FOP SAM-1 Range Hood Fan Upgrade Kit

[marant]

Rubicon
That is what I had to do also. With the locking nuts it was the only solution. Hard to believe they could install without being able to secure the bolt some way.

[davidmurphy02]

OK, I officially feel really stupid now....can't believe I didn't notice those bolt heads before and didn't think to look again under all the stuff in the cabinet.

On the upside, after this the next steps will seem easy! When I unboxed the fan and saw how solid and well made it looks, and heard others raving about it, I had to go tackle this job right away.

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

OK, I officially feel really stupid now....

Amazing the steps folks take to fit in with the rest of us dummies.

[davidmurphy02]

After yesterday's brain freeze debacle with the hood mounting screws I went back and easily removed it today. An hour's work in my shop and I removed the Hengs fan housing and replaced it with the SAM-1 unit and reinstalled in the trailer. It turned out to be easier than I had anticipated - largely due to the excellent advice and instructions from several forum members who have done installs and provided very helpful information.

I followed Chotch's method for drilling out the spot welds - used a small drill bit, I think it was 7/32 - and after making a starter spot with an awl the welds drilled out easily leaving only small holes - in the first photo you can see the holes in the original fan housing. The SAM-1 unit fits neatly in just about the same spot, four small pilot holes for short sheet metal screws mounted it.

ETI had made a nice gasket out of headliner material and glued it to the back of the hood around the opening so I left it in place. The SAM-1 output is a smaller plastic opening, I filled in around it with some foam I had on hand (not really necessary, though, the rest of the back of the SAM-1 unit is solid metal).

I had to do some creative cutting with tin snips to modify the original Hengs cover over the switch wires. I made a little tab that fits against the front of the SAM-1 housing and thought about putting a short screw to hold it in place but didn't want to risk drilling into something and causing a problem so I just put a piece of black Gorilla tape to hold that cover in place - it already fit well and I think the Gorilla tape will work OK but I'll check on it from time to time.

Reinstalling the hood was easy, there was plenty of extra length in the 12 volt feed wiring so connecting the power back up before lifting the hood into position was easy. The light in the SAM-1 is wonderful, it's really bright - in the photo the trailer was closed up and dark and the hood light was the only illumination. The lower light setting is dim and will be handy as a night light.

When I turned on the fan to check it out nothing happened and my heart sank. Then I turned it up to a higher speed and I could tell it was running. I went back to low speed and checked outside and it was moving a lot of air - it was just so quiet that I literally could not tell it was running, what an improvement!

I had thought about ordering a Ventline hood to simplify the process but am glad I didn't - removing the welds was easy and everything lined up with the existing opening in the shell. And the black Hengs hood is steel so my magnets still stay attached.

The one glitch I ran into was the outside vent. I really like the vent cover that ETI uses now, and am sure that with it covering the small opening in the SAM-1 exhaust port that it would be plenty weatherproof. I planned to remove the flapper door on the exterior vent and just use the one on the SAM-1 unit inside. However, I fussed with the exterior flap a good bit and wasn't able to force it off. Not being sure just how it fits or snaps on I didn't want to apply too much pressure and possibly mess up the hood cover so for now I left it on. Has anyone removed that flap? It looks like the hood cover probably just snaps on, since I can see screw holes in the base part that goes through the shell. Can the hood be snapped off to remove the flap?

All in all this is one of my favorite mods so far - a huge improvement over the lame fan and almost nonexistent light on the Hengs hood, and not that hard to do. You still use the original fan and light switches on the front of the hood for on/off, and there are switch levers on each side of the SAM-1 unit up front for low/high levels and a really convenient sliding damper to open and close it from the inside.

[Greg A]

Very nice job, David. You did a good write-up as well, easy to follow.

[rbryan4]

Big improvement, eh David?

[cpaharley2008]

I'm not sure what the Hengs model offers, but the 2019 stainless vent now is led and a lot quieter that the previous vents and the outside hood has new style snaps for closing, very much improvement over my prior 3 Escapes....

[tdf-texas]

The new range vent is a JR Products 50035 Endura Range Vent. The pic below shows the flapper hinge pins. With the outer cover removed, you can flex the flapper enough to clear the pins and pop it off. The outer cover just snaps on - pull outward at the bottom to clear the tabs out of the slots and lift up.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[davidmurphy02]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

The new range vent is a JR Products 50035 Endura Range Vent. The pic below shows the flapper hinge pins. With the outer cover removed, you can flex the flapper enough to clear the pins and pop it off. The outer cover just snaps on - pull outward at the bottom to clear the tabs out of the slots and lift up.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks! That looks like an easy removal, will do that.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

Thanks! That looks like an easy removal, will do that.

At least one other user just keeps the flap unlocked and uses the internal slide on the SAM-1 as the main functional damper. Just another option.

Nice work. Enjoy the upgrade!

[davidmurphy02]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

At least one other user just keeps the flap unlocked and uses the internal slide on the SAM-1 as the main functional damper. Just another option.

Nice work. Enjoy the upgrade!

I figured that left unlatched the flap would tend to rattle when it's windy - it's kind of annoying to be laying in bed at night and have it start banging. Also seems like the air flow would be better with the flap removed, the hood over the flap is fairly shallow.

