SurFlow vent fan motor to hot to run

[chief02]

I have a SurFlow Comfort remote controlled roof vent with fan. The other day I went to turn it on. The lid would open but the motor would not run. I checked all the fuses and reset the remote according to the manual. Still no go. I pondered it for a while and found the motor was really hot even though it hadnt been running. I got to thinking (no wise cracks Rockin!) that maybe the motor was to hot to start. Thats when it occured to me that maybe the vent pillow that I had stuffed up there to keep the heat gain from the sun to a minimum had trapped the suns heat to the point it overheated the motor and tripped a thermal protection. So, to prove or dis-prove my hypothosis, I left the vent lid open and the pillow out. I came back a few hours later,,,WaLa it work fine, ran like a champ. So now I reinserted the pillow and closed the lid and let it bake. TaDa,,Hypothosis provin! It would not work. Opened it up let it cool and it worked fine, Has anyone elese ever experienced this?

[rockintom]

Wow Chief, it's surprising that the residual heat is hot enough to trip the thermal protection. Anyway, we have a Maxxair vent cover for a fan such as Shurflo or Fantastic. We don't need the pillow in this set up to control light. CW has it on sale right now for like $77.

I will give you a couple of pieces of advice regarding this fan setup. One, if you read on the various RV websites the Shurflo fan motor is lacking quality. The biggest issue is after some use, the motor squeaks/chirps at low speed operation. Replacement of the motor only fixes it for a short period of time. Some folks report as many as 6 replacements. When my did it.....a call to a technical person at Shurflo proved only one thing...."we can try a new one, want me to send you one?" It was obvious that the issue hasn't been fixed in production. I got one and installed it and it works fine with no noise at this time. I did disassemble the old and it is a cheaply China made motor. And apparent to me that it has a brush to commentator contact issue. The issue could probably be corrected by making the commentator finish smoother and change the brush material. Just my best guess.

Second, I've order parts/pieces from Shurflo 3 times in 8 years and all 3 times the pieces have no signs of ever being ordered when I call back in 3 weeks and asked about my order. MIA. So check on them regularly and get a Fed Ex number if possible and get names, times and dates. Maybe it just my luck that this happened.

OT. Did you read my post on Emergency Exits? I thought I'd get a comment from the main Chief Fire Lizard!!!! rockin'

[Senior Chief]

ShurFlo has had lots and lots and LOTS of problems with these fans. They will ship out replacement parts for free but its a major PITA.

We have replaced the motor on ours twice, as well as the control board, and the motor is gone again. As soon as I get ambitious enough to replace it, I'm buying a Fantastic vent to go in its place.