Oust Fan Alternatives?

[croatan]

I'm converting a pretty large linen closet into a humidor and am looking for a way to circulate the air.

I can't find any Oust Fans locally or online.

Anyone know of any alternatives? There's no power running to the closet (and I'm helpless at that sort of stuff), so it needs to be something battery-operated.

[rack04]

I have one I'll give you if we meet up this weekend. I found one at Tom Thumb but found out quickly that it takes up too much room in my vino and hardly moves any air.

[DBall]

I've got a few oust fans.... just let me know how many you need and I'll hook ya up. I think I have around 4 of them that aren't really in use...

[Darrell]

Hey James, I would think for a closet you could get some of those small desk fans and just keep them on low. If this is a decent size closet, you will need more airflow than just a few measly oust fans. :2

[shilala]

I make fans out of 3 speed computer fans and ac adapters. They're awesome and they're quiet.
I just ordered 20 more fans, so if you need one just let me know.
I have oust fans too, but they're worthless in a big area.

[bobarian]

There may not be power in the closet, but is there power on the wall in the other room facing the closet? I have a wine cooler in a closet(with wine) and I just cut a hole in the wall and had it wired to a plug in the room behind. An electrician should be able to do this for a decent price.

[croatan]

Wow. Thanks for the offers, guys.

Do the oust fans move substantially less air than I'm imagining them moving?

I haven't completely bought in to the massive airflow theory. I've been keeping cigars in vinos and coolers for years without fans and like the way my cigars taste. But, given the size of the closet, and the fact that it won't be completely full at inception (unlike the coolers), I just figured that a little airflow to distribute the humidity would be a good thing.

[Darrell]

Do the oust fans move substantially less air than I'm imagining them moving?


Yes, far less than I suspect you're imagining. Honestly to put Oust fans in a closet would be a total waste of time and space. They would do little to help.

[shilala]

Yes, far less than I suspect you're imagining. Honestly to put Oust fans in a closet would be a total waste of time and space. They would do little to help.
:tpd:

[shilala]

Do you have an outlet in the linen closet?

[Darrell]

Do you have an outlet in the linen closet?

If not, it would be worth having someone wire one. Plug a surge protector in there, run an electronic humidifier and a few small desk fans. :2

[shilala]

If not, it would be worth having someone wire one. Plug a surge protector in there, run an electronic humidifier and a few small desk fans. :2
I hate to agree with you twice in one day, but you really got your game on right now. :D

[pnoon]

I hate to agree with you twice in one day, but you really got your game on right now. :D

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. ;)

[hotreds]

Do the oust fans move substantially less air than I'm imagining them moving?

Yes, but you can help that by removing the cover. However, I must agree that in a closet sized humi they would be all but worthless. Indeed, get someone to put an outlet in there, and use some small electric fans on low, or let Scott hook you up!

Good luck, sounds like you'll have plenty of room(for a little while, anyway!)

[croatan]

Well that's a bummer. Also a bummer because I've wasted a bunch of time trying to find the little buggers :r

There's no power close on either side of the wall (interior hall).

I'll probably do a complete overhaul of the closet in a few months (demo what's there, line it with mahogany and cedar, add power, pretty glass doors, etc.). For now, I'm just trying to hold a sh!tload of cigars, retire the coolers, and avoid adding three or four more in the next couple of weeks.

Guess it'll be ok for now. May see if I can find a small desk fan or two. Thanks for the help, guys.

[Darrell]

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. ;)

Love you too, buddy. :tg :D

[Sailchaser]

One of the things you may be able to do is steal power from a near by outlet in the basement or the crawl space and run the power up thru the floor using a surface mount box and wire mold.Also make sure you use kilzs or a paint sealer that will keep the moisture in the closet if you are painting the walls to seal the room
Good luck with the project

[BORIStheBLADE]

If you go with those fans you can plug into a wall plug an idea that popped in my head would be to get one of these to cycle the fans on and of to the desired time amount.


http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100026919

:ss

[Raralith]

As far as I know, Oust fans are seasonal products so you most likely won't see any until spring. As for their CFM, I've read that it was below 5 and that's with the cover off. Also, they turn run for 5 and turn off for 15.

