Topic: thermostat for electric fan

[christopher]

do you really need a thermostat for the electric fan or can you run it constantly? how many cfm do you need too 800, 1000 ,2000. do you need it to  push or pull air and last but not least what size? 12 15 18 inch fan.any help would be greatly appreciated.

[lanulos89]

you should put one in, if you don't in the winter your jeep will take longer to warm up, plus the fans life will be limited if its always on.  or you could wire it up to a switch and flick it on and off when you need it.  i did that for a month

[christopher]

i thought about doing the switch thing but my dumb a_ _  would forget to turn it on. i might go ahead and try the ford taurse fan and find an adjustable thermostat and relays and all the good stuff.

[Erik]

use a 3 position switch and a thermoswitch....

position 1: on with ignition and thermoswitch
position 2: on
position 3: off

this way you leave the switch in the 1st position which will allow the fan will run whenever the ignition is on AND the thermoswitch tells the fan that it has to be on..... use the 2nd position if you feel the need to cool off your radiator's contents (helpful if you have a near overheating experience and have to turn off the jeep momentarily)... use the 3rd position for water crossings :)

SPAL has a nice wiring install kit with thermoswitch and waterproof relay with plentifully long wire leads....

[jagular7]

I've yet to see an aftermarket electric fan use a temp sensor that is on the engine. Why do you have to place the sensor into the radiator fins rather than use one off the block somewhere?

[SKI BOY]

use a 3 position switch and a thermoswitch....

SPAL has a nice wiring install kit with thermoswitch and waterproof relay with plentifully long wire leads....

What's 'SPAL' ?? :?:

[christopher]

hey i did see a temp senser on a web sight that acually did screw in the block ill have to find it again and post the sight for you. it looked like it would be the real deal to go with.

[yellowta]

I installed mine with a thermo switch, but my new problem is that my engine never gets up to the 205 degrees for the fan to come on at all. It's winter, but I live in Louisiana where it's not uncommon for it to be in the 70's in January sometimes and when i run my a/c, there is no fan to cool the condensor... which leads to not so functional a/c.  Also have the same problem trying to use the defrost since the compressor also runs in that setting. I'm thinking about running a jumper from my a/c circuit to the fan relay to turn the fan on when I turn the a/c compressor on  :?

[Erik]

SPAL is a huge company that makes cooling fans and stuff.  search for them on google... you'll find what i'm talking about.

i installed my thermoswitch that came with the SPAL kit into a ghetto T that i fabbed using plumbing stuff from lowe's



the SPAL relay is the waterproof one on the far right.

[Erik]

I'm thinking about running a jumper from my a/c circuit to the fan relay to turn the fan on when I turn the a/c compressor on  :?

that is the proper way to do it... your fan should come on when your a/c is turned on.

[Guardian7]

If you want to gain back the horse power you also want a thermostat on the e-fan so it only runs when there is little or no air flow which is what I found after installing a flex-a-lite, it only runs when you are not moving or when crawling slow up a hill off-road. So you gain back about 10 hp when driving on the freeway or around town.

[lanulos89]

my thermo stat gets strapped around the upper hose, seems to work fine.

[Erik]

If you want to gain back the horse power you also want a thermostat on the e-fan so it only runs when there is little or no air flow which is what I found after installing a flex-a-lite, it only runs when you are not moving or when crawling slow up a hill off-road. So you gain back about 10 hp when driving on the freeway or around town.

what tells your fan that you don't need it to be powered on when moving more than 10 mph or so?  how does the relay know when you have slowed down and are about to crawl a rock and need it's cooling power?

what you say is absolutely 100% correct about only havin git on when you need it... but how do you control this?  i find myself doing it manually as i have yet to find an affordable speed controlled relay.....

[might4banger]

I got a derale unit from summit that is fully adjustable... still sitting in the garage waiting for a good thaw.

Seems it was like $30. I got a fan donated by my neighbor.

Summit has a bunch of other options as well.

[rwing1]

I throw my 2cents worth in..... I installed a 2-spd electric fan out of an Intrepid(late 90's?) in my '94YJ ....I used an adjustable thermostatic switch with the sensor lead attached up high on the fins of the radiator(where the most heat is). Then I wired up a set of switches to control fan speed and function(on-off-auto) through a few relays.  I can turn either speed on or off independently or leave either spd set to auto.  So far(7-8 months) I have had no problems with cold morning heat-up(has been -10degrees and worse for a few days,  or cruising around in the summer heat(well I live in Northern Maine so 80 is a heat wave).  But most importantly it freed up some serious power over the defective thermo/mechanical clutch-fan setup I replaced!  I took pics of the whole install.......  just don't have a way to post yet but I could e-mail 'em.  It came out pretty clean looking.