Change direct of a fan?

[hagatha]

Is it possible to change the direction of a fan? or do you have to turn the fan around?

Thanks?
Lee

[Alaron]

You need to flip the fan over.

[chipdip]

I dunno, I've never needed to, but I guess you could just reverse the wires.

[Panama Red]

The blades are designed to move air in one direction. Hence the arrows showing air flow that are molded into the fan housing. Changing polarity of the fan motor may change the direction of the motor but wouldn't achieve proper air flow. The easiest and best way is to do as Alaron has said and turn the fan around.

[chipdip]

Ah, thats true.

[chuck4456]

Sometimes, flipping the fan over doesn't work. The depth of the fam blade itself within its case is very shallow. You will have blade contact against the mounting surface. Install some washers for spacing or, if you want, Zalman makes an adaptor connector that offers both polarity configurations. I used one with my hard drive cage fan.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by hagatha Is it possible to change the direction of a fan? or do you have to turn the fan around?

Look on the body of the fan for directional arrows. One arrow shows direction of fan rotation and the other arrow shows direction of air flow. In most cases the fan will blow towards the side of the fan with the motor braces. Just mount the fan using the air flow arrow as a guide. In 9 years of building computers I've never seen a case fan that couldn't be mounted to the case in either direction.

Cricket