Gentlemen, remove your impellers

Picture 2.jpg

Did you ever buy a case fan only to think, “Damn! If only I could remove the impeller?” Gelid Solutions has a fan for you: the Wing UV Blue Removable Impeller Edition.

Product Page [Gelid]

About Rob Beschizza

Follow me on Twitter.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

27 Responses to Gentlemen, remove your impellers

  1. pork musket says:

    Why?

  2. Rob Beschizza says:

    I have no idea.

  3. echolocate chocolate says:

    At last!

  4. bardfinn says:

    Yowza!

  5. entropy says:

    Can you modify it? Seems possible as long as you keep balancing and fit in mind. So now you can paint, chrome, or glue du-dads to your fan blades. I’m sure there are some even more creative ideas that i’m missing. Good gadget.

  6. jim says:

    I would like to see variable pitch blades that reduce noise from cavitation.

  7. Scuba SM says:

    Actually, I could see that being useful for cleaning dust off the blades.

  8. echolocate chocolate says:

    This is actually for “silent computing” modders. The fan runs a lot quieter without the blades.

  9. technogeek says:

    Or maybe blades are available in a range of colors.

    (Geek chic…)

  10. MrfixitRick says:

    It’s for the optional Squirrel Cage Hamster Training Wheel…build up those quads and ham(ster)strings on your pet as they learn to run at approx. 180 mph.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Um those arent impellers, those are soft rubber grommets for mounting the fans.

    You use them in place of screws so that metal to metal contact is removed and thus sound is not passed to other metal objects to resonate.

  12. Garr says:

    What’s an “impeller”?

  13. Rob Beschizza says:

    I impel you to look it up.

  14. Garr says:

    You realise you might as well just have answered :)

  15. Garr says:

    I just looked up the german meaning, and I still don’t know exactly which part that is…

  16. controlbroke says:

    THE POWER OF RICE IMPELLS YOU
    THE POWER OF RICE IMPELLS YOU

  17. Anonymous says:

    I assume the four black bits are some kind of removable axle upon which the fan spins, but I don’t think there are any ‘impellers’ involved, unless this fan has some kind of…no just checked the site and it doesn’t have any liquids involved. Rule of thumb, impellers are for moving liquids radially to the axis of rotation, propellers move fluids (gases or liquids) axially and fans move gases only(usually air).

  18. dculberson says:

    Garr; hint: look it up in English.

    You might know it as a fan blade.

  19. dculberson says:

    Oh, and Anon11, from the manufacturer’s page: “The fan impeller can be removed…”

    No, the black things aren’t the impeller, but the impeller is removable.

  20. PaulR says:

    To be fair, pretty much all boxer-type fans have removable fans. If you try hard enough.

    I take mine apart every once in a while, to grease the bearing until I can get a replacement.

  21. toaste says:

    Interesting bearing design.

    You can already remove the impeller on most fans, it’s just a bit of work to remove the split-ring washer attached to the back of the shaft.

    What’s really interesting about these is the use of a self-lubricating plastic bearing — without oil dust and contaminants won’t stick in the bearing and slowly wear down the surface.

  22. Rob Beschizza says:

    Update from the makers, who wish to stress exactly what the deal is :)

    “Since the bearing is an unique bearing, the impeller can be clicked out for cleaning purposes, and the fan and the motor are even dust and water proof.”

  23. chef says:

    The fans are a bit pricey at 12.50USD for an 80mm, but they seem pretty nice – I’d pick one up.

  24. Garr says:

    dculberson:

    Thats exactly the point. If the impeller were the Blade, you might as well refer to it as the fan, in which case I’ll requote Rob:

    …the impeller can be clicked out for cleaning purposes, and the fan and the motor are even dust and water proof

    As you see, even the makers distinguish between impeller and fan.

    But wow, I’ve elicited quite some attention for something that started out as a half-joke.

  25. dculberson says:

    The impeller is the blade, the blade is not the complete fan, it’s only a part of the fan. So calling the blade the fan is like calling a car’s wheels the car.

  26. AirPillo says:

    Well, there’s a company that sells fans with enlobal bearings designed to readily (if not easily, it takes some yanking) pop out of their housing to be cleaned.

    Maybe this is the same idea?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

 

More BB

Boing Boing Video

Flickr Pool

Digg

Wikipedia

Advertise

Displays ads via FM Tech

RSS and Email

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.

FM Tech