Kool-O-Matic Repair
Just about everyone has or had a need for Kool-O-Matic Repair of their Exhaust fan in their RV. They are a great exhaust fan for the kitchen area as well as the entire RV.
Unfortunately, they are no longer manufactured and therefore just about impossible to get parts for.
Kool-O-Matic Fan SystemWe have had a "squeaky" fan motor now for about 3 years. I took our fan assembly out of the housing about a year ago, but it is pretty hard to actually take apart and clean an electric motor. Besides, I was afraid of small things flying away - never to be found!
Finally, we couldn't take it anymore! However, we didn't want to replace the entire assembly with something that didn't fit, leaked, etc.
After considerable research, we found a blogger that had replaced his with a "universal" type fan blower motor from a NAPA Auto parts store. Ah, the solution for our Kool-O-Matic Repair was getting clearer!!
The blogger had indicated it was a very close replacement to the original Kool-O-Matic System, but required a longer bolt in one area. WOW - This was too good to be true. Since I had taken the system apart a few years ago, I wasn't too nervous about actually swapping out the fan motor.
I had actually forgotten about the bolt but figured I could find whatever I needed.
We ordered NAPA Part # 655-2378 for $34.20 and had it shipped to the local NAPA dealer. We picked it up this morning and approximately an hour later, I am typing this in wonderful "silence"!!! We can just barely hear the fan running!!
Whew - only took 2-3 years to figure this out!!!!! Ah, but the sounds of silence!!
Kool-O-Matic Repair - Removing the old motor
Assuming your old fan motor still turns, be sure to run it and draw an arrow on your housing up top so you are sure to have the blades turning in exhaust mode.
Looking up to the ceiling, it should turn counter-clockwise when done.
The actual replacement and Kool-O-Matic repair was pretty simple.
We removed the 3 outer bolt nuts holding the fan assembly in place and pulled it down and took it outside (pretty dusty). I used a can of computer cleaning "compressed air" to clean the 3 speed switch.
After cleaning that, I loosened the 3 bolts that held the mounting ring in place for the motor and removed the fan with a typical "Allen key wrench".
Now, I had the old and the new motor side by side. The new replacement NAPA motor is slightly thicker in diameter and that's where the longer bolt comes in. The 3 bolts that held the original motor in place wouldn't allow the new motor to fit inside the ring and be tightened.
No problem - I just substituted that "longer bolt" for one of the 3 and spaced out the 3 bolts so they were all pretty evenly compressed around the new motor.
The wiring is simple enough. Just power the switch on and hold the two motor wires to the power source. If it turns the wrong way, simply reverse your two wires. The 3 speed switch has a special crimp on it. Just save that.
Cut it off with about 2-3 inches of a tail and re-crimp that to one of the new motor wires.
The 3 way fan switch rod needs to come back through the vent cover so that was a challenge. We just added some heavy tape to it length wise so we could guide the rod back to the hole (slightly offset now) and used the tape to guide and pull the rod through the vent.
As you may have noticed in the picture above, the "knob" is missing below the grate to control the exhaust speed. We couldn't get it off the first time so I just sawed it off. We use the fan in "Low" speed mode anyway. If I really need to speed it up, I can just use a pair of pliers to turn the rod..... easy!
All said and done - our Kool-O-Matic repair only took about an actual hour of time for wonderful silence and no longer squeaky motor sounds!
