How to open and clean a PC fan

[@quickbeam00]

I like your commentary. You have a very pleasant and polite style.

[@necro_ware]

Thank you very much :)

[@comostella88]

Thank you! I cleaned my 6k dollars showcase fridge fan with this video! Buying the fan would have cost me $200 just one! Reason why it died was one of the two bearing were busted.. Ordered new and waiting!

[@JorgeCarvalho_web_dev]

Hi! Nice video! I usually cant disassemble that much because that first ring that you find after lifting up the sticker that hold things in place doesn't have anything to place the tweezers. I usually spray an cheappo W5 multi-purpose silicone oil that I can buy here in Portugal in the Lidl supermarket, if you have Lidl in your country it might be worth checking out this spray can. So I first clean outside the fan, remove sticker, apply a little spray where the ring is, give a fan spin with fingers and place the sticker again. The results are amazing. I have a PSU AT fan that I use a lot to test mobos and now I can't ear the fan spinning, similar results in all fans that I serviced. I never found a fan like yours with some points to place the tweezers and force open, but I must say that everything I have is always the most cheap thing that I can buy. This "problem" is always with me since ever. Be safe my friend!

[@necro_ware]

Hi Jorge, thank you! This is exactly, what I usually do, I remove the sticker, oil the bearings and clean everything around. Except I'm using a normal machine oil and I guess, your spray solution is a better one. However, as you saw, this time I had a fan, which barely rotated, it was practically static and just oiling would not be sufficient. I thought, I could throw it away or try to open it to practice a bit. And regarding the brace, just yesterday I opened another fan and there was a plastic ring instead of a metal brace. I could pull it off, but as I tried to put it back, it just broke. I guess the plastic has just got brittle over the years. Anyway, I made a ring out of copper wire and it seems to hold everything in place quite well. But all of this was just for fun, usually I wouldn't apply so much effort, I just replace it by a new one if it completely stuck or clean it the way just as you do. And stay safe too :)

[@prudiceflc]

Yo thanks Jorge, my fan was like brum brrrm vzt vzt vzt vzt 😄😄 i was out of wd oil evrything then i saw the w5.. flash backs what i saw here.. and now its silent! Under load lol! XD old 9850)

[@brunoshow124]

For ball bearings grease is best, although you need to remove the dust shields to clean and grease the bearings and races inside. For sleeve bearings a light oil is best. You can even replace the ball bearings in that fan if you wanted to, it'd be like brand new again and would last for years to come.

[@adfinemrising]

they dont make fans this way anymore.. there is no hole behind when you lift the sticker.. just plastic solid plastic. i guess they dont want anyone tinkering or repairing these fans

[@nikolaievans2432]

Mabye its because its dangerous and they don’t want you messing around with it. They don’t want to be paying for the mess you made

[@drewnewby]

Dangerous? What a laugh. Planned obsolescence, plain and simple

[@satsumagt5284]

They DO still make ball bearing fans. You're just talking about Fluid Dynamic ones, which ARE indeed sealed

[@andrefixa]

Hi Necroware, i suggest you to use Singer sewing machine oil for old pc's fans, because it cleans the gunk and at the same time it lubes with the right amount of density for small mechanics!

[@GodinGamer]

dude i took one from amd older pc it didnt had the rubber cober it was completly sealed but i sink it in to soap and water then pure water then with a blower dry it and its working like a charm ty so much

[@beardyface8492]

I'd always tend towards light machine oil for this, grease turns to abrasive paste once contaminated with dust & causes rapid wear. If it wasn't so expensive I'd be tempted to try one of the "dry" lubricants they sell for bicycle chains though.

[@kylemccormick3450]

That is very interesting... I have always seen people use white lithium grease to lubricate DVD drives, however, if it is true that the grease becomes abrasive once exposed to dust, then is it safer to stick with a light machine oil? I don't know if you've ever worked on DVD drives, but what's your advice?

[@gromm93]

Great tutorial! Very informative and well narrated!

[@ralfbaechle]

I'm trying to resurrect a fan which started to rattle unbearably. Unfotunately mine is a trickier case to disassemble than yours as there are no visible clamps, screws or anything I could remove. Nothing hidden under the sticker eithe. So I settled for cleaning with compressed air, wiping off the rest with some paper. There's a generous gap of like 5mm between the static and rotating parts of the fan giving a view at the coils of the fan. My available lubrication options were silicone and teflon spray; I opted for teflon spraying a generous dose of it into mentioned gap. Now that fan is much less noisy but holding in my hand I can feel strong vibration. I guess the bearings if there ever were any proper bearings are gone. The machine won't have to live for much longer so I can't be bothered to order a replacement fan. But I'd still be curious how to disassemble the bl**dy thing!

