Comments about 12V & 24V Turbo Fans:

We run about 20 of these fans since about 20 years on a liveaboard charter boat. And they are all still running !We find them high quality fans with no outside metal parts what easily rust. It's easier to keep the black ones clean and good looking.If the carbon brushes wear out after a couple of thousand hours one can replace the motors what are made by Buehler/Germany.A similiar motor is Buehler # 1.13.022.232.00., available at [@] CAT# DCM-445 what sells for 6 USD per piece.The motor is more powerfull than the original one and slighlty longer so the on/off 2 speed switch needs to get replaced by an external one or better by an adjustable resistor.Also two short M3 screws are needed to properly fix the motor in the front of the housing.If the fan blades develop cracks and the brass center piece get's loose it's easy to fix with some epoxy putty.If the fan get's noisy it can be due to a lack of lubrication. One drop of engine oil on each bearing will solve this.Another common cause for noise is an inbalance of the fan blades. They can easily be removed with an 8 mm socket from the motor shaft and get balancedon an old shaft, put between two glasses, with epoxy added on the side what is always on top.

Comments about 12V & 24V Turbo Fans:

I have burned out six or seven of these fans all due to wearing between brushes and armature. The evidence of failure is a rattling, but if you disassemble the fan and break open the motor case, you will see the root cause.

These fans are designed to a 5,000 hour life. If you run the fan between 5 and 10 hours a day, 200 days a year (reasonable for full-time cruising in warm to hot climates) then this is a 2 to 4 year fan.

Contrast this with the design life of brushless fans of the type used to cool electronic gear. For between $15 and $30 you can buy a fan of similar capacity (100 to 130 CFM) with a design life in excess of 50,000 hours, which would be a 20 to 40 year fan under the same use conditions.

Service and delivery comments:

I called the factory that makes the motors for these fans and they would not sell replacement motors. In short, after 5,000 hours, you throw the fans away.

Comments about 12V & 24V Turbo Fans:

Mounted 2 Hella fans in our aft cabin in 2005. One is still going every day! The other is starting to make noise. Now we have purchased 6 more for the V-Berth and salon areas and to replace the unit that is failing.

Comments about 12V & 24V Turbo Fans:

Have found that after a few years, the hub for the blades breaks apart making the blade rattle on its shaft. It creates a great racket. If there was a replacement blade kit then I would go back to loving my Hella fan. But the cost is too high if it is going to become unusable in just a few years. I have 10 Hella Turbo fans on the boat (live in the tropics) and now am faced with the issue of broken blade hubs on each of them.

Comments about 12V & 24V Turbo Fans:

We installed 2 of these in the aft cabin 5 years ago and one is still running, mostly 24 hours a day!

Comments about 12V & 24V Turbo Fans:

We have two in the aft cabin and two in the forward cabin. All four came with the boat in 1998. Just replaced the two aft. Have been full time cruising for eleven years in August. Fans get a lot of use.