Ball/Sleeve bearings Q...

[The Coolest]

What is the difference betwin ball bearings & sleeve bearings fans?

[Random Nonsense]

im sure u knowwhat a ball bearing is, so i wont make u feel silly answering that one, as to sleeve bearings, i think its a posh name for a bush.... if its a bush it will be nylon which is self lubricating, but wear out reletively fast. ball bearings are better for things this size, they usually have grease sealed into them and dont allow the shaft of the fan to rattle about as much. i personally think ball bearings are worth the little extra.

[The Overclocker]

some sleeve bearings are also made out of metal, sometime they produce sparks, they ar not that good

[SickBoy]

I had a sleeve bearing 80 MM fan in my case for a while. I had bought it before I realized that ball bearing was the way to go. Needless to say it died on me after about 2 months of running pretty much 24/7.... all my other fans I have bought since then, for the most part, have outlasted it. And they've all been Ball bearing. So....

The moral of the story is if you're not wanting to replace blown fans all the time, buy ball bearing fans.

Sickboy

[Sonny]

A sleeve bearing is just what the name says, a sleeve on the shaft thats designed to hold some lubrication in place to reduce friction. Single ball bearing bearings have a inner sleeve that contacts the rotating shaft & tinny metal balls as the outer side that contacts the frame to were the shaft is mounted. The tinny metal balls have a very small contact patch that greatly reduces friction thus reduces wear thus increases operating lifespan & reduces maintenance & cost. The really nice "bearings" are double ball bearings. They have metal balls in between two sleeves reducing wear on both on the shaft & frame contact area & holds the lubrication in place longer.

[dimmreaper]

Sleeve bearings are rarely made out of plastics(such as nylon mentioned above). Usually the shaft is steal, and the bushing(sleeve) is brass or aluminum. The metalic sleeves usually has two rubber seels(O-rings) to keep in oil.

With proper maintanace a sleeve bearing fan will last as long as a ball-bearing fan. "So WTF does he mean by 'proper maintanace'?" Well, you should peel back the label on the rear of a sleeve bearing fan every 3-4week and give it a drop of 5w oil. I've had Nidec sleeve bearing fans last over 2years(and still going) of 24/7 with this maintanace schedual. Eventually the adheisive on the label wears out and you will have to apply some more though.

[TUK101]

Originally posted by dimmreaper
Sleeve bearings are rarely made out of plastics(such as nylon mentioned above). Usually the shaft is steal, and the bushing(sleeve) is brass or aluminum. The metalic sleeves usually has two rubber seels(O-rings) to keep in oil.

With proper maintanace a sleeve bearing fan will last as long as a ball-bearing fan. "So WTF does he mean by 'proper maintanace'?" Well, you should peel back the label on the rear of a sleeve bearing fan every 3-4week and give it a drop of 5w oil. I've had Nidec sleeve bearing fans last over 2years(and still going) of 24/7 with this maintanace schedual. Eventually the adheisive on the label wears out and you will have to apply some more though. Basically if yu do not want to have to do this maintanance buy the bearing fans for the extra coupel of bucks. Especially if you live in a dusty area. I have done the same thing before I knew the difference and bought the sleeve bearing fans and had then go bad in a couple of months. They are not worth it if you ask me. It really sucks when your fan goes out in the middle of a good game and your comp locks up on you.:eek:

[dimmreaper]

Originally posted by TUK101
Basically if yu do not want to have to do this maintanance buy the bearing fans for the extra coupel of bucks. Especially if you live in a dusty area. I have done the same thing before I knew the difference and bought the sleeve bearing fans and had then go bad in a couple of months. They are not worth it if you ask me. It really sucks when your fan goes out in the middle of a good game and your comp locks up on you.:eek: Even ball-bearing fans should get a drop of oil every 2-3 months to keep them from wearing out(also keeps the quieter). But I agree, it's not worth it for most. For what little difference in price between ball-bearing and sleeve-bearing fans, just get the ball-bearing ones . . . . .

[spill]

ball bearing fans are ususally rated to run 3x to 5x as long as sleeve bearing fans. the sleeve bearing ones get squeeky when they wear out too. they are basically junk.

[Phil]

I've got a couple of sleeve bearing fans, and on their own they are nearly silent. Of course put them in a case where the airflow is interacting with the rest of the pc and they sound the same as a ball bearing fan so go for a ball bearing fan as they do last longer.

[Intraveinous]

Every model fan, regardless of manufacturer, will exhibit different life characteristics depending on the combination of voltage, frequency, ambient temperature, mounting attitude, environment and restriction to airflow conditions it encounters in an individual application. The normal failure mode is in the bearing system and it is usually related to the total temperature the bearing system sees, although other factors may apply.

Generally speaking, there is not much of a life differential between a sleeve bearing system and its equivalent ball bearing system when the total temperature the bearing system sees is relatively low, but as this total temperature increases, ball bearings give progressively longer life than sleeve bearings.

For normal computer type environments we recommend sleeve bearing units since they will meet the life requirements, are quieter, are less expensive, and can be used in any mounting attitude. For high ambient temperatures, or other operating conditions which result in the bearing system seeing very high total temperatures, or hostile environments, ball bearings should be considered. If a sleeve bearing model will do the job, we suggest it be used instead of a more expensive, less quiet ball bearing model.

One area that is important to reliability is fan noise and the ability of the bearing system to endure a shock and not become noisier. Sleeve bearing fans, generally speaking, can easily sustain multiple shocks of 80 g's with a duration of 11 msec without impacting noise. The same is not true of ball bearing fans. It is quite common for a ball bearing fan to be noisy before it is even used just from the handling of the system into which it is installed.

One last important point is what happens to both types of bearing systems versus running time or life. Typically, sleeve bearing fan noise does not increase due to life. This remains true until the system begins to fail due to loss of oil. Ball bearing fans can begin to get noisy in a very short time. This increase is due to many factors, such as grease channeling, loss of grease, damaged bearings camouflaged by the grease, etc. Also, as time goes on, the grease may begin to dry out which allows for a very noisy fan; the fan will continue to run for a long time. Thus, if usable fan life were defined to end when the fan became noisy, it is possible that the sleeve baring fan would out live an equivalent ball-bearing fan.
(Comair Rotron Engineering Data)

So yeah, high quality sleeve bearing systems (not the kind you find in the "$0.25/each misc Fans" box at the computer fair) can do just as well as Ball Bearing.

Peace
John

[Intraveinous]

Other info:

http://www.comairrotron.com/Engineering/CoolingFan.htm