[@irwinjimenez]

Very helpful & informative. Thanks.

[@krisrubin5489]

thank you. the spindle clip is the same for high voltage AC muffin fans - tweezers

[@Vexcenot]

my fan died and i had no idea how to open it. Thanks surprisingly similar to disassembling office chairs

[@stanislavahugo]

Great thanks,only You`re show very easy method about clean.

[@necro_ware]

You are welcome! Glad I could help.

[@Klips005]

How did you remove the central bearing?

[@necro_ware]

After removing the ring I could just pull out the rotor with the spindle and the two bearings just fell out.

[@Blaza303]

Aint no way he's putting electronic components in water

[@olafmarzocchi6194]

The bearings are worn out, lubricating helps little. You can easily find new bearings for very little money

[@nenadjovic8468]

I have a problem with my fan. I somehow cant open the fan. When i am reamoving the sticker, there is a plastic on top, that i cant remove. I tried with a knife but it just scraches the plastic. Help would be appreciated.

[@necro_ware]

Hi, unfortunately some fans can not be opened. Especially cheaper and smaller fans have glued housing. If you are not afraid to break it, you can try just to push onto the rotor from bellow to get it out of the holder. Sometimes it is just snapped inside. But you could break it this way, so, it's up to you, if you want to do it.

[@neonheadmutt]

Can you really soap and water the fan?? Won't it ruin it?

[@hubbyflashgaming5700]

my fan has no clip on the bottom of the fan. I had to flip the fan upsidedown and push the blade out the fan was also made by Delta Electronic ind

[@NJHS92]

i didnt even have to remove my 200 mm chassi fan, after 6 years of daily use it was so worn out that i could just reach in and plop the fan blade off the socket. It still managed to hold on by the magnets but it was making a huge rattling noise so i took it of used some 5-56 and plopped it back in and it spinned like a cat,

[@titaniumhud1536]

i hope this helps someone. On a H115i Corsair AIO cooler fan, dont waste your time. Its factory sealed and you cannot access the coils/bearings inside the fan without murdering the whole piece as it is sealed by melted plastic and not fasteners.

[@gwapo247]

I'm trying to revive a cooler Master hyper tx3 92mm fan. It's sealed as well so I'm thinking of just carving the cover. If to gets damaged, I'll just replace with a donor motor. Not sure if it would work though

[@middle_pickup]

The fan in the Playstation 2 is notoriously loud. I've looked for years for a good drop in replacement but no one makes such a fan. It's thinner than most fans, and also runs at 7.5v I think. Would love to find more info like this if anyone knows anything.

[@TraumaER]

Why are you still playing PS2 LOL?

[@middle_pickup]

@@TraumaER best console ever. Retro gaming is alive, my dude.

[@TraumaER]

@@middle_pickup I still have mine LOL. I don't disagree. I have PS1 through 3. I stopped playing consoles but those were the days.

[@Ironman1127bap]

There are people who are selling not working PS2 for the parts (10-20$) and also some people selling ps2s +games at good price. You can find a lot of those deals in fb marketplace in crowded cities. I have 3 PS2. One is my first that I bought years ago and the other 2 because i wanted games but they were in a bundle with a PS2.

[@pietypereira8239]

Thank you for sharing your idea .

[@ludadoyt8317]

Can i wash processor using this method?pls reply

[@necro_ware]

Yes, I made a lot of videos about mainboards and computer restauration. If you watch them, you will see, that I even wash whole mainboards not only processors.

[@ludadoyt8317]

@@necro_ware Thanku bro luv u❤️❤️

[@joeygunzilla6878]

Very interesting, thanks👍

[@johnmimbs5289]

machine oil would be my go to... i would be concerned about silicon getting gunked up pretty quickly on something so delicate

[@Boemel]

i use sewing machine oil, same on small motors like turntables and cassette decks.

[@windowsxpprofessional]

Same fan I had but unfortunately it would make sounds as in something was stuck in it. I cleaned as you did but put wd 40in the bearings but no difference of that sound . I checked the bearings they are good too. Any ideas?

