Bathroom vent fan felt ring

[swingplay]

The felt ring on the bathroom fan has come loose and gets pulled into the fan blade chamber when the fan is on. The ring is supposed to be in a channel on the vent cover. I’m not sure what is supposed to hold it in place other than friction because this one seems absent of any glue or material to do that job. I was thinking of using caulking as a glue, otherwise I’ll be trying to fit it back in place in the near future if I don’t. Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem as well and if they were successful in dealing with it.

 

[cpaharley2008]

New one to me, perhaps the sun dislodged the glue? BTW, your Escape model in your avatar is not known, may help in getting the correct answers to your questions. If a newer model, contact ETI.

 

[MaryK]

We had that happen to our bathroom vent the first month we had the trailer. I noticed it was hanging down from outside the trailer. Our trailer had what looked like a strip of foam door insulation that has sticky tape on one side. The tape was dried out and buckled which surprised me since our trailer arrived to us in the spring vs the heat of the summer months. I had a similar product of strip insulation with tape on one side and used that to replace the defective insulation. It's working. No leaking.

 

[jeffrow]

If it is like the one on my old Casita the gasket is just foam self stick weatherstripping. I disassembled mine and bought a little roll of it from Home Depot, stick it on. Voila

 

[padamas]

Bathroom fan

It's easy to remove the cover from the fan (2 screws) on the roof. The foam on ours had only been partially attached, with some of the clear backing for the sticky bit hanging in on the fan.
The foam was poorly attached to the cap, so I removed it, and put a few pieces of VHB tape on the cap and reinstalled the foam.
An easy fix for something that should have been done at ETI.

 

[rubicon327]

Here is a link to a replacement cap. In the pictures you can see the cheap foam that is used. In fact I think ours is falling off as I speak. Will have to take a closer look. I will upgrade it with some better weatherstripping as others have indicated.

https://www.etrailer.com/RV-Vents-a...MI--DF3KvQ4wIVD1YMCh04ZweJEAQYASABEgKSWfD_BwE

 

[PGDriver]

I just finished redoing mine for the second time. This time I got to the bottom of the problem, I think.
I replaced the weather stripping 2 years ago and noticed it down again. It was a hot sunny day and the black cover was really hot to the touch, I believe this is what lead to the adhesive failure.
So out came the Krylon spray paint, now I have a white cover. The weather striping was replaced with 1/8” X 3/8” weather stripping which proved to be a little to thick so I put small washers between the cover and the mounts. Problem solved, I think.

 

[cpaharley2008]

Doug,
Is that the black gasket seen in your picture going around the bottom of the top?

 

[PGDriver]

Doug,
Is that the black gasket seen in your picture going around the bottom of the top?

No that’s the top/outside portion of the fan housing, the gasket contacts a second inner raised wall/portion. There is a trough between the two raise edges and the outermost has a drain hole in it. It’s actually a pretty good design, the only fly in the ointment is the cover is black and gets very hot in the sun and this promotes the adhesive failure.

 

[swingplay]

Thanks for all the advice. We’ve been on the road for a while now so when we get home I’ll get the ladder out and give it a go. I thought it was felt because I took the inside screen off the unit and tried to put it back in place. It felt like felt. I did look up the unit on line after and could see the gasket and where it went but couldn’t determine what it was made of. Thanks again. Really helps.

 

[davidmurphy02]

I just finished redoing mine for the second time. This time I got to the bottom of the problem, I think.
I replaced the weather stripping 2 years ago and noticed it down again. It was a hot sunny day and the black cover was really hot to the touch, I believe this is what lead to the adhesive failure.
So out came the Krylon spray paint, now I have a white cover. The weather striping was replaced with 1/8” X 3/8” weather stripping which proved to be a little to thick so I put small washers between the cover and the mounts. Problem solved, I think.

View attachment 40618 View attachment 40619

This inspired me to do the same. When I went to remove the cover this morning, in full sun, I was surprised at the temperature difference between the black vent cover and white roof. I found that the two screws were well sealed with silicone so I had to first dig that off. After removing one screw, the other one would just spin - the threads on the little bracket it screws into are apparently stripped, perhaps from installing too tightly, that bracket is fairly flimsy.

Sigh, not sure how to get this screw out - tried pushing up on the bottom of the screw with a flat blade while turning it above but no go, it just spins, I suspect I'll have to cut off the head with a Dremel and then, with the cover off, hope I can grab the bottom of the screw with small pliers and gradually work it through the bracket to get it out. Once I cut the head off, I'm committed - right now in this triple digit heat we're having I didn't feel inspired to do that. I can see the foam strip coming off and hanging down in places so I know I need to do this...sometime.

 

[cpaharley2008]

Dave,
Are you saying your less than 6 month old fan needs gasket replacement?

