Quietest Can Fan with Decent Amount of Airflow

[resilientg]

Hi to all the live aboard people,

I tried searching the site but without much success, so i put it out there for you.

What have you found is the quietest cabin fan that puts out a decent amount of airflow.

I have tried a few here and they are all bloody noisy.

I dont mind buying a good one but i would like to know opinions first as a good fan here in Australia is over $200.

so please let me know what you have but only if your happy with it.

Thanks in advance

Matthew

[Gordon]

Hi Matthew,
We found the Caframo ' Sirroco' to be quiet and with the ability to select a run time, 2hrs, 4hrs, 6hrs, also two speed selection. Worth the extra few dollars.https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_i...AbsolutePage=1



Gordon.

[Mimsy]

Seconding the Caframo Sirroco. They move an impressive bit of air and managed to keep us cool in the midst of summer in the subtropics. They are bigger than you would expect, but they fold flat for stowage and are very adjustable.

[resilientg]

I have been leaning towards the caframo range, the siroccos i have seen advertised, but have also heard that they like to break within a year.

In Australia the siroccos twice the price of the USA, here they are $200 for a 12 volt fan, seems ludicrous, even the USA price of $99 seems high for a fan.

I'm glad that you have confirmed that they are quiet though, thanks and it will be interesting to see what other people have to say.

Matthew

[Mimsy]

The housing is plastic so yeah, you do have to use some care with it.

[marc2012]

i have a caframo which is white.I have to clean a black material off the blades often.I think the blk caca is some part of the fan wearing.Will not buy another.marc

[Amapola]

We like our Hella Turbos.

[Cheechako]

The Hellas are great and almost noise free, especially on the low setting. Over priced IMHO, but hard to find something better. Although I hear about them failing occasionally, (charter boats!) I've had them on a few boats and never had a failure. Some were onthe boat when I got it too!

[resilientg]

Well i made up my mind.

i decided to purchased the caframo sirocco, and you know what.

Even though i baulked at the cost, once it was home and installed and turned on in my totally quiet environment, i liked it.

Much better than my last fan, a TMC brand one that sounded like bubble bees clad in Plate Armour flying round at high speed in a tin can.

The caframo is quiet, very quiet actually, has a huge amount of different angles due to its funky swivel design, loved the three speeds and the timer shut off setting, and most of all, its only 300 milliamps on high.

thanks to all those who helped me with info,

regards,

Matthew

[Zanshin]

I went from being a happy Hella user to an even happier Caframo user. I will have to check the timer shut-off setting (which I didn't know existed) but otherwise the noise levels are great, air throughput quite good and power consumption low.

[Olddan1943]

Originally Posted by Gordon

Hi Matthew,
We found the Caframo ' Sirroco' to be quiet and with the ability to select a run time, 2hrs, 4hrs, 6hrs, also two speed selection. Worth the extra few dollars.https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_i...AbsolutePage=1



Gordon.

Matthew, I consider compartment 12vt fans as an expendable item. Install, turn on, replace when it stops working.
Always carry a spare fan.

[CaptTom]

I have to side with OldDan on this. Knowing how rough I am on gear, I buy the cheap 12V fans from the auto/RV department at Wal Mart. They often go on sale this time of year. I can buy 10 of them for the price of one Caframo.

I do have an O2Cool, also a department store purchase, but it has 12V & 120V cords, moves a decent amount of air and isn't too loud.

Full disclosure; I find the sound of a fan sort of relaxing, like white noise. Far preferable to the sound of traffic, slapping halyards, fighting gulls, another boat's music, generators, windmills or whatever else you might find at anchor. If silence is your goal, spend the $100-$200.

[mikedefieslife]

Originally Posted by marc2012

i have a caframo which is white.I have to clean a black material off the blades often.I think the blk caca is some part of the fan wearing.Will not buy another.marc

Same here. They are covered in black material. I don't even find them quiet.

Noise will be in relation to size give take. A 30cm fan will much quieter than a 15cm one.

Isolation will help to reduce vibration noise but there is nothing you can do about air noise other than make sure clean air can get to either side of the fan.

[MovingAir]

Suggested strategies: get a high capacity air moving device (blower or fan) that can have its speed controlled. This will give a capacity for large volume air movement to take care of maximum need, with noise that may be too great for general use. When speed is lowered on almost any air moving device, the noise will go down greatly. This gives a useful general noise level. Note that a blower moves air much more effectively against back-pressure. Therefore a blower may be needed. (fans do not move air at all well against even the lowest levels of resistance or back pressure.)

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, MovingAir.

To select a lower noise fan, it’s most effective (as you note) to reduce the blade tip speed by lowering the RPM, which can also be done by increasing the number of fan blades.