Fantastic Fan control replacement, 2003 U320
A couple of years ago Bill Brown had to have his Fantastic Fan serviced. As it turned out, the control used in our 2003's has not been made in years and in his case Fantastic Vent replaced his control and fan with an upgraded set of parts. The original Fantastic Fan is a model 6500 with a 5240-9 KIB controller. It's a variable speed, with remote mounting of the controls - 2 knobs.
As of last December, Atwood Mobile now owns Fantastic Vent and no longer provides parts free beyond the 1 or 2 year warranty. We found this out when we needed similar service for our same fan. The folks there were very helpful trying to diagnose the problem, and after sending photos they recommended a new control and lift motor, which we had to pay for. Unfortunately, both were "close" and didn't work with our fan (a 5240-09 IREM controller and a lift motor that had the leads reversed). They did work with us and found an old KIB controller which they sent gratis, since they no longer make or support that version, but still no "fan love".
Enter eBay. We purchased a replacement fan and control from 2 separate vendors (because we wanted the flush, horizontal black control). Steve spent part of Monday gutting our old fan, replacing as much as he could from the new fan (the only thing we didn't replace is the wiring harness in the wall and the housing/frame that needs to be sealed to the roof), and all is now working well.
If you have one of these 6500 fans with the KIB controller (mounted remote from the fan, 2 knobs - one is OFF-Manual-Auto and the other temperature/% speed), a 6504-414 fan is the upgrade you'll need. There are several control options to choose from - surface and flush mounts, as well as horizontal or vertical, and white or black. The existing FT 3-wire in-wall harness worked fine so other than making the connections at each end (for the fan and for the controller), there isn't any modification of the existing wiring to do.
Hope this helps someone in the future.
Michelle
Topic: Fantastic Fan control replacement, 2003 U320