Electronic cabinet

[suitediver]

We have an 07RS3 with the electronics in the bedroom. This equipment gets hot with door closed.

DH spoke to Ken at DT who stated we were the first to complain of this. We asked for a louvered door to replace the solid door on the cabinet.

Does anyone else with an 07 have this problem? Or do we have a
REAL problem with heat.

Thanks,

Bobbie and Bill and the girls.

[BobW]

You may want to add insulation on the back wall behind the equipment. Sitll you need to get the heat out.

[cptxguys]

Our friends have an 07 Elite Suites (RS3) with the electronics in the bedroom cabinet. They leave the door open when using the equipment as the cabinet gets very hot. They have determined that most of their heat is generated from the DirecTV satellite boxes (they have 2 of them in the cabinet with the other electronics).

So no, it's not just you. :-)

[RGordon]

Yep, my 38RL3 gets very hot if door is closed. I just keep it open when using it.

[billr]

Would a small computer fan be of some use here? Maybe installed to draw the hot air out. May need some vents or the louvered door?


Cheers,
Bill

[cptxguys]

If it were me, I'd install a small computer fan in the side wall of the cabinet and have it exhaust into the closet. I'm guessing that the opening between the door and the frame would be sufficient for air flow with the fan 'pulling' in air. If not, a louvered door would be the next option.

Here's an example -
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102825&cp=&sr=1&origkw=cooling+fan&kw=cooling+fan&parentPage=search

They are even available in 12V models -
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102826&cp=2032061&f=Taxonomy%2FRSK%2F2032061&categoryId=2032061&kwCatId=2032061&kw=computer+fan&parentPage=search

[bstark]

If/when installing fan, keep in mind the sensor for the dual zone set-up. You don't want warm air blowing any where near that little sucker.

[Thom]

gonna get burned for this but here goes, I have been working with electronic equipment most of my life and was taught early on to always make allowances for ventilation around equipment. I have worked with departments that want all their equipment cabinets closed and locked. I do that only at their request, and leave my cabinets open. Funny thing they have well over 200% more equipment failures than I do with my stuff. Rule of thumb, while its operating leave it as open as you can and keep it dusted out, dust is also an enemy of electronic equipment, blowing stuff out from time to time with a low pressure low volume dry air source works wonders.

Thom

[Motor31]

Right after we got our rig I noticed the heat in the entertainment box area and after a bit it would cause the satellite box to glitch out. Now we just leave the cabinet open when we are stopped. The only time it's closed is when we are moving. I might put a fan in the cabinet but is will be a draw fan into the top of the TV compartment rear area. That will allow fresh cool air from the room to be pulled into the cabinet and exhausted behind the TV where it's open and the fan won't be seen. Getting a quiet fan may be a job however.

[igotjam]

This you've already heard. Ours gets real hot. We leave the door open whenever we use it. (which is not too often as we can't figure out how much works)

[jdwilson3]

OK, here's my 2 cents. Our TK3 does the same thing, but the Directv receiver and the Sirius radio receiver are the cause.

I am going to install, on the exterior wall of the slideout, behind the equipment, a RV dryer vent cover (the chrome type) and use a 12 volt muffin fan to exhaust the heat. 12 volt power can be taken from the roof antenna switch.

[Motor31]

Hey Top,

You might want to reconsider your power source there. Having a motor on the antenna circuit may feed "noise" into the signal.

[jdwilson3]

I don't think there is any electronic noise from a computer fan, but, we have only used the roof antenna once since we bought the ES!

As an alternate source of 12V in the Stereo cabinet, I think it would be feasible to find a 120V transformer of a low enough watt/amperage for a muffin fan and pigtail the leads to the muffin fan. The fan I have is rated for 10.2 - 13.8 VDC, 3.84 watts, .32 Amp and moves 85CFM at 3000RPM.

[layne]

We have an 07TK3 Elite Suites with the electronics in the bedroom also. Steve sawed out a hole coming into the clothes closet and put in a louvered vent there. This enables him to get to the back of all those electronics as well as ventilate, though it vents into the clothes closet. He also velcroed little pieces of wood on each until so it seperated them from each other. I still tend to crack the door a little when we're sitting still so some of that heat can come out, but this helps some.

[Motor31]

JD,

Look for a 12 volt light in a near by area and see if you can tap into it. The fan won't draw that much power so the wiring should be fine for the additional draw. A switch between the light hot side wire (before the light switch itself) and a ground would be all you need to run the fan and have it totally seperate from the antenna amp circuit. We use the amp all the time in ours as even in a strong signal area the picture is degraded without it. The only thing we use the batwing for is to get the local news and weather, otherwise we watch from our satelite dish.

[suitediver]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We also keep the door open when we are parked. I like cabinet doors closed so the vented door seemed like a good suggestion to me. I have shared all the suggestions with DH, will let you know what solution he comes up with.

Bobbie

[anijet]

I plan to use a 120vac fan. They come in the same size and CFM (and more if you want) as the 12vdc fans? Then power is readily available in the cabinet.

I plan to install with an adjustable thermoswitch after I install several wire shelves to support the added electronics and allow plenty of air flow.

[Suitedreams]

We have a Dish receiver and it gets hot also. So I have been thinking of the same kind of fix listed above by using the 12 v light switch to turn the 12v fan on and off using the wires going into the antenna booster box. I was going to use my 4 in. hole saw to put a hole in the bottom and the fan hole on the side where the mirror slides into its pocket area (still looking for some kind of filter to use). But I didn't think about the video noise the fan might give off on the TV. The fan listed above sold by Radio Shack is for a computer and should not cause any problems. Also thinking about putting wire shelves on drawer glides for each component so they would have air space between them.