Caframo Fan

[Norman_E]

Has anyone else bought a Caframo fan, the type wth the "finger safe" blades and no guard, and found it noisy?
I bought one because they are supposed to be very quiet. Tested at home it seemed reasonable but not as quiet as I had expected. On the boat it is another matter. It came with a rubber sucker base, and an alternative rigid mount. The former is pretty useless unless you have a glass surface, on the chart table it lost grip within a minute. The rigid mount has a spring to allow you to adjust it, with that fitted a furious vibration between the two halves set up a racket that could be heard outside the boat. After removing the spring and bolting the two halves firmly together it is useable on low speed, but still noisy, on high speed it is intolerable. The problem is clear, the spinning parts are badly out of balance, and something in the motor makes a high speed tapping noise. It is far noisier on high speed than the cheap car fan I bought it to replace.
I notice it is made in China so I guess Caframo have joined the large group of manufacturers now importing Chinese rubbish branded with their name.

 

[Salty John]

I suggest you return it to wherever you bought it for a replacement. They are ordinarily excellent fans - for some reason you got a bad one.
We sell the 757, we don't offer the one with the rubber sucker base, because we were so impressed with them on two long term cruising boats.

 

[Tradewinds]

I bought 3 fans last year. Very happy with them - in fact I think they're the best fans I've ever had & I've had a few. Mine are acceptably quiet at low speed & can be left on all night. At high speed they are still quieter than any other fan I've had.

Maybe you've got a rogue.

 

[Norman_E]

I fully intend to return it, but I am out here in Turkey for seven weeks, and cannot do so untill I return. Bloody annoying as I really need it out here, and the old fan has a broken mount, so that if I fit it back it just dangles and aims in the wrong direction.

 

[ccscott49]

Do these fans come in 24v? bought time I got rid of my mains fans, that have to run off the inverter!

 

[Norman_E]

I believe they do, but don't bother if they are as noisy as my 12 volt one. I am just thinking of going the other way via a very small inverter to drive a nice quiet mains fan. I have a very quiet 3 speed mains fan rated at 25 watts that puts out more air on its lowest speed than the Caframo does on high. I am sure I can find a small and quiet mains fan to cool the chart table corner with a lower rating than that.

 

[ccscott49]

Thanks for that, I have two smallish mains fans, that draw 25watts, so I'll stick with those.

 

[whipper_snapper]

I have 2 model 743s and they are really rubbish - very noisy and not much breeze.

Like this:

Can you assure me that the 757 is MUCH better ?


Thanks

 

[Salty John]

In my experience the Caframo 757 is the best available - quiet and powerful. I've used them on two boats in the tropics over many years.

 

[Norman_E]

Mine is model 747, and almost as noisy as one!

 

[jeremyshaw]

We have a few Carframo fans. I generally prefer Hella for sheer effectiveness, but they are harder to clean and more bulky. One of our Carframos is more noisy than the others which is because the spring which holds the fan to the toothed base is not as strong as the others and this causes vibration.

I think you have got a bad example - as you'll have seen from other posters these fans don't normally cause problems. I would not leave them running on an unattended boat though - a friends severely overheated and might have caused a fire. I guess this could happen with any fan.