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Cabin Fans

8634 Views 18 Replies 19 Participants Last post by  Sumner10
I am in need of several fans and want opinions on air flow and current draw.Fans are for the cabin of a C & C 32', deciding between the Caframo Bora Fan, and the Hella Turbo......any recomendations........Thanks
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I just got me a fan recently to supplement the 12volt while at dock.



It gets the air out!!
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Replacement Fans

Have the Hella Turbo's on my 87 vintage boat. Although they have held up well through the years, I will be replacing them with Caframo. The Caframo move more air than my Hella's. The only problem I have had was to have to replace the blades on one when the blades came in contact with the wall when I was not there to catch it. The blade kit is available via West Marine at a reasonable price. Might check the West marine catalog for amp draw on both to see if there is a big difference.
I have Caframo Bora's on my Bene 31. They don't seem to draw much power, and I like the fact that if I turn the breaker off and back on, the fans stay off until i turn them on manually. It cuts down the chance of accidentally wasting power on a cabin fan that I didn't know was running. (They're quiet enough for that to happen.)
i have some walmart "clip" on fans on my boat. i wired them into the lights, and they come with solid mounts for a more perminate mounting. they draw about 3/4 amp and they move way more air then anything west has, but they are noisey. but i like the noisey, both the wife and i need some noise to sleep, and they are about perfect, they are a perfect white noise generator
Replaced my fans with Caframo Boras. they move a lot of air, don't draw much current (especially at the lower speeds) and are quiet quiet quiet. The last was the deciding factor as my wife could not sleep with the Hella fan we had in the v-berth. She's happy now and making her happy is what it's all about
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We have the Hella Turbo's. We looked at several Caframo's and just found that the Hella's pushed a hellava (good pun, eh?) lot more air, especially when placed close to walls or corners. The only two things we don't like about them are: 1) The open back makes it so you can sometimes catch your fingers in the blade - more of a surprise to you than anything else, and 2) The way the power wire leads off of them can make it easy to get caught in the blades. I've solved item #2 by putting screw in zip ties just above the fan and leaving some slack on the wire. Then, as you rotate the fan to point it where you want, you can adjust the length of the wire while still keeping it taught. The company also seems to stand behind their product - I've had a motor die 6 months after buying the fan and they've sent me a new one. We have 8 of these around our boat.
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FWIW We got the Caframo Sirocco fans. I can't recommend due to the metal cage around the fan blades. They didn't stand up to the marine environment and started to rust almost immediately. Otherwise ...
Went with Camfrano 3 speeds. Quieter, cheaper, less power consumption than the Hellas I had on the previous boat.
I am in need of several fans and want opinions on air flow and current draw.Fans are for the cabin of a C & C 32', deciding between the Caframo Bora Fan, and the Hella Turbo......any recomendations........Thanks
Bora hands down!! I've owned both..
I agree that the cafamro (sp??) are better. Dad has the Hellas and we move more air.

However, I also replace a bunch of blades, including just his last weekend. All but one time it was due to the kids playing with them or not paying attention. If they hit something that stops the blades for any period of time, they basically melt the plastic inside and you are going to end up replacing the blade.

- CD
Anybody used the Caframo 747/757 model? Its the one with no guard, just the blades. I was checking fans at WM this past weekend and it seemed to move the most air of the models they had on display. It was also very quiet which is why we are considering replacing the fans on our boat.
I just bought a couple at walmart. About 12 inches square. You can put batteries in them or use a 120 volt plug. The great thing it the transformer reduces the power to 12 volts so I cut the 120 volt transformer off and installed a 12 volt plug. Works great, quiet. Not high quality but for $20 works great
I have owned the hella "boat fan" (not the turbo), on the last boat. I hated running them because of the noise. They stood up well though.

Would definitely look for something quieter this time.

Another option is to use computer case fans


They are cheap ($2-20), there are a million types and they all run on 12v so you just hook them up to a switch and go. Better still since silent and low power draw computers are all the rage they always list their cubic foot per minute flow rate, their db sound rating and amp draw. They are available from 1.5"-6" or larger. Not all look the same either. This one is 8" diameter "silent" and $22:



Or this 14inch monster, which moves 129CFM silently(22db) drawing 500ma


Google "computer case fan" or try PC Case Fans and Cooling Fans at Xoxide.com - Computer Case Fans

MedSailor
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It depends on where you are mounting them. The Caframo Boras are a better fan and have three speeds and an electronic switch versus the two-speed Hella Turbo and a mechanical switch, but for bulkhead mounting, the Turbos are better, since they pivot at the center of the fan diameter, rather than the base.

I am in need of several fans and want opinions on air flow and current draw.Fans are for the cabin of a C & C 32', deciding between the Caframo Bora Fan, and the Hella Turbo......any recomendations........Thanks
I have been using these Guest fans for years. A little pricey, but they move air and can be set to oscillate.

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I would find it very usefull if Medsailor could post a couple of photo's using the cpu fans
We have these Caframo 2 speed no gaurds....none needed.....55 amps..moveable especially with additional clip..279cfm max air moved, hard wired or 12v plug
advantages----moveable, can use plug, and easiest to clean ( all fan blades get dirty its amazing). Can store them out of the way when not in use

CAFRAMO Two-Speed Compact 12V DC Fan, White at West Marine

Caframo Boras- also good...... .27 amps. fixed , hard wired 275 cfm max air moved
CAFRAMO Bora Three-Speed Fans at West Marine

Caframo Scirraco
also good .25 amps, fixed mount, hard wired 240 cfm max air moved
CAFRAMO Sirocco Cabin Fans at West Marine

Hella
Not as powerful. .1amp draw, fixed mount, hard wired,150 cfm air moved
HELLA MARINE 12V & 24V Turbo Fans at West Marine

dave
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I would find it very usefull if Medsailor could post a couple of photo's using the cpu fans
We tried those...



....and were not happy at all.

We have a number of the Caframo on both boats and really like those. We use....



....the ones with the timers in the V-berth. A lot of nights we just need the air while we go asleep so we set them on the 2 hours and they go off then. As we moved into summer we went to 4 hours then 6 then 8.

You can also position those...



...to any direction you want.

We hardly ever run them off of low and they don't use much more power vs. ......



...the very inefficient CPU fans. .21 amps for the Caframo vs. .13 amps for the CPU fan above. There is no comparison on the air they move. You can only feel the CPU just inches from you and the Caframo from feet away.

There is more info and pictures on the CPU and the Caframo on our site here....

Macgregor 26S Inside Mods page 31

Last summer Home Depot had the open face Caframo's on sale for $25 and that is when we bought about 6 that we use around the cabin during the day.

I'm going to keep a couple in the boat that will run when we are gone to help with mildew protection. They will be on a low voltage cutoff relay that we got for not much money and they will turn on/off according to battery level and we have solar on the batteries,

Sum

====================================

Our 37 Endeavour --- Our 26 MacGregor --- Trips With Both

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