Tibetan Breeze ZEN Flipper Cooling Kits

Though the original Tibetan Breeze has been very effective at providing cool flipper coils and fade-free gameplay for pinball machines worldwide, it became clear that due to space or arrangement limitations of the hardware on some machines, the current solution would not work – there simply was no room for an optimal arrangement of the existing bracket design.  And so, on a balmy summer evening in the year of the ox during Zamling Chisang festival, I sat near the open window in my quarters enjoying the view and the warm air full with the scent of festival incense and meditated on the problem.

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I lost track of time during my meditation, but at some point it came to me that in strength there is a serenity borne of confidence, and I could perhaps transfer that idea to a new kind of bracket by changing materials. This new bracket material could take a cue from and derive strength and calm from the existing flipper plate! This revelation was truly divine!

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And so, I set about making a new kind of bracket that would be stronger, and take up less space than the existing one so it could fit on even more machines.  After some trial and error, I had my first prototype – a fire-forged stainless steel bracket that replaced the EOS stand on Bally/Williams style flipper plates used in JJP, CGC, Spooky, and many other manufacturer machines, and another related design that supplements the EOS switch stub on Spike machines. This was not an easy endeavor, and in the end, I made, tested and rejected more than a dozen designs over the course of the next year. Laysah and Jampo felt neglected, and I am embarrassed to say, probably rightly so. But I was a monk possessed by the task of solving this problem.

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In the end, the solution was a 25% larger fan for better cooling coverage and two discrete kinds of stainless steel brackets. To get beyond the right/left bracket orientation issue on Spike machines, the base for those now has three mounting holes and the user picks the two mounting holes that most closely aligns the bracket with the coil for the side they’re mounting on.  The Bally/Williams EOS stand bracket is a straightforward direct replacement.

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One of the niceties of the new bracket is the return spring connector is not a closed circle, but a kind of hook built into the stand, so you can now just hook the flipper return spring without having to unwind the ends. A convenience that is long overdue.

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And finally, the new fan and bracket combination plus the karma-glide mounts mean this is now substantially quieter than anything else before. For example, in a 3 bracket installation the total noise of all fans is an impressive 6dB less than 3 of the smaller original brackets installed together. Since decibels are not linear, that’s a substantial decrease in sound. Some of the monks who also enjoy silverball liaisons in my quarters have even questioned if the new fans are on at since they couldn’t hear them.

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The new Tibetan Breeze:ZEN kit comes in a redesigned deluxe logoed box that is slightly larger than the existing kit with a new foam insert as well. Given that the polished stainless steel brackets are prone to fingerprints from installation, I have also included a microfiber cloth in the new kit.  The same popular components from the other kit like precision cutters are also included with the new kit.  Examine the pictures and I think you will agree that for the first time the brackets now look like they are factory-installed and not add-ons, matching the flipper components under the playfield perfectly.

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For the machines that formerly did not have the smaller fan kits available due to space or other limitations, the Tibetan Breeze:ZEN is finally available to solve your fade issues. If your machine has the smaller brackets available already, you can choose the original less expensive Tibetan Breeze kit or go for ultimate quiet, presentation, and cool performance with the new Tibetan Breeze:ZEN. I will leave that choice to you.