how do you guys move the air?

[Ares]

Im doing a trickling water shower setup for size reasons. the plan is 60mm tubing in(with 60mm fan), 80mm out.

the setup calls for a sealed reseviour of a 6" pipe size sealed in the aspect that only way in and out is through the 2 tubes.. one tube in with a fan on it blowing in. and another tube out where the packing and water trickles down.

the plan is to have a tight mesh above the sprayer to catch fine mist that is carried away with the air, hopefully combining them into a larger drop that can fall. below is a larger mesh to trickle the water down.

the thing is, all this will be a pretty good amount of restriction... I think.

any specific 60mm fan that has the torque to blow this hard? or another size that has a fan that can blow this hard.

also what pump is good for this... I dont know what kind of sprayer or flow I want. of course the idea here is efficiency, and to continually circulate the water not just from the PC, but circulate it on itself at all times. hopefully this will let me keep the water flow in the bong perfect regaurdless of what flow rate goes through the PC. because again, efficiency is everything with a bong this small.

so, what pump has a variable flow? just add a rheostat or whatever to it so you can vary the in current?

[Ares]

I drew a pretty drawing and didnt add it. here it is.

[Butcher]

Generally torque isn't the issue so much as fan size (both diameter and thickness) in determining the maximum backpressure. You can have loads of torque but given enough backpressure the fan will just cavitate.
If you are having problems shifting the air I'd suggest a bigger fan - 60mm is tiny, you'll get much better results with something like a 120mm or bigger (I use a 172x55mm on my radiator and it's great).

[Ares]

Originally Posted by Butcher

Generally torque isn't the issue so much as fan size (both diameter and thickness) in determining the maximum backpressure. You can have loads of torque but given enough backpressure the fan will just cavitate.
If you are having problems shifting the air I'd suggest a bigger fan - 60mm is tiny, you'll get much better results with something like a 120mm or bigger (I use a 172x55mm on my radiator and it's great).

I understand thickness and Im looking around at that now, but a larger size is problematic for the setup. since I am attempting to keep it small and compact. a larger fan like 120mm is about 5" across. then you figure 5-6" pipe to get the air out, you are at a foot wide resevior section. I dont want it that big.

80mm is pushing the size to about 8".

I am looking at the thermaltake 60mm fan, its 25mm thick and says he has a max pressure of 5.3mm-H20. double ball bearing, 21cfm, and 28dB.

theres also some vantec fans that look similair, but dont give a specific pressure.

even so, a larger fan means larger piping, means more water ect ect, should it not be all to scale? where a larger fan NEEDS more pressure?

[MadHacker]

Originally Posted by Ares

even so, a larger fan means larger piping, means more water ect ect, should it not be all to scale? where a larger fan NEEDS more pressure?

not necessarily...
for hypothetical purposes…
you could take a 120mm fan and attach a funnel on it going down to 10mm…
you would have a lot of air and moving through that 10mm pipe..
it doesn’t mean that I could only use 10mm fan…

as Butcher stated it would be better to have 172mm fan… even if the pipe is only 60mm
more air… more pressure. Also 172 mm fan under volted will provide the more air you need with a lower db.

[Ares]

oh ok, so I could put a 172mm fan(where do you even get that? I only see 120mm on new egg).

and then get a funnel joint to take it down to a smaller size. and that wouldnt just amplify the back pressure on it? thought i had to keep the piping around the same size as the fan so the pressure wasnt too high.

but this will work?

any good ideas where to get a pipe like that?

Im thinking get a bunch of PVC pipe from every size in that range. cut sections so you have "steps" to the one side, and then go in with silicone and give it a smooth inside edge thats water tight.

[pdf27]

You might be better off going to 160x160mm square section for the reservoir, if you're prepared to build it yourself. It will take up very little extra floor space, and let you use 3x80mm fans.
Using 6" pipe (150mm diameter) is going to really restrict your design options. Even a small size increase could make a big difference.

If you're determined to use 6" pipe this might be a better idea. 30 second drawing, but the red arrows show the air flow and the blue the water. The right hand box is the fan, and the left hand one the bong section.
If at all possible you want to minimise the constrictions/seperations etc. in the air flow. This would probably take up to about a 120mm fan without too many changes.

[Ares]

just been surfing around the site reading old threads and what not.

and I see the talk about reseviors and building them.

I guess I didnt really put thought into the basics.

a pipe resevior seemed simple but I suppose its actually very inefficient, wasteful, and difficult.

a square or rectangle is a much smarter design.

I understand what your saying, basicly the top becomes 4 quadrants, and your saying 3 fans and the last one holds the tube.

so, thats a good setup. but would the following be better, worse or the same?

if instead of 3 fans and one outlet, you did 2 fans, and 2 bongs. should have less air speed in each bong, but twice the area so the water doesnt combine and decrease surface area.

and use a Y pipe out of the PC to spray into the 2 bongs.

[Butcher]

Dunno where you'd get a 172mm fan offhand - I got mine surplus. It's rated 235cfm, 55dB(A), 19.5mm H2O at 24V, i normally run it at about 9-10V and it's quite quiet and still blows a good amount of air.
Check www.comairrotron.com for a good range of fans.