Customer Reviews

Antec Low Profile AV Component Cooler for Media PC Home Theater Products

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just installed two of these in our entertainment center. One is for the Denon A/V receiver and the other for a DirecTV HD DVR. Both units are behind closed glass doors and are now cool instead of blazing hot!! And, the fan sound is not noticeable.

So I got my cooler last weekend and I've been using it for a couple days. There are good and bad aspects to this unit.

The good:

It does what it says, and my receiver operates much cooler than before. I can leave my hand on the top of the receiver and it only feels warm, before it was hot hot.

The not so good:

The unit is made of cheap plastic. There is a nice looking sheet of metal on top, but it's razor thin and only for looks. I thought there would be more solid metal in this to act as a heatsink. It's not heavy duty at all. Even for plastic it is very light. There's no way it's worth the $70ish price. Charging half that would be acceptable.

When on low it doesn't seem to move that much air. High is unusable because the fans are too loud. Since it seems to cool acceptably on low I guess this isn't too bad of an issue. I have a graphics card silencer on my computer which uses the same fan design, and that moves a lot more air than these fans, so I was expecting a bit more flow without noise issues.

The fan switch is a junky and very cheap 3 way low, off, high. Even though the construction is cheap in general most of it is done to look nice, and succeeds. This switch is similar to something off the bottom of a $5 battery powered toy. It doesn't fit in on the front of the unit right below the fancy blue power light.

It's too tall! This is for cooling, so presumably it's something you would want to use in tight spaces. The main unit thickness is good, but it has feet that extend down almost another inch. If I have this much space I almost don't need a cooler! Thankfully, with some careful maneuvering around the lip on my shelf, it just fits. Another 1/8" and I'd have to send it back. "Low profile" is a bit of a miss-statement.

The reason I need this product is because my cabinet is enclosed on 5 of 6 sides. Other than wiring holes, only the front is open, so that is where I need to direct the air out. This means the unit needs to be placed on top of my receiver backwards, which means the adapter plug sticks out front and center.It's very obvious and ugly. I also can't access the power/speed switch anymore (but I run it off a switched outlet like I image most people will). They really needed to put the power connection on the bottom of the unit and mold wire channels into the plastic that go out the front OR back (like most phones and charging stations do). The front AND back should be good looking enough to face outward, so no matter which way you want air to go it looks nice. This cooler isn't made to sit the way I have it, but considering what users need it for, it should be. If I had an open back on my cabinet I'd have gotten some regular fans for much less money.

They make you pay for the aesthetics of this unit, but in my setup they are totally lost (the power light, the front view, and the top plate).


In the end I do recommend this product because it does its job, and it's the only product I could find that worked for my setup. I also looked into notebook pc coolers, which are much cheaper. The design between those and this product is 95% the same, but the notebook coolers don't direct the airflow the way I need and this does. If you have a setup that requires this kind of specific solution, it is worth paying for even though it's overpriced. Otherwise I'd look into other options. It's a few modifications away from being a great product. Maybe next gen...

This cooler works as addvertised and is attractive, I like the advisory lite (Blue) that tells you it is on. It has two fan speeds (high and low).Now I only gave it three stars because you must walk over and turn it on and off every time you use your receiver, it is composit plastic and has "so so" fans in it, not sure how long it will last. The sound of the fans running is not problem. Just to much money for what you get, it should cost no more than $49.95.

I don't normally write reviews but this is an excellent product. I put it on top of my Onkyo 705 and keep the doors closed on my entertainment center and it stays very cool. I'm not sure why they don't market this more but it's a fantastic design and idea.

I have a receiver inside of a wall-unit that was getting hot to the touch. Now that I've put the Antec cooler on top, it is only warm to the touch. The unit is a little noisy, but not as distracting as the hard drive on my DVR. The overall build quality is okay, though I could have done without the LED in the front. Overall it is a good product.

This is exactly what the doctor ordered. I've got the (very, very hot) Onkyo 876 AV Receiver mounted in a glass-front AV cabinet (semi-open back) along with a new Onkyo DVD player, bluray player, 10+ year old Onkyo CD changer and an Onkyo tape deck. Obviously, I like Onkyo, but they do deserve their reputation for running hot. It was blazing in that cabinet. The receiver in particular was too hot to touch for more than one second. I set this fan on top of the receiver and plugged it into the receiver's on-board rear AC outlet, and it within minutes, it had massively cooled the cabinet (at the nearly silent low fan setting too).

Though I don't agree myself, I can understand why some of the other reviewers don't like the looks of the unit--it all depends upon your tastes. Unlike some other cooling options (fans mounted on the rear or side of the cabinet), this one is quite visible in the cabinet. Antec did a nice job making the fan enclosure look almost like another AV component, but if you don't have vertical space for it, or if that's not to your taste, this probably isn't the solution for you. For me, I like the look a whole lot. The cabinet blends in nicely with the rest of my gear and the blue LED even matches the blue accent LEDs on the rest of my Onkyo components. Perfect.

I have an Onkyo TXNR905 receiver which tends to run VERY hot. In fact you could not hold your hand on the cover for more than a few seconds. With the Antec cooler the same spot is only warm even after playing for hours at high volume. Plus the cooler is so quite you can't even hear it! I highly recommend it.

A simple, effective concept that should have been available years ago. Even on the low setting, it keeps the grill vent on my 700 W receiver cool to the touch after several hours of listening. And it looks nice while it does it.

To make it completely convenient, plug the Antec into the switched power outlet on the back of your receiver, or into a A/V power strip with triggered outlets controlled by the 12 V trigger-out port on your receiver.

With no noticeable fan noise, and no need to turn it on or off manually, the only thing you'll notice is the blue LED and the longer, trouble-free life your components will enjoy.

This is a nice looking, if somewhat plastic-y fan cooler unit to help cool hot running AV components.

If used as intended it does the job well.

What they don't emphasize enough is what "as intended" means.

Here's the plain English version:

- This unit does not cool anything that is placed on top of it. It was never intended to do so.

- It will only cool a device that is directly below it, and then only if that device has top vents.

- This is because it pulls air in from the bottom and exhausts it out the back. Once you get a look at it, it's obvious.

This is why it will not cool things like Dish Network satellite receivers. Those have cross flow ventilation, and have no vents on top.

It does a very good job on hot-running home theater receivers, which I'm certain was the main intent of the designers.

Hope this clears the air about this otherwise fine product. Antec generally makes good stuff.

BTW it does not plug in to a USB port for power like a notebook cooler. It uses a wall wart.

Our Motorola HD DVR was burning up inside our cabinet with closed glass doors.
It was measuring up to 120 F with an indoor/outdoor thermometer sitting on top of it.
After putting this cooler on top of the DVR, it now reads ~80 F consistently, day or night.
And this is on the LOW fan setting - it's very quiet, in fact you can't hear it even from
a foot away. Another plus is it uses very little power, only 3.6W on low according to Antec.

I've found no need to use the higher fan setting, which you can hear only close up and unlikely
from a viewing distance. I connected the cooler to the switched outlet from my DVR so whenever it's on,
so is the fan. Some may not like the blue light but for me it's fine since sometimes it's hard to tell when
my DVR is on or off, now I just go by the blue light. The light is also dimmer on the low fan setting.

Now I have the peace of mind that my other A/V equipment won't be damaged by the heat from the
DVR or by my little ones running around since I can now keep the cabinet doors closed & locked.

Overall, a simple, effective device that works better than I expected.

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