Cooling fans?

Cfrisella · #1 01-18-2010, 07:47 PM

Just wondering what most of you are doing to add in cooling radios, etc. Installing ported fans? Maybe some other methods?

Ironflight · #2 01-18-2010, 08:15 PM

Most of the modern avionics just don't require them. I am running a G-430, G-327, ICOM 210, audio panel, and two GRT HX's (with internal fans), and no avionics cooling fan - here in sunny and hot Texas. Benn doing it for four years, and no issues....

Paul

ferret · #3 01-19-2010, 10:39 AM

Heat reduces the life of all avionics. The cooler you keep them, the longer they will run. That being said, it is worthwhile to keep your avionics compartment as cool as possible. I installed a 3.5 in 12v dog fan in the top middle of my rv8 dash board. It sucks all the air out of the avionics area and blows in onto my windscreen which has the added benefit of a defogger.

cholladay · #4 01-19-2010, 11:32 AM

I have a ameri-king 2 cooling fan sitting on my work bench waiting to be installed. I will install it before summer gets here. Last year during the hot months, when the plane would be sitting in the sun, I would notice my
GNS430W's display fade out due to the heat after start up. The top of my plane above the insturments is black, which does not help the heat issue. Hopefully, the fan will take care of the problem.
Chad Holladay
RV-8 flying
RV-10 building

RV10Rob · #5 01-19-2010, 01:12 PM

I have a Lonestar fan I'm planning to hook up to my 430. One thing I wasn't sure about is that the fan delivers 21 CFM, but the 430 manual says to use 1 CFM. Wondering if I'm going to blow apart the radio with air

Crossbow · #6 01-19-2010, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferret

Heat reduces the life of all avionics. The cooler you keep them, the longer they will run. That being said, it is worthwhile to keep your avionics compartment as cool as possible. I installed a 3.5 in 12v dog fan in the top middle of my rv8 dash board. It sucks all the air out of the avionics area and blows in onto my windscreen which has the added benefit of a defogger.

Thanks much!

This may be another idea worth stealing.

plehrke · #7 01-19-2010, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferret

Heat reduces the life of all avionics. The cooler you keep them, the longer they will run. That being said, it is worthwhile to keep your avionics compartment as cool as possible. I installed a 3.5 in 12v dog fan in the top middle of my rv8 dash board. It sucks all the air out of the avionics area and blows in onto my windscreen which has the added benefit of a defogger.

I have the exact same set up but I use two fans.

ChiefPilot · #8 01-19-2010, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plehrke

I have the exact same set up but I use two fans.

Are your fans connected to the tray at all, or do they just ventilate the space behind the panel? Air will take the path of least resistance, so it would seem for optimum avionics cooling you'd pull/push air through the avionics specifically through cooling port on the back of the trays. For that reason, I was considering "sucking" air through the avionics via their cooling ports and and vent to the windscreen for defrost.

roee · #9 01-19-2010, 04:43 PM

Has anyone actually measured the difference in temperature of the avionics components with these glareshield-mounted fans? It would be interesting to see the avionics component temperatures with these fans on vs. fans off vs. fans completely blocked (i.e. no glareshield vent holes at all).

I'm just a bit skeptical of the benefit of this setup for avionics cooling (if that's even needed) because it usually takes forced air blowing directly across a hot component or a well thermally-coupled heat sinking surface to get any significant cooling effect. (And as Ironflight pointed out, most modern avionics shouldn't get too hot to begin with, even without forced airflow).

Anyway, these fans may be a great idea, but some quantitative data would sure be nice to justify the effort. Anyone have some?

dmaib · #10 01-19-2010, 06:36 PM

No quantitative data, but I have an avionics cooling fan that I got from Stein and it routes air directly to the Lightspeed box, the GTX-330, and the 430W (I think). Stein can correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember him saying that it was probably not critical to route air to the 430w, but I had the port available, so I hooked it up. Lightspeed requires cooling air for the 6 cylinder version. I also installed two computer fans in my glareshield to act as defog fans. I did all of my Phase 1 flying in Minnesota in the winter, so was using cabin heat a lot. The RV-10 puts out a huge amount of cabin heat (and I needed it on some days!

) and I found that the panel and glareshield can get pretty warm with the front cabin heat coming out right at the firewall. I remember being startled once when I realized how hot the panel was. I was glad that I had the glareshield fans venting some of that heat from under the panel. They are also pretty effective defog fans. Back in November, I was departing Spruce Creek one very humid evening and the windscreen fogged up pretty good after I closed the door. Once I got the engine running the glareshield fans cleared it off pretty quickly.

$.02 or possibly $.03 worth