12 volt fan recommendations

[willmarsh3]

With the hot season approaching - or already here by your posts - I am searching for 12 volt cigarette lighter plugin style fans for use on my boat. What brands are you happy with?

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Caframo seems to be a pretty standard pick among boaters, although Hella Marine also make a pretty good fan.

[willmarsh3]

Thanks for the help.
I went and ordered an "Endless Breeze" 12 volt fan from Amazon as it could be plugged into a cigarette lighter and got good reviews.

[willmarsh3]

I got my fan delivered last week. I took it to the boat last night. The inside of the boat was 87 degrees and outside was about 70. I turned it on to direct air into the companion way. After about 30 minutes it had cooled the inside down to a much more pleasant 78 degrees. This fan can really blow air unlike the little battery powered toy fans I was using before. And it doesn't make much noise while running either. Also at the high setting it only consumes about 2.5 amps.

[paladin]

You may need some more ventilation...have you considered a nicro solar ventilator...?

[willmarsh3]

I got one of those already. It's the 4" one for a 32 foot sailboat. It runs all the time - even on a cloudy day - and works quite well to keep the damp and mustiness out of the boat so that mold doesn't grow. But it is not sufficient to keep the heat down.
This fan OTOH puts quite a breeze through the boat.

[paladin]

I had 4 of the large ones on TanaMari.....I built the dorade box inside the overhead with a 4 inch diameter flexible hose plumbed into the bilge....the box had a small overboard drain and the nicro vent was mounted on the deck.....it pulled fresh air into the boat, down through the bilge and up through the dorade box and was exhausted by the nicro vent.....constantly cool and fresh air....

[Tylerdurden]

I have a high volume 6" computer fan that seems to work well but I am sure I will need more when heading south. Right now I am doing the fan in the hatch thing.

[Ron Geisman]

If you are interested in cabin fans, then you may want to look at the April issue of Practical Sailor. They did a nice review of eleven different fans (including five from Caframo). They gave check marks to two Caframo, a Fan-tastic Vent, a Hella and a Hotwire model, as well as a "budget buy" for a Sea Bowld ($27). The checked fans run between $55 and $100. Also, avoid the (now discontinued) West Marine fan at any price.

We on the left coast just got hit with a week of almost 100º temps (practically unheard of in southern California) and a cabin fan makes a big difference. When on, with the two hatches open, it probably dropped the temp inside the cabin by 10º.

[John Turpin]

I was cruising through WalMart recently and found a 10" battery-powered fan that took 8 D cell batteries. It also came with a 110 volt transformer. Some quick aisle-way math told me that it was a 12 volt fan. I think it cost 8 or 9 buckaroonies and soon it was mine.

I snipped the transformer block off the cord and attached a car charger jack. Plugging the fan into my jumpstart battery's cigarette lighter port produced a very nice, quiet breeze. Dandy.

I made a big screened hatchboard that holds the fan. I made another screened board to exhaust and circulate the air. I just tested this out on a week's trip on the Gulf Coast and it worked beautifully.

http://www.tetra-sail.com/tetra_images/hatch5.jpg

[Tylerdurden]

Awesome John, Thats what we need here is ideas for us folk who cannot afford most stuff in marine catalogs. The Wal Mart purchase is a killer for me but just the same I bet it could be found somewheres else.

[cats..paw]

Paladin,

Neat rig for pulling cool bilge air.

Which boat was TanaMari?

Kit.

[paladin]

TanaMari
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj152/paladinsfo/amihan.jpg

[cats..paw]

My my, ain't she the pretty thing.

I like her keel line and transom rudder.
Some drafty, too....8' or so?

Is she built or still on the board?

[paladin]

Built cruised and sold.....now about 25 years old going on 30.....presently in charter service in Turkey I think...

[cats..paw]

Chuck,
Was she designed for particular waters?
Where did she cruise?
Kit.

[paladin]

around the world.....