Re: Stus-List Solar day/night fans - things you need to know

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 12:29:45 -0700

I had installed two of the 20703 fans on the top of my dorade boxes (as replacements for the cowl vents that kept jumping overboard). The diameter of the fans overhung the sides of the dorade boxes a bit, and both were snagged and destroyed by flogging sheets during my  voyage to Bermuda last year. That was the prime reason I removed the dorade boxes and mounted the new fans on the cabin top.

I will say that in several months of sailing over last fall and winter, I had no problem with the sheets snagging on the 20703 mounted on the deck, though I can see it might be possible if the sheets were smaller than the 7/16th diameter sheets I use for my genoa.

Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: "Dennis C. via CnC-List"
Sent: Apr 10, 2018 9:12 AM
To: CnClist
Cc: "Dennis C."
Subject: Re: Stus-List Solar day/night fans - things you need to know

Rick,

You went into a lot more detail.  Good job.  Your post was better at explaining what I had seen about the 20803 vs the 20703 and the fitment issues with the 20803.  Both have fairly vertical sides for catching lines.

By "new" Nicro, I meant the 20703 as opposed to the old Nicro that's been gone for several years.  This was the old one:


The old Nicro fans never caught lines.

Dennis C.

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 11:39 PM, Rick Brass via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote:

Dennis, et al;

 

Having installed both the Day/Night model N20703 (last fall) and N20803 (just last week) on Imzadi, I have a couple of observations.

 

I’ve replaced my dorade boxes with these fans. The Day/Night Plus N20703 was a pretty simple installation. The main difficulty was enlarging the 3” diameter hole in the deck to fit the larger diameter of the fan. The mounting plate screws to the deck, and the fan itself screws to the mounting plate. So it is a pretty  robust installation. There is a trim ring included for installation inside the headliner, but I just enlarged the hole in the white Lexan panels that covered where my dorades came through the ceiling. (BTW, you refer to the Day/Night Plus as the “new” Nicro. They’ve actually been available for a couple of years snow.)

 

The new N20803 fan is larger in diameter overall, stands higher off the deck, and needs a significantly larger hole through the deck. Installation was, consequentially, much more difficult. Installation is by a trim ring that the fan screws into with an O-ring seal between the upper trim ring and the fan (there are two neoprene seals between the fan and the deck), and a lower trim ring that screws onto the output of the fan and is supposed to snug up to the headliner. The minimum spacing of the two rings is 3”, and the deck/headliner of my 38 above the head is only 2” thick, so I had to modify both trim rings to get them to screw into place.

 

The light on the N20803 is a nice feature, and the access to the battery is easier if it needs replacing. And you can switch from intake to exhaust by flipping a small switch on the light housing rather than changing the fan blades. The assembly  seems pretty  robust. I suspect that you are correct about sheets hanging up on the fan, but my fans are between the “islands” on the cabin top for mounting winches and cleats, so that is probably not a real problem for me… certainly they are a lot less likely to capture sheets than the old dorade boxes and cowl vents.

 

Unfortunately, the housing that holds the lights and switches seem to have cut down on the amount of air being moved. My two fans are about 3 feet apart, and the Day/Night Plus N20703 is moving noticeably more air.

 

Also unfortunately, while the Day/Night Plus N20703 and 4 are in the on-line Marineco listing of vent fans, they are no longer in the Marineco catalog. And West Marine told me they are being replaced by the N20803 and 4.

 

In hindsight, I wish I had done a little more research and bought a second Day/Night Plus fan from Amazon.

 

Rick Brass

Washington, NC

 

 








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