Using fan controller but fan will not work properly as needed

efilloon · Feb 7, 2017

All,

I currently have a mountain mods case with 17 fans, that I built around 2008, some of the "Yate Loon 120mm High Speed Performance UV Blue Case Fan with Blue LED - D12SH-124UB - Sleeved" are starting to make noise. So I have decided to start looking for new fans, I just bought a new fan for a test "Cooler Master High Performance SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED Fan - R4-L2R-20AC-GP". I have 3 fan controllers from Koolance CTR-CD10BK. Two of these controllers also control 2 pumps. I pulled out one of the old Yate Loon fans and put in the cooler master fan to test it. On the controller I can set the speed from level 1 through 10. The cooler master fan will ONLY work on level 10. I don't know why. I put back in the Yate Loon and it works fine, I can adjust the speed. Did I get the wrong fan? Are these newer fans built differently? Any suggestions on fans since I've been out of it for so long?

I usually run the 17 fans on level 3 or 4 most of the time.

Tried to find cause:

1. I have also made sure I used the fan controller that does not have a pump running on it to see if the cooler master fan will work and still same result, just level 10.
2. I have also removed other Yate Loon fans off the wire harness to see if too many fans were running on it and see if the cooler master fan would work with less fans but still same result, just level 10.

Was this just a bad fan?

Thank you

trents · Feb 8, 2017

If you set the controller to a slightly lower level and manually start the fan blades turning with your finger do they start to roll on their own? If so, it seems the fan has unusually high impedance. If nothing happens when you do this and it acts like there is no juice at all going to the fan then something else is wrong. Either way, the fan sounds defective and I would return it for another. It is possible and sometimes does happen that we get faulty components right out of the box.

By the way, that sickleflow fan is sleeve bearing. I would recommend you go with hydro or some of the newer bearing technology fans. They last longer, generally.

From your choice fans and their sheer number, I can tell you are not a quiet computer freak.

inVain · Feb 17, 2017

efilloon said:
All,

I currently have a mountain mods case with 17 fans, that I built around 2008, some of the "Yate Loon 120mm High Speed Performance UV Blue Case Fan with Blue LED - D12SH-124UB - Sleeved" are starting to make noise. So I have decided to start looking for new fans, I just bought a new fan for a test "Cooler Master High Performance SickleFlow 120mm Blue LED Fan - R4-L2R-20AC-GP". I have 3 fan controllers from Koolance CTR-CD10BK. Two of these controllers also control 2 pumps. I pulled out one of the old Yate Loon fans and put in the cooler master fan to test it. On the controller I can set the speed from level 1 through 10. The cooler master fan will ONLY work on level 10. I don't know why. I put back in the Yate Loon and it works fine, I can adjust the speed. Did I get the wrong fan? Are these newer fans built differently? Any suggestions on fans since I've been out of it for so long?

I usually run the 17 fans on level 3 or 4 most of the time.

Tried to find cause:

1. I have also made sure I used the fan controller that does not have a pump running on it to see if the cooler master fan will work and still same result, just level 10.
2. I have also removed other Yate Loon fans off the wire harness to see if too many fans were running on it and see if the cooler master fan would work with less fans but still same result, just level 10.

Was this just a bad fan?

Thank you

different fans require different voltage to start spinning and to sustain spinning.
if all of your sickleflow only spinning at level 10 on your fan controller, I'd say they're poor undervolter.

but the fan controller itself might be the culprit in this kind of situation; especially when it's a case bundled one.
their output voltage will severely drop whenever they're tasked to handle 3rd party fan(s) with heavier load.
I often see this bundled fan controller were outperformed by a mere motherboard fan controller for typical PC class fans.
just don't go crazy with the number of the fans connected to it you use one, a motherboard with any broken feature ain't no fun to have

if you heavily depended on a fan controller for your daily computing, I'd suggest you to get a serious one.
or you might try to do a "first aid" act on your previous Yates by lubing their bearing since this quite easy, and there are already lots of articles and tutorials covering this subject.

Using fan controller but fan will not work properly as needed

efilloon

Registered

trents

Senior Member

inVain

Member

Similar threads