Fan-Tastic Air vents

[Keith Cooper]

Needed to install a new control circuit for one of the Fan-Tastic air vents on my 2000 Beaver Patriot Thunder (Vent in kitchen area). In the process of following the "Fan-Tastic" step by step procedures the vent in the Bathroom stopped working. :-/
Checked the resistance on the fuses for both units and the fuses are fine. are these units on a common circuit somewhere?
Thanks

[Gerald Farris]

Both of your Fantastic Fans should share a common circuit breaker in the 12V distribution panel that is located next to the 120V distribution panel (breaker box). On most 2000 model floor plans these panels are located in the closet at the rear of the coach.

Gerald

[Keith Moffett]

Under the roof lid for each vent is a plunge switch.  For the fan to work, the lid must be up and the switch allowed to pop up.  It makes no sense that your bathroom switch would stop working when you serviced the other, but mine did.
If you have power to the fan but no action, raise the lid, pull two screws and the plunge switch, clean it with a soft wire brush and lube it with a spray lube (corrosion X is good).  If the switch is now working good but hasn't solved your problem, you just completed an anual service point so no loss.
I would verify switches and then call Fantastic.
Best of luck
Keith

[Jeremy Parrett]

Gerald is correct.  All three of my Fantastic Fans have a mind of their own,except when I switch them on ,so to be sure they are off and closed I trip the breaker in the rear closet on the black panel.  
 Fantastic Fans have a great after sales service. Tell them of your problems as I did. They sent me 3   new fan opening motors  and lids etc  jeremy

[Joel Ashley]

I've not been so lucky with their customer service.  Our Fantastic Fans both have a very narrow temperature gap for their automatic side.  When the interior temp. reaches the set point, they open.  Then almost immediately they close.  This results in an annoying open/close cycling regimen that has been the case since new and that can drive us nuts.  I was told I needed to set them at a lower temp. and they would stay open longer, but that made no sense and no difference;  if the thermosensor on/off gap isn't programmed wide enough, then no matter what I set the fan's thermostat at, it will shut the fan down as soon as the moving air drops a degree or two.

Now I only set it on automatic when we're not in the coach, and manually turn them on and off when we are.  If only one fan did it, I'd expect it to be faulty;  but both fans behave the same, and as I recall Fantastic Fans were the ones that told me that's just the way they are. :-/

-Joel

[Bill Johnson]

Joel, which fan do you have?  If it is the automatic with the remote control, I may have a solution for you.

[Joel Ashley]

No remote control, Bill.  Just the basic automatic/thermostat fan plus rain sensor.

[Edward Buker]

It is a frustrating design. With the lid closed, the thermostat sensor heats up under the cover in the sun. It reaches a set point and the lid opens and the fan and air flow rapidly cools the sensor but not the coach. The lid closes and the whole process rapidly repeats itself, sensor heats, cover re-opens, fan on cools the sensor and so on..... This system basically by design does not work. By lowering the thermostat knob set point (counter clockwise) you can get the system to stay on by basically over riding the temperature sensing feature. If you could move the sensor from under the cover to inside the coach along the ceiling this system would work. It would be a trick to hide but may be somehow possible.
In the end I purchased the remote control option and installed it. Not a very difficult job and it is much more satisfactory. I run it on manual mode and set the fan speed where it is quiet. My wife could never reach the controls on the original version anyway. I may do the second unit this winter. It does end the frustration.....

Later Ed

[Gerald Farris]

Joel,
Your solution would be to wire your fans so that the lift motor is only controlled by a wall switch and the rain sensor, and the fan motor is controlled by the thermostat on the fan. That is the way that mine are wired and when I turn the fan on, it opens and stays open until I turn the switch off to close it or until it rains. The fan motor turns on and off with the thermostat, but the dome does not move so there is no noise from the lift motor. If you have a wall thermostat instead of an open and close switch it gets a lot more complicated.

Gerald

[Edward Buker]

Gerald,

I like that approach. Did your coach come wired that way or did you rewire the fan assembly?

Later Ed

[Bill Johnson]

Joel, a few years ago we were having problems with our fan.  I contacted Fan-Tastic and they sent me a "kit" for retro-fitting our unit.  Ours now works from a remote that has "off/on, manual speed control and thermostat control" (in addition to the rain sensor).  You may want to contact them and see if this would be an option for you.
Here is a link to the model they sent us:
http://www.fantasticvent.com/products/model_6600_kit/model_6600_kit.html

[LarryNCarolynShirk]

After 8 years of many phone calls and trying new lift motors and arms, I finally talked to the vice president (he has a great name, Larry) of Fantastic Vent who said there is an adjustment to spread the lift temperature from the close temperature.  He had a tech come to my coach at the Redmond FMCA convention to perform the adjustment.  Now I can set the temperature to open at a point lower than max.  The lid opens and runs long enough to actually vent the hot air out of the coach before closing.  It works the way it is supposed to at last.  No more up and down nonsense.  The tech had to remove the surround trim, drop the control plate and use an Allen wrench to make the adjustment.

Larry        
  

[Gerald Farris]

Ed,
The open and close wall switch was original to the coach, but I rewired the fans (with the help of the Fantastic Fan people) to get them to operate the way that I wanted them to, and I also added a two directional switch so that the fans can blow in or out. Sometimes when I do not want to leave the windows open, but I want to have ventilation for the dogs while we are gone, I turn one fan blowing in and the other fan to blowing out so there is fresh air flow in the coach but the rain sensors will close the fans if it rains and reopen them when they dry to keep the air circulating.

Gerald

[Edward Buker]

Gerald,

I am not needing the two directional switch (another good idea) but if you had details on the other wiring modification it would save me some time instead of figuring it out for myself. Such a good idea, you would think they would have come wired this way....

later Ed

[Gerald Farris]

Ed,
I am sorry that I do not remember the wiring changes that I made. I did it 6 years ago, and at my age that information is long gone. If Fantastic Fan can not email you the necessary wiring changes, I will drop one of my fans down and get you a wiring diagram from it.

You may also look for the adjustment that Larry mentioned to widen the temperature spread between open and close, but I prefer to leave the dome open to prevent the "greenhouse effect" on the sensor and just cycle the fan motor as needed. This also works good at night were the fan cuts off as soon as it cools off enough, but the dome stays open to provide ventilation as the warmth from 2 people and the 2 Greyhounds sleeping on the floor at the foot of the bed, rises and goes out the open vent.

Gerald