Brinsea Maxi 24 Ex fan whine

[DonyaQuick]

I just got a Brinsea Maxi 24 and set it up to make sure everything was working. The fan is unfortunately producing a fairly high-pitched whine that is actually giving me a headache when I'm in the room with it. The only stuff I could find quickly about noise from this type of incubator was more like rattling or grinding noise from the fan - this situation is definitely not that, it's a high whine like something is resonating due to the fan, but I can't figure out what part is makign the noise if it isn't the fan itself. If this is just a thing they do, is there anything I can do to dampen it that won't adversely affect the incubation process?

I have checked the screws holding in the fan housing and nothing is loose that I can immediately find. I also have a Nuture Right 360 and I can hear the fan in that one just from the white noise of the air circulating, but it doesn't make any resonant noises like this Brinsea seems to be doing.

 

[Debbie292d]

I have 3 Brinseas, not that one, but 56EX's and none do that, but, if one did, I'd take the lid to the deck and have hubby blow it out with his compressor.

However, if I'm understanding you correctly, you've never even used it yet?

I've had Brinsea tech call me back in the past. I would email them from their site, and someone will call you.

 

[DonyaQuick]

I'd take the lid to the deck and have hubby blow it out with his compressor

Well that's definitely worth a try tomorrow morning if it's still doing that noise. I may not have a deck, but I do have a husband who is always looking for excuses to use the compressor he got last year lol. Not impossible something could've gotten knocked in while I was messing with it during unboxing and setup.

First thing I'm going to try is just letting it run overnight in case it's a "breaking in" sort of thing or even a matter of room temperature letting one of the parts resonate when it wouldn't otherwise. Of course, right after posting I had my husband listen to it and he apparently can't hear the hum I'm still hearing just hears the white noise from the fan. I know it's not my ears ringing; it stops if I unplug it! I will contact Brinsea if I can't sort it quickly but do worry now whether it's just my stupid ears being overly sensitive to a noise that wouldn't bother most people.

 

[Debbie292d]

Well that's definitely worth a try tomorrow morning if it's still doing that noise. I may not have a deck, but I do have a husband who is always looking for excuses to use the compressor he got last year lol. Not impossible something could've gotten knocked in while I was messing with it during unboxing and setup.

First thing I'm going to try is just letting it run overnight in case it's a "breaking in" sort of thing or even a matter of room temperature letting one of the parts resonate when it wouldn't otherwise. Of course, right after posting I had my husband listen to it and he apparently can't hear the hum I'm still hearing just hears the white noise from the fan. I know it's not my ears ringing; it stops if I unplug it! I will contact Brinsea if I can't sort it quickly but do worry now whether it's just my stupid ears being overly sensitive to a noise that wouldn't bother most people.

Not impossible something could've gotten knocked in while I was messing with it during unboxing and setup.

Oh yes, that's true. Maybe his blowing it out may do the trick! Plus, if you do send them a message and they call you back, you can tell them you did that, in case that would be a suggestion of theirs.

I'd be ticked if my handyman hubby couldn't hear it too!
Maybe try recording it with your phone and see if the whine is more prevalent that way? Or unplug it for a few minutes so his ears adjust to the quiet in the room, then plug it back in. Just ideas I'd try if mine wasn't hearing what I hear, to try get them to understand!

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well the hum was totally gone first thing this morning! And then it started back up again slowly when the room temp shifted. It's not as loud as it was at first and I found a fix...LOL.

So it's not so much the fan as part of the actual top panel resonating just a bit, and it's truly very slight at this point. What was doing my head in is that it was a perfect G#5 sine wave just humming along to no end...those sorts of constant tones are like fingernails on a blackboard to me. But I can live with this workaround for now. The temp and humidity are bang on despite cooler room temps which is the whole reason I got this incubator (cold climate - my NR360 really struggled to maintain temp in a hatch I just did). Since I can't think having a very lightweight USB charger thing sitting on the vibrating panel will affect the function of the devices (it's not sitting on any buttons or anything), I will just go ahead and throw some eggs in there in a day or two. My guess is having stuff IN the incubator will also affect the vibrations and sound.

Now I just have to get used to the sound the egg turning makes...it's not offensive, just kind of jarring lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Another upddate: a few days into incubation with eggs loaded in and that high whine seems completely gone, so no more need to rest a small object on the top. The incubator is doing amazing so far - so much more resilient to fluctuating room temperature than my NR360 was.