

Noctua also makes 24v fans. Just go to their site instead of trying to find them through Amazon. Amazon will have pages with multiple models to choose from but it makes no distinction between the reviews. 
 

Fair warning, the 24v noctua fans are all industrial fans and will spin faster than their consumer line. They will not be as quiet when running at full RPM. 

[garzascreek]

On 6/15/2021 at 8:50 AM, mariushm said:

...

I'd be comfortable recommending this fan for you : https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/delta-electronics/AFB1224HE-F00/2560468

comes without connector ..black wire is ground, red wire is voltage (7v...27v, 24v nominal), blue wire is rpm sensor

 

 

Thanks for the detail on how to spec a fan. Very valuable info. The referenced model was not stocked at Digikey so I found a slightly different one AFB1224HHE-F00‎ (notice the extra H) which turns out to a better match to the Ooler original as far as amperage goes: .3A.  The original fan did not fail but it became so rattlingly noisy that it became unusable. The Ooler has 3 voltage controlled speeds.  These nominally 24 volt fans can start up with only 7 volts.  I am not sure how low the voltage sent to the fan goes when on low setting on the Ooler but the sound seems acceptable when I park the Ooler at the foot of the bed.  Changing the fan is not a trivial task since the fan mounting  screws are on the radiator side. I had to resort to drilling screwdriver access holes on the bottom of the case to remove the two screws holding the fan and circut board mounting plate to the radiator so to access the hidden fan mounting screws.  Since Ooler does not provide any after warranty service, one needs to resort to such measures to keep it running.  

[B-Squared]

I couldn't take the noise anymore myself and took this apart today to see if the fan was rubbing something. Glad I found this site.

 

I ordered the AFB1224HHE-F00 fan above. Would someone be able to verify the the old to new wire colors? I'm assuming the old yellow wire will now just use the blue on the AFB pump? 

 

On a side note, this is the second time I've repaired my Ooler. The first time, some silicone tubing became cracked and developed a slow drip. It's not a quick repair to take these apart and reassemble, but at least I'm not spending money on a new unit.

 

Thanks!

[ElonJay]

How did the fan swaps turn out?

[boomereng]

On 12/10/2021 at 4:51 PM, garzascreek said:

Changing the fan is not a trivial task since the fan mounting  screws are on the radiator side. I had to resort to drilling screwdriver access holes on the bottom of the case to remove the two screws holding the fan and circut board mounting plate to the radiator so to access the hidden fan mounting screws.

Thank you so much for posting this. I was going crazy trying to figure out what kind of screws these were. Turns out I was looking at the bottom of the screws. I also did access holes, though I think there was probably a way to avoid it by popping off the entire plastic shell completely, which seemed more annoying than just drilling the holes. I ordered the fan you recommended and it will be here tomorrow, will check back in then!

[ElonJay]

Were any of you successful in replacing the fan?  Anyone figure out how to access the screws without creating new holes?

[MettleHead]

On 3/14/2022 at 5:12 PM, ElonJay said:

Were any of you successful in replacing the fan?  Anyone figure out how to access the screws without creating new holes?

I replaced the fan in my wife’s Ooler last week and had no issues. It is operating perfectly, without the obnoxious rattling noise from the cheap fan they had in there. Cooling performance is good, even though this fan uses slightly less power.

 

I used this fan: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/sanyo-denki-america-inc/9WP1224H1011/8284618?s=N4IgjCBcpgLFoDGUBmBDANgZwKYBoQB7KAbXAFZyAmADggF0CAHAFyhAGUWAnASwDsA5iAC%2BBWADYEIZJHTZ8RUiFgAGCTVgBmEIxCt2XPkNEEwATh3QZqTLgLFIZCzRrmau5m0iceA4WIg5G7SsvL2Sk7gEubmVDp6Bj5G-qYgVGA0AOzSSSAAqvy8LADyKACyOGhYAK7cOCAENewA6o0gALYC7LAAdB4EHWgAHuxZvVRpALST1rI8NYqOZOS6IutAA

 

Before removing the fan, you have to first remove the 4 screws that attach the cover plate to the heat sink. To get to those, I unscrewed the reservoir and pump and lifted them up and out of the way. I did not have to remove any of the hoses as there was enough slack. It was slightly awkward, but it allowed me to unscrew the cover plate and remove it so I could get to those obnoxiously located screws that hold the fan in place.

