Tom Scholberg - dog kennel fan

Pete McMiller

Pete McMiller

Well-known member
Tom,

I wish I would have taken a closer look at your dog kennel fan last month. Any chance you can expound on it? Obviously a 12 volt fan but is there any particular type or model of fan that you used? A picture would be great if you have one.

Thanks,

Pete
 
Pentex 040 (Small).jpgPete I have picture, but Tom will have to explain the details. It sure was a neat idea. Cool dog
 
Thanks Pete,

Yep, that's it. I've had Otto in the truck this past week and with the heat and could have really used a fan on his kennel. I was going to stop and see you last Friday but ran out of time coming back from Minoqua - maybe next time.

Pete
 
Hey, guys.
We bought a 12 vDC car fan from the auto department at WalMart. It has a squeeze clamp to let you mount it on the kennel (we just clip it to the door) and a cigarette lighter plug (do they still call them that?). Anyway, in the car you can plug it in to the car's outlet, and if you want improved portability, we bought one of those rechargeable "portable jump start" batteries with an outlet right on it. It'll run the fan for hours and we just recharge it overnight in our hotel room. When we use the 'portable power', we just clamp the fan to it and stand it in front of the kennel door. With the weight of the battery, it's pretty stable.
 
Sheesh, never even thought about WallyWorld, I'll run over at lunch. I've already got the battery covered and I have several spare outlets in the truck so I'm almost there.
 
Sorry, guys.
Just got to see the pic at lunch (they block pics here at work). That looks like a Wally World fan, alright. Looks like whoever it was just cut a hole in the kennel and hard mounted the fan. I would favor my mechanization, however, because we sometimes 'steal' the fan for ourselves (yes, we share it with the dogs). But it looks quite workable.
Lee. I don't favor leaving the car running, because of safety concerns. I know of a number of times we had to help somebody get their keys out of the car after the dogs hit the electronic door locks. I'd worry about the dogs throwing the car into gear.
 
I have a question. Since dogs do not sweat, but rather cool off by panting, how does the fan help cool a dog? I like a fan in the heat becasue it causes sweat to evaporate on my skin and cools me off. But without perspiration I'm not sure it will help dogs very much. I guess you could point it in the dogs face and he could hold his mouth open :)
 
Eric.
The dog will heat up the air within his kennel by giving off heat. So, unless you move the air (and normal convection will do this minimally), he'll be breathing warmer air. Solar heating will also contribute to much higher temps within the kennel. So, while you're only sitting him in his kennel at, say 90 degrees, it'll be much hotter inside the kennel. The fan just helps turn over the air in the kennel quicker.
One alternative that I've heard is to replace the fan with a swamp cooler hose. Take a 40 qt. ice chest and run a 2 " PVC pipe through it.so that it sticks out both ends. Fill the chest with ice and hook a hose like the stuff from your dust collector to the outlet of the pipe. Run it to your kennel. Put a blower (fan) on the inlet to force air through the pipe and into the hose (which will convey the cooled air from the PVC pipe to the kennel. Just keep the ice/water fresh and the fan powered and he's got A/C in the worst of conditions.
 
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Sounds like you guys already covered all the bases. I got my fan at Fleet Farm but that is all I did and it has worked well. Just cut out the hole and zip tie it in. The only down side that I have found is the kennels no longer sit on top of one another well. Oh well. Notice I also put some real handles on the top of the crates too. Got tired of hanging my fingers up in the grate. Your dogs will love you for it.
 
You're right about the handles, I need to put some in mine also. Stopped at Walmart at noon and the local store didn't carry the fans anymore - apparently the larger stores do. I stop in later in the week when I am near one of them or Farm & Fleet.
 
Lion Country supply and others carry a battery powered 2 speed fan that hangs on the kennel grate.
I have two and they work fine.Don't ever leave the dogs inside a closed car/truck with temp above 70deg ,cause the inside temp can climb quickly.
Have an extra key with you whenever dogs are in the car,especially loose.Patch lkes to sit behind the wheel of the truck while waiting for me and on one occasion,
put his paw on the horn and held it till I came back.
 
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