Why do I blow fuses without a relay on my electric fan????

[mheinjr]

I have a sn95 electric fan, and I used to have it hooked to a relay, but now I wanted to try it direct!

This is what I tried to do!

Hook a wire from the solanoid to the switch with a 30 amp inline fuse, and from the switch to the electric fan!

Now I know a bunch of people who do that and have no problem! But I seem to blow a fuse in like 30 seconds! WTF is wrong?

Now when I put a relay in it! It's a 30amp relay and it seems to run fine! Now could you tell me why that is?

I hope to get some replies before tomarrow! I'd rather not use the relay!

Thanks, Mark

[5150 LX]

Use the relay, lol. I think it has more to do with the amperage that the fan draws upon start up (way more than 30 amps). Relays are made to handle a certain continuous amperage as well as handle "spikes" of amperage that exceed the normal pull. A fuse is desingned to "blow" after a limited amount of time whenever there is a "spike" in amperage draw that exceeds the rated amperage of the fuse.

[darknotch]

Just wondering why you want to avoid using the relay? That is what the relay is for. Personally I would prefer only a couple amps at the switch (safer) insead of the full 30 ouch.

[mheinjr]

well I don't know! Someone told me it might be the fan! Drawing to much, but like I said the relay I had was 30amps and it was fine, but like you said it could probubly handle spikes!

It may be the startup, I mean I plugged in a fuse, and walked outside my car and it was on, and shut the hood, and said wait a minute let me double check it, and when I opened the hood it was out! Maybe it's not reaching it's maximum power on startup when I looked at it!

Now that I said that I wonder how it will be on low speed, because I have it set to high now!

I guess I will just install the relay........ Didn't really want to :) Cause it's going to be under the dash as is the solanoid, and it's kind cramped.......

Thanks