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Sky_Boss · 07-04-2014, 09:33 AM

OK...I heard this from a motorhome owner and thought I would toss it out for a "second opinion"...

He told me that if you use insulation plugs in the fantastic fan opening that the heat build up in extremely hot areas can cause the fan blades to melt. Of course, this would be during the day when the sun is beating down on the fan covers and trapping hot air between the covers and insulation plugs.

Any one else heard of this or had it happen?

John Hilley · 07-04-2014, 09:44 AM

It has never happened to me. I also have a shroud over mine to allow opening in the rain.

Cypressloser · 07-04-2014, 10:06 AM

I haven't seen it but wouldn't doubt it for one minute.
Vinyl melts, Asphalt melts why not plastic fan blades.

pagosajoe · 07-04-2014, 10:09 AM

Hmmm...here's a little data about plastics and temperatures at which they will melt:

PVC, polyvinyl chloride, melts at 212 °C (about 414 °F)
Teflon®, which we use to coat cookware, is polytetrafluoroethene - PTFE, and it melts at 327 °C (about 621 °F)
POM copolymer has a melting point of 162-173 °C.
PLA softens at 50 °C
ABS softens at 90 °C

I'll let you decide...

Skip426 · 07-04-2014, 10:26 AM

A number of our neighbors at our southern home , store their trailers in the AZ summer heat, record 127 in the area. I helped replace a fantastic fan on a 5er that had been stored in the south for at least 5 summers. The blades crumbled when touched, the vent openings were covered on the inside with water heater bubble insulation and a white vent cover installed, it broke too. Fan was original to the 15 year old 5er. We form fit insulation to the out side of new vent cover, to try and help prevent problems with the new fan.
What would happen with a black vent cover ?

Actual melting of the blades , I don't think so, damage ? Definitely !

NeilV · 07-04-2014, 02:57 PM

They may get brittle over time but would have to get near to the point of spontaneous combustion to melt them. That said I live in Florida and so far in eight years in the Florida Sunshine the fans with the insulated plugs/pillows in place have yet to melt. The first three years of using the pillows the bathroom vent did not have a rain cover over it and was in direct sun. We recently took the plastic wrap off the pillows since it looked like we had decided to keep them (or was it because the cat.....).