Anyone remove kitchen vent fan on roof?

[MandG-Fun]

Its a cold snowy day here in southern CO and I'm sitting around planning my solar install. It occurred to me that the silly kitchen vent fan, that we've never used in 7 years, is taking up prime real estate on my roof that could be put to much better use with a run of PV panels over that area. Have any of you guys removed this? I know it may be a long shot... just wondering if I can get the benefit of someone else's project before I loose sleep over it.

[jacwjames]

I have a friend who removed it from his 1998 Windsor. He had a rubber roof and was having it replaced and decided to do away with the Koolmatic fan. You would have to seal the roof hole, since you have a fiberglass roof it should be doable. Not sure what he did on the inside to cover the hole.

If you do remove it you might consider putting it in the classifieds. Some of the parts are not available anymore and they would get snapped up pretty quickly. The inside vent cover and motor are items people are always looking for.

[wildtoad]

Can’t help, but my that is one clean roof!

[8.3Oilbuner]

Hi Glenn; Agree with Jim. Those Koolmatic fan parts can be in high demand. If you have the inside cover that is not cracked, gold. I see you have a 2000 Dynasty York, 34'. Rare coach and nice. I have a 01- 34' Windsor and I think we have about the same floor plan. Real rare to see your coach out there for sale. All the short higher end diesel pushers never hit the market and are all sold ahead of time. As Wildtoad mentioned, nice clean roof. I wax mine twice a year and wish mine was inside. Good luck on what you decide to do with the Koolmatic!

[MandG-Fun]

When we bought the coach in 2012 it only had 30K miles on it and the interior was pretty much like new. We never used the Koolmatic and the cover is in perfect condition I suspect the PO never did either.

I could potentially remove the entire assembly and build an LED panel light for that spot since power is already there. My only concern is having zero experience doing fiberglass work to patch the roof. I'm not so concerned with cosmetics as it would be covered with a PV panel, it just needs to be absolutely water tight.

And yes, Oilburner8.3... we love our short Dynasty. It has all of the Dynasty bells and whistles in a compact package with an ISC 350 so we can easily tow the Jeep or a trailer with the Polaris in the mountains. We love to boondock and have gotten into places to camp that are off the beaten track and beautiful. We get some pretty strange looks from people tent camping thinking that these crazy people took a wrong turn and were too dumb to turn around.

[cavie]

Removing it my work for you but it's tuff on resale. I use all three of my roof vents all summer. How do you remove cooking smells and humidity if you don't use the roof vent? I installed a side wall exit range hood on my 5th wheel to solve the smell and heat issue.

[MandG-Fun]

Originally Posted by cavie

Removing it my work for you but it's tuff on resale. I use all three of my roof vents all summer. How do you remove cooking smells and humidity if you don't use the roof vent? I installed a side wall exit range hood on my 5th wheel to solve the smell and heat issue.

Not to dismiss your comments, they are certainly valid, but in response... we do a lot of research before we make major purchases and especially with vehicles we pay cash and tend to keep them. Our coach is perfect for us and we'll run it until we are unable to hit the road. We never consider the next owner in making something work for our needs. As for cooking smells and humidity. We spend most of our time in the southwest where humidity is rarely above 25%. When we are in more humid environments we just crack the windows. For cooking, we have a 2 burner stove and grill that we set up outside that connects to our main propane tank and all of our major cooking occurs outside. We've owned the coach for 7 years, crisscrossed the country coast to coast several times and never once used this fan.

[Kiss4aFrog]

If your roof is fiberglass and above all want a water tight patch on the fiberglass you might want to call around to a few automotive body shops to see who might be willing to climb up on your roof to fabricate and blend in a patch. It wouldn't be any different than patching a boat or corvette. It's just a bigger job than I think you might want to try to DIY unless you've worked with glass mat before.

[jacwjames]

Youtube is your friend, do a search on fiberglass repair.

I worked in a truck fabrication shop one summer where they built fiberglass refrigerated truck beds. Learned the entire process. It is pretty forgiving and not rocket science. Pretty much all of the supplies are readily available.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[vito.a]

An easy way to cover the hole would be a tinted skylight (similar to the one over the shower but smaller to fit the fan hole). They just screw down on the roof top. Buy the matching interior trim piece and it will look factory.
Even with a solar panel above, it will let some light in.

[96 Wideglide]

I have 3 fantastic fans, one in the kitchen, one in the shower room, and one in the toilet room. I wouldn't give up any of them!!

[Spdracr39]

Originally Posted by vito.a

An easy way to cover the hole would be a tinted skylight (similar to the one over the shower but smaller to fit the fan hole). They just screw down on the roof top. Buy the matching interior trim piece and it will look factory.
Even with a solar panel above, it will let some light in.

Has to be flat so he can put a solar panel over it. I thought of the same thing otherwise.

[CountryB]

Originally Posted by vito.a

An easy way to cover the hole would be a tinted skylight (similar to the one over the shower but smaller to fit the fan hole). They just screw down on the roof top. Buy the matching interior trim piece and it will look factory.
Even with a solar panel above, it will let some light in.

I think that would be the easiest solution, if there is is enough space under the solar panel for the skylight dome.

There are short domes (4" tall) but I have not seen any flat ones. If a 4" will fit. that would be easier and cheaper than filing the opening (fiberglassing) and trying to do something on the inside to fill the opening too.

https://www.icondirect.com/rv-skylight-sl1824/

[RamiDav]

I would use a 1/8" aluminum plate . Seal it good and put your solar panel over it .

Install a light inside and go camping .

Ray