Yeti 300 Fan Behavior and Overtemp Warning
I got a new Yeti 300 recently and I've been putting it thru some typical usage scenarios. My experience so far has been that the way the fans are controlled makes it quite easy for it to end up with the overtemp warning on in normal use in a ~70f air conditioned room.
As far as I can tell, there are 3 fans in the Yeti 300. One is smaller and located on some internal components and the other two are on the ends of the case. The small fan has virtually no air exchange with the outside world. It runs almost constantly if the AC inverter has been on awhile with a small load (say, a laptop charger), but without being able to vent anywhere it just circulates the hot air inside, and the unit gradually just gets hotter and hotter. Eventually the overtemp light comes on, but even that does not make the two large fans turn on. Adding charging from DC/solar at the same time makes the unit even hotter, but still those fans do not turn on.
During AC charging, the two large fans turn on together sporadically and do seem to be very effective at moving heat out of the unit, but they only run at full speed for a short time and then shut off before it really has a chance to cool down.
Is this normal? Is there no speed control on any of the fans other than full speed or off? Running the larger fans at a slow speed would do a lot to reduce internal temps. And why not run the larger fans when the unit is displaying an overtemp warning? It seems silly for it to be telling me it is too warm, but not trying to do anything about it.
Curious what other's thoughts and observed behavior are.
Answers
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@tjar,
Typically there are multiple "hot" states and each have a different fan start and exit condition.When the hot icon is solid, its not too hot but is getting close. Fans may come on if it continues for a long time and there is power actively flowing in or out of the Yeti.
When the hot icon is blinking, its reach a temperature that should stop power flow soon. The fans should be on in this condition and will stay on until getting back to a solid hot icon condition.
If a yeti is just in a hot environment for a long time the fans may come on but should not stay on for more than 2 hours becuase the Yeti is not expected to cool down a hot room with its fans.
I am not sure what all the other specific temperatures and durations for fan triggers are but I will pass on your suggestions to the engineers about having the middle fan on the same time as the side fans and adding different fan speed levels. -
This is good information that the instruction manual does not have. It only defines the hot icon as "The power station is over the recommended operating temperature."
Reaching the hot temp condition while the unit is under a light load and in an air conditioned indoor space is a condition it could and should easily avoid. If the side fans ran at a reduced speed to keep it from getting heat soaked inside it would definitely be an improvement. I think your suggestion to the engineers is good and I appreciate the feedback!
