7530 Fan Adapter for Inflatable Decoration

thingiverse

This will help all of maybe 3 people, but I'm posting it anyway. After purchasing a $19.99 inflatable Halloween decoration only to have the fan die, my 4 year old insisted that daddy fix it. To my surprise, replacements are seemingly only found in a complete power supply/fan/LED kit, and cost about twice what the decoration itself cost. I couldn't pay $40 for a part simply on principle, and I couldn't let my 4 year old down by throwing it away. As a solution to this cost-effectiveness conundrum, I drew up a quick intake manifold in Tinkercad for a standard - and much cheaper - 7530 blower fan often used to cool projectors. I got a 2-pack for about 10 bucks (free shipping) on ebay. This manifold basically acts as an adapter to facilitate the zip-tie which attaches the fabric to the fan, and adds a grill to keep little fingers out of the fan. My replacement was not quite as strong as the OEM fan, but it was enough to inflate it just fine. A $5 fan and a few pennies worth of filament was an investment I was happy with. As a note, this particular lawn spooky was a 3.5' tall stacked-pumpkin (i.e. lots of surface-area) which originally used the half amp fan. The replacement fan I used was only 0.26 amp, but it's working just fine. If you have a decoration which stands on skinny little inflatable legs or something, you may want to stick with a half-amp fan.