Creality Cooling Fan

A Creality printer does not have “a cooling fan” — it has several, doing different jobs, and the old article on this page (which drifted into room fans) never stood a chance of helping anyone replace the right one. On a typical Creality machine there are three fan roles: the hotend (heat-break) fan, the part-cooling fan, and the power-supply/board fans. They differ in size, in whether they run constantly, and in what breaks when they stop. This guide separates them.

The fans, role by role

Fan	Typical form	Job	When it runs
Hotend fan	4010 axial fan on the hotend	Blows across the heat break / cold end so heat cannot creep up into the filament path	Whenever the printer is on (or above ~50 °C on smarter setups) — treat it as always-on
Part-cooling fan	4010 blower stock; 5015 blower is the common upgrade	Blows through a duct at the freshly laid plastic to freeze it in place — bridging and overhang quality live here	Controlled by the slicer (usually off for layer 1, then partial or full)
PSU / board fan	Inside the power supply or control box	Cools the electronics	With the machine; on some models only under load

The two hotend-area fans are the pair owners confuse — and the confusion matters, because their failure modes are opposite in urgency. A dead part-cooling fan ruins overhangs and bridging but the print survives, ugly. A dead hotend fan causes heat creep: filament softens too high in the path, swells, and jams — the print fails completely, sometimes within the first layers, and the “clog” returns after every cleaning until the fan is found guilty. If a printer jams repeatedly with a clean nozzle, check the hotend fan before anything else. (On the Ender 3 family the fan layout is exactly this — our Ender 3 fan guide maps each fan on that machine.)

Replacement rules that save boards

• Match the voltage. Most Creality printers of the Ender/CR generations are 24 V systems and their fans are 24 V parts. The older CR-10S family is 12 V. Fitting a 12 V fan to a 24 V machine destroys the fan (quickly, sometimes smokily); a 24 V fan on 12 V just runs slow and weak. Read the sticker on the old fan before ordering.
• Match the size code. “4010” means 40 × 40 × 10 mm; “5015” is a 50 mm blower, 15 mm thick. The part-cooling blower upgrade path (4010 → 5015) needs a printed duct/mount to match — the fan alone is not the upgrade.
• Mind the wires. Two-wire fans are the stock pattern; polarity matters (red to +). Sleeve-bearing fans are cheapest and wear fastest in the hotend position; ball-bearing or hydraulic-bearing versions last longer where heat is constant.
• Confirm spin direction and airflow. Axial hotend fans must blow onto the heatsink; a fan refitted backwards after a cleaning is a classic self-inflicted heat-creep fault.

Frequently asked questions

What size is the Creality hotend cooling fan?

On most Ender and CR machines it is a 4010 fan — 40 × 40 × 10 mm — in the printer’s system voltage (24 V on most models; 12 V on the older CR-10S family). Always confirm from the sticker on your existing fan before ordering.

What is the difference between the hotend fan and the part-cooling fan?

The hotend fan cools the hotend’s cold end to stop heat creep and jams, and runs essentially always. The part-cooling fan blows on the printed plastic itself, is slicer-controlled, and governs bridging and overhang quality. Different jobs, different failure symptoms.

My printer keeps jamming — could it be a fan?

Yes — a stopped or weak hotend fan is one of the top causes of recurring jams that survive nozzle changes. Verify it spins freely and blows onto the heatsink whenever the printer is powered and hot.

Can I fit a quieter fan?

Yes, with two cautions: match voltage and size, and do not trade away airflow on the hotend fan — a silent fan that moves too little air converts a noise problem into a heat-creep problem. Quieter part-cooling blowers are the safer experiment of the two.