Electronic – What amperage fan is safe to replace the 0.13A fan

amperagefanmaximum-ratings

Fan on my wine fridge is buzzing, so I'm replacing it with a CPU or case fan off newegg.

Should the replacement fan be rated at more than .13A, or less? I suppose the fridge probably puts less than .13A in, but the replacement fan should have a max of at least .13A. Would it be bad to get a fan with an even higher max, say .15A or .2A?

Edit: Existing fan specs are as follows (from this pdf) and the sticker on the fan.

Model:             RDL8020S
Bearing System:    Sleeve
Rated Voltage:     12VDC
Operation Voltage: 6~13.8
Rated Current:     0.13A
Rated Speed:       2,500 RPM
Air Flow:          27.6 CFM
Air Pressure:      1.7 mmH2O
Noise Level:       30 dBA
Dimensions:        80mm x 80mm x 20mm

I found several fans that have lower amperage, but I'm reluctant to buy them. Finally I found this fan which has .13A rating, but I suppose that means it would always be spinning at its highest setting.

P.S. I realize that almost all computer fans have 3 pins not the 2 that this one has. I figure I'll just splice red to red, black to black, and snip off the yellow one, which is just throttle control anyway.

Best Answer

Because your fridge uses a 12V fan, I'm assuming that it uses a thermo-electric cooler (Peltier cells) rather than a compressor like a larger fridge would use?

If so, the actual fan current is probably of no consequence. The thermo-electric cooler requires significant current at 12V and the power supply most likely wouldn't know about or care if your replacement fan consumes more or less current than the original.

Suggestion: look for the quietest fan you can find. Don't worry about how much current it consumes - just make sure that it runs from 12V.

I've recently had to replace the fans (both in power supply and on top of CPU) in a couple of professional hard-disk of multi-track audio recorder decks and it is absolutely amazing how quiet some of the new fans can be while still moving significant amounts of air. There was nothing wrong with the stock fans other than that they were far too noisy to be used in the control room where they were situated. The new fans were chosen to have at least the same amount of CFM as the originals but with significantly less noise. The difference was impressive.

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