If there is no power around, I must ask is there power within extention cord (or two added together) range? Yeah, it doesn't look great but if you are looking for air movement, you gotta sacrifice it until you can demo the room. If you can through, use an extension cord, buy a 12 volt adapter from RadioShack, and 2 120mm computer fans. Splice the 12 volt adapter, wire the two fans in a series and following the cables should look like adapter to fan, fan to second fan, second fan back to adapter. You'll have around 60 CFM, the equivalent of a LOT of Oust fans.

[spincycle]

I make fans out of 3 speed computer fans and ac adapters. They're awesome and they're quiet.
I just ordered 20 more fans, so if you need one just let me know.
I have oust fans too, but they're worthless in a big area.

I've though about doing this as well! Once I move up to a vino, I'll be looking for a means to keep the air circulating inside. Don't suppose anyone has ever drilled a hole though their fridge? :)

[gettysburgfreak]

will one oust fan at the bottom of a vino be enough to move the air? The bottom rh and the top rh in my vino are only off by +/-1 but I want something to move the air a little bit.

[Raralith]

will one oust fan at the bottom of a vino be enough to move the air? The bottom rh and the top rh in my vino are only off by +/-1 but I want something to move the air a little bit.

A small space like a Vino can't really compare to a large space like a closet. An Oust fan though is fine for a Vino. If you are using the wire trays that came with it, circulation is fine as it is.

I've though about doing this as well! Once I move up to a vino, I'll be looking for a means to keep the air circulating inside. Don't suppose anyone has ever drilled a hole though their fridge? :)

Do it throguh the drainage pipe, or simply have the door close on it if you sealed it.

[Silound]

O2Cool makes several good sized fans that would move enough air in a closet. The downside is they require 8 D-cell batteries to operate for about 3-4 days.


If you were to buy 2-3 sets of rechargeable batteries and a trickle charger with the fan, you could theoretically just change out charged batteries every 3 days and keep the fan running in the closet.


Otherwise for simplicity, I would just run an extension cord into the closet, down the hall or wherever to an outlet for the time being. You said this was a temporary solution, so I don't see why running a good extension cord along the baseboards or up around the crown molding in your place is a bad thing.

[HK3-]

I got my fans from Radio Shack. Just pickup a few computer CPU fans and wire them up with constant power. The Oust fans dont move much of anything and you have to replace batteries. :2:gl

[bigloo]

There are not too many options for battery operated fans for a space that big, I think ultimately you would want electricity in the closet. For fans, the best place to go to is surplus stores. I have picked up AC and DC exhaust fans and computer fans at a place close to me for 1-10 bucks, you can also pick up AC/DC adapters at them too for like $2 a peice (radioshack will charege 5-10x that). I like the 02cool fan idea for a temp. cure for your problem. Petco also carries battery operated fans for kennels which might work enough too but you would need to change batteries every 3-4 days. You dont need a huricane in there btw. Assuming the closet is 9 foot high, 5 foot wide and 3 foot deep, you have ~140 cft and I suspect two 20cfm fans would be more then enough (one facing left, one right or one up, one down on different sides and top bottom to get circular motion). Most pc fans are 50-100 CFM so any of them would work. Get the biggest slowest fans (matched CFM with less noise) when you eventually upgrade. PC fans are better then normal desktop fans as they are designed for continous use, desktop fans are not.

[livwire68]

I would also say computer fans, this is what I am looking at for my closet/humi transformation. Also if you do demo the closet in the future, replace the rock with the green type and use a mud they make for densglass (sp) which is also mold resistant. I cant imagine power not being near by, but without being there hard to guess what would be easiest. I would also keep in mind since it is a closet you may want to look at putting in accent lighting to see your selection/ or show it off.

[Cigarcop]

Just get ahold of Shilala, that guy makes everything from cookies to wired computer fans for these sorts of things..........:ss

[shilala]

Guys, I don't want to bust up the meeting, but Vino's have a fan in them that's incredibly adept at circulating air. The Vino people went through great pains to engineer a four-way diffuser so that the air goes every direction, too.
Anything I can make out of adapters and computer fans pales in comparison to the Vino's fan setup.
Unless for some reason you've unplugged your vino, there's no need for another fan.
If it is unplugged, it'd probably be an excellent idea to plug that sucker back in. :)

[BORIStheBLADE]

Guys, I don't want to bust up the meeting, but Vino's have a fan in them that's incredibly adept at circulating air. The Vino people went through great pains to engineer a four-way diffuser so that the air goes every direction, too.
Anything I can make out of adapters and computer fans pales in comparison to the Vino's fan setup.
Unless for some reason you've unplugged your vino, there's no need for another fan.
If it is unplugged, it'd probably be an excellent idea to plug that sucker back in. :)

I noticed with mine that the fan runs low 24/7 too so I haven't felt the need for additional fans. The only thing I have considered was blocking the front of the fan a little so more air is diffused to the side.

