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prkaye

Well Known Member
Anybody here used the Steinair aluminum vents on a side-by-side RV? Is it worth the 200 bucks? Do they fit using the same attach brackets as you have to make for Vans stock vents? What size vents should be used 1 1/4" or 1 3/4" ?
 
Phil,

Not flying yet, but I got the larger vents (otherwise you are restricting your airflow in the vent). I presume they would mount in the same bracket, but I actually mounted mine in the LL and LR corners of the panel. They do require a fairly large hole (2.75 as I recall). My rationale was that these are moving parts that will be fiddled with constantly as seasons, altitude, etc. change, so I wanted something more substantial than the plastic ones. Plus the black ones match my panel. They certainly seem to be high-quality vents. Worth $100 each..... well, remember these are airplane dollars we are talking here.

cheers,
greg
 
Phil,

My aluminum vents were a gift from a friend and although similar to Stein's they are different. That said, spend the money for Stein's!!!

We where home in Northern Michigan for Easter and the morning we left it was 15* above zero on the ground and colder, much colder at 11,500 as we sailed over Detroit on the way south.

The aluminum vents closed tight and did not leak air on that or any flight. The RV's that I have flown in with the standard plastic vents leak, simple as that.

Since you live in The Great White North, I HIGHLY recommend the vents and installing push rod boots to help keep the cold air out from under your seats.
Here are some links:
Sam Buchanan (Scroll down about half way)
FLIGHTLINE INTERIORS
 
small vent is fine

Geico266 said:
You WILL be disappointed if you choose the 1 1/4" vents.
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Strongly disagree with that observation. I have the 1 1/4 vent in my -3, and if I wore a toupee that small vent could surely blow it off. Leave the neck down adaptor off and you can hook 2" scat directly to the vent.

Tony
 
Do they replace Van's vents?

I already have the Van's black plastic vents installed (times two). What would be involved to switch over to the better vents?

Kent
 
I had those vents in both RV6's we built, plus the RV7. Personally, I use the smaller ones, not the larger ones because the smaller ones only take a 2" hole verses the large hole for the other.

Both of them attach directly to 2" scat tubing, but the smaller ones take up less room and still fit nicely on the outer lower corners of the panel. My old black RV6 had them up in the corners of the panel (because that was back when we actually cut our own NACA duct holes) and could route the tubing up there.

Large or small you'll be much happier with them over the plastic ones from Van's. These are also quite a bit higher quality than some of the other metal ones sold (with the exception of the Wemac brand vents which are typically priced at well over $150 each). These are almost identical in construction to the Wemac brand vents and some of the parts are interchangeable. Differences between these and other "metal vents" - Those other ones are almost purely metal on metal with a little puny felt strip between the eyeball and body. These use a UHMW bushing, held in place by a spring band internally. There is no metal to metal rubbing. The mechanism which closes them is also quite superior. Some of the other ones are so sloppy they actually had to put a white sticker dot on the butterfly telling the owner to "push here" to assist with the opening. Granted, they are still FAR, FAR superior to the junk ones from Van's, but nothing like these.

To me, the plastic vents from Van's aren't worth the powder to blow them up, but then again that's my personal opinion.

Mounting of our vents is super simple. Drill a hole to size, put the vent in and screw on the nut ring from the back. No ear to put screws/nut on, etc.. Simply hook up the 2" scat tube (for either the large or small vent) and you're done.

I have the smaller ones in my plane, but some friends have the larger ones. Both are good, but I've always been pretty satisfied with the smaller ones myself.

My 2 cents as usual.

Cheers,
Stein
 
I saw your green RV the other day.

Hi Stein,
I was over at TruTrak the other day and as I walked out in the hanger I saw a very familiar green RV sitting there and I immediately recognized it to be yours. I thought I was going to get to introduce myself and say hello, but then Zach told me you had sold the plane and the new owner brought it in. :(
Oh well, just my luck.
 
rv9aviator said:
Hi Stein,
I was over at TruTrak the other day and as I walked out in the hanger I saw a very familiar green RV sitting there and I immediately recognized it to be yours. I thought I was going to get to introduce myself and say hello, but then Zach told me you had sold the plane and the new owner brought it in. :(
Oh well, just my luck.
Click to expand...

