Marinco Solar Powered and Passive Vents

Wow, total upgrade from the original Nicro Solar Day and Night Vent! When Marinco purchased the Nicro company and began selling Nicro’s vent under the Marinco name, Marinco engineers eventually realized they needed to completely redesign the vent. Note, Marinco has been purchased by Brunswick. Marinco’s new design makes it possible to change the battery pack (4 smaller batteries wrapped together) from within the cabin without having to take the whole thing apart from the top. However, re-soldering the wires to the battery pack is required. The new solar panel is about 1/3 larger. The deck opening is slightly larger in diameter. The new motor is more powerful, and the fan blades do not have to be switched out to change the direction of the air flow. Instead, there is a switch that simply reverses the motor spin. Also, there is a very small light underneath with on/off switch for looking at switch position. The light is very faint, though. I think it better serves as a partial indicator of whether the batteries or motor have gone bad. Time will tell whether the motor will last much longer than the ridiculously cheap and low quality ($2) motor that Nicro was using that caused so much angst over the years. The last motor on my Nicro Solar vent only worked for about six months, and there was not a readily available replacement, nor could a new motor be installed without having to cut the motor housing apart and make a screwy repair with hot glue. There was a repair kit for the original model, but the same removal/installation problem existed. Thus, owners usually had to buy a whole new solar vent. I was forced to buy whole new solar units about 5 times in as many years. Unfortunately, Marinco repeated Nicro’s policy of not making it feasible or even possible to replace the motor. Worse, there is not even a repair kit available for the new solar vent. That is a huge negative that will hurt Marinco’s/Brunswick’s reputation and again force customers to have to purchase a whole new unit - perhaps worse because the new unit costs so much more than the original design. Hopefully Marinco will address this continued problem by upgrading the unit further to make it possible to replace the motor - and actually provide the replacement. How about it, Marinco?When I installed the new model, I discovered that the large donut shaped gasket that goes between the boat deck and the main vent structure has too large of an inner dimension. Thus, when screwing on the unit to the deck flange, the gasket is forced to stick out into the open air. The only way to prevent the gasket from moving out is to glue it to the deck first. Also, the deck flange is too deep. It protrudes a couple of inches into the cabin. There is a second flange that attaches from below, but it cannot be used because the upper flange extends so far down. The vent itself extends about three inches below. Watch out for your head. Marinco needs to provide a thickly padded ring to go around it to protect your head. One more problem is that the installation instructions are bare minimal. Marinco did not even put diagrams in to show how the pieces and gaskets are placed. I highly recommend using a lot of sealant in the deck hole and under the large gasket. Do not seal the on top of the gasket because it would prevent you from removing the vent if needed. I called Marinco about all of the above. Marinco (which, again, is now owned by Brunswick) is very aware of consumer complaints regarding the motor. However, it is still the company’s policy to make people buy a whole new solar unit instead of designing the unit to be able to have a new motor put in. After all, the little motors would only cost customers a few dollars - whereas a whole new solar unit is closer to $200. Much more money to be made. There is a two year warranty from the manufacturer. Fortunately, Amazon makes it very easy to show proof and date of purchase. Wow, I spent four hours calling and writing about this solar vent. Sure hope my efforts help.

Please do not spend this much money on this knock off fan! This is a $20 fan at best! Returning for refund!Issue #1- Fan stopped working after 10 minutes.Issue #2- The instructions are BAD, and I mean BAADLY written. Words are out of order and there are no illustrations to go by. (Just like anything from... you guessed it... wish.com)Issue #3- It states a 4 inch hole. I cut a 4-1/8th inch hole... Needed to be 4-1/4 inch. Yeah, that last 1/8th sucked..I followed the instructions the best I could. I'm pretty handy. Proof is at "Faith's Wind" on YouTube (shameless plug). Anyway, thinking it was a charging issue, I charged the fan for over 30 hours of sun over 3 days. Again, LED light works awesome! No fan.. >.<Oh, by the way, if you do happen to get this fan, you might want to "remove" the inner sleeve around the fan as it will interfere with the fan greatly due to it's completely terrible design. Good Luck and I hope this helps at least 1 person!

I gave it one star because zero isn’t an option.. I thought this was a good vent from the reviews I read but it has an anemic fan with barely noticeable air movement in or out. The light is useful in complete darkness but also pretty weak.The installation instructions are worthless. Had to watch a few YouTube videos before figuring out how to best install it; but not too sure it won’t leak in weather or with green water over the bow even with the vent closed.I thought It would be good to keep air flowing when the hatches were closed.. It may be useful to vent out hot air in summer but after installing it, I wish I’d saved my money.

The prices on these solar vents for boats/RV's are nuts. I need to open my own business if this is what they can make! Just charge 1/2 price and you would drive all the "marine" vendors out of business. That said, my solar vent business is a pipe dream right now, so this will have to do. Works as described. Previous vent that was about the same build lasted 20+ years.

Nice vent, instructions not so nice, i looked on there web site and they said it was a Direct drop in for the Nicro powered vent, it’s not.The housing is 1/4 wider than the new flange for the 4” White model, once I widened the hole and got flange in with clear silicone with there gasket, I had to slowly turn the vent to screw on to the flange, threads a very fine and hard to get started on to of my trailer.Once installed I went to put on inside flange and found a 1 inch gap it would not cover, I went and found a 4 1/4 round marine toilet ring, that works perfectly to fill the gap and make a snug fit, there so called led light is for battery testing, it gives off no usable light in total darkness.I sealed the entire unit with silicone clear, I want to make sure no leaks from gaskets, waited 3 days of sun before turning the blowers to take heat out of my 25foot trailer.They look good, Solar panels 1/4 bigger than the one I had in before with the Nicro solar vent, at least these vans have replaced with batteries I installed two of them, One front one rear pictures follow.

Install went quite easily using butyl rubber to seal between the deck and the fan - three screws and you're done.On the inside, there's a removable cover that will keep out 100% of the insects, but also blocks up the airflow quite a bit, since we've got other (larger) insect entry points anyway, I've been leaving ours off with no issues. No leaks, exhausts a good amount of air when the sun is shining, seems simple enough - hoping it lasts many years.

The product works but in comparison to other extractors on the market it’s better quality at a price that’s more that double.

I had to buy another vent because the first one wouldn’t charge the battery after I took it apart I found the wire to the solar panel was broken. I didn’t bother returning it as I had already tore it apart

Installed easily. Very noisy in operation. Far louder than the cheap unit that it replaced.

Only works in direct sunlight not residual and is louder than I was hoping. Probably wouldn’t buy again

Looks like a well built product, sent it back decided to get the Nicro solar powered battery backup fan