 

[PGDriver]

Dave can you grip the screw head with a pair of needle nose pliers and lift and unscrew, when I reinstalled I put a stainless washer under the screw head to spread the laid on the cover.
Also if you use 1/8” closed cell weather stripping you might need to shim between the top of the mounting bracket and the bottom of the cover with a stainless washer also, without doing this mine would not completely close into the brackets engaging position.
Make sure when you put the weather stripping in it’s tight to the side of the cover.
Hope this helps.

Cheers
Doug

 

[davidmurphy02]

Dave,
Are you saying your less than 6 month old fan needs gasket replacement?

When the lid is raised I can see the gasket sagging down in places - the adhesive isn't holding. As others have said, it's a flimsy little piece of foam held on with a less than wonderful adhesive, and sitting under that black lid in the hot Texas sun - we are in a long string of triple digit days - I'm not surprised the adhesive is letting go.

I actually bought a replacement cover so I could have it all painted and ready to go when I take the black one off. The new one of course has a new foam gasket on it, and I figured I might just try that hoping that the white wouldn't get as hot and the gasket would hold up. I'll paint the original one white when I remove it and can play around with a better foam gasket for it and have it ready to go if needed.

I don't think this little foam gasket is to keep water out, just to make a more airtight seal when the lid is closed, the lid has a lip that comes down over the edge of the fan housing when closed. But if the gasket becomes detached it could hang down and get hung up in the fan blades.

Here's a photo of the new cover that shows the foam gasket - only the outside has been painted white.

 

[davidmurphy02]

Dave can you grip the screw head with a pair of needle nose pliers and lift and unscrew, when I reinstalled I put a stainless washer under the screw head to spread the laid on the cover.
Also if you use 1/8” closed cell weather stripping you might need to shim between the top of the mounting bracket and the bottom of the cover with a stainless washer also, without doing this mine would not completely close into the brackets engaging position.
Make sure when you put the weather stripping in it’s tight to the side of the cover.
Hope this helps.

Cheers
Doug

Didn't have needle nose pliers with me this morning (our trailer unfortunately doesn't live at home but at a remote storage yard). That's a good suggestion, I'll give that a try. I was able to push up on the bottom of the screw from below while turning it to no avail, so I'm not hopeful but certainly worth a try.

 

[davidmurphy02]

Didn't get my bath vent cover replaced this morning, but I did learn that my telescoping extension ladder worked great for accessing the roof of the trailer. It has substantial rubber pads on the top so I felt comfortable leaning it up against the side of the shell without causing any damage.

This is a Telesteps ladder - there are cheaper knockoffs available but they are not as sturdy. I don't take this ladder on the road, have a folding extension ladder in a sewer tube for that, but it's really handy - quick to extend, small to carry around.

 

[Hollybee]

foam

Had the same thing happen on our Casita back in June..[14 mo old trailer BTW.].sems like a dumb way to affix foam to cap..we went w/o it for weeks b4 finally getting a chance to fix it. 10-1 it is done at the factory where they MAKE those vents and not a ETI problem..tho Casita sent us a new strip free anyways.
Just another of life's little irritations I guess...grrr.

 

[davidmurphy02]

Between needle nose pliers and a pair of tiny vise grips I was able to get the stripped screw out and replace the vent cover with the new one I painted white. Hopefully the adhesive on the foam gasket will hold up better on the new white one, the difference in feel of the black cap vs. the white roof was really shocking under the hot Texas sun.

I'll paint the original one white and work on getting a new foam gasket fastened in with better adhesive and will have it ready to swap out if the gasket starts coming loose on the white one.

 

[Shiny]

What adhesive held up?

We heard an unhappy fan noise and found the foam seal had fallen into the blade, same as these posts.

We also deal with a lot of solar heating here so the theory of a poor adhesive choice makes sense. I like the idea of painting the cover white to reduce the temperature but like the idea of a better adhesive even more. Would a contact adhesive hold up better than the PSA that failed?

The foam appears to be a very compliant open-cell material, so I just pulled it out from the top for now, thinking it wasn't there to keep water out..

Honestly, why is it there? I suppose it could keep dust and insects out, possibly rain when driving or in high wind?

I also didn't want to remove the sealant over the screws without having a replacement for the foam and a better adhesive on-hand. And honestly, I wasn't sure what to use as a sealant. Is a silicone caulking material good enough?

And now that I've read about stripped threads, what size fasteners were used originally and what size worked as a replacement?

Thanks all,

Mike

 

[JaneM.]

Can anyone tell me what size foam to buy, please? Ours leaked when it rained and I got up there and checked - it definitely needs replacing, but now I don’t have access to the trailer to check. Many thanks!