Amtrak Solar Powerful 50-Watt Galvanized Steel New Upgraded 14" Fan Housing, Solar Attic Fan Quietly Cools, Ventilates Exhaust Your House, Garage or RV and Protects Against Moisture Build-up

We previously purchased the Amtrak 14” solar fan to put in our old lakehouse to run while we were not there. We liked it so much that we purchased it again (or so we thought) until we opened the box to find it was a 12” version. I went back thru my purchased Amazon products, found the 14” fan, clicked on it but it out the 12” version in the cart. I deleted. It. We put the 12” solar fan up anyway. This 12” fan is really loud.. so loud that we are unable to hear each other when talking it. It pushes air well but it is too loud. We left it on when we departed for the week. When we returned, towels found the motor was humming. It the blade fell off. Thank goodness it was encased in the cage, otherwise the blade may have flown and broken things. We are very disappointed in this 12” product. We really wish they had the 14” version still available.

Received a nice reply from the company offering some tech support advice (the fan motor can be tested with a car battery - emergency jumper box in my case). Tested the motor and it works fine, although fast and loud off of a car battery. So now it had to be the wire in-between the panel and the motor. On the panel side the bullet plugs were placed on the wrong polarity, but I covered that. Today I go up to where I have the fan mounted, and come to find out neither end was stripped prior to putting on the bullet plugs, but the polarity was correct. I cut off the plugs, hard wired it, then hard wired it to the panel, and Waa laa, it works.Thanks to the folks at Amtrack for following their Amazon messages, offering the trouble shooting advice, as well as the offer to replace anything that did not work. I moved the review from a 1 star to a 4 star because of the after the sale support, but can't give it a 5 because who ever is doing their wiring is missing the boat, and that falls to the purchaser. P.s. At the power supplied by the panel, the fan motor spins at a very mellow pace, and is quiet, but it moves all the air we need moved, so I'm happy.Update: I went out and tested the panel and it is producing 18.4 vdc, and the specs show it at 12 vdc. So now I suspect the motor on the fan, or the 18 volts being supplied is too much for the motor. If I can find a 40 watt 12v source I will test the motor without the panel. If both test out then it is the 2 conductor cable they provided. Regardless, I should not have to be trouble shooting the product to find the failure.We bought this back in Jan to install in the new walk-in chicken coop that we were building. Finally finished the coop, and went to install the solar fan today. Prior to installing it I wanted to test it, and no go. At first I thought there was a start up delay, but after 15 minutes I went back out and nothing. Then I noticed the wiring plugs on the panel side were incorrectly fitted. From the factory they had the bullet plugs with the incorrect polarity. So from the factory, they had the red lead connecting to the black. I would have noticed this if there was not a sleeve on the panel side wiring covering the red and black cables. When I checked it I pulled the sleeve back and found the issue. I put new plugs on the wire ends so the color polarity was now correct and again, nothing. I'm guessing a bad panel. The fan does not move. $150 down the toilet.

I needed to create air flow in my garage attic and went with this fan as the solution.It is performing better than expected. I'm guessing the temperature in that attic is at least 20 degrees cooler now if not more. Even though it is a relatively small fan (12") it seems to do the job needed.The solar panel itself seems pretty solid. This is my first solar project and I did notice that even with the shadow from my hand crossing the panel the fan would slow down. As long as there is enough sunlight hitting it, the flow of power is good.I did two modifications while installing:1: I created a 'rain shield' for the fan itself. Just in an effort to prevent any rain from coming in through the opening. Just took some sheet metal, bent it over the top of the unit and bent some tabs to connect it through the tabs on the fan itself.2: I shortened the length of the wire provided to connect the fan to the solar panel itself. I believe it was 15 feet in length but I only needed about 3 feet. The fan seems way stronger after shortening that line.Only real complaint I can offer is that the way the wire connects to the solar panel is less than ideal. The line attached to the panel is sturdy and has proper connectors. However, the line that you run from the panel to the fan is just very thin wire with crimp connectors at the ends. Those connectors could have been far more robust to connect to the panel and would seemingly be much better sealed against the weather.The one, somewhat related, item is that Amazon suggested the these louvers: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E6DMEK?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_detailsDo *NOT* do that. The fan does not have the power to open those louvers.

I am very happy about the install and wiring. I am not a fantastic handyman, and I had little trouble installing, especially the solar panel on the roof.I just installed the panel today, and it seems to be working great. It definitely loses some power under cloud cover, however.I am overall very happy with the fan.

Everything seems fine, the reason I only gave it 4 stars was, I sent the company proof of purchase so that I could get the free thermostat. Never received it, nor did I ever hear back from them.