Monday, March 28, 2016

Mr. Fixit

Anyone who has ever owned a Recreational Vehicle, or a boat can tell you that there is always something that needs attention, and simply adding RV or Marine to the name makes the price of parts skyrocket.

That’s just the way it is. 

I suppose the same applies to private aircraft, but I have no experience with planes.

This is the story of an issue I recently had with our 5th wheel trailer. 

In the ceiling of the kitchen area, there is a Fantastic Fan.  That is an exhaust fan that vents through the roof and has a vent cover that  closes to keep things dry when not in use.  It has a control panel on the wall with switches to operate the fan and the motor that raises and lowers the vent cover. 

A while back, the cover was stuck shut – a year or more in the closed position had caused the vent cover to adhere to the seal. I climbed up on a chair and turned the knob to raise the vent manually.  There was a slight pop as the seal released, and then everything worked as designed.

This past week, when I attempted to run the fan, I could hear the little motor turning, but the vent wouldn’t move.  It still went up and down manually, but the motor wouldn’t move it.  I assumed that the gears on the little motor were stripped.

Yesterday, I went on line to find a replacement part.  It took me over half an hour to find.  There were lots of links to kits to automatically control the operation via a thermostat, and even a kit that automatically shuts the cover if it rains, but the lift motor was hard to find.

I did finally find one, and realized that I didn’t need one after all. 

lift motor

The Push-Pull instructions that you see on the motor are not visible on the fan, but that is the way it works.  All I had to do was give the manual knob a slight push up, and everything works the way it was designed to do.

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