A Quieter Galley Fan?

[aircampr]

OK, it has taken me several months to get back to this, but we finally have a galley fan which no longer roars.

I found a suitable replacement fan, made by Orion, which i ordered from Mouser Electronics for about $80. It moves more air than the stock fan, for the same wattage, and is considerably quieter. I drilled out the rivets to remove the original fan, mounting bracket and all. Then, using new mounting holes, and a homemade hardwood bracket, I mounted the new fan in its place. Rubber washers provide vibration isolation. Aluminum "speed tape" seals a small gap around the periphery of the fan (to the plenum chamber). Then I added a toggle switch to side of the box to switch in a 3 Ohm resistor, so the fan has two speeds.

On low speed this fan is very quiet, yet exhausts the fumes from a single burner boiling water in a tea kettle. On high speed, it exhausts better than the stock fan, but is still quieter. (will post measurements later).

1 Original fan in plenum box, removed from hood:


2 New Orion fan:


3 New fan mounted in plenum:


4 View from below, before plenum re-installed under hood (filter removed):


This project was mostly "thinking." The engineering took way longer than the actual replacement, which was about an hours effort plus a couple trips to the hardware store.

Next: how to lock/unlock the vent flap from inside the trailer...

Charlie

[ROBERT CROSS]

Charlie,

Look forward to the pic's....

POI... found ours to be a lot quieter if stainless vent held completely open.
Maybe I won't be changing the fan out after all..it's up to SWMBO.

Bob

[SmokelessJoe]

Charlie,

Thanks for the good picture story.

I recently paid Outdoors Mart $80 for a regular issue NOISEY fan.

This spring I will check to see if my 1976 Argosy can accept this modification.

Sergei

From my iPad

[aircampr]

OK, it has taken me several months to get back to this, but we finally have a galley fan which no longer roars.

I found a suitable replacement fan, made by Orion, which i ordered from Mouser Electronics for about $80. It moves more air than the stock fan, for the same wattage, and is considerably quieter. I drilled out the rivets to remove the original fan, mounting bracket and all. Then, using new mounting holes, and a homemade hardwood bracket, I mounted the new fan in its place. Rubber washers provide vibration isolation. Aluminum "speed tape" seals a small gap around the periphery of the fan (to the plenum chamber). Then I added a toggle switch to side of the box to switch in a 3 Ohm resistor, so the fan has two speeds.

On low speed this fan is very quiet, yet exhausts the fumes from a single burner boiling water in a tea kettle. On high speed, it exhausts better than the stock fan, but is still quieter. (will post measurements later).

1 Original fan in plenum box, removed from hood:


2 New Orion fan:


3 New fan mounted in plenum:


4 View from below, before plenum re-installed under hood (filter removed):


This project was mostly "thinking." The engineering took way longer than the actual replacement, which was about an hours effort plus a couple trips to the hardware store.

Next: how to lock/unlock the vent flap from inside the trailer...

Charlie