Stacking Components on Top of Hopper?

[king3pj]

I am officially out of space in my entertainment center. I currently have a Hopper, PS3, PS4, Apple TV, PC, and Onkyo AVR taking up space in my living room. Later today my Xbox One will be arriving and I don't have a clear space to put it unless I remove the PS3 and I'm not quite ready to do that yet. Luckily the Xbox has an input for my Hopper or I wouldn't have enough HDMI inputs on the back of my Onkyo either.

Anyways, I do have room if I put one of the consoles on top of the Hopper. It is really the only flat component in my system that looks like it might be stack-able. I'm curious if anyone here has other components on top of their Hopper and if so, do you have overheating problems? I was thinking about putting the PS3 on top of it since that will be my least used device and the first one I will eventually remove from the entertainment center. Since the PS3 won't be turned on much kicking out heat I'm hoping it won't be a problem. This is a shelf space that is open on the front, back, and left side so there should be decent airflow.

 

[Scherrman]

I would not put anything on top of the Hopper. You're just asking for problems by doing that.

 

[DWS44]

Scherrman is probably right, but if no other choice, it might work if you have room to put some sort of spacers between the Hopper and Xbox to allow airflow between them. I have the Hopper stacked on top of DVD player with some ~2" rubber pieces I found to allow airflow between those two devices and no issues with it. That'd probably be as good for the PS3/Xbox as the Hopper as there will be a lot of added heat dissipating up towards whichever you put there...doubt you'd want it to overheat during your gaming either!

 

[boba]

Go ahead and stack it DISH owns it and will replace it when it fails. You will only lose programs you have stored on the hard drive and a couple days of usage while the replacement is in transit. Sounds like you have enough electronics that you can stay entertained when the Hopper is down.

 

[Hall]

Scherrman is probably right, but if no other choice, it might work if you have room to put some sort of spacers between the Hopper and Xbox to allow airflow between them. I have the Hopper stacked on top of DVD player with some ~2" rubber pieces I found to allow airflow between those two devices and no issues with it.

That's what I was going to suggest as well. On the other hand, I don't know what sort of convection cooling the Hopper uses (I've never heard a fan) and it doesn't have a vented top, so you're not blocking anything by putting something on top. I always put speaker cabinet feet (like these: http://www.parts-express.com/Search.aspx?keyword=foot&sitesearch=true) under my components to raise them a little more than their built-in feet do. The ones I have are more like 3/4" high though.

 

[Scherrman]

Go ahead and stack it DISH owns it and will replace it when it fails. You will only lose programs you have stored on the hard drive and a couple days of usage while the replacement is in transit. Sounds like you have enough electronics that you can stay entertained when the Hopper is down.

That's fine it you don't mind the hassle. I myself have the ability to swap out a receiver whenever I want on my own for free and I still wouldn't do it just because of the hassle.

I agree with using spacers though. I don't see why you couldn't do that and avoid issues.

I wasn't trying to say that you can never stack components either. If you can keep an eye on it for a while then there is no problem with experimenting. But if you want to just set it and forget it then I wouldn't.

 

[king3pj]

Yeah, even though I don't own the Hopper I really don't want to kill it. It's full of recordings and I don't want the hassle even if I do spend more time playing games and watching movies than using my Hopper. I think I will try the spacer idea and see how it goes. I will keep an eye on both devices and if either of them overheats even one time I will pull something out of my entertainment center. From tinkering with my home built PC I know that heat is pretty much the worst enemy of electronic devices.

I still have some PS3 games I want to play but if either of the new consoles supported blu-ray 3D I would be more willing to move it out of the main entertainment center and into another room for occasional use. I am waiting for the 3D support patch that both Microsoft and Sony say are coming before making either of the new consoles my main blu-ray player.