 

The fan I ordered came with the 3 wires necessary, but no connector. I used heat-shrink butt terminals to attach the connector from the old fan to the wires for the new fan. You could probably do it with simple twist on connectors but I wanted to make sure the connection was solid.

 

If anyone has any questions I didn’t answer here I’m happy to help. It felt great only spending $50 for a high quality fan instead of rewarding them for a flawed design by buying an entire new unit.

[MettleHead]

If that fan is ever out of stock just search for this criteria:

 

24V

120x120mm

3 wire leads

4.8-7.2w (stock fan is .3a = 7.2w, a little lower is ok)

~38mm width

IP68 if you want a high quality fan

[ElonJay]

On 4/3/2022 at 7:28 AM, MettleHead said:

I replaced the fan in my wife’s Ooler last week and had no issues. It is operating perfectly, without the obnoxious rattling noise from the cheap fan they had in there. Cooling performance is good, even though this fan uses slightly less power.

 

I used this fan: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/sanyo-denki-america-inc/9WP1224H1011/8284618?s=N4IgjCBcpgLFoDGUBmBDANgZwKYBoQB7KAbXAFZyAmADggF0CAHAFyhAGUWAnASwDsA5iAC%2BBWADYEIZJHTZ8RUiFgAGCTVgBmEIxCt2XPkNEEwATh3QZqTLgLFIZCzRrmau5m0iceA4WIg5G7SsvL2Sk7gEubmVDp6Bj5G-qYgVGA0AOzSSSAAqvy8LADyKACyOGhYAK7cOCAENewA6o0gALYC7LAAdB4EHWgAHuxZvVRpALST1rI8NYqOZOS6IutAA

 

Before removing the fan, you have to first remove the 4 screws that attach the cover plate to the heat sink. To get to those, I unscrewed the reservoir and pump and lifted them up and out of the way. I did not have to remove any of the hoses as there was enough slack. It was slightly awkward, but it allowed me to unscrew the cover plate and remove it so I could get to those obnoxiously located screws that hold the fan in place.

 

The fan I ordered came with the 3 wires necessary, but no connector. I used heat-shrink butt terminals to attach the connector from the old fan to the wires for the new fan. You could probably do it with simple twist on connectors but I wanted to make sure the connection was solid.

 

If anyone has any questions I didn’t answer here I’m happy to help. It felt great only spending $50 for a high quality fan instead of rewarding them for a flawed design by buying an entire new unit.

Thank you for the reply.  That's exactly what I needed to know to have the confidence to move forward without having to drill access holes.  

[Jrosaly]

On 4/3/2022 at 9:40 AM, MettleHead said:

If that fan is ever out of stock just search for this criteria:

 

24V

120x120mm

3 wire leads

4.8-7.2w (stock fan is .3a = 7.2w, a little lower is ok)

~38mm width

IP68 if you want a high quality fan

I had my Ooler fail with an F2 error and managed to take of the front cover and clean out the fan and then it worked for a bit, but now it's pretty much dead. I haven't figured out how to take the top off for access to all of the guts. If you can help me with that, that would be awesome. Ever since it failed, my nights have sucked. I've seen the videos that show you can take the top off, but I can't figure it out, is there more screws or is it just gentle brute force to take the top panel off? 

[Jrosaly]

On 6/13/2021 at 5:18 AM, SomeSloth said:

I have a ooler, which is basically a large pump to water cool you bed with - nice stuff. The only problem is the fan is trash and makes a lot of noise. I read on an Amazon review that some guy just took the old fan out and put a noctua in. So I bought a new fan and disassembled the ooler, but now I see that the fan should have been a 3 pin, but I'm unsure what type of 3 pin it is (2. Picture white 3 pin). It definitely isn't anything standard from the PC world. So please help me identify what type of 3 pin that is and if i even can make it work with a 4 pin noctua fan.

