Running a fan to cool amplifier any ill effects?

Mark,

This is the fan I have settled on, for now. It is two speed, and I find that low speed works fine, though I have no specs on this fan. I have tried other fans using a variable speed control. However, as of now I using the clip on fan from Holmes, fixed, no oscillation. It's pretty quiet, and I don't have to deal with that AC slider switch, which was pretty hairy. It also does a very good job of cooling the VAC.

Cheers,
John

Thanks John....it's hard to beat tubes...especially VAC's. I love my modded Accuphase P300 but it's no match for the 300B VAC's....

John what fan did you finally chose?
Does any one know of a rack fan that runs as low as 30db?

Some Mfr don't list the specs.

Thanks,

Mark

First of all, nice system Wavetrader!
Now, I currently am using a VAC Avatar Super integrated amp. It only has 2 inches of clearance on the top. Even though my rack is an open air architechure design, there was still too much heat up top. So I tried several fans, and settled on the quietest one I've heard. When there is no music playing and even in very quiet passages, I can hear the fan from my listening spot. However, during 99.8% of the listening, I am totally unaware of the fans presence.

Sure, I could go to SS and get dead silence.......however, then the music would leave with it. I love the musicality of tubes. I've owned almost all of the top high end SS components, and yes, they were quieter. However, they did not play music like tubes. So I have become accustomed to tube music....even if it is a bit noisier....it's still music!

Cheers,
John

I contacted Kevin Hayes this morning and his suggestion was to run the fan air across the tubes. The air currently is cooling the resistors below the brass plate....thereby affecting the sentry circuit....makes sense. So I will configure the fans another way and direct the air away from the brass vent.

I hooked up the two whisper fans above the housing on the VAC 140's....about 5 inches above....the fans move a good amount of air and are 34db quiet according to specs. The 140's have a "tube sentry" which monitors the tubes. When they are initially powered up the 4 lights on the front turn green...which is good....as the tubes reach the correct bias the lights go off(normal). When the lights went from green to off...I then turned the fans on...in about 20 seconds a few of the lights went green again...on one amp a red light came on. I replaced that pair and powered the amps on again with no problems...but I did not use the fans.
I going to call Kevin and see why this happened. I could use a variac on the fans and reduce the speed to lower the cfm. I would like to cool these...but maybe the sentry looks at the tube temps or bias is affected by the tempature on the 300B....things are not as easy as they seem.

My amp has 12 6550's in it and while the tube cage doesn't get hot to the touch, I cool it down with an external fan. In between playings of an hour or so, I will just cool the amp down for a minute or so and than continue to listen to more music. Once I shut down the amp, I also cool it again until the there is no heat at all emanating from the amp. I have an open rack which makes this procedure easy. I have experienced no ill effects from this and if it does extend the life of the tubes, that's a bonus.

I have two mono blocks that are fan cooled. Because the design was for rack mounting, and the close proximity of the 8 el34's per amp, this was a must. The fans blow directly across the tubes. The original fans were ac driving, and I replaced them with very quiet dc driven types with their own supply system. Each fan is on a rubber mounting system to help isolate their vibration(which is minimal)from the chassis. I believe that this prolongs the life not only of the tubes, but other components inside the chassis. These amps are now 45 years old! I believe if you check around, you will find that most "experts" will tell you that excess heat will age a tube about as fast as anything(ok over biased etc). Some complain of the noise, but I have been able to screen this and slow the fans such that it doesn't bother me........

Try to prevent the fans from touching the chassis .
The fans could induce a low level vibration and a subsonic that the Amp will carry. Perhaps making your amp work harder.
If you can, put the fans on a stand blowing on the Amp.

Thanks for the responses so far....the fans are on a seperate cicuit than my audio equipment. I checked out the noise level...not a problem. I realise that the amplifiers are well designed units....the transformer housing which is thick heavy metal gets hot enough where I can only heep my hand there for about 3 seconds. So to me I just feel better if the cooling will disipate some of the heat generated. If it extends the life of the tubes....even better...though it might seem unnecessary or overkill.

Unless your amplifiers are in a confined area, you should not have to worry about heat. VAC designs their products with heat dissipation built in and normal air flow around the tubes will provide adequate cooling. Fans are not necessary and may introduce unwanted noise. I think you are fixing something that isn't broken.

if the tubes run slightly cooler this may extend their life a little.

I would be more concerned about the electrical noise the fans motors could be dumping into the mains. If you have a different circuit for the hifi or conditioning of some sort you could be ok. As long as the fan motors are good quality it may not a problem anyway. Lets face it many amps use fans internally.

Can you hear the fans in your listening room?