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Entertainment Center Cooling?

Posted by Cliff on from the employing-fans-of-all-shapes-and-sizes dept.

skubalon asks: "I have a decent bit of audio equipment for my home theatre. All of it is housed within a wooden entertainment center with a glass door. This doesn't do much for keeping my system cool. I have tested and found that the ambient temperature in the cabinet does not go higher than 100F (37.7C). I know that my receiver has a thermal shutoff, but is this safe? What have other readers done about cooling home audio equipment?"

3 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Door by erpbridge · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The glass door is probably there for 2 reasons: aesthetics, and keeping the ambient noise level of the room to a minimum by attempting to keep noise inside the cabinet.

    My suggestion: Cut a small hole in the backing of the cabinet and put in a small fan (standard 80mm case fan might work, but ya might want to find something a little larger to move more air.) It'll increase the noise level of the room by the noise level of the fan, but that will be less volume than taking the glass door off.

    Now, I'm expecting someone to come along and respond to my post about how evil fans are and that he should be using water cooling...

    Another suggestion, but this will increase the room noise and cut off any IR capabilities, is to put shuttered wood doors on the cabinet. These will allow at least some exchange of air, but unfortunately will block any IR remotes.

  2. Re:Door by Gerry+Gleason · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Being married is one step removed from the source of the problem. The two and a half foot tall human around here is the reason I temporarily moved the stereo to the basement, the VCR is on top of the TV, and there is a fence around the computer and the table the monitor it sits on. The second machine is on a computer desk isn't as interesting but she still pulls the chair up sometimes and goes for the mouse and keyboard. I could use doors on the bookcases too, but I think I'll give up and move all the low shelf books upstairs for a while.

    I've always thought an elegant solution would be to have an in the wall ventilation system sort of like those built in vaccumes. The noise would be in the basement, and you'd just hook up a hose that would draw air through whatever component needed air, and exhaust it elsewhere.

  3. Use an Axial fan. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 3, Interesting


    There's an easy answer. Buy an axial fan that is meant for 205 volts AC operation. They run silently at 115 volts AC, but still move an acceptable amount of air. Alternatively, it might be possible to buy a very quiet 115 volt AC fan and use it at its intended voltage, 115 volts. Fans meant for 230 volts AC may work, also.

    I have no experience with this model, but this is the kind of fan that I use: Whisper AC. The 29 dBA noise level of the WR2A1 model may be low enough. A fan that is very quiet and is used at a slightly lower than rated voltage may work also.

    I bought 5 axial 205 volt fans from a local surplus electronics dealer. They cost me $3.95 each. They are expensive fans, but were being sold cheaply because they were the wrong voltage. Who would want a 205 volt fan?

    I use a fan on top of the vent holes on my stereo power amplifier. I also use a fan on top of each of my computer monitors. Heat is the enemy of electronics. Heat accelerates chemical change; if it is working now, you don't want changes.

    You could also use a 12 volt DC computer cooling fan and run it at perhaps 7 volts. An old 6 volt DC wall transformer (wall wart) meant for some old appliance might supply the correct voltage at the small load of a fan. (At small load, the output of a transformer/rectifier wall wart combination is higher than the rated voltage, sometimes considerably higher.) If you use a resistor to lower the 12 volt output voltage of an old computer power supply, remember that the resistor generates heat, and should be outside the stereo enclosure.

    Stereo entertainment center enclosures have have a small vent at the top of the glass door in front; the glass does not come all the way up to the wood. If you put an axial fan at the bottom in back, blowing in, you create flow-through ventilation that is helped by the tendency of hot air to rise. Stereos don't require much ventilation; it is the completely dead air of an entertainment center without forced ventilation that causes the problems.

    If you use a fan on top of a computer monitor, get a block of foam rubber. Put a fan-size hole in it and glue it to the fan. The foam rubber will hold the fan on the sloping top vent holes of the monitor with friction.

    The big problem here is that the entertainment center manufacturers don't design a quiet fan into their products. These fans are VERY cheap when bought from the Chinese or Taiwanese fan manufacturers in quantity.