Interesting, my Ooler which I got through indiegogo before it was publicly sold, the fan is the same model# except its SL and only rated for 0.17A. Interesting fact, it was originally called the Kryo and only cost $159

[moatze]

Hey guys. I specificly signed up to respond to this topic. I've had some experience with Ooler fan swaps and even the original Chilipad Cube (which features two 12V fans in series and a sandwich design with the tank in the middle). After some trial and error (during which the fan speed control of one of my Oolers got fried by me switching up the wires by mistake), I have to advise against changing out the fans - at least using the method thats promoted here.

Even though I tend to agree that the original fan might be subpar, just searching for a fan using the crieria mentioned above and expecting an industrial fan from digikey to be an upgrade is not a good solution imo. I actually tested different fans (F1238X24B1-FSR-L30, G1238M24B1-FSR-TTL) that both ON PAPER should have been quieter and more capable than the original, just to figure out that at low and medium speeds (which are the settings I want to use them, since they are then about the same noise level as a Tower PC 15 years ago, i.e. barely ok in the beedroom) they not only had an annoying humming noise vs the stock fan, but also were not as effective for cooling (i.e. moved less air at that specific RPM). As we know, the specs in the datasheets are measurements provided by the manufacturer and are repering to the rpm they mention. They sadly do not give us any any real info about the performance or noise of the fan at any other than those RPM. Based on my experience I have to conclude: if there is noting actually wrong with your Ooler fan, you will likely not see an improvement by swapping it (unless you run it at boost = i.e. full speed, which honestly I heaven't compared them at, but none of them are actually what I would call "quiet" or acceptable for sleep at that setting). Also owning two different Oolers I can attest that there are subtile differences that I assume can effect performance or noise, however the fan beeing used seems to be the same in all of them. So if anybody is able to provide good info (I.e. size of the person, surrounding air temp and operating fan noise) on how they got the noise of their Ooler down (not compromising it's abity to function even in hot climates), I'd like to hear from you.

P.S. I had quite good success with the Chilipad Cube However where the Noctua 92mm FLX at stock rpm is maybe not better than the original fans but almost completely inaudible.
P.P.S. If anyone has a way/recommendation to get a fan like the 4-Pin noctua 24V or any other known silent-PC Company with a 24V 4-pin fan to run on the Oolers 2-pin connector, I't be more than willing to give it another try.
Also: @LTT team, how about a "Watercooling my bed" video on how to build your own c(O)oler and matress pad with watercooling-Components?

[moatze]

On 6/15/2022 at 7:14 AM, Jrosaly said:

I had my Ooler fail with an F2 error and managed to take of the front cover and clean out the fan and then it worked for a bit, but now it's pretty much dead. I haven't figured out how to take the top off for access to all of the guts. If you can help me with that, that would be awesome. Ever since it failed, my nights have sucked. I've seen the videos that show you can take the top off, but I can't figure it out, is there more screws or is it just gentle brute force to take the top panel off? 

two screws left and right once you have the front panel off

[KendoSlayer]

This is a great topic, I have had to fix my ooler two times in the last week and I though I would share what broke and how I fixed it. Both were leaks, one in the unit one in the bedding attachment.

 

Leak one: Cracks in the pad feeding tubes: There were several small cracks in the silicone tubs that run through the insulation from the ooler to the part that sits in the bed. After replacing the tubing with 7/16 ID tubing and feeding that tubing through the insulation I was able to fix the leaks. The original tubing is not the best quality I considered using my watercooling tubing form my PC build, but decided to buy the cheap stuff. The hardest part was feeding the tubing through the grey insulation, but used a plastic rod at the end of the tube to feed it through.

 

Leak two: loose hose clamp on reservoir in the ooler unit: Had to remove basically removed the back plate where the tubes run on the cooling block side. the easiest way to access them was to remove the entire unit from the housing (see above for details). I found both hose clamps were loose and that was causing the drip. simple tightening an no more leaks.

 

Last note the F2 is a fan controller issues which is a known defect for the 1st and 2nd gen oolers. Had to send one of mine back to chilisleep 23 months in to the 24 month warranty period.

 

Hope this helps someone tackle leak issues.

 

LTT: Water cooling your bed would be a great topic!!!

 

I was interested in changing the fan too, but is sounds like that is a mistake if noise is your primary concern.

