Cabin Fans

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.

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

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

S/V Arabesque said:

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

Click to expand...

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

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