Why You Should NEVER EVER INSTALL ELECTRIC FANS!!

In this video I go over reasons why you should never install electric fans in your vehicle as well as reasons you might want to. There is lots of information regarding the pros and cons to electric fans and my personal experience with them.

***This channel is for entertainment purposes only! Do not do what I do. Do not take my advice. I am not a professional. The methods I use may be completely wrong and/or dangerous. Please seek professional help with anything and everything and do your own due diligence (research). Working on cars is extremely dangerous. I am not responsible for any loss of life or limb or property. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. THIS CHANNEL IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!***

FTC Disclaimer: I am an Amazon affiliate. As such, I earn a percentage of sales made through Amazon Affiliate links found in the description of my videos and on my website and other places.

[RoadGarage]

My hats off to the few and far in between who've decided to not hate here. It takes a REAL man or woman to hold their tongue even if they find this information contrary to their own knowledge. It also takes a REAL man or woman to, if they absolutely must, leave a constructive comment. I never claimed to be a professional technician. I AM, however, doing my best to make great content. The intent of this video was to show the pros and cons of an electric fan setup. Clearly this was aimed at beginners. I hope some of you can relate with me. But, if not, I hope you can leave constructive criticism at most and leave your negative, hateful comments locked tightly in your fingers. Thank you all!

[KeeganClimo]

The title should read "Why you should ALWAYS do your homework before buying and installing aftermarket parts"

[SwervingLemon]

As an electrician - there's some stuff that needs addressed here:
1. "Hot idle" rating for an alternator isn't a thing. If you select the wrong alternator and pulley setup, you might not be turning it fast enough, you won't get your excitation field and your 140A alternator won't produce much power at all. That's the sort of thing that normally gets fixed with an idle regulator and voltage feedback loop. If the engine computer sees the voltage sag, it opens up the fast idle valve. That's basically the way the big three have been doing it since the late 80s. Sometimes they change the alternator design after testing shows they're using the idle kick too much. Often, they just put a smaller pulley on the alt so it spins faster at low idle. (Looking at you, F150 Tritons...)
2. Early 80's VW's have 30A cooling fans (and 30A rear window defrosters!) Their alternators are usually rated for about 85 amps. It's a simple circuit, passes through a thermal switch in the radiator and through the fuse block. The wire's about 12g. It's not complex or difficult to replicate. You don't need an alternator that's rated for literally twice the peak current draw of the entire vehicle. Even aircraft only go over by about 20%.
3. If you're blowing a 40A fuse with a device that's only supposed to draw 30, then you have either a defective part or a wiring fault, end of story. A weak alternator could have a voltage sag below 12v and then, technically, sort of, almost, you could probably make it so that 30A fan was drawing more current because of the lower voltage... assuming your battery had failed as well. I just about guarantee - that's not what happened.


As for benefits - Meh. I mean, the power has to come from somewhere. If you have a mechanical fan with a fluid coupler, you're gonna feel the drag all the time. If it's directly coupled, you have harmonics to deal with, additional rotating mass that will effect your RPM pick-up and, just like the fluid-coupled fan, you'll be producing drag all the time.
If you have electric fans with a thermal switch, then you'll have additional drag on the alternator and you'll feel it pretty much the same as with the mechanical fans, but only when they're running, which they won't do (usually) on the freeway so they're at least good for boosting freeway mileage, even if just a little.
Electric fans with good motors are usually heavier than directly coupled fans and about the same weight as a fluid-coupled fan.


I always install electrics and it has nothing to do with a cool factor or fuel efficiency or even cooling effectiveness. I use electrics because I never, ever, want to have to pull out a mangled cat from my radiator shroud again. YMMV.

[alastairgordon]

How does anyone manage to be so wrong and so contradictory while sounding so confident, all at the same time. This is nonsense.

[Nando_]

Your blowing fuses has nothing to do with your alternator being weak. 50 amp fuse takes 50 amps to pop the fuse. You pushing more power with a larger alternator is going to have the same result. The wires are melting because the wire gage is not rated for the constant high current . Run a fuse to two 30 amp relays and wire the fans independently with 30 amp fuses with larger gauge wire. Your pos and negative wire should be the same size so you have minimal resistance. Hope this helps you or someone else.

