# How to Install Pinball Monk Fan and Review

**Source:** Cary Hardy  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2022-11-18  
**Duration:** 15m 37s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8MALxqR1Lo

---

## Analysis

Cary Hardy reviews and demonstrates installation of the Pinball Monk fan mod for Stern pinball machines, a quieter replacement for the stock loud power supply fan. The mod reduces noise by approximately 20 decibels, making it ideal for home collectors who keep machines on for display. Hardy provides a detailed installation walkthrough and side-by-side audio comparison, emphasizing the product's effectiveness despite the tradeoff of the replacement fan running more frequently.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Pinball Monk fan produces a 20 decibel reduction in noise compared to stock Stern fan — _Hardy measured the difference using a decibel meter during side-by-side comparison testing_
- [HIGH] The Pinball Monk fan mod may run more frequently than the OEM fan due to lower cooling capacity — _Hardy observed that the Pinball Monk fan moves less air than the stock Stern fan, acknowledging the tradeoff_
- [HIGH] Installation of the Pinball Monk mod can potentially void your warranty — _Hardy explicitly warns viewers about this during the installation process, noting the warranty sticker covers one of the screws_
- [MEDIUM] The Pinball Monk fan is not a new product and has been in use for years with established positive reviews — _Hardy states 'This is not like a new product that just came out' and mentions knowing 'plenty of you out there have been using this product more than likely for years'_
- [HIGH] The product is particularly useful for home collectors who keep machines on for display without playing them — _Hardy clearly identifies his target audience as people who 'like to have your machines on' and admire their collection without necessarily playing_

### Notable Quotes

> "I honestly thought that it just did not work because I'm so accustomed to hearing a fan, a loud fan at that."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~2:20
> _Hardy's initial concern that the mod was broken due to its quietness illustrates the effectiveness of the product_

> "Any new Stern or noisy fan game that I'm going to be obtaining in the future will be getting this upgrade."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~1:00
> _Strong endorsement indicating Hardy's confidence in the product's value proposition_

> "Now I know why I wasn't hearing it because you can barely hear the damn thing but it does move air."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~9:10
> _Confirms the mod's primary benefit of near-silent operation while maintaining adequate airflow_

> "Why doesn't Stern just have this kind of fan in their power supplies to begin with? What's the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? Money."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~11:40
> _Hardy attributes Stern's continued use of loud fans to cost-cutting measures rather than technical limitations_

> "This product is for those of you out there that have your games on in your house, and the fans to the power supplies are very loud and get annoying."
> — **Cary Hardy**, ~0:50
> _Clear articulation of the mod's target use case and primary pain point it solves_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Cary Hardy | person | Content creator and pinball enthusiast who reviews and demonstrates pinball mods and products |
| Pinball Monk | company | Manufacturer of aftermarket quiet fan replacement for Stern pinball power supplies |
| Stern Pinball | company | Primary pinball manufacturer whose machines are the subject of this mod review |
| Pinball Life | company | Retailer where Hardy purchased the Pinball Monk fan mod |
| Titan Pinball | company | Source of the nut driver tools recommended for installation |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Aftermarket pinball mods and upgrades, Stern pinball power supply noise issues, DIY pinball machine maintenance and modification, Product review and comparison
- **Secondary:** Home pinball collection management

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Hardy expresses strong enthusiasm for the Pinball Monk product, uses phrases like 'I love this product' and has no regrets. He positions it as a worthwhile upgrade for his use case. The only minor criticism is the tradeoff of potentially more frequent fan operation, which Hardy frames as acceptable given the noise reduction benefit.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Content creators like Cary Hardy are actively producing detailed installation guides and product reviews, supporting community knowledge sharing around pinball mods (confidence: high) — Hardy provides comprehensive step-by-step installation walkthrough with audio comparisons and technical measurements
- **[market_signal]** The Pinball Monk fan mod has been on the market for years with established positive reputation, indicating sustained demand for noise reduction solutions among home collectors (confidence: medium) — Hardy states the product is not new and has 'got such great reviews' with many users over the years
- **[product_strategy]** Pinball Monk fan mod provides 20dB noise reduction for Stern pinball machines, addressing a common pain point for home collectors who keep machines on for display (confidence: high) — Hardy's measured decibel comparison and extensive testing demonstrating the effectiveness of the quiet fan replacement