[Big5exy]

I just wanted to respond to this thread as it was very helpful to me in replacing a dead fan on one of my Ooler units. I ordered the fan listed by Mariushm from digikey.com in the second post and it was a perfect fit. Removing the old fan was quite a pain, there is a plate that comes off of the front of the heat sink, there are four screws, 2 on top and bottom that need to be removed, the screws on the top are covered by sticky foam that you need to cut away to expose the screws and separate the plate from the heat sink. I snipped off the old connector from the old fan and wired up the new fan, all colors matched on the wires black red and yellow. 

 

Thanks to everyone in here for all the info! If you have a dead Ooler fan and find yourself here go ahead and buy that fan form digikey and swap it out. If you've ever done DIY electronics repair you shouldn't have a huge problem, I've done things like cell phone screens and laptop motherboards in the past and got this done in about 45 minutes. Good luck!

[MilwTed]

On 7/13/2022 at 5:57 AM, moatze said:

P.P.S. If anyone has a way/recommendation to get a fan like the 4-Pin noctua 24V or any other known silent-PC Company with a 24V 4-pin fan to run on the Oolers 2-pin connector, I't be more than willing to give it another try.

 

Can you just omit the blue wire?  I know I have read elsewhere using a 4 pin fan on a 3 pin header just uses the FAN_TACH wire to control speed like a 3 wire fan normally would.  The blue wire on a 4 pin 24v Noctua is the FAN_CONTROL or PWM Signal wire.  Black for ground, Yellow for +24v, and Green for RPM Signal.

[danielnorquist]

Unless I'm missing something, all the fans mentioned here are not available and it looks like they won't be for a long time (it's December 2022)

 

My Ooler makes a rattling sound for about 10 minutes and is then quiet through the night. Is there a way to fix the existing fan in some way? Or is there a source of fans I just haven't found yet?

[moatze]

I've experienced this many times before, but in my estimation it's usually the pump making the noise. Make sure it has enough water and use the timer to have it start running before you go to bed would be my suggestions

[skiandbike4life]

After having a leak recently on my Ooler I decided to take it apart and found this thread when trying to figure out how to get to the fan. I ended up replacing almost all of the internal tubing and replaced the lines from the mattress to the unit. The later ended up being the source of my leak.

 

I'm a mechanical engineer and saw this as a fun improvement project. I also ended up replacing the fan with the Digikey one above and added a dust cover from McMaster to reduce noise and keep dust from getting pushed into the cooling fins (there was a bunch stuck in there when I took it apart). After that I decided to relocate it inside my night stand and line it with sound absorbing foam. To increase air flow I found some temp controlled cabinet fans from AC Infinity. The non temp controlled version of the fan probably would've been sufficient but this gives me the option to have the aux fans only come on when the temp in there rises. Overall I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. It's significantly quieter now and running again. Below are some pictures and links to some of the things I used.

 

Fan dust covers: https://www.mcmaster.com/product/19155K23

 

Sounds absorbing foam: https://www.mcmaster.com/product/5692T49

 

Exhaust fans: https://acinfinity.com/component-cooling/cabinet-fan-systems/airplate-t7-home-theater-and-av-quiet-cabinet-cooling-fan-system-12-inch/

 

[Franzinger]

Hi guys, this thread has been super helpful for me in replacing the noisy stock fan with a silent 24V Noctua fan.

Unfortunately I shorted 24V to GND on the fan pins while measuring them with a multimeter. Now the fan always runs at full speed, because the transistor that controls the fan voltage got fried. I could easily replace it, but can’t read the device markings anymore. Well, it melted away.

Would any of you be able to tell me the device marking on transistor Q12?

The number on your revision might be different. It is the transistor connected to the red 24V wire of the fan via the fan connector.

 

Thank you! Well appreciated!

[Beastmode72]

Hi -  

 

You all seem like you know this stuff way better than me.  I believe the circuit board that controls the power to the main circuit board on my unit failed.

 

I'm wondering if someone can help me identify these parts (labeled #1 and #2 in the pics below).

 

I don't even know what they are called.  I think Part#1 is a diode (but need to know the size or what I can buy to replace it), and I think Part#2 is a Resistor (again, don't know the size or what to buy to replace it).  

 

 

 

B