Customer loses remote Dometic loses customer (Fantastic Fan)

Hello all...

I have misplaced the brick remote for my 2 seasons old Fantastic Vent model 6600. After contacting Dometic today it seems they want me to spend nearly another couple hundred dollar to buy some upgrade kit that still offers no manual control over the fan in the advent something happens to the new remote. That is something I am not going to do, fool me once so they say but not a second time...

Dometic doesn't offer the remote so I am wondering if anyone has installed a potentiometer in their fantastic fan that allows them to turn the fan off and on and adjust the speed manually? It is something I didn't notice or think about when I bought the unit at Camping World a couple years ago. The fan is nice however looking back I should have purchased the Maxxair since it can be controlled independent of the remote control via touch panel on the unit itself.

I am not sure what all my options are but I am not paying Dometic nearly $200 bucks for an upgrade kit when I can get a Maxxair for $200 and not have to worry about misplacing a remote or even ordering the model with a remote.

I am kind of glad this happened this past weekend as I have a Dometic CFX-65 sitting in my Amazon cart along with other items that need to be ordered and now I am worried about ordering the refrigerator in case I run into something similar in the future and have to deal with Dometic in this manner with them leaving their customers high and dry.

Sad day indeed because I really wanted that freezer but have lost faith now in Dometic.

Anyway to end the rant I'd like to see if I can get any help or what other people may have done if they experienced a similar situation or have added manual control to their "remote only" operated basically brand new Fantastic Vent fan.

Thanks and I appreciate any help or suggestions as the vent fan is a must even to finish out the season and I didn't plan on installing another vent fan after such a short time when mine is perfectly fine otherwise.

D_E_Bishop
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
I really did read your post and I did understand it. What I was trying to say is you can replace or change the electronics with commonly available switches and speed controls. So now I'm saying, you can replace the electronic controls with manual switches and manual speed controls

They can be purchased on-line or at a professional, opposed to a radio shack type electronics supply store.

The only caveat is you need to have a pretty fair understanding of basic electricity and wire connectors. Heck, depending on your rig, you could even wire the vents to a control center on the wall.

It is not rocket science, it just takes finding the supplies. Mouser Electronics, Allied Electronics and Marvac Electronics to name three I buy supplies from. A local professional supplier gives you the advantage of being able to pick technicians brains if you need to. Ebay has some supplies too, but there you need to know exactly what you need.
GaryGus
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
E trailer has the remote for $33.00 or so. Check it out.
Ralph_Cramden
Explorer II
Sep 29, 2018
Sounds like Dometic pulled a play from the LCI playbook.

1-Design, market, or acquire a product.

2- Cheapen its construction / materials as much as possible and make parts or components as proprietary as possible.

3- Inflate prices for replacement or repair parts that are designed to fail, or make them totally unavailable forcing the buyer left with half a product or system to buy another pile of junk.
noteven
Explorer III
Sep 29, 2018
Ralph are you talking about just the one company or all of ‘em? :)
Lynnmor
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
Go to eBay and buy a DPDT switch and a PWM. Total cost will be roughly $10 and then you will have total control of speed and direction.
Ralph_Cramden
Explorer II
Sep 29, 2018
noteven wrote:
Ralph are you talking about just the one company or all of ‘em? :)

Before its said and done may be all of them. A few 5 or 6 years ago Dometic was easy to deal with and would bend over backwards for you if you had a problem with one of their products. Thats not so much the case in 2018.

LCI once was a good company, until the next generation took over the helm.

Ever try to deal with Patrick Industries who supplys a lot of light fixtures and other junk to the RV Industry? Or Furrion whose stuff you see in more and more RVs, such as Grand design, they're one of LCIs "partners".
Low grade junk.

At least some are still decent, like Dexter Axle.

We had a 2013 Keystone 235EXP, a friend had a 2012. His had a frame made by Dexters frame division, ours had a frame made by LCI right after they acquired Dexters frame division. An easy side by side comparison at the campground. Looked exactly the same at first glance until looked at closer, like the welds and thicknesses of the steel.
cpu266
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
remote at etrailer

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Fantastic-Vent/FV9068-09.html
Cosmic_Artifac1
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
D.E.Bishop wrote:
you can replace the electronic controls with manual switches and manual speed controls

They can be purchased on-line or at a professional, opposed to a radio shack type electronics supply store.

The only caveat is you need to have a pretty fair understanding of basic electricity and wire connectors. Heck, depending on your rig, you could even wire the vents to a control center on the wall.

Yes after sleeping on it again last night that is exactly what I am going to try to do, figuring out which parts and how to do the wiring is the reasoning behind my post, seeing if anyone else has done it with the top model fan... I would love to find one of those mounted control boxes I've seen wired in to other people FV's but then again I do not think it can be done with my model fan ad the original wireless remote acts as that control box (just without the wire) I would definitely rather convert it to manual operation because when I take my son out riding there's just so many of his friends around and other kids running all over the place that I will probably end up in the same boat as I am in a short order of time.

GaryGus wrote:
E trailer has the remote for $33.00 or so. Check it out.

No eTrailer only carries the new oval remote, there are literally dozens of people there across multiple listings asking the very same question "if the new remote will work with our model fan" this is what prompted me to contact Dometic myself.

Lynnmor wrote:
Go to eBay and buy a DPDT switch and a PWM. Total cost will be roughly $10 and then you will have total control of speed and direction.

I am in the process of trying to figure this out today actually, I have a wiring diagram from Dometic which is very basic so this should be doable while retaining precise control over the fan speed, the tall black fan motor on this previous model was designed so one can trim down the voltage to the fan setting it on very low speeds without making any motor hum or whine... unlike the new cheaper pancake motors Dometic is now installing even on their top model fan.

cpu266 wrote:
remote at etrailer

https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Fantastic-Vent/FV9068-09.html

*Page is "missing" and can not be displayed.
Cosmic_Artifac1
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
Ralph Cramden wrote:
Sounds like Dometic pulled a play from the LCI playbook.

1-Design, market, or acquire a product.

2- Cheapen its construction / materials as much as possible and make parts or components as proprietary as possible.

3- Inflate prices for replacement or repair parts that are designed to fail, or make them totally unavailable forcing the buyer left with half a product or system to buy another pile of junk.

This is exactly what Dometic has done acquiring Fantastic Vent Company, being that Dometic is using the cheaper, nosier and less efficient pancake motor on their fans across all their models speaks volumes to that very fact. You get the same motor now with their top of the line model fan as you do with their base model offering.
Lynnmor
Explorer
Sep 29, 2018
I didn't watch this all the way thru, but it might get you started in the right direction. I have done the PWM and reversing on another brand and it turned out better than factory schemes. video