Centurion Power converter

[regbrusan]

I have removed the two fans, from my Centurion (American Enterprises) power converter, for cleaning. When I reinstall them which way should the cooling air flow? From the room into the converter or out of the converter?
Thanks for the help.

[Gene]

Hi regbrusan, Welcome to the forum.

Maybe this picture will help. One faces in and the other faces out. (and they both needed cleaning here. )



Ignore the writing, it was when I found the big coil thing was hitting the heatsink causing the converter to buzz.

[regbrusan]

Thanks for the quick reply. My converter doesn't look like your picture. The fans are inside behind the converter. I think its the older model. Trailer is a 2003 2499.

Reggie

[Gene]

This one is a CS4500 from a 2002 T2363. I an quite sure JohnB has pictures someplace of your model.

[Gene]

I found a thread by JohnB with some pictures that may help.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f6...rade-8888.html

[regbrusan]

Thanks Gene this thread you suggested has a very clear picture of the fans in my converter. It looks like both fans are orientated to blow air in the same direction. From the orientation of the blades it looks like they blow air out into the room. Also today I heard from American Enterprises and they say they should blow air out.
I have reassemble them as shown in the picture, attached. they seem to be OK, but of course I can not be sure until I use the trailer for an extended length of time.
Thanks again for you help and concern in this matter. This forum and folks like you that contribute to it are a valuable resource for us rookies.

Yours Truly
Reggie Santos

[JohnB]

Hi Reggie

I see Gene pointed you to my pics. Good. The pic I had was before I took the fans out, so that is how American mounted them, the wires where on the side towards the inside of the camper.

My fans started creating a "cement mixer" effect. Like at 3:00AM Get up, rap on the cover, they shut up, go back to bed, bang bang bang again....

As you can see, I upgraded.

Good luck

John

[regbrusan]

John,

Thanks for your note. Your article on changing power converters is great. The pictures really clarify the project. I am on my second Centurion (American Enterprises) converter, in my 2013 2499, and it seems to be running fine after four or five years of service, just dust on the fans.
I will keep your article in my reference library. If have any problems with this converter it will help me in upgrading my system.
Best regards and thanks again.
Reggie

[Gene]

Reggie, we were all rookies once and with Sunline out of business we all need to help each other out. We a really fortunate to have people like JohnB who does such a great job with photo documenting the details and helping others with his knowledge.

[JohnB]

Thanks for the good words Gene. SOC is a club of many with talents in most every area and then some.

About being a rookie, yes we all where at one time and even after years... the learning never stops

[JerryJ]

Originally Posted by JohnB

Thanks for the good words Gene. SOC is a club of many with talents in most every area and then some.

About being a rookie, yes we all where at one time and even after years... the learning never stops

I'm in the very same boat. I love to learn and sometimes it's even more fun to share the info we learned over the years. I get approached frequently by neighbors being asked tech questions, but I'm honest enough that if I don't know I will say I don't know, but I will research it.

One trick I learned over the years was to filter the dust from some of these cooling fan systems, chargers, converters or almost anything that uses cooling fans.

Those fiberglass cheapy furnace filters do a pretty god job of pre-filtering the dust and dirt whether in your trailer or in the house, even in the shop.
I'll buy a 3 pack and build a box of sorts around the item and join it with duct tape. This filter is not a super filter by any means but removes the air born junk and you can see the filter first hand when it's dirty and time to build another one.

We had an older computer in our neighbor's small engine shop. It was a hobby business for him and being retired I helped out occasionally.

We used this computer to look up the latest specs and a few Youtube how-to pages. We noticed our cooling fan got filthy, so after a fan replacement I built a simple box set up for the computer. I took one or two of these cheap furnace filters and created a box of sorts around the computer.
Between using the airline to blow dirt off engine components and fuel lines, it seemed dirt flew everywhere. Bench cleaning and sweeping doesn't capture the stuff you need to capture. The fan filter proved its worth.

Now, look at your computer under your desk (I don't mean you laptop people) check for those dust bunnies we all know. I had another very small desk-type fan and wrapped a homemade filter of sorts on the intake side of that fan prior to where the air flow was for the CPU box. That pre-filtering made a world of difference for keeping things clean and from over heating.