[@necro_ware]

Hi, first a side note, the usual WD40 is for cleaning and not for lubricating. This is a very common mistake. In regards of the sound, I had a similar issue, where a fan was sounding, like something was stuck in it. The ball bearing looked good and rotated fine at the first glance, however at higher speeds it started to be very noisy. I ordered some new ball bearings and voila, the noise has gone. I found it to be sometimes quite complicated to decide, that the ball bearing is actually bad. They often still tend to work very well at lower rotation speed.

[@windowsxpprofessional]

@@necro_ware Yes. U I used wd 40 to clean up the bearings let them dry and then put oil in it. Instead of ball bearing I thinking to buy a new fan because it's literally 14 years old and the pc is also 14 years old

[@necro_ware]

@@windowsxpprofessional Hehe :D Yeah sometimes it's cheaper an easier to buy the whole fan. Still, at least it's sometimes worth trying. Most fans are just dirty and it's a question of time, when they'll get beyond any repair if left running like that.

[@windowsxpprofessional]

@@necro_ware I did it but still no fix dude☹️

[@SAINTJONATHAN4692]

Is that a soapy water

[@kamalosama4277]

I want to tell all the visitors that there is a saying in our area, the elders say that I should learn a skill and keep it in a corner of the house.

[@karlaroman6081]

Soooo... i loved this video because it helped me a lot. Funny thing though, I kinda lost the band..😅😅😅 and well now it makes a worse noise. Im not sure what to do😅

[@djjayafrica]

Thanks you helped me

[@maciejukasik1828]

Lucky you got fan with ball bearings, soaking them in water for 15 minutes and not dissassembling those shields of theirs to remove moisture and old grease did not help in prolonged time, better would be to replace them

[@lakshmanhearath5495]

Excellent.

[@jonathaningram8157]

I removed the sticker and... nothing behind it.

[@necro_ware]

Yes, some fans are sealed... Well, at least you tried ;)

[@Perplexer1]

From my experience the silicone grease (and probably any other type of grease) is too viscous for computer fans and seriously hamper their performance. Oil is the only way to go.

[@jean-lucpicard5510]

Luckily mine was a simple task. just pop the fan off the frame!

[@PabloPazosGutierrez]

use alcohol, not water

[@necro_ware]

I use it always before I wash it in the water.... Cheers! :D And if staying serious this 2:29 is IPA, as I told in the video, which stands for isopropyl alcohol.... washing the parts with water is totally ok, if you dry everything properly afterwards.

[@Dowlphin]

@@necro_ware Have a nice cold IPA, then clean with IPA. 😁

[@AndrewTJackson]

Thanks, man!!

[@Povest1389]

Thumbnail looks like Slavic Kolovrat.

[@necro_ware]

Where you say it, yeah. Very unfortunate similarity.

[@zerblion]

Thanks bro！

[@riskysway2542]

Best option is lithiun based vaseline

[@Nicolas-im6nb]

thanks man!! you are god.

[@dawidmoskalczuk]

Thank You a lot, SOMETIMES IS PLASTIC - just take off :D

[@Pidalin]

Don't do that if it's not 100% needed, any cleaning and oiling fans mostly makes things just worse than before from my personal experience. 😀 Those bearings mostly get damaged while disasembling it and you will hear friction noises after you assamble it again. I am mostly using new modern fans and I solder resistor to red wire to make it more silent, or I just connect it to 5V from molex and screw that. But it's true that some old fans are superior compared to what they sell now, but for some reason which I really don't know, old fans had always ridiculous RPM, like 10 000 or something, I don't understand why they were doing it like that when those CPUs had TDP that I can cool it with my finger.

[@PaulTheadra]

I'm a cryptocurrency miner and node manager, I have hundreds of dirty useless fans, but this video gives me hope for them for a second life

[@lonewalker5435]

Who?

[@Bomon4ik]

ЦИАТИМ-221

[@necro_ware]

Спасибо! Так как я живу за рубежом, к сожалению тут такие вещи не доступны, ну или может быть, но под другими именами.

[@Lithium50]

I lost the little ring of my fan. 🤐

[@necro_ware]

Luckily it's not a grenade ;)

[@M12Howitzer]

WD40

[@aldrin.sarmiento]

just buy a new one

[@mbbm8002]

Too much "however" word.

[@joeygunzilla6878]

🤔 However.. the video is quite resourceful. Although However, your comment is not. However.. I was quite bored at the time of writing this. In any case However, it was worth the reply. So take it however you want. So wherever you are and however your doing I bid you goodbye.