I just went back over to the trailer to pop the cover off and remove the flap....good old ETI, in being extra thorough, caulked the cover edges so it's sealed in place. Sigh...I'll probably still go back and fuss with it to get it off and remove the flap, it's just a small bit of caulking but I wasn't prepared to deal with that today. The project that never quite ends!

[Chotch]

Originally Posted by davidmurphy02

I figured that left unlatched the flap would tend to rattle when it's windy - it's kind of annoying to be laying in bed at night and have it start banging. Also seems like the air flow would be better with the flap removed, the hood over the flap is fairly shallow.

I just went back over to the trailer to pop the cover off and remove the flap....good old ETI, in being extra thorough, caulked the cover edges so it's sealed in place. Sigh...I'll probably still go back and fuss with it to get it off and remove the flap, it's just a small bit of caulking but I wasn't prepared to deal with that today. The project that never quite ends!

🤔 Bit of caulking? 😄 let me know how that works out.

[marant]

I decided to leave the original vent in place. Unlike some posts, I did not have to trim the exhaust duct on the SAM, it just nestled against the exhaust vent grill. Did not see a need to mess around with the exterior sealing of the trailer. SAM certainly seems to work well.

Will probably leave the flap unlatched, but may have to seal up the excess area on the vent, since the SAM exhaust duct is much smaller than the original. Will go with it a while and see.

[davidmurphy02]

Originally Posted by Chotch

🤔 Bit of caulking? 😄 let me know how that works out.

I took the exterior vent hood cover off today. It took a bit of tedious work to carefully remove the caulking around it in order to pop it off, but not that bad. With the hood cover off the flap easily bends to pull out the side hinge pins and remove it. I'll hang onto it in the unlikely event that I ever feel like I need to put it back on.

In the first photo you can see how the exhaust port of the SAM-1 fan goes out the opening. I filled in the area on both sides of the opening with foam although probably not necessary, it's all sealed metal in the back of the unit and the gasket that ETI made to go between the hood opening and the inside wall seemed to make a good seal.

I've had birds nest up under the kingpin arm on a fifth wheel in storage before so I didn't want to just leave the opening in the SAM-1 exposed, although again it would probably have been fine with the internal damper which when closed covers the opening completely right at the wall. But just for good measure I made a little screen cover from 1/4" wire hardware cloth and mounted it over the opening, it fits snugly but a few dots of caulking will ensure that it stays in place.

The outside hood cover snaps back on easily, very happy with it and now will be able to open and close the damper inside and not have to deal with that outside flap banging in the wind.

[elongest]

I installed mine today, other post made the process fairly easy. I cut the black exhaust tube off with a multi tool flush with the SAM-1 housing. The back of my fan hood cut was not as tall as the exhaust tube so I had to cut the hood so it would not block the new fan airflow. I used David suggestion and filled the area between the SAM-1 and hood with 1.25" rigid foam to better seal things off and installed rat wire to keep the pests out. The only other issue was the 4 sheet metal screws holding the SAM-1 in place wanted to strip out so I used machine screws and nylock nuts to mount the fan to the hood. I did find a loose fuse holder in the converter in the installation process which was causing my front lights to be intermittent. Good modification, it is major improvement over what was there.
Eddie

[sclifrickson]

Well, with an abundance of stay-at-home time, I’m finding myself getting around to things I’ve been putting off, much as many of us are, I would imagine.

Today I finally installed my SAM-1 fan, which had been lurking in a corner of the garage for quite some time.

Like it! Sad that they’re out of production.

Many thanks to the pioneers who made this an easy mod, especially Dave for the wiring diagram! Kudos!

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by sclifrickson

Well, with an abundance of stay-at-home time, I’m finding myself getting around to things I’ve been putting off, much as many of us are, I would imagine.

Today I finally installed my SAM-1 fan, which had been lurking in a corner of the garage for quite some time.

Like it! Sad that they’re out of production.

Many thanks to the pioneers who made this an easy mod, especially Dave for the wiring diagram! Kudos!

Isn’t it the coolest fan and light ? Yes I was a doubter at first but then took a chance and sure glad I did! Remember I got to talk to the owner he was very helpful to me . Also Dave for his wiring diagram ! One of the nicest appliances in the trailer ! Pat

[Farmerdoug]

I purchased and installed this kit right after the manufacturer had shut down their business. I agree the stock exhaust fan was loud ineffective. The replacement was a good upgrade. The biggest problem was drilling out the spot welds to install the new fan. I used a spot weld cutter bit and my Dremel.

[Telescopist]

Originally Posted by Farmerdoug

I purchased and installed this kit right after the manufacturer had shut down their business. I agree the stock exhaust fan was loud ineffective. The replacement was a good upgrade. The biggest problem was drilling out the spot welds to install the new fan. I used a spot weld cutter bit and my Dremel.

I haven't installed mine yet. What size of bit did you use?

[sclifrickson]

Originally Posted by Telescopist

I haven't installed mine yet. What size of bit did you use?

I used one of these



KCC Industries Spot Weld Cutter Set (2 Pack) + 2 Replacement Blades & Storage Case https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073Z2L2C2..._g1FHEbZAQ6C20

But there were a couple of spot welds that were too close to an inside corner for that bit, so for those I used a 7/32” bit. You could easily use a 7/32” bit for them all.