Sunday, March 27, 2011 Silverhill Basic Fan Kit for Aquarium Cooling Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a nice little kit. I bought it to put over my aquarium to cool the lights. I am using lighting that is not standard for an aquarium - two 5100K, 32-watt twist compact fluorescents designed for regular household fixtures (medium "Edison" bases), each enclosed in a reflector. Although the reflectors are designed for the bulbs I'm using and are not "fully" enclosed, which the manufacturer recommends against, too much heat is building up anyway, to the point where the plastic is melting a little around where the glass tube meets the ballast/base. I installed three of these little fans above the reflectors. They are keeping the reflectors significantly cooler. I have them plugged into the light timer so they come on when the lights come on. It remains to be seen whether the heat inside the reflectors will be reduced enough to prevent melting. I'll have to wait and see after my new set of bulbs come in.

These fans are really tiny (about 3-3/8 in. square), which may or may not be a plus, depending on your use. The grills I received were not metal as shown in the product photo, they are plastic, which is okay with me, given that there is potential for them to be exposed to some humidity. The wire coils that drive the fan mechanism are nearly fully enclosed, which is a plus. I found that omitting the foam insert provided for the grills makes a significant difference in the air flow.

One might wish for the option to buy an extra power supply and extra grills. For my installation, I need grills on both sides of each fan. The grills are 2-part, and the instructions seem to indicate that both parts should be used on the same side of the fan. I believe the purpose of this is to facilitate the use of the thin sheets of air-filtering foam that are provided for sandwiching between the grill parts. However, I discovered that one can just screw on the inner part on one side, and rather than snapping the outer part on the same side, snap the outer part directly onto the fan itself on the other side, although the fit will not be terribly secure. Since I'd already screwed four inner grill parts onto two fans, I ended up using two outer parts for grills on a third fan. I have one fan left that I could make use of elsewhere with more grills and another power supply, which is why I say buying two kits may give you more options, but unless you really need all four fans for every installation, you will always end up with spare fans.

Once you get everything hooked up, unless you have the fans installed in an enclosure that fully hides all the wiring, all the plugs, wires and excess AC adapter cord hanging out there is not terribly attractive. So a trip to Radio Shack yielded a solution, in the form of a black project box for under $4 to stuff the plugs and excess wiring into - after a little modification with a dremel.

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Product Description:
We now bring this popular product from our lineup to Amazon. This aquarium cooling kit has been very popular with other customers and we are pleased to offer it via Amazon and Amazon Prime. This product is most appropriate for do-it-yourself installers. There are almost unlimited combinations of aquarium configurations, and this fan kit is flexible to be used with most if not all of them. however, it is not "plug and play" and requires some planning and preparation to install it correctly. Included: 4 fans chosen for a good balance between power and noise, 4 fan grills to protect fingers, wiring, wire ties, screws, a 110vac UL listed wall power supply, and an instruction sheet.