Progressive Dynamics 4655 (PD4655) noise

[Wconley]

This is the same noise my recently installed PD4655 unit makes. We just got home from our first trip and thankfully it never made the noise in the middle of the night. We were told to look for any wires that might be touching the fans. I'm going to do that today.

[Rich W]

Originally Posted by Wconley

This is the same noise my recently installed PD4655 unit makes. We just got home from our first trip and thankfully it never made the noise in the middle of the night. We were told to look for any wires that might be touching the fans. I'm going to do that today.

Try it with a heavy 12v load. You can put a jumper on the umbilical cord to make the running lights come on. Ours makes a very slight whine when it's under load, otherwise, nice and quiet. I've converted the interior lights to LED, maybe that will be something to do this summer, covert the outside lights too.

[Rocinante]

Hi, StagrLee. Congrats on 100th post.

This is useful info, thanks! My PD4655 makes that odd hard-drive noise from time to time. Would be fun to see whether I could eliminate it by replacing these two fans. Looks like the new fan draws 0.1 more watts than the original. I wonder whether that's a factor.

First question: Did the new fans have bare wires at the end, or a connector? If a connector, what kind? Two wires only, or more?

Second question: Both fans in your picture seem to have sleeve bearings - unless I'm reading the part numbers wrong. Am I confused?

Third question: Sunon makes a model EE80251B1-000U-A99 with ball bearings and similar specs to the original sleeve-bearing unit on the right. Those are readily available. The Sunon KD1208PTB1, a ball-bearing version of the KD1208PTS1 on the left, seems quite difficult to find. Your new fan, the KD1208PTS1 (sleeve bearing) can be found, but it is rather expensive.

Last question/idea: There are several fans of this size on Amazon at reasonable prices that draw as little as 0.2 amps while moving just as much (or more) air in CFM. Thoughts on going with one of them? Here's one example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N1Y3NF6

Originally Posted by StagrLee

100th post!

I finally swapped the fans after chatting with Progressive Dynamics on the phone. The sounds in my trailer were intermittent. The diagnostic procedure was to observe the fans on a warm day with no 12V load than lots of 12V load by turning on the lights, fantastic fans, stereo, etc.

The fans went from not moving and quite to not moving with the rattling hard drive noise, to spinning and silent. The original fans rattle when the fan controller on the circuit board is approaching the threshold voltage to turn on the fans! Interesting...

The upgraded fan is installed on the left and the old fan is on the right. You'll need two of them. If you were to buy these fans, I'd go with the ball bearing fan instead of the sleeve bearing fan Sunon KD1208PTB1 13.GN (swap 'S' for 'B' in the part number). A guy on eBay has them for $7.00 free shipping. Not looking a gift fan in the bearing, I installed the free replacements from PD.

[StagrLee]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Looks like the new fan draws 0.1 more watts than the original. I wonder whether that's a factor.

Nah, that could be a rounding error... Your down in the 10 milliamp level there.

Originally Posted by Rocinante

First question: Did the new fans have bare wires at the end, or a connector? If a connector, what kind? Two wires only, or more?

The fans from PD came with connectors installed. Simple unplug old ones, plug in new ones. If you order direct and they have the wrong connectors, harvest the connectors off the old fans and solder/shinkwrap...

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Second question: Both fans in your picture seem to have sleeve bearings - unless I'm reading the part numbers wrong. Am I confused?

PD used and shipped replacement sleeved bearings. I prefer ball bearings. Usually a bit more money.

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Third question: Sunon makes a model EE80251B1-000U-A99 with ball bearings and similar specs to the original sleeve-bearing unit on the right. Those are readily available. The Sunon KD1208PTB1, a ball-bearing version of the KD1208PTS1 on the left, seems quite difficult to find. Your new fan, the KD1208PTS1 (sleeve bearing) can be found, but it is rather expensive.

Might work. I believe the issue was the the motor or bearing started ratteling near the turn on threshold voltage. If the noise was from the bearing then the ball bearing will be fine. If the noise is from the motor type then you'll probably have similar problems down the road.

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Last question/idea: There are several fans of this size on Amazon at reasonable prices that draw as little as 0.2 amps while moving just as much (or more) air in CFM. Thoughts on going with one of them? Here's one example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N1Y3NF6

Its a matter of fan compatibility with the nature of the fan controller on the PD unit. Is the fan controller variable speed? Don't know... Are the cheaper fans compatible with variable speed controllers over two pins which are just supplying voltage/current??? Try cross matching an Orion fan and see if those are more available.

Higher CFM fans can be really noisy and draw more current so always check the specs. Also check to see if they work up to 14.4 volts which the PD will output to the batteries on initial startup. If it says 13.8, that's probably okay. I'm installing a blower (squirrel cage) fan (instead of the axial fans used here) in my fridge chimney flue to get some more efficiency out of it. I'm spending a lot of time reading mousers.com spec sheets...

[StagrLee]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Third question: Sunon makes a model EE80251B1-000U-A99 with ball bearings and similar specs to the original sleeve-bearing unit on the right. Those are readily available. The Sunon KD1208PTB1, a ball-bearing version of the KD1208PTS1 on the left, seems quite difficult to find. Your new fan, the KD1208PTS1 (sleeve bearing) can be found, but it is rather expensive.

Did some more digging. The KD1208PTS1 is obsolete so the replacement parts are old stock! The KD1208PTS1 were superseded by the EE80251B1-000U-A99. The newer part turns on at 4.5 volts while the KD1208PTS1 turns on at 5.0 volts... I'd guess the fan controller sits in the low 4 volt range which drives the brushless motor into vibration and that voltage doesn't bother the old part. A resistor could fix that issue... I think we found the 0.1 Watt though...

[Rocinante]

Thanks! I'll give the PD folks a call tomorrow and see what additional thoughts they have. Pretty sure my unit is out of warranty by now, so I can hack away at it to see what can be accomplished.

[StagrLee]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

Thanks! I'll give the PD folks a call tomorrow and see what additional thoughts they have. Pretty sure my unit is out of warranty by now, so I can hack away at it to see what can be accomplished.

They have been gracious enough to support a lot of us out of warranty.

[Rocinante]

Waking this thread up to share another possible cause of noise from the PD4655. We recently discovered that we had a loose connection with the 30-amp white wire that goes into the neutral bus for A/C current. When we resolved that issue, the noise we had been hearing in our converter went away completely. It's totally silent now. So, be sure to shut off power, verify and tighten all your connections. If the sound goes away, you can thank us for (1) eliminating the noise and (2) preventing a possible electrical fire. (Our 30A white wire's insulation was charred for about an inch from the loose connection. We had to cut that section out, strip the wire, splice in a length of new wire and reconnect to the bus. We also elected to replace our split 30/20 breaker because it had gotten hot a few times.) Now, all is well.)