Phobya Nano-G 14 Silent Waterproof fan review

Specification

Technical details of Phobya Nano-G 14 Silent Waterproof fan are, as follows:

• Dimensions: 140x140x25mm
• Weight: 138g
• Nominal Voltage: 12V
• Starting Voltage: 7V
• Current draw: 0.2A
• Nominal speed: 1000RPM (+/-10%)
• Airflow: 58CFM
• Noise level: 25dB/A
• Bearing Type: Nanoflux
• MTBF(at 25 deg.C): 100000 hrs.
• Connector: 3-pin

Performance

In order to evaluate a fan, one should pay attention to even the smallest details. Apart from basic parameters like airflow and noise there are several ones that need to be considered too. For example, the starting voltage or amount of power consumed or the lowest voltage the fan can run at.

For this test, we used a self-made PWM controller that can handle 3-pin fans with current drawn up-to 1A and voltage output of 1.5-11V (+/-10%). The PWM frequency is 52KHz so it should not result in any additional noises produced by the fan motor. To gather the actual reading of voltage and current drawn, two industrial digital multimeters were used. RPM readings were collected via tach wire connected to motherboard 3-pin header and monitored using Aida64 (former Everest) software with 1 sec RPM update interval. All the measurements were taken with 1V stepping, until the fans stopped sending RPM readings or/and stopped rotating.

At this point, the following data was collected:

As it is clear, the fans consumption parameters (Voltage and Amperage) change almost linearly which indicates good fan control features. The max current, 75.4mA does not match the one stated by manufacturer, 200mA. In fact, its almost three times smaller. On the other hand, max RPM readings are within specified 10% accuracy range. The fan showed great “under-volting” results, running at 3V with stable RPM readings (Hello PWM 😉 ). Going even lower has ended in loss of fan speed data, although it kept spinning. The lowest voltage at which the fan could rotate is 2.75V. Going all the way up, from 2.75V to 12V we managed to figure out the starting voltage, 6.45 V. That is quite high. Perhaps this is why only 7V adapter is included and not 5V or 6V one.

Power consumption is important factor currently effecting about 50% of fan choose, as majority of user, especially silence lovers, prefer to use fans with rheobuses or smart controllers most of which can not provide high wattage per channel. Therefore the less power fan consumes, the more attractive it becomes to the end-user. Having both voltage and amperage readings one can easily calculate the wattage drawn by simply multiplying these two values (Power = Amps x Volts). With that said you can see the fan consumes less that 1W at full speed (0.0754 x 12.36 = 0.932W) which definitely earns praise.

As fan noise is most difficult to measure and requires special testing conditions and equipments, we went the easier way and made a video recordings so that everyone can decide on this on his own.

Subjectively, the fans operate quietly outside the case even at 12V. No motor ticking or humming, just a pleasant sound of gentle airflow. As you saw, mounted on a rad fan starts producing noise which is not very comfortable. Even 7V power adapter does not help much, although the humming becomes less noticeable but a bit inconsistent. Of course, this can be the problem of one sample and not every Phobya Nano-G 14 Silent Waterproof fan.