1993 Sunline Saturn

[Pattiindbfla]

Hi! I bought a 1993 Saturn T1740 ... and have been in restoration mode. The old bathroom vent fan was taken out to replace with a new Maxair manual vent fan. It will not 'stay' working. It did start up and run initially... then stopped. I didn't have a deep cell battery connected for the 12 volt operations. I thought maybe that was needed to make it work even if plugged in to shore power...so i outine in and it did work again for a little bit then stopped. My main question I guess would be I cannot find any information about the amp or voltage of the old fan that I took out a discard PERIOD I Don't Know if maybe There is an issue with the amperage of the new fan period does anybody have information on the original fan or have any ideas on what I may be ding wrong? Thank you in advance for any insight

[JohnB]

Hi,

First off, Welcome!

Now, to your fan situation. If the bath fan was the original, we nicked named them the "Whizzer," as that was about all they would do: make a bunch of whizzing noise and not move much air. They were 12-volt DC fans, and the amperage was not very much, approximately 1.5 to 2.0 amps.

In your case, as long as you have a charged 12-volt battery in the camper, the bath fan should always work until you shut it off or it runs out of power. And yes, some of the older power converters needed a battery connected to work properly. The newer power converters can work standalone. Your 1993 power converter if it is still the original, may be one of the ones that needs a battery installed.

I would "suspect" your problem may not be voltage or current but a connection issue. I'm not sure what model year Sunline started adding a wall-mounted switch for the bath fan, but if yours has one, that switch might be an issue. Being that old, the switch may be bad and not always making contact. Or the push-on wire terminals corroded.

Does the new fan have a switch on it? Many of the new Whizzer types of fan have an actual push button switch on the fan, and they are cheap plastic switches and have been known to fail; sometimes they work, and sometimes they do not. If you wiggle the push button, sometimes it starts working again. The switch can be bad.

If yours is a Maxxair brand fan, they have been known for good quality, and I would not suspect the switch if it has one. However, there may be a connection issue in the wall switch, the wiring from the wall to the ceiling, or a ground wire issue ( the white wire). If you lose DC ground, the light will not work even if the hot wire is good.

You can try this if you checked all the wires for being loose or switches and still do not know the problem. To rule out if the fan is the issue or if there is a power to the fan issue, create a temporary hot and ground wire in the bathroom hanging down at the junction of the new fan wires to the camper wires. A black hot wire and a white ground (DC neg). Wire nut the ends of the temporary wires so they do not touch. Then, use the fan and wait until it starts acting up. When the fan stops working, test the temporary black hot and white ground wire using a 12-volt test light or a volt meter to see if both power and ground are at the fan. If power and ground are coming to the fan, the issue is in the fan if there is no power, something from the wall switch, the wiring, or the power coming out of the fuse panel for that lighting circuit.

I hope this helps, and let us know how it goes.

Also, what is the model of the Maxx Air fan you have? We can look it up to see which one you have.

John