[croatan]

Update: I had power run to the closet while a contractor was at my house doing some ceiling repair.

Added a big Honeywell Humidifier.

Now it's time to add some fans. Was thinking about a couple of PC fans on a timer of some sort. I suppose I could plug them into a computer power supply (have to be old style, I guess, not ATX), which is in turned plugged into a timer of some sort. Is there a more elegant solution? Or at least one that won't take up so much space? As you can probably tell, I'm not very handy :)

[bigloo]

Yeah, just hardwire the fans to an ac/dc adapter. You should find a surplus electronics store in your area. You will be surprised what you can find there. You might even find your timer and a couple of AC fans and then you are set.

[bazookajoe]

Update: I had power run to the closet while a contractor was at my house doing some ceiling repair.

Added a big Honeywell Humidifier.

Now it's time to add some fans. Was thinking about a couple of PC fans on a timer of some sort. I suppose I could plug them into a computer power supply (have to be old style, I guess, not ATX), which is in turned plugged into a timer of some sort. Is there a more elegant solution? Or at least one that won't take up so much space? As you can probably tell, I'm not very handy :)

I use a USB adjustable speed fan with a timer programmed to run 15 minutes every hour or two. I use a cheap USB/AC adapter to power the fan (pics below). The cost was less than $25 for all of it and it works perfectly. Hope that helps.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9379/fanwg7.gifhttp://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1480/timeriv7.jpghttp://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5481/adapteriu0.jpg

[Jay Hemingway]

Do the oust fans move substantially less air than I'm imagining them moving?


i was completely let down by the extreme lack of air movement these oust fans create. i went out and grabbed 6 of them and was in shock when i turned them on! you can barely feel the air with your hand or face practicly touching the front of these fans.
lesson learnt i guess.
anything i do that involves air circulation in my humi's from now on will involve some sort of computer fan. they are relatively cheap too, so it will be worth it to grab a few of those instead of oust fans.

[Jay Hemingway]

I use a USB adjustable speed fan with a timer programmed to run 15 minutes every hour or two. I use a cheap USB/AC adapter to power the fan (pics below). The cost was less than $25 for all of it and it works perfectly. Hope that helps.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/9379/fanwg7.gifhttp://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1480/timeriv7.jpghttp://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5481/adapteriu0.jpg

links for these items please?
;)

[dentonparrots]

The good thing with pc fans is that they are available in different sizes to a certain degree, and with a multi-volt adaptor running them you can dictate their speed. You are better paying a few $'s more for more silent rated ones. If you check out ebay there's loads and some adverts have their noise in db listed too.

I think this guy got carried away! VVVVVVVVV

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/fan_pc_3.png

[bazookajoe]

links for these items please?
;)

These aren't necessarily the lowest prices - just links so you can see what the items are:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00080G0BK

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&productId=100652848

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000A2BLEC

[Jay Hemingway]

These aren't necessarily the lowest prices - just links so you can see what the items are:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00080G0BK

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&productId=100652848

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000A2BLEC

:tu

[Resipsa]

Update: I had power run to the closet while a contractor was at my house doing some ceiling repair.

Added a big Honeywell Humidifier.

Now it's time to add some fans. Was thinking about a couple of PC fans on a timer of some sort. I suppose I could plug them into a computer power supply (have to be old style, I guess, not ATX), which is in turned plugged into a timer of some sort. Is there a more elegant solution? Or at least one that won't take up so much space? As you can probably tell, I'm not very handy :)James, I use something like this on a timer in my end cabinet humidor, probably way overkill for my size setup but might just fit the bill for yours:


http://www.northlineexpress.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=5SA-4001


http://www.northlineexpress.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=5MM-F-10&source=nextag&kw=5MM-F-10