Stand for hopper?

[midwesttv]

I'm curious as to how many Hopper owners are concerned enough about over-heating that you are pro-actively doing something about it? If so, what are you doing?

are you putting your hopper in some sort of stand to elevate it off the shelf? if so, what kind? Did it lower temperatures?

Are you using USB fan?

Something else entirely or nothing?

 

[sparc]

as long as it's not in some sort very enclosed cabinet that cuts off any airflow, we haven't been too overly concerned here. Hopper and Joey do run hot though.

I think there were some posts that came up with elevated feet for the hopper or used some cooling fans.

The joey has a little stand you can use to elevate it a little or even put it vertical for better airflow.

 

[midwesttv]

as long as it's not in some sort very enclosed cabinet that cuts off any airflow, we haven't been too overly concerned here. Hopper and Joey do run hot though.

I think there were some posts that came up with elevated feet for the hopper or used some cooling fans.

The joey has a little stand you can use to elevate it a little or even put it vertical for better airflow.

Never thought about putting the Joey verticle - sounds like a nice, simple idea. I've read about the USB cooling fans too - people with em seem pretty pleased with them. Do they only run when the Hopper is not on stand-by? Seems like it might be overkill unless you are having lots of freezing, burps and squirts from the hopper (sorry, that was kinda gross!)

 

[dare2be]

On the ViP receivers, the fan runs all the time, which is as it should, as the ViPs still use just about as much power in standby and generate as much heat as non-standby. I suspect something similar with the hoppa, unless they actually made a more EnergyStar compliant device.

 

[manteca]

i added 5 external 2x2 fans to the right side of the hopper extracting heat

 

[DFPope]

I put a laptop cooler under mine. HD never exceeds 103 degrees, avg HD temp 97.
Before the cooler it was running 135 on the high side.

 

[Cocophone]

Something is wrong with the world when you need to worry about a leased dvr overheating while sitting on an open shelf in a living room doing what it was designed to do!

 

[ChairBound]

Something is wrong with the world when you need to worry about a leased dvr overheating while sitting on an open shelf in a living room doing what it was designed to do!

Ah well...such is life. There are heating concerns about many new and advanced pieces of technology...even the iPad. And, I am betting the new iPhone has some sort of issue with overheating, because of the way the case is designed in the back (grooved metal). My gaming PC is one heat generating mofo, as is my husband's gaming laptop. Unless you build your own media center PC in a HUGE case with all the fans and such to go with it (I pass on the H2O cooling), you have to expect things to run hot. Absolutely no one and no company has figured out how to keep temps ultra, ultra low in any type of computer being jammed into a small space with no or tiny fans trying to cool it. It just isn't a realistic expectation. It would be nice....but I just don't expect it yet. BTW, I really like the idea of a laptop cooler DFPope. I am going to look into that. Good idea.

 

[gokartergo]

Something is wrong with the world when you need to worry about a leased dvr overheating while sitting on an open shelf in a living room doing what it was designed to do!

Most people don't have it out on a open shelf.. A very, very large percentage of people want it in a cabinet..

 

[dare2be]

Something is wrong with the world when you need to worry about a leased dvr overheating while sitting on an open shelf in a living room doing what it was designed to do!

Something is wrong with the world when people use assumptions as the basis for a rant.

 

[Cocophone]

I like dish and have been a loyal customer but my pet peeve is making the customer pay to fix a "leased" receiver. My opinion is that if I'm paying them a monthly fee to provide me with equipment to use their service then dish should fix the equipment when it breaks due to defects or normal wear and tear.

 

[GaryPen]

Ah well...such is life. There are heating concerns about many new and advanced pieces of technology...even the iPad. And, I am betting the new iPhone has some sort of issue with overheating, because of the way the case is designed in the back (grooved metal). My gaming PC is one heat generating mofo, as is my husband's gaming laptop. Unless you build your own media center PC in a HUGE case with all the fans and such to go with it (I pass on the H2O cooling), you have to expect things to run hot. Absolutely no one and no company has figured out how to keep temps ultra, ultra low in any type of computer being jammed into a small space with no or tiny fans trying to cool it. It just isn't a realistic expectation. It would be nice....but I just don't expect it yet. BTW, I really like the idea of a laptop cooler DFPope. I am going to look into that. Good idea.

Dish DVR's are designed very poorly when it comes to cooling. They concentrate solely on the HDD, and totally ignore the PSU. Not only is there no fan for the PSU, there aren't even vents above it. That is just poor design.

 

[duke02]

What?? You have to pay if their equipment craps out? That's ridiculous. Do you have to pay to fix it if you have the protection plan?

 

[Tampa8]

You are jumping to a conclusion. I have not paid, even shipping, for a replacement receiver, I have seen some say they have to pay $15. No protection plan needed for a defective receiver, again at least in my long experience with Dish. I would agree, if leasing assuming no tampering I would not expect to pay anything.

I don't know if the receivers are poorly designed visa a vis cooling, but I will say the VIP612 does work better with proper cooling. One of mine is in a cabinet (not my choice - ahem....) so I use a room to room fan, with a cut-out hole in the back of the cabinet. It draws out the warm air. Seems to work, as I have posted a couple of times virtually no resets with my 612's. The other one is on top of a stand, no added cooling but that room is cooler overall.

 

[Brussam]

I use a pair of muffin fans driven off of a power brick, I had then on my VIP622 and then used them on my VIP722K. The fans were the size of the 622/722K height but now they are taller than the Hopper. I use tape to hold them in place.

My DVR sits in a cabinet with an open screen front in a slide in my trailer when has less insulation that a typical house. Before the fans, I would get an overheat stop. So for the concern is over having the DVR stop on a hot day, not having it replaced.

 

[navychop]

I lease vehicles at work. We are given the choice by the leasing company:
- we pay for all maintenance and repairs.
- we pay the leasing company an additional monthly fee and they pay for routine repais and maintenance.

 

[ChairBound]

Dish DVR's are designed very poorly when it comes to cooling. They concentrate solely on the HDD, and totally ignore the PSU. Not only is there no fan for the PSU, there aren't even vents above it. That is just poor design.

I DID mention "tiny or no" fans. I don't know how much better than design can currently be while still trying to maintain a sleek set top design that consumers won't beech about the size of? I mean, I am not your typical woman, so a somewhat larger box would not bother me if it were in favor of cooling. But, the vast majority of female consumers do not want large pieces of technology taking up space on their shelves. It may not bother the men, but the women would probably refuse to have it. So, I think Dish does the best they can walking the middle ground on this one. Perhaps I am being naively optimistic in this case though.