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BluMaxx blowers
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Wildthings
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:19 pm    Post subject: BluMaxx blowers Reply with quote

Anyone tried adding one of these blowers to your heating system? They claim to be quieter and of better quality than other inline blowers.

http://replacementboatparts.com/bilgeblowers.aspx
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barefootwestie
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My biggest concern would be whether the blower is able to handle the heat from the exchangers without causing toxic fumes. I'm sure the exchangers generate more heat that the engine compartment of a boat.
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VWDruid
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have read that they do fail from heat.
better off trying a squirrel box fan.
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

never thought about it but I'll bet one of those could be adapted to use as an ambulance style fan.
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Randy in Maine
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 1:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Better to blow hot air than to suck hot air.
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busman78
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Installed one (similar brand) in my 70, lasted three years, rather noisey, picked up a couple of this style to be mounted up front between the splash pan and floor.
http://www.wholesalemarine.com/p/MAY-54124/
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Oil Phil-M
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 3:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I bought a similar unit from some place in Arizona years ago. Kit was designed specifically for buses and worked great at first. But over time the hot air passing through the inside softened the plastic and the torque of the fan motor distorted the motor mounts and the fan blade slowly but noisily grinded itself into the side of the housing.

Then I read blowing=good; sucking=bad which made sense so I've never looked for another unit to replace it. If I was to do it again I would look for a way to boost the already existing aux fan like using one of these 4" units to feed into the aux fan. Could even try sourcing air from inside the van like the gas heaters do.
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Air_Cooled_Nut
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

busman78 wrote:
Installed one (similar brand) in my 70, lasted three years, rather noisey, picked up a couple of this style to be mounted up front between the splash pan and floor.
http://www.wholesalemarine.com/p/MAY-54124/

Fiberglass body, not plastic...nice! Let us know how it works out (output, noise, etc.).
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Wildthings
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 5:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Blowing=good; sucking=bad is an over simplification. So long as the line pressure before any added blower is above atmospheric you will not suck in any exhaust gases. In the heating system as VW built it, the pressure goes from several inches of water at the connections between the cooling fan and the heat exchanger to zero inches of water at the front outlets. You would need a much more affective fan than an inline axial bilge fan to ever draw much of a vacuum especially when the engine is revved. You might be able to draw a slight vacuum ahead of the blower while the engine is idling, but that would have to be determined by testing the pressures in the duct work

That said if you have ever run the engine with the center duct removed you would know that the heater air flow even at idle is very high, what is lacking is not volume but pressure. I doubt that in free air that a small axial fan blows anywhere near that much air as the engine fan can push through the heat exchangers so I just see it as unlikely that the fan could draw a vacuum unless mounted far forward very near the outlet ducts, at which point drawing a vacuum is probably of little concern. All a fan located mid ship is going to do IHO is add a bit of pressure to boost the flow.

Yes the fans get very hot definitely above their design temperatures, which is why I started this thread to see if anyone had any experience with this particular fan, some makes likely handle heat better than others, especially since the heater air temperatures go up markedly when you add an inline fan, as the heat loss per unit volume of air decreases with the added flow. A fan with a metal shell and blades would be nice, but I know of no one who makes such an inline fan in the correct size.


Last edited by Wildthings on Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:23 am; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Installed one (similar brand) in my 70, lasted three years, rather noisey, picked up a couple of this style to be mounted up front between the splash pan and floor.
http://www.wholesalemarine.com/p/MAY-54124/


what kind of amerage do they draw? I am wondering if one could be adapted to a 12v cigarette lighter type arrangement and plastic plate that would fit into a partially rolled down window and keep fresh air coming in all night long. We are a little nervous about cutting holes in the floor as this is not a daily driver.

We thought about ambulance fans but from the size I am afraid they would run the battery down if they ran all night.
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://forums.kombiclub.com/showthread.php?p=129702
any one seen Nigel?
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74westy
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm having trouble finding my bilge... Wink
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:31 pm    Post subject: Fan in line Reply with quote

I saw two types of metal in -line fans here on the Samba: I believe one was a Dayton, and the outher was from an outfit called metronix, or something like that. I have the plastic bilge myself and do see it slowly warping Rolling Eyes
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would think that one could mount the late bay fan style outlets into a Y and make some kind of a back pressure flap so that when it is off the flap is closed and when it is on it pushes the flap open and forces more air through the system.
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AndyM
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I put in a squirrel cage blower from a BIG motorhome and it works pretty well. Plenty of heat and volume
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busdaddy
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

AndyM wrote:
I put in a squirrel cage blower from a BIG motorhome and it works pretty well. Plenty of heat and volume
Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Where do those hoses go and where does it get the air from? Do you run it all the time?
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:07 am    Post subject: bloer Reply with quote

Looks like DR.Octopus! But hey if it works let us in on the the how and why Laughing
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The squirrel cage sucks air like a stock blower and the four outlets "T" together into two stock holes leading to the heat exchangers; two per side. My flapper boxes are wired open and the new blower has a 3-way switch. I have plenty of defrost ability and heat , even in sub-freezing temps.
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busman78
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A bilge blower was never meant to be run continuously, it was designed for maybe five minutes of run time. Between the temperature of the VW heated air and constant running getting three years from a $20 inline blower is acceptable. The further forward they are installed the more likely they are for survival hence the squirrel cage up under the splash pan.

Now taking the squirrel cage idea one step further, avoid using the engines fan, have the squirrel cage blower draw the air from the cab (inside) and through the HE's and you would be recirculating air that would become warmer with ever pass. My brother did twin blowers like that on a bug and it would roast you in the dead of winter even at idle.
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Wildthings
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 3:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Has any one tried increasing the size of the duct work forward of the diverter valve for the rear compartment? Going to smaller duct work at this point seems like an engineering blunder to me. For myself the forward ducting has 100% of the air flow as exist farther back 100% of the time the heat is on. Why VW would have necked down the duct at this point when the air flow is more often than not the same forward of it is beyond me. As a rough guess I would think that the pressure loss forward of the diverter valve is probably 3-4 times greater per unit length than in the center duct section.
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