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Reviews For: Diamond GVZ4000

Category: Power Supplies

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Review Summary For : Diamond GVZ4000
Reviews: 44MSRP: 229.95
Description:
Power Supply
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.rfparts.com/gzv4000.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00444.3
KM3F Rating: 2012-01-18
Great value and features for the cost. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Great so far out of the box with no long term time..
The update is there is a meter light on this new unit from the factory.
The fan seems not to loud compaired to other units I use with fans so they may have changed that as well.
I rung it out testing a Mirage D1010 432 amplifier at 100 watts.
The 'amplifier' is a bit of a current hog on key up due to the low impedence bias circuit that keys up each time, in this model amplifier.
The point is the voltmeter needle will wiggle about it's width telling a little about how stiff the regulation response is on this peticular sudden load application.
It's acceptable as it causes no problem.
At 20 amps half capacity, there is no voltage droop.
I selected this make and model for it's capacity, features and price with 40 amp full time/45 surge capacity.
It has two seperate and different output ports on the front, one pair on the rear for high current.
I like the 5 to 15 volts output for other uses and a built in speaker for bench repair jobs..
VR2YQK Rating: 2011-09-01
Been used for 1 month, Great! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Used one month.

Steady power supply, never fail.

Back fan too noisy, so I modded by
doing a little bit drill work to take out the old fan (1st drill through the four aluminium studs, take them all off), then replace the fan with a normal computer cooling fan with a 100 ohm resistor added. Now, it is working very very quiet.

I also added a white led with a 650ohm resistor to the meter. Now I can see the meter even in darkness.

For the GZV4000 itself, it is a reliable, light weight switching power supply which you can count on.

73 de VR2YQK
KB3RMX Rating: 2011-05-22
Ehh! Maybe OK Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have had this a while and needless to say it works. Only two problems I have with it is using this on an HF rig and the damn fan is loud. Bought this to use on my ft-857. Works great when up on 17 meters and above, but 20 meters and down you can here the hum of the fan in your audio. Opened it up and checked all the solder joints, everything checked out ok, grounded the unit to the house ground, still the same humming sound 20 and below. I would like to know if there's anyone out there who could tell me what I could use to replace this fan. My contacts can here it when I'm transmitting, very annoying for me and my contact. Needless to say I bought an Astron for my hf rig. I just use the Diamond on my base station 2 meter rig IC-275H. If your gonna by a power supply spend the little extra bucks and buy an ASTRON, you won't be disappointed
N2CSA Rating: 2011-05-22
Eats Switches Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is an update to my October 2008 review. The GVZ4000 continues to provide yeoman service with one irritating habit. It requires replacement of the rocker off/on switch about every 14 months. Being economy minded (read this as cheap) I turn the supply off when the supply is not in use. So it gets use twice a day.

I must say that Diamond sent me one free of charge 14 months ago. I guess I'll see what they have to say this time.

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by N2CSA on 2008-10-16

I had the good fortune to win a GZV4000 as a door prize at KJI customer appreciation weekend this past summer. It has happily been at work powering an IC-746PRO. I have not found any radio noise as is mentioned in some of the below reviews. The fan noise is obvious but less obvious than the fan in the shack PC and less obvious than the cooling fan on the Icom ID-800H. I got a Papst 8412/N2GLE fan as recommended. Yes this fan is much quieter. It is quieter because it is slower and moves fewer Cu Ft of air per minute. The GZV4000 supply is rated at 40 amps. I'm not sure reducing cooling power is all that great an idea an idea if you intend to pull 40 amps on a regular basis. Before you go replacing the cooling fan decide on your current need.
ON3RE Rating: 2011-03-09
Good! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The GZV4000 is just great.
I have it 2 years now.

The gzv3000 is with a tranfo and this one is not.
The fan original is better on the gzv3000.

1.The fan is to loud.
2.No light for the meter.

I modified it myself
Noctua NF-R8 fan with resitor 105ohm
and a (5mm,320mcd,2v,20mA) led with a resistor 650ohm
check out my homepage (www.rekal.be) for pictures.
M0VEY Rating: 2010-01-26
Great PSU Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This psu is typical of Diamond quality. I've had the psu around 5 years & thought it was time to do a review.

Like others I replaced the original fan with a
Papst 8412/N2GLE fan . This was the icing on the cake. The psu is now real quiet & never has any issues with RF or noise on my radio.

Plenty of features, adjustable voltage, meter displaying voltage & amps drawn. Also connections at the front as well as the usual ones on the rear of the psu. Useful to have a cig lighter socket as well.

This PSU has never let me down. Usually, products that have been around over 10 years & are still available, tell you something.

The Diamond GZV4000 will be in my shack for a long time to come.

m0vey
AA1ZO Rating: 2009-07-31
A good power supply Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is a very good power supply. It does need a little help to make it perfect. The design calls for the house ground to be connected to the negative output of the supply. This is connected inside the unit in several places. This is not good. The radio ground should never be connected to the house ground. This can cause hash noise and RF squeel. Also I believe the fan is too noisy. There is an op amp that controls the speed of the motor. My unit's fan runs at the same speed all of the time, heavy load or not. I will say however that it seems to be able to handle a 40 amp load with no problem. It's nice looking too. I have corrected all of the problems with my own unit and I have to say that I am very happy with it.
AI9Z Rating: 2008-09-03
Functional and efficient Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Picked this power supply up a few weeks ago from AES. I have been very pleased with this supply, no radio noise issues what so ever. Diamond could change the fan in this supply as it is a little noisy as others have stated, however it is not so loud that it distracts from operation. I notice the fan noise more when the radio is sitting on and listening for activity.
KE7FPM Rating: 2008-01-18
very noisy power suppy Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought a gvz power supply in july of 07,and hooked it up to a yaesu 897.The static crashes at nite were so bad I didnt notice how noisy this supply was, but by early winter the hf bands cleared up and now I was heariing this nasty wandering heterodine kind of noise on 20 meters.When I called diamond, they said it was probably a ground loop at my staiton, so I took it to two other friends stations, and it was just as noisy on their Icoms. None of my other supplies made this noise either,so I pursued this issue with the folks at diamond. They had me send them the supply,and after using it for awhile, they could not fix the noise either, so they sent me another brand new supply. I hooked up the new one, and it made more noise than the first one!! Now after a month and a half of phone calls to them they said to ship the new one back and they will send me a check to refund my money. I will never buy another switching power supply, I am replacing it with an Astron linear. The people at Diamond were very good about this deal,but I would not suggest you buy this unit for hf operation....
OZ5ABO Rating: 2007-02-06
Nice PS Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought this for my TS480HX. Works fine with no noise on the bands. Only noise was from the factory installed fan. I replaced it with the usual Papst 8412/N2GLE which eliminated the noise in the shack. Even thoug I had to replace the fan I rate it a 5. You get a lot of power supply for the money.