[jacobdavis]

If I may add some constructive criticism. I'm sure these points have already been made in the comment section but I digress.
Your comments about the alternator and needing to upgrade I agree with completely. However to say you need an expensive $300+ alternator with a max amperage in the 200s range simply isn't true. It's not about how much amperage the alternator is capable of making total, but what it makes where and when you need it. I can buy an aftermarket let's say DB Electric alternator just as an example so these aren't actual numbers, that makes 200 total amps, but only makes those amps at let's say 5000 RPM. Where as it may only make let's say 65 amps at 800. Now let's take a 140amp DR44 Delphi and again just spit balling numbers here but that alternator even though it makes a lower total, can make 100+ at 800 rpm.
An alternator isn't just a thing where the more money you spend the better it's going to work.
But I will say great job pointing out the big 3 upgrade. Many people skimp out on this. However this also applies to your fan wiring.
I understand the fan controller was paired with the fans however I don't ever recommend using one. More often than not the wiring is too light, and heat can build as a result. You're better off grabbing a couple relays and temp probe. Build your own harness.
If anyone actually takes the time to read this comment because I doubt anyone will, an electric fan is an amazing upgrade for anything from your daily driver all the way to your weekend toys.
A proper install is key.

[christianperspective]

Larger battery would help a lot. Run separate fuses to each fan. Change to pulley on the alternator so it turns faster. Factory setup is that one fan will engage with AC, both fans engage with temperature. Rather than having the AC fan cycle with the AC clutch it might be better to figure out a way to have the AC fan running full time anytime the AC system is on.

[JimmyMakingitwork]

You had a bad fan clutch.

If you do install electric fans, be sure to use a heavy duty relay to transfer full fused battery voltage when activated by a temperature sensor that closes the relay ground circuit when needed. Power the relays positive control side by fused ignition switch circuit. You can use a second relay to close the fan relay control circuit when the AC is turned on and high side pressure needs to be reduced.

All new vehicles use electric fans, most with 110-130 amp alternators and 5 times as many modules as your old truck.

If your blowing or melting fuses, something is wrong, likely a bad connection which generates heat or a wire gauge too small.

...a weak alternator would cause a battery to go dead or discharge until you accelerated again.

[nikkiparis]

I see....Ah, the expensive pitfalls of not having the faintest idea what you're doing.

[possumpopper]

The thermostat in your engine coolant needs to be the same as the settings on your fan when it kicks in. Most newer cars have a thermostat set at 195 to 205° so you’re 185 fan kick-in will interfere with the engine getting up to operating temperature. You should reprogram the fan kick in switch or change thermostats to match one another. That could help keep the fans from running unnecessarily and possibly save your fuses.

[mtbasshead]

Blowing 60 amp fuses? = Bad installation

[mikeofalltrades]

Ok there is a simple $15 fix that would have stopped all of these problems. Bottom line is when you keep throwing parts at a problem and you don't understand the problem you'll never get it fixed.

[drwdzz]

I live in Las Vegas. I installed a dual electric fan set on my F150 as a supplement to the clutch fan and wired them to a relay to only come on with the A/C compressor. Worked fine

[chrisao]

Come on man 🤦🏻‍♂️ I watched this because I was curious as to why someone would say stay away from electric fans. Then I realized the guy did it all wrong.

[klowny]

Those fans need two seperate relays, with two separate circuits.. one for each fan. I will be making a video on this shortly

[elimurphy]

When my dad and I rebuilt a 69 c10, we used a dual electric fan setup and radiator from ron Davis. We had a lot of the same issues you're describing here. Through lots of trouble shooting and killing our high-horsepower engine at idle, even with a 280 amp alternator, we found the one thing that really made the biggest difference. A second battery, wired parallel to the original. Positive to positive, and negative to a good ground. If you're going to keep the circuit at 12 volts, this is the way you have to connect them. Effectively, your doubling the "depth" of the battery, giving you a larger duty cycle or more amps stored up for large power draws like the dual fans. I'm no expert on the specifics of how this worked, but all of this is based purely on experience. It really helped to have another battery for the fans to draw current from.

[daviddollmeyer]

Bad info here, I did e fan upgrade on my 96 suburban. No upgrades to the alternator. No issues after the initial installation. All that is needed is a quality installation with good grounds and proper wiring. My 07 has 2 e fans stock and and still not running a 240amp alt. For people watching this video e fan is the way to go installed properly not scary or cost expensive.

[paul]

the number one reason you should never ever ever listing to anything this guy is talking about . 1 the ac was shit because he needed a fan clutch. 2 its not a school bus you don't need a 30a fan. the 100a alternator should be good to run anything. 3 this is the second video that showed up in my feed filled with misinformation. and i highly doubt that he even wired the fan correctly.

[josephsteffen]

Good video. One extra thing: electric motors are defined as a "inductive load". And automobiles operate on Direct Current. Every time the cooling turn off, they send a reverse voltage spike into the electrical system. On most systems (with motors or electromagnetic devices) they place a diode accross the power terminals to release that energy.

[wirewrks]

The use of Scotch Loks, but not using any relays, tells me everything I need to know.... *_And everything he doesn't!_*