Condenser Fan Replacement Questions
 

Hello!

I purchased a very small (3000 BTU) specialized mini split, used, to be used with an altitude tent (used for triathlon training, it simulates a low oxygen environment to help performance). The evaporator goes inside the altitude tent and then the condenser goes outside the tent and you can sleep inside the tent and still have it be relatively comfortable.

So I bought this used on eBay and it arrived damaged. It has a plastic condenser fan blade which is garbage. Several reviews of the Rollicool unit describe this same problem with the plastic condenser fan breaking apart.

I reached out to Rollicool but they were no help and were not willing to sell me a replacement fan blade.

This is a bit out of my wheel house but I am trying to determine if I could get an aftermarket fan blade or possibly a new motor and get it working. The stats are:

Motor is 115V, CCW rotation, 5/16" shaft. The mounting bolts are square 3.5" pattern (top left right, bottom left right, the fasteners at 12,3,6,9 oclock hold the motor halves together not used for mounting to the condenser bracket) and and the flanges on the motor are in the middle of the motor casing. I haven't seen that mount design on any aftermarket motors. The fan blade is 10" diameter.

The motor works so I'm wondering if I could use an aftermarket metal fan. I'm not quite clear on how the hub vs hubless works. I'm guessing I would need to find a CCW 10" fan with a 5/16" shaft and the hub on the discharge side?

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

i'm sure you could hunt and hunt, and eventually find a fan blade to fit the shaft (hint: range hood, space heater, or bathroom exhaust vent), but why? The whole assembly looks like a ching chong high velocity tabletop fan. Walmart mainstay or climate zone under $20; lasko or holmes or honeywell under $40; stanley or dewalt, spendy. Oh, forgot hazard fraught tools: central machinkery prolly 8.99, pitchburg $33.33 (right there in between hypertuff and holmes). Leave the original out. Measure, measure, measure, go buy a few. If in doubt, buy some 3 speed 9 inch fans. Mock it up, measure some more, plug n play to test and tweak. If you don't like it, pop open the next one and repeat. Once a winner has been determined, mount it permanent, cut n splice wires, Bob's your auntie. Take the losers back for a refund.

Don't forget to take pics and show and tell. We loves improvised solutions to expensive problems here.

Excellent idea, why didn't I think of that??

I will do some hunting and post back when I find something. :thumbup:

Check W W Granger or , if you have a Johnstone Supply . Or other HVAC supply house .

God bless
Wyr

It really sucks that the manufacturer isn't willing to supply a replacement.

Sometimes manufacturers only sell through distributors, in that case you would need to find a supply house that sells their equipment and work with them for the parts. Manufacturers rarely want to work with consumers. ..but if it's a case where their equipment is garbage and they stopped producing the part or just don't sell parts in general to force equipment replacement than you might be completely out of luck finding a replacement that's an identical match.

I bought a replacement blade for a condenser from these folks. Look in page 2950 and 2951.
https://www.grainger.com/content/general-catalog
These folks are generally geared to selling to professionals but they usually don't turn down someone buying a one-off item. I've bought about half a dozen things from them and made up a company name and gave them my address and phone number to make things easier, but I don't think it's really needed.