Omivents; are they useful in the real world?
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We have one in our new caravan, I do use it when using the hob to draw the steam away. However the kitchen window next to the hob would do just the same job. They can bring in air from outside but they can be noisy if run at the highest speed.
Not sure if I would bother fitting one, depends on cost and where the hob was located in relation to a window.
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A definite yes, we had one in our first van. It was not available, even as an option in our current one and we miss it. Much more efficient than the window, or the small ordinary vent by the cooker. It was so efficient that you had to use it with discretion in winter weather, or your feet got cold as air was pulled in through the floor vents and all your hot air went out through the roof.😂
We found we could use ours on slow speed on hot summer nights. It effectively vented hot air and pulled in slightly cooler air at floor level.
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I miss having an Omivent in our motorhome. We found it very useful in our previous caravan for much the same reason as Steve especially his final comment.
Whilst you are considering it perhaps have a look at this alternative from Road Pro
David
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We found our caravan omnivents totally useless and yet another unnecessary addition which just inflates the base price. Maybe it depends where and how they are mounted.
On the other hand, a fan at nighttime in very hot weather is an essential.
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I fitted a fan to the fridge to vent warm air produced by it. Now I know it's purely anecdotal but the fridge performed better and the habitation area appeared a couple of degrees cooler. Cost very little too in comparison to other alternatives!
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The only problem with a free standing fan I find, is that all seem to be doing is circulating the warm air although you have the illusion that it is being cooled. As soon as you switch it off you are left with the original ambient temperature. We find this at home as well particularly when the outside temperature does not start to drop until after midnight. Especially a problem if you don't like the noise of a fan being left on all night. I was surprised at how effective the Omnivent fan was at drawing out the warm air. The downside was that to be effective you had to have it on high and it was very noisy so unless you are prepared to leave it on some time the benefit is reduced in relation to a shorter running time.
David
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The one thing I miss from our old bailey to new Adria is the omnivent. We found that at night drawing cooler air in on slowest setting was really effective overnight, even when in last summer's heatwave. Also very effective at removing cooking smells in winter to avoid opening a window over the hob.
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We have an Omnivent in our three year old caravan which started to go wrong after about one year. It frequently failed to start and also switched itself off from time to time on the occasions that it did run.
Sometimes, giving the fan blades a bit of a turn by inserting a knife through the inner grille often made it start again and so I believed it may be a dead spot on the motor. However, I did manage to find the email address for customer service at Thule UK who confirmed the control unit fault and, without hesitation, sent me a new one FOC for me to fit, a quite easy job. This has worked much better but it still isn't totally fault free so, on this basis if I had to get a replacement I would see what else was available before I bought a new one as, like others, we do find an extractor fan useful.
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Quite! The area around our cooker was like a black hole so a couple of years ago the Omnivent came out and a lovely Heki mini went in - let there be light! I always open the window when cooking anyway. I think this is another Marmite discussion...
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