Repairing Caframo Sirocco fans

[SVNeko]

The older ones must be of better quality. We have newer Scirrocco and Bora fans, and they are all crap. Main problem is rattling of the blades. I take them apart to clean and lube but it recurs far too quickly.

[River Cruiser]

I have a sirocco that is going on 3 years old, it runs 10 to 12 hours a day 7 days a week, 8 months a year. So far no problems, I hate to hear these reviews because I really like the fan. If it does shoot craps I would probably replace with a Hella Turbo or maybe the Caframo hatch fan, forgot the name.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[zboss]

OK then, its a now proven that Canada can only produce goods as bad as China does...

Take that Canada!

[PetePetePete]

I have 2 Caframo Ultimate fans...

They have been vibrating more and more... I have tightened down the mount, etc... it appears if I "squeeze" the housing together the vibration goes away. But I'm not certain if it is still mount related or if the two halves have opened a little.

I don't see any screws on it.

I tried some rubber in the mount... that didn't help.

Any thoughts?

[a64pilot]

Find a better non Marine fan. There are some that are DC powered and have a transformer, cut off the transformer and run them direct.
I have not found good, small wall mountable DC fans though. Seems they are all just cheap brushed, sleeve bearing .99c motors just sold at ridiculous prices.
For the price I’d want a brushless, ball bearing motor. When my Bora’s die, I think I’m going to mount a good 200 mm computer case fan, good ones like Noctua have 150,000 hour mean time between failure and are close to silent.

[PetePetePete]

Thanks... that's not an option at the moment... does anyone know how to take the fan apart?

[danielamartindm]

I've replaced three Caframo fans, mostly because ham-handed guests twisted them to the point of crimping out the internal wiring. They're cheaply made, but I haven't really seen any marine alternatives of high quality. It's definitely a market niche that could make for a successful start-up business that offered a better mouse trap.

[zboss]

Yes, inside all caframo fans is a foam spacer that separates the body of the fan from the dc motor. I’ve noticed that this foam can wiggle out of the way or simply disintegrate over time. If you just get some thin foam insulation/gasket tape and put a couple of small pieces where they should be between the fan and the motor, it fixes the problem. The screws to get inside are located under hidden ports you need to pry out. I don’t have any pics because we got rid of those fans because they kept dying early. Went with the cageless caframos and won’t look back.

[Jeanneau 45.2]

I owned circa 2010 a 12V Sirocco (3 axis adjustable) fan and it did not last 2 years (in the Great Lakes with an usage season of only five months) . I contacted Camframo and well, to put it mildly, was told "tough luck". I do have several Camframo Chinook 120V fans which are ok after 5 years. I recently purchased a Sirocco II, allegedly an improved design. Haven't even opened the box so I can't comment on the apparent quality. However, while the box is prominently labelled "Made in Canada*", the asterisk relates to fine print elsewhere on the box "Assembled in Canada from domestic and imported parts". So really ... not made in Canada ... eh?

[Capn Greg]

Hot, still Queensland day and my 757 Ultimate decided to die, intermittently. Came here to see if there were any suggestions, but no go. So I stripped the fan and found a PTC Thermistor on the switch board. It's a yellow disc with two legs. These things are notorious in loudspeakers where they are sometimes used as cheap and cheerful driver protection. The current draw was still 3-400 mA on low speed & 600mA on high, but the thermistor was going high resistance. (it's trip current is 1.65A, according to my reference.) So I shorted the thing out by soldering a link across the legs and am no longer sitting in a lake of sweat. Worth a try if anyone finds themselves in a similar situation. If you do short this thing out, you MUST use a separate 2Amp in line fuse.