---

## Transcript

If you are like me, then you like to have your games turned on, even if you are not necessarily going to be playing them in the near future. You just want to sit back and admire your collection. My own. My precious. Precious? Everyone has a reason, and it's going to be different from person to person, but I believe the reason to install this mod to your modern game is going to be consistent among all of us. Because we are tired of hearing a Harrier Jet take off. Don't go to me installing the pinball mug. Oh, come on! What's up guys and welcome back to my channel where I talk and do everything pinball. So, if that sounds interesting to you, then hit that subscribe button down below. I'm basically giving you the review up front, guys. I love this product. Any new Stern or noisy fan game that I'm going to be obtaining in the future will be getting this upgrade. Now, granted, going forward, I am well aware that this upgrade slash mod is not going to be for everyone out there. This product is for those of you out there that have your games on in your house, and the fans to the power supplies are very loud and get annoying. Then this is for you. Those of you that run an arcade, this isn't for you because you're not going to hear it due to all the other sounds that are going around. Those of you out there that only turn your games on and play them, you're not going to hear the fan because you're going to be hearing the machine, yes, then this product isn't for you. But for those of you out there that like to have your machines on, kind of like how I do right now, and not play them without having to hear the loud annoying fan that's going, then yes, this product is more than likely something that you're going to be interested in. No, this wasn't sent to me. I'm not sponsored by this or anything. This is just me telling you from my personal experience so far with it. It honestly works so well that I thought it was broken. I literally thought that it just did not work. because I'm so accustomed to hearing a fan, a loud fan at that. So I'm going to be showing you how to install this in your Stern machine and also going to give you a side-by-side audible comparison on what you're going to be getting. So let's get started. First things first, let's unplug your machine for your safety as well as the safety of your game. Let's lower the front panel down and remove the trans light. This should give us full access to the power supply with the noisy fan located right here. In order to remove this you will need to use an 11-32 nut driver that I'm using here. I got this set from Titan Pinball. You will be loosening these four nuts located two on each side. Then Then you will remove this nut covering the AC circuit shield. One more nut located right here. And now you can remove the AC circuit shield. Unplug the DC connector right here. Try to pull from the actual connector itself and not the wires guys you need to disconnect the AC line going to the power supply here Okay now the power supply is completely removable from your machine. You need to remove these two screws located right here first. I'm using a basic phillips head right here guys all right you're going to need to get a smaller phillips head to remove the screws located right here here three on this side located here here and here and then one more right uh oh yeah right here underneath the warranty sticker which reminds me this product can possibly void your warranty so install at your own risk if you no longer have a warranty because it's already way past due then I wouldn't be too concerned about it. These screws are quite small so try to keep up with them. All right now after those six Phillips head mini screws have been removed we should be able to remove this. Alright. Here is the noisy fan. Trace the power line like so to where it connects right here. I need to disconnect this from the board. So I'm going to be unplugging this just so I can easily remove this fan. You're gonna find a sticky kind of goop. you can cut the goop or you can very carefully pull it up to where you should be able to go through it and now the fan can easily be removed now here we have the upgraded fan from pinball monk I will be connecting it first located right here so now I know that it's in the correct position now it's all about wire management I'm going to be maneuvering this fan around rotating it around just so I can make sure that the wires are not gonna be touching anything that they shouldn't it shouldn't really matter anyways honestly there's nothing here that's just gonna be an issue because the wire is covered I just want to make sure that it's at least neatly organized and it's not gonna be pinched against anything it shouldn't be and causing any possible issues with the heat relations. I think I've got a good position right here. Now I just need to screw it in to the case so that way it's not going to move around. Inside the package you will find the correct Phillips screws to use. These are a particular size for the new fan. You cannot use the original screws that Stern gives you. Notice the size difference. The one on the left is the one we're going to be installing. Tighten these two screws up Alright we are now ready to apply the top shield Then it all a matter of putting in these six miniature screws that we took out earlier. Once you have all six of these mini screws back in position we are ready to slide it back into the game. Tighten it down using your nut driver. Install your AC line connector right here. Install the DC connection back onto the board. Then you are ready for your AC circuit shield. Put it in place and apply the two nuts that you removed earlier. One goes here and the other one right here. All right the install is complete. You may now plug your machine back in to make sure everything works. Turning the game on. Looks like we've got power going everywhere we need to so let's get the trans light back in place raise up the front panel and you are done so that is how you install the device in your power supply and that's what i did i installed it turned it on thought everything was good to go stood around waited for the fan to kick on didn't hear anything and i was like okay it's unusual so let me play a game that'll warm it up a little bit faster so i played a couple of games and sat down and waited and once again i was no longer able to hear any kind of fan so this made me concerned i'm like okay what if it's not working what if it's like you know gonna overheat and i'm gonna have all kinds of issues so i immediately removed the trans light and i was trying to feel for any kind of air coming out and listen closer and i still could not hear anything so i took the damn thing out i was like okay i need to actually verify that this thing works just to ease my mind but i thought you know what this is actually going to be a good thing because my plan originally was to give you guys a good like pre and then post installation listen so that way you could hear the difference and it would have been a horrible comparison while what i just had because you wouldn't be able to hear anything because like i said at that time i thought it was broken so here's the footage of me just giving you a good audible differential between the stern oem fan and the pinball monk fan all right guys we are in the garage i have got the stern fan that's normally in your power supply hooked up to this thing. That's kind of weird. I know I didn't do that but that looks like it's been damaged or something right there. Interesting. Anyways so I've got it hooked up to this external power supply right here. This is not a normal Sturm one but it is supplying it with the 12 volts that it needs. So we're gonna turn it on that way you get a good audible of what it sounds like. Thank you so that what that sounds like All right, this is the pin monk fan. So now let's plug it in and see what we get. so now I know why I wasn't hearing it because you can barely hear the damn thing but it does move air now granted it's not gonna be moving as much as the stern fan but you can see I'm moving air but definitely not moving as fast so that's good to know that it was working i was concerned that it wasn't because it was so damn quiet so i'm hoping you were able to hear the difference between the stock version and the pinball monk version now using a decibel meter i was able to measure a total of 20 decibel difference between the stock stern and the pinball monk which is quite a bit the trade-off on this is that more than likely the pinball monk fan will be running more often but i don't care because i'm not going to be able to hear it this whole time i've been recording i haven't heard a single thing coming from this machine now typically the thing goes off you can hear it on the microphone it's irritating to me so as of right now i have no regrets i ordered this from pinball life it comes in a package literally just this big you have your fan your two screws a small little pamphlet of the directions that are seriously i use these exact directions verbatim it gives you all the information you need on how to go about doing this task This video is merely just a good visual representation of that. It even mentions about the warranty. So keep that in mind guys. Now this is not like a new product that just came out. And I know plenty of you out there have been using this product more than likely for years. And now I completely understand why this product has got such great reviews. For those of you out there that have used this product by all means give people more information about it in the comment section down below on how you feel about it. Now I know what you're thinking also, why doesn't Stern just have this kind of fan in their power supplies to begin with? What's the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? Money. We'll see you next time.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: c8a8a8a7-7bb1-4db4-abcd-810af20ec71d*