Range hood fans

Moved from RV Parks, Campgrounds and Attractions.

There is a retro-fit called a fabulous fan(different from fantastic fan). Contain a whole new kit with squirrel cage blower, LED light and new outside vent cover. $200.00. Trailer Life did a review of it some time back

Any body use that fan how do you like it.The expensive diesel RV use them?

Do you like to tinker with things?
A computer fan would work well.

I plan to put one for the range vent and also replace the noisy cheapo fan in the bathroom.

Computer fan use 12 V?

I put a variable speed control on ours. DW loves it and it still moves all the air that is needed.

Speed Control

buc1980 wrote:
Computer fan use 12 V?

Yes ive seen 5v, 12v and 24v versions.

Its a cheap option that will be quiet and work great and draw very little power.

Negative is you will have to macgyver it in. Some people like tinkering and some are not a "fan"......cough wink.

What size is the fan that needs to be replaced?

Someone once PM'd me about options for a range fan, and I recommended either the silverstone AP182, or the FM181.

both are 180MM fans, both come with speed controllers built in, so one can twist a dial to change rpm.

The AP182 goes to 2000 rpm and moves lot of air, the FM181 cfm rating is not much less, despite only 1300 rpm max.

My AP182 did nto like battery charging voltages, had to limit it to 12v or less or the hub would get too hot at max speed. This is the only 12v fan I have owned and used which had issues with battery charging voltages, even those that claimed a 13.5v max, have have no issues with 16.2v.

My fm181 replacement has no issues all day long at 14.7v and max speed. The person who PM'd me chose to install the FM181 and pm'd me back how quiet it was and how well it worked.

I recommend peeling back the sticker on the hub and globbing some dielectric grease where the wires solder to the circuit board. I use Amazing goop for this. If nothing is done green corrosion will break the wire at this solder joint, although the greases from cooking will likely inhibit that occurrence. My fans which have failed from corrosion here have almost exclusively been intake fans sucking in damp salty air.

I have computer fans that are used exhaust fans that see cooking fumes. They have not had issues with corrosion or the cooking fumes, but cleaning their oily dusty covered blades can be tediously time consuming with 3 qtips at a time dipped in rubbing alcohol.

Computer fans come in many sizes, 120Mm is the most common but 140mm, along with 180 200 and 230 are also available as well as smaller sizes,92 , 80, 70, 60 and 40mm being popular sizes with many options to choose from.

Noctua has some industrial computer fans that are IP67 rated, but the 12v models are only 2000 rpm, the 3k rpm IP67 rated fans are 24v.

I still covered the wire entry of my IP52 rated noctua industrial fans with Amazing goop. I have the NF-f12 3k rpm industrial and the 3k rpm 140mm fan, on the Noctua NA-FC1 PWm speed controller for use on 4 wire PWM computer fans.

If one puts a computer fan on a PWM speed controller, they should seek a pwm motor speed controller of more than 21kHZ or it will make an annoying Audible whine at lowered speeds.

I control several fans through voltage buckers. No whine, but they lose a nearly a volt on the top end for less top speed, but I usually have at least 13.6v available to feed them so 12.6v reaching the fan through the bucker is still over the 12v even where the fan ratings are collected.

One 30v rated fan I own (not a computer fan but about 6.5 inch diameter, 2 inches thick), is speed controlled through a voltage buck/booster. Works from 7.46v where it draws 0.09 amps, to 33V where it draws 3 amps. Even at 12.8v(0.51 amps) this fan moves in the 165CFm range, which is likely far more than the range hood fan.

The engineering that goes into many computer fans is impressive. One will never look at a flat angled fan blade in the same way again, when one has seen the beauty of the foils on some of the impellers on these computer fans.

If you have the room to fit it, an EB Pabst brand German fan stays silent even when the blades get gunked up. Bearings in this fan are huge. I also agree with Landyacht's choice of fan.

Older big rigs used to come with encased in wire fans that vibrate so bad they would snap rivets on a Peterbuilt cab. Squirrel cage fans are not easy to clean. And they are death with small motors and bushings instead of ball bearings.

Anything greater than 150 CFM (more or less) may disturb flame pattern on stove top burners.