Mine is in L15v3, and started to fail about half a year after I bought it new.
Not in a place in the world where I can easily get a replacement, especially under current world conditions…
Adda admits this fan bearing doesn’t last, http://www.adda.com.tw/tech.php?no=7 and this fan is no longer available on their website.
Neither is one of the same size with the improved bearing available.
First: Does anyone know of another brand fan of the same specs with a real ball bearing that will last?
This one is 75mmx75mmx6mm according to Adda, http://www.adda.com.tw/fan.php?act=page
but seems there is enough space there for a fan that’s maybe as much as 10mm high.
Second: By design, this fan seems placed in the worst possible spot in the case, and cools inadequately even when new…
Is Purism continuing to install these same fans with these same Hypro bearings in the latest models?
Already did long ago on the first question.
The response was they can only ship the fan they have, and no suggestions yet on alternatives that would last, or even help to figure out what an alternative might be.
Support was not aware what the part number of the original fan is; had to take it out and find out myself.
So, doesn’t seem likely they would know the answer to the second question.
Support has officially concluded that “All I can offer is to ship the fan we currently offer.”
Support simply ignored the request to intermediate a search for an alternative through Adda, the manufacturer of the fan.
Even helping me find out if the improved version of this fan is available from Adda in this size is not something Purism support is willing to bother doing.
Trying to reach Adda directly, returned only some automated invitation to their “Customer Self Service Portal”, but not even a link to it.
(And after all, who doesn’t want to waste time joining yet another “Portal”, right?)
From the numerous views of this thread, the related others, and no useful answers here or from Purism support, this is the overall impression I’m getting:
There is no alternative to this fan; Adda is the sole supplier of it.
Purism has known about the issue with the Hyprobearing for at least a couple of years and versions of the Librem, but continues to ship with the same fan.
The only alternative I am considering now is getting some generic blower fan with ball bearings, which is smaller in diameter, but with slightly wider blades, and just mounting it with 2-sided tape in place of this Adda junk. It may be less CFM, but it will be on average more than a fan with a faulty bearing I have or can get from Adda/Purism.
I enthusiastically “upgraded” to Librem from a Lenovo X230i, which I gave away for free, and now regret very much doing.
On that one, it was years before I even had to clean the fan; it’s still with the same fan running 7 years after I bought it!
I don’t want to pay a customs ripoff, as I described here,
and risk having to suffer the whole ordeal again some time soon, which seems certain, given Adda’s admission about the Hyprobearing design.
About Purism Support, I can’t say much good; they have a long way to go before they can rival a major manufacturer’s support, such as Lenovo or Dell. So, I wouldn’t want to risk having to deal with them again either by sticking with Librem.
So, you can imagine what my future plans with Purism are. I wish everyone better luck!
I wish everyone better luck!