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Post by Omicron9 on Jul 11, 2024 13:44:41 GMT -6
Greetings.
The recent "conversion and ventilation" thread arrived just as I've been about to re-rack one of the big studio racks. How religious are folks about leaving rack space around gear that gets hot? I have space in some places, but have been thinking that I should allow for more blank space around gear. It's never been an issue, but I could do better and why take a chance?
Thoughts? Experiences? Stories?
TIA,
-09
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Post by basspro on Jul 11, 2024 14:09:08 GMT -6
I have always just put tube gear or anything that gets hot near the top of the rack or in its own rack to account for the heat rising. I ran a studio for a handful of years where everything was constantly on and never had any issues with everything in the same rack.
I'm the one who started the other thread. My concern is mainly for digital gear as I don't think it can handle the same type of abuse. My current setup has one main 12U rack that houses interfaces, preamps and patchbays. I ended up sticking the Interfaces, which are the only things that get hot, in the top 3 spots. I then have a separate rack for all of my tube gear and another for any extra solid state stuff. This is playing it safe, but like I said, I think the analog stuff would be fine if it were all together.
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Post by mrcel0 on Jul 11, 2024 14:17:28 GMT -6
I have always just put tube gear or anything that gets hot near the top of the rack or in its own rack to account for the heat rising. I ran a studio for a handful of years where everything was constantly on and never had any issues with everything in the same rack. I'm the one who started the other thread. My concern is mainly for digital gear as I don't think it can handle the same type of abuse. My current setup has one main 12U rack that houses interfaces, preamps and patchbays. I ended up sticking the Interfaces, which are the only things that get hot, in the top 3 spots. I then have a separate rack for all of my tube gear and another for any extra solid state stuff. This is playing it safe, but like I said, I think the analog stuff would be fine if it were all together. Practical / genius idea with the heat rising thing, I place my LA2A at the top of my rack and the 1176 at the bottom since the Opto can really get warmed up. Just leaving one slot or sliver of space between them. Besides my room getting hot it’s never been an issue |
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Post by niklas1073 on Jul 11, 2024 14:48:55 GMT -6
I always leave 1U space above a valve piece like in my avatar, 2 rack pieces in a 6U enclosure. Other units that don’t run that hot I just stacked on top of each other with no issues. I try to keep pretty religious about ventilation. Despite there is never enough space in a rack it’s still one of the cheapest ways to keep gear healthy in the long run.
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Post by viciousbliss on Jul 11, 2024 16:00:06 GMT -6
I leave space between everything. But I've noticed that most studios do not. The few pieces that I have fit perfectly with the power conditioner in this computer server rack I got from someone who sells computer stuff for a living. I think it's like 20u or 22u, something like that. Kind of a big pain to get things in there, that's for sure.
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ericn
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Balance Engineer
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Post by ericn on Jul 11, 2024 16:06:53 GMT -6
I leave space between everything. But I've noticed that most studios do not. The few pieces that I have fit perfectly with the power conditioner in this computer server rack I got from someone who sells computer stuff for a living. I think it's like 20u or 22u, something like that. Kind of a big pain to get things in there, that's for sure. Ok here is a trick an old contractor taught me, this either works if you start racking from the top or leave a space; buy a single space shelf temporarily mount it upside down, place your piece to be racked on the upside down shelf, it will hold the load while you screw in the screws, remove shelf repeat! |
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jul 11, 2024 17:19:48 GMT -6
Convection can work but in most cases reading and following a manufacturers suggestions are best. There very well could be a reason they suggest you leave a space top or bottom.
This is less of a concern in the studio but in live / install & IT world you do need to pay attention to how fans blow as far as front to back or back to front or either to sides.
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Post by Ward on Jul 11, 2024 18:35:30 GMT -6
I built all my own racks (see picture under my name to the left) with an inch and a half above and below. I purposefully spaced gear with shorter chassis in between gear with longer chassis to allow for better ventilation but didn't waste any space.
