need recommendations for a 12v fan

[Wildcat]

last night a wind storm blew through and we were without power for @ 6 hours. fortunatley the temp dropped into the upper 70's during the storm. as i lay in bed sweating thinking about how some air movement would be nice, i told my wife that tomorrow i was buying a 12v fan. i intend to use it at home when hurricanes come through and while camping.

i saw the endless breeze fans but they are kinda pricey. any suggestions? if this one is worth the money i will shell out the dough. prefer to keep it under $50. i will be running it off a second battery that is not connected to vehicle battery.

thanks

 

[dwh]

I bought one of these for the camper a couple of years ago.

http://www.google.com/products/cata...a=X&ei=6eNjTsbqM4jfiALfwonPCg&ved=0CF0Q8wIwBA

On sale at the local auto parts for 10 bucks. It came with a mounting bracket, but I never used it because the clip is so bloody handy. It's been beat up, dropped, kicked around and is still going - although the oscillating gears must have finally busted because it quit doing that not long ago. The cord is plenty long to put it basically anywhere in the van it's needed.

It moves a good amount of air. For sleeping on a hot night, I usually clip it nearby and let it oscillate up and down from my hips to my head. Does a better job cooling me off that way than it does just blowing on my head non-stop (what I've been doing since the gears broke). It'll run 24/7 from my 100ah aux battery for 3-4 days before I have to fire up the generator and recharge.

It is noisy. I don't care about that. I can sleep in light or dark, quiet or noisy. Doesn't matter to me. Time to snooze, I snooze. Hell I'm 20% deef from too much rock & roll and airplanes anyway.



Anyway, since the gears broke I've been looking to replace it with a 10" O2 Cool, which have pretty good reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/O2-Cool-Model-1054-Indoor-Outdoor/dp/B000I4L15Q

The one I want is setup to run on 8 D-cell batteries in series (12v) but can also comes with a 120v->12v wall wart. I took one out of the box at the local K-Mart and it looked like a decent unit for 20 bucks. I didn't buy it, because I could swear I saw one somewhere that came with a 12v cigar lighter adapter, and that's the one I wanted.

Then I checked around and found out that the one I saw that comes with a 12v adapter - is the rechargeable version (which has a small on-board rechargeable battery and can ALSO take 8 D-cells):

http://www.amazon.com/O2Cool-1038-Smart-Rechargeable-Swivel/dp/B001RIZEIC/ref=pd_sbs_hg_6


I'll probably end up just buying the one in the store, and ordering the 12v adapter from O2.

http://www.o2-cool.com/faqs.php
(question number 7)

 

[Wyowanderer]

I've used an O2 Cool for about five years now, and it works great. I found it in the clearance aisle for $5.00-ish, and I wish I'd bought two or three.
It'll go all night on a set of 4 D cells. I don't usually buy the cheap stuff, but this little fan has served me well.

 

[MarcFJ60]

A more pricey, but perhaps more useful, alternative would be to buy a decent size inverter. That would allow you to run a variety of household items. I have a friend that uses a 3K inverter in lieu of a generator when the power goes out. Not saying I agree with that as a generator alternative, but still effective.

 

[Wildcat]

i have a 400watt inverter and today i ran a 20" box fan off my aux battery for 6 hours before it shutdown. a smaller 110v fan may last longer?? i'm no expert, but i have read that there is approx a 50% waste factor when converting the 12v to 110v. so my plan was to have 12v fan and lights that i could run in the house and they could serve double duty while camping. i don't have a generator yet.

thanks.

 

[blacktop_one]

We used 2 of the O2 Cool 12v fans after Hurricane Ike knocked out power a couple of years ago. They worked great hooked up through a Y double cigarette lighter adapter to an old deep-cycle battery we had lying around. Plenty of airflow and ours had an adjustable base so you could get the airflow where you needed it. They are a little loud but you get used to it. Found ours at Academy Sports and Outdoors for around $20 IIRC.

 

[dwh]

I've got both 200w and 1000w MSW inverters. I never use them.

I have a 12v adapter for my netbook (I did use the small inverter for a laptop before I bought the netbook), the fans (the clip-on as well as a 3-speed computer fan in the roof vent, and the 10" O2 Cool whenever I get around to buying one) are 12v, I have a 12v charger for my phone, I carry a couple of Ryobi 18v power tools in the camper (I use the flashlight a lot) and I've got the 12v charger for those as well. I've got a 3 dollar Radio Shack 12v charger to charge the AA nicads that I use in my traveling toothbrush and shaver, and a Logitech wireless mouse. My little portable DVD player also came with a 12v adapter (and a remote control...which I've never used...who the hell needs a remote control for a 7" DVD player?)

In the camper, the water pump and lights are all 12v.


Everything runs off the aux battery, and I only run the little 1200w generator every few days when boondocking to recharge that battery. The inverters are "just in case".