 

[KKlare]

You should monitor the temperatures in
Yellow+NetworkSetup+Tests+ViewCounters+PageDown 10 and 11 times.
I'd keep all under 120 F, say. That would a lot cooler than the 722 gets.
While there check the Fsck that you are doing a full reboot each night.
-Ken

 

[cryptotech]

Consider this, its not just the hopper that may overheat. Whatever you place on top of it will run hotter because of the heat coming off the Hopper and rising up into the box on top. Avoid stacking components, the resultant heat related problems are unpredictable.

 

[king3pj]

Well the top of the HWS felt pretty cool with nothing on it. It doesn't seem to be sending much of it's heat up through the top. I ended up putting the Xbox One on top of it. I played a couple hours of games and watched some TV with the hopper routed through the Xbox's HDMI input. After a few hours of this including multitasking on the Xbox neither device felt hot to my hand but I will continue to keep an eye on it. They are both cooler than my AVR, PS3, PS4, or 360 feel after a couple hours of use.

Of course, that is a very unscientific test where I just put my hand on top of the device and see how it feels. I will try the temperature check that KKlare mentioned tonight. I wasn't even aware that I could check actual temperatures. I wish I would have tested that before I setup the Xbox so I had some baseline numbers.

 

[D. Manley]

I use short pieces of black PVC pipe cut to length as required for spacers. You can also get an inexpensive variable speed USB computer fan and use it to pull heated air from your Hopper, the effect is substantial.

Sent from my Droid RAZR MAXX using Tapatalk2

 

[fuzzfacefrombboard]

The plastic caps off of soda bottles work well too

Posted Via The SatelliteGuys Reader App!

 

[king3pj]

You should monitor the temperatures in
Yellow+NetworkSetup+Tests+ViewCounters+PageDown 10 and 11 times.
I'd keep all under 120 F, say. That would a lot cooler than the 722 gets.
While there check the Fsck that you are doing a full reboot each night.
-Ken

the highest recorded temp is 113 the lowest is 57 and the average is 105. It sounds like these are all in the safe range but I will keep an eye it.

 

[Scherrman]

the highest recorded temp is 113 the lowest is 57 and the average is 105. It sounds like these are all in the safe range but I will keep an eye it.

Those sound like great temps. I usually see the high temp closer to 130.

 

[dare2be]

the highest recorded temp is 113 the lowest is 57 and the average is 105. It sounds like these are all in the safe range but I will keep an eye it.

Lowest is 57? Did you recently just start using your Hopper, or do you keep it in the fridge???

 

[king3pj]

Lowest is 57? Did you recently just start using your Hopper, or do you keep it in the fridge???

I use a Nest thermostat that automatically turns the heat/AC off when I leave the house. When it is in away mode it is set to let the house get as cold as 50 before turning on. It's smart enough to learn my schedule and turn back on in time to have the house comfortable when I get home from work. Because I typically run hot and I'm cheap I keep the house at 65 when I'm home and 60 when I'm sleeping.

Anyways, seeing as my house gets down to 50 sometimes it is reasonable that the hopper's internals could have gotten down to 57 at one point.

 

[dare2be]

Anyways, seeing as my house gets down to 50 sometimes it is reasonable that the hopper's internals could have gotten down to 57 at one point.

Yes, but only if the Hopper is off (without power) for a while (HD still spins and generates heat even in standby).

 

[king3pj]

Yes, but only if the Hopper is off (without power) for a while (HD still spins and generates heat even in standby).

That's possible too. A few weeks ago Michigan had a massive power outage. My power and heat were out for 3 days with the outside temperature in the teens. I'm sure the hopper was pretty cold when it finally booted back up.

 

[Hall]

It's not logging temperatures when it's off though

If it records temps immediately after boot-up, yeah, they'd be fairly low, but then ALL of us would have a very low "low" temp reading.

 

[kwindrem]

I have a Mac Mini on top of my Hopper and neither have and any issues. The top of the Hopper is slightly warmer under the Mini but not enough to raise concerns.