Home, Home On The Range Hood

Posted April 28, 2018 – Narrated by Jim

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In small spaces, it’s important that everybody get along. Relationships thrive on communication, so Carmen and I talk about everything – food mostly.

In fact, just a couple of days ago, Carmen said, “BLT?” and I said, “Please!”

Great dialogue – memorable and digestible.

Who says the French are verbose? Victor Hugo and his publisher had the shortest recorded written exchange in history. Within weeks after Les Miserables had been released, Hugo enquired with a simple “?” and his publisher responded, “!”

So, back to the BLT shorthand.

Carmen takes the bacon out of the freezer, lights up the stove and switches on the range hood fan. Then, I put on my headset because the fan soaks up the acoustic environment, making so much racket it’s like chewing ice and blow drying your hair at the same time.

The efficient, standard tri-blade moves air like a boss – expelling heat and fumes from the trailer – but the electro-mechanical soundscape dominates the space.

Now, some folks would say, “So what? Chill on Pandora and smell the bacon. Food is a language in itself.”

But Carmen likes to talk when she’s cooking and there’s a reason for that … Like avocado. When she says, “You want avocado on that?” you want to hear her so you can nod or thumbs-up so you get avocado on that … because if you don’t you might not get avocado on that and that’s all I’m saying … about that.

But our friend, Larry Cook saved our bacon!  Larry and Jacquie sold us our Beauty back in 2015 – and while on a recent visit, they showed us some upgrades in their 34′ Airstream.

Larry replaced his Airstream factory fan with quieter technology. This fan, the SAM-1, abandons the usual standard tri-blade …

… for a squirrel cage.

Whoa! What a difference! It’s like our fan had an adenoidectomy!

So, now, Carmen doesn’t have to yell, “Want avocado on that!!!?” We’re just back to yelling about the normal stuff like, “Where’s my socks?!” “Same place you put ’em on the *&%^@ kitchen table!”

Old Range Hood fan removal

Okay, so here’s the fix.

First, I remove the four screws that hold the range hood assembly in place …

… being very careful not to disturb the wiring …

… and gently lower the hood without unhooking the wiring.

Then carefully disconnect the two conduits.

New fan wired

Outside, I cover the picnic table with a soft towel to protect the black finish. This is my workbench.

I take out the four screws holding the old tri-blade fan in place and turn the fan upright on its side to get a good look at the wiring.

The hood has four control switches: two for the fan and light, another for the water pump, and a ‘test’ switch to check the battery condition, fresh water tank, black water tank, and gray water tank levels, plus fuel levels in the two propane tanks.

Wires come out from two locations to supply all four control switches.

There is a large bundle of wires which appear to be exclusively for the monitoring system, so I won’t disturb those.

I’m focusing on the four wires going to the fan and light.

The fan has black and white wires and the light has red and white wires. There’s also a ceramic rectangular brick on the right side of the fan enclosure with three wires – blue, black and white. That ceramic brick is a resistor to allow for two-speed control of the fan. I’ll ignore those three wires and not disturb the resistor.

I cut the red and white wires to the light and the black and white wires to the fan …

… and remove about a half-inch of wire protector from each of the four wires to expose the ends …

… then, attach the two original white wires to the single white wire on the new fan …

… and attach the red wires together …

… and, of course, the black wires. All, quite logical.

Exhaust vents do not align

The exhaust shaft on the new fan doesn’t match the exhaust hole in the hood assembly.

The new fan’s exhaust is 3 inches high …

… but the hole in the hood assembly is only 2 inches high.

After some instruction, I go outside and cut away the vent that does not align …

But, then, the triangular supports for the vent hole protrudes, stopping the new fan from resting correctly in place.

Using tin snips, I cut off the triangular supports…

and make room for the new fan.

The modification created a baffle effect so the exhaust can move, unhindered, through the hood assembly vent to the outside vent.

 New fan attached and tested

I attach the original four screws back into to the fan assembly and slip in the foam gasket, provided …

.. and go back into the kitchen to test the fan and light …

The wires were reversed.

I messed up.

Back to the picnic table.

Again, I cut the two red wires and two black wires and reverse them so the red goes to the black and the black to the red.

One more time, back in the kitchen … YES! The hood controls show the fan and light controls are correct.

Hood assembly reinstalled

Okay. The vents are aligned. The fan and light look correct. It’s showtime!

With the hood assembly on the stove, I connect the two wiring plugs …

… then – careful of the wiring – raise the hood into place making sure the hood vent lines up with the outside vent …

And the last bit – attach the hood to the cabinet with the four original screws.

One last check to make sure everything works, including the monitors.

Voila.

Done! BLTs (with avocado) for everybody.