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Post by Omicron9 on Jul 11, 2024 19:40:34 GMT -6
I leave space between everything. But I've noticed that most studios do not. The few pieces that I have fit perfectly with the power conditioner in this computer server rack I got from someone who sells computer stuff for a living. I think it's like 20u or 22u, something like that. Kind of a big pain to get things in there, that's for sure. Ok here is a trick an old contractor taught me, this either works if you start racking from the top or leave a space; buy a single space shelf temporarily mount it upside down, place your piece to be racked on the upside down shelf, it will hold the load while you screw in the screws, remove shelf repeat! Clever idea; I'll keep it in mind; thanks, ericn. When I'm re-racking, or filling a new rack, I usually put the rack on its back, facing up on the floor, and then just drop each piece into place on the rack rails. No struggle at all. -09 |
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Post by viciousbliss on Jul 12, 2024 6:39:07 GMT -6
I leave space between everything. But I've noticed that most studios do not. The few pieces that I have fit perfectly with the power conditioner in this computer server rack I got from someone who sells computer stuff for a living. I think it's like 20u or 22u, something like that. Kind of a big pain to get things in there, that's for sure. Ok here is a trick an old contractor taught me, this either works if you start racking from the top or leave a space; buy a single space shelf temporarily mount it upside down, place your piece to be racked on the upside down shelf, it will hold the load while you screw in the screws, remove shelf repeat! Sounds better than what I was doing! No more space in this rack. Not sure about additions in the future. This trick may come in handy if I have to take something to Deltronics for repair though. I'm dying to see how some of these WesAudio compressors measure up because they compare really well against the SPL Iron and Unfairchild over on Zenpro. Then maybe I could sell stuff and get something different for the big rack. |
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Post by doubledog on Jul 12, 2024 6:53:45 GMT -6
I've been leaving a free open space (with a perforated filler) for gear with tubes (LA610, 2A-KT, LiN2A) and I strategically placed my DIY monitor switcher (which is not deep) above my interface (Apollo16) so it has extra space above it. Other solid-state gear and 500 pres are stacked together since they don't seem to create a lot of excess heat.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jul 12, 2024 9:53:11 GMT -6
Ok here is a trick an old contractor taught me, this either works if you start racking from the top or leave a space; buy a single space shelf temporarily mount it upside down, place your piece to be racked on the upside down shelf, it will hold the load while you screw in the screws, remove shelf repeat! Clever idea; I'll keep it in mind; thanks, ericn. When I'm re-racking, or filling a new rack, I usually put the rack on its back, facing up on the floor, and then just drop each piece into place on the rack rails. No struggle at all. -09 I used to do that as well, but racks got to heavy. The other thing is I also attach almost everything to the rear rails as well, often with custom extenders. Keeping everything straight is key for this and I noticed how much of a sag there is with the putting it on its back and flipping. The other nice thing is the bolts for mounting rear rack mounts are great for mounting cable clamps to mount zip ties for cable routing |
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Post by crillemannen on Jul 12, 2024 10:09:34 GMT -6
You should leave space. For the most part one half RU is enough. Fun story, I was at superbooth this spring and pretty much all exhibitors had their racks without any space, including us! And they where super hot which can't be good for the electronics. Leave some space, you won't regret it.
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Post by thehightenor on Jul 12, 2024 10:17:13 GMT -6
One unit space above and below all my tube gear and class A solid state gear.
Heat isn't the friend of electronics!
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jul 12, 2024 14:13:43 GMT -6
You should leave space. For the most part one half RU is enough. Fun story, I was at superbooth this spring and pretty much all exhibitors had their racks without any space, including us! And they where super hot which can't be good for the electronics. Leave some space, you won't regret it. There really isn’t a good hard rule, for instance does a 3 space LA2 need the same space as a version someone shoe horned into 2 spaces? If I use a line wart rather than a traditional PSU on a single space unit do I need as much space? What if I put a fan in that interface? |
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Post by crillemannen on Jul 13, 2024 3:48:03 GMT -6
You should leave space. For the most part one half RU is enough. Fun story, I was at superbooth this spring and pretty much all exhibitors had their racks without any space, including us! And they where super hot which can't be good for the electronics. Leave some space, you won't regret it. There really isn’t a good hard rule, for instance does a 3 space LA2 need the same space as a version someone shoe horned into 2 spaces? If I use a line wart rather than a traditional PSU on a single space unit do I need as much space? What if I put a fan in that interface? Of course not but your gear shouldn't be allot hotter in the rack oppose to when it is not racked. That's a good rule of thumb 👍 |
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Post by EmRR on Jul 14, 2024 11:05:08 GMT -6
Kinda funny, old style tube gear with the tubes on the back in open air don't need extra rack space....no heat in the box! MOTU 16A and Dolby 740 both run way hotter than any line level tube gear I own, they get space.
I don't get the half space thing, racks aren't really designed with that screw alignment. I'd be leaving screws out of gear above a half space gap since the holes wouldn't line up. I guess that's fine with small light gear; I've also seen old rack screws give up the ghost and break, which would leave you open to the possibility of gear falling.
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Post by russellcreekps on Jul 14, 2024 17:58:02 GMT -6
The large majority of my stuff is tube gear, so it all gets a space above and below…and then the Apollo and Burl B2 also get pretty damn hot. Have a mastering desk for all my gear, so even the pieces that don’t need extra ventilation look cooler side by side (i.e. solid state comp and tube comp in same position on each side of the rack). Prefer to err on the side of caution.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jul 14, 2024 18:37:23 GMT -6
Kinda funny, old style tube gear with the tubes on the back in open air don't need extra rack space....no heat in the box! MOTU 16A and Dolby 740 both run way hotter than any line level tube gear I own, they get space. I don't get the half space thing, racks aren't really designed with that screw alignment. I'd be leaving screws out of gear above a half space gap since the holes wouldn't line up. I guess that's fine with small light gear; I've also seen old rack screws give up the ghost and break, which would leave you open to the possibility of gear falling. A lot of the modern cloners don’t understand that the majority of old tube gear was used in broadcast air chains. Since if the air chain went down the station was off the air designers of the era took pains to extend tube life by maximizing cooling & of course being able to simply go behind the rack pulling a bad tube and replacing it without removing & opening up a chassis sure cut on down time! |
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Post by EmRR on Jul 14, 2024 18:57:18 GMT -6
^ bingo
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