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Media Cabinet Cooling Problems

post #1 of 8
1/20/13 at 6:07am
Thread Starter 
With a toddler running around the house - I had to enclose all the AV gear. We had a local furniture shop make a cabinet to spec. When I put all the equipment in - the PS3 in particular started to run hot - it would take all of ten minutes for the fan to go into full speed.

So I went about making modifications to cool the cabinet. I cut vents into the top region of each shelf and added a 24cfm 80mm fan to each shelf to push cool air in. My hole saw was not big enough to completely expose the fan - but it seems like I cut enough out to make it work.

With everything put back together the there is still to much heat in the unit. Looking for suggestions or next steps. Here were my inttial thoughts - curious to see what others think.

1. Cut out rest of material around fan intake area.
2. Add exhaust fan (already have three fans on the cabinet at 12v and they are audible)
3. Cut more material in the cabinet back for additional circulation

Any other suggestions or ideas??

Thanks.

Derek.-


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post #2 of 8
1/20/13 at 6:10pm

Welcome to the Forum, dman!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman535 View Post

I cut vents into the top region of each shelf and added a 24cfm 80mm fan to each shelf to push cool air in.
I’m afraid you have it all backwards. The fans should exhausting hot air out of the cabinet. Cool air will be forced in via air gaps around the doors. (If those are air vents in the upper picture above the fan, they need to be sealed.) If the doors are air-tight, then an air inlet will have to be added. Keep in mind that anytime you’re moving air you’re also moving dust. So expect to see the gear inside the cabinet get dusty.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt



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post #3 of 8
1/26/13 at 6:51am
Thread Starter 
Hi Wayne,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I added those vents, there are also a number of large holes cut for wires to pass through. I took and reversed the fans - to draw air out and it seems to have made a difference. In addition I took the PlayStation and blew all the vents out, three years of accumulated dust was hurting the cooling efficiency. I think my nest step is a 3" holesaw to increase the size of the holes for the fans and seal them to the back a little bit better. Thanks for your suggestion.
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post #4 of 8
2/15/13 at 3:17pm
I'm having cabinets built. Will have two 24"w x 36"h x 26" deep cabinets for equipment. There will be two shelves in each cabinet as well as the floor of the cabinet. Shelves will only be 18" deep to provide ample room for wiring and cooling. Shelves will have holes to help circulate air. In one cabinet I will have Denon 4311 on top shelf, Blu-ray on second shelf and CD player on bottom. Other side will house Direct TV HR34 on top, Power conditioner in middle and bottom open.

The plan is to put 14" filtered opening in the base plate of front of cabinet and run one Coolerguys 120mm fan in the upper corner of each cabinet run by there digital controler.

The questions are:

1. Is this enough cooling powe? Fans are rated at 46cfm
2. Is the vent and exhaust positions correct?

Will be having all of this built into cabinet.

Thanks for all the help.
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post #5 of 8
2/15/13 at 3:32pm

So, an inlet at the front bottom, and fans configured to exhaust heat out at the top rear? Good approach. However, I’d space the fans at the 1/3 points, not the far corners. Not sure about the cfm, but as long as the temp inside the cabinet stays reasonably cool I’m sure the two fans will be enough; in fact you might have to dial them down a bit for noise.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt



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post #6 of 8
2/15/13 at 8:02pm
Not sure how much you like to get into this stuff, but here's a great article from Middle Atlantic on cabinet cooling:

http://middleatlantic.com/pdf/ThermalManagement.pdf

Dave
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post #7 of 8
2/16/13 at 10:59am
The fans are rated at 46cfm and 20db.
When you say 1/3 points, could you be more specific?
Maybe put fans at hieght of reciever in the middle of each cabinet?
Also, they have a thermal unit that comes on at 88 degrees and off at 80, or a digital thermostat that can be programed for any temps. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the info.
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post #8 of 8
2/16/13 at 12:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pjrace1 View Post

..........When you say 1/3 points, could you be more specific? .

If you're mounting two fans, take the available length and mount a fan a third of the distance from each end. (for example, if you cablinet is 48" wide, you center each fan 16" from either end)
Edited by DGF - 2/16/13 at 5:00pm
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