Replacement Fans For 6300

Delbert McCord

I own 2 Flex 6300's. I just had to send one in because it would not come on. It cost me 174$ to replace 2 fans. I have a friend that has one still under guarantee and he is about to send his in for the second time for fan replacement. This has me worried that I am going to continue having this problem.
I searched on the fan issue and found others with the same problem but the conversation was already closed. 

Are the Fans available to purchase from Flex? Is this something a average Ham could do? Are there better fans a person could purchase so would not have to keep replacing them?

I will no longer leave my rig on all the time, I have moved it so its easy access and will only be on when I am using it. My friend leaves his on allowing remote access as well. 

The more I use these rigs the more I like them even though I seem to have to mess it a lot. (Lately I am getting a error at bootup on my computer but that is a different matter).

Thanks for any help people send my way
DE KA8OCN

Martin AA6E

Fans are usually very standard and available from many sources.  Can't FRS recommend a fan for DIY replacement?

G8ZPX

these fan failure suggest the design isn't suitable for use in a "radio server". A server cooling fan system would normally have an MTBF of 50-75,000 hrs MTBF. Most servers designers would spec a fan to be good for around 8-10 years of 24/7 use.

rfoust

On a somewhat related topic, most people know this but if you clean out the fans with compressed air, be sure not to "spin" the fans with the air, a lot of times that will cause them to fail.

Bill -VA3WTB

Be careful of assuming fan failure rates are hight because there have been some with the problem. Out of thousands of owners world wide we see only a few on the community.  We also know of many on the community who have had their radios on 24/7 for the last 4 years.

It looks like in many cases the fan failures are due to dust build up, and the fans either slow down to much or stop.
Tim posted instructions for for cleaning the fans.

From my location In Ontario Canada, it would cost me $250.00 each way to ship my radio to Flex, after it runs out of warranty. But I have little reason to think I should worry about it.
Fan cleaning
https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001282823-How-to-properly-clean-the-FLEX-6000-Co...

G8ZPX

Lets get a part number. Then we can see the manufacturers own MTBF figures. That will debunk any claims of premature equipment failure.

BTW dust is kind of NORMAL for a fan unless it is protected by a filter. So, it is either assumed to be able to cope with dust and general ingress, or is filtered to prevent it, which is true in this case?

It would be normal to expect a 5% failure rate after 5 years - using very cheap sleeve bearings fans. In PCs they still last 5 years.

Rob N4GA

goo idea

Kevin

I didn't know this. Is this for fans in general? Do you know why? I use canned air to **** out the fans in my computer and never thought about - or actually had fun with - fans spinning.

73,
Kev K4VD

rfoust

I don't really know why.  My prior career was computer repair, and we'd always **** the dust out of computers we were repairing.  I used to have fun spinning the fans too but after a while, I realized this was killing the fans.

Bill -VA3WTB

Paul, you must know that customers who contribute to this forum are a few compared to the number of owners?

k0eoo

Tim explains the fan spinning problem in the link for cleaning the fans....

MarkN7MHB

you burn the bushings.  they are not meant to spin that fast

Delbert McCord

I did not know that either, Thank You.

Corey/ KC0YNS

My 6300 has been on 24/7 for several years without any issues, However I do have my 6300 sitting on a Laptop cooling pad that also remains on 24/7

Using my 6300  SSB rag chew on 80 meters with RF out at 50 Watts driving a small Solid state amp, Temp's average 37.0 C  Fan noise isn't noticeable compared to fan noise on my Dell Power connect 2124 switch that's in close proximity.

 Note to self:  Move that switch to the other side of the shack.