Indeed the Green Hornet has a new home - it now lives under the wing of a B-25 in Texas! It's kind of a weird story how it ended up in the TruTrak hangar. Doug Rozendaal was in the process of moving the Travelair Mystery Ship around for Matt Younkin, and as it happened we needed the plane taken to TX, so Doug used my old trusty RV6 as his mount flying it from IA to AR, then moving the Mystery Ship around, then taking my bird over to TX to the new owner - then checking the new owner out in the plane. It lived in TruTrak's hangar for a couple of days (where a couple of my good TruTrak friends took care of a few sqwaks for me), then after Doug finished bopping around in the Mystery ship, he took off with the plane to Texas where it calls home now. It's sad to see it go, but it had to happen in order to finance the next project...

Cheers,
Stein

PS, sorry for the thread drift!
 
Hi Folks,

I had the stock Vans plastic vents in my 9a for the first year. After flying out to and back from N. Az over the White Mountains during the Christmas season, I knew I needed an "improved" vent system. The plastic units leaked so badly that I was wearing an extra jacket--just on the left arm--to protect it from the frigid air streaming through the CLOSED left vent.

I talked with Stein and installed his large alum vents in black anodized. It took some minor enlargement of my round openings (just needed to be filed) and they fit into my existing brackets.

BIG improvement!! They do not leak and all is nice and comfortable in the cabin. I highly recommend them!

Cheers,

db
 
I trashed the Van's vents on the second -7. They will leak some no matter how well you modify them per instructions. Installing Stein's 1 1/4" was near trivial. Make a plate the same plan form and mounting holes as Van's, bore a 2" hole where you think it works best. Install.

Current project is going with the 1 3/4" because I want volume, not velocity. The small vent is quite noisy, obvious even through an ANR headset. Maybe the bigger one is not quieter, but it will be more air. On the -7s, you will need to cut away more panel to accommodate it, and the mounting angle on the fuse per plans won't work. Easy mod if you built a whole airplane to this point.

John Siebold
Boise, ID
 
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I bought the Stein Black Anodized, put them in the panel, they look great, seem to function well "hangar flying". Yes they are expensive, but hey, not in "airplane dollars". I think their worth it.
 
No Regrets

I bought the larger vents from Stein and have no regrets (other than I bought clear anodized versus black anodized and the black ones will work better in my application - hopefully he will allow me to exchange them;)). As I am not yet flying, I cannot comment on the velocity versus volume comments (if the large SteinAir vents are too large, then so are Van's). These are very high quality vents and will not leak. They can be used as direct replacements for the Van's vents (minor hole enlargement MAY be required), however, Steins vents do not require flange-mount screws. So, if you have the 3 holes (the fourth is removed from the vent flange, at least on on RV-7's) for the Van's vents drilled in your panel, they will not be required for Stein's.
 
When it's 100 degrees out you can't have too much air. I have the large Steins and they work great. No leaks in the winter and LOTS of air in the summer. Well worth the money. A couple of friends have the stock plastics and they are worthless. Don
 
Your hurting my future potential sale

Hey, how am I going to be able to sell my cheap plastic Vans vents when I buy Stein's vents to install with all the negative press you guys are contributing;)

Stein you really didn't need to chime in - anybody who has been on the forum would know to get the vents from you. They sell themselves. Also I think the aileron boots from Abby should be a must have. I plan on getting the smaller vents for my 9A. Now if I could just find the money to buy all this stuff:(
 
I have the small ones, they work great in 90+ degree heat...heck of a blast, and I have mine mounted up in the pannel. They also seal off completely.

Wish I had not bought the other kind before Stein started carrying his version...the others out there are ****, and don't seal off completely and fit funny too.

The black anodizing seems to hold up fine so far in the sun too.
 
Thanks for all the comments guys! I will be ordering a pair of SteinAir vents.
Specifically, I'm wondering if I should still make up the F-793 vent brackets and rivet them to the side skins.
 
You may want to wait...

prkaye said:
Thanks for all the comments guys! I will be ordering a pair of SteinAir vents.
Specifically, I'm wondering if I should still make up the F-793 vent brackets and rivet them to the side skins.
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If you order the large vents they are ALMOST interchangeable with the Van's vents. The main difference is that the Van's vents have a flange that ends up interfacing the stock Van's panel to the vent brackets. Stein's vents do not have this flange so they require that you either fabricate an aluminum plate that serves the purpose of the flange or utilize a custom panel. Because the Van's vent flange mounts between the stock panel and the F-793 bracket, depending on whether you use a fabricated vent plate or custom panel will determine the fore/aft postion of the bracket (or you could use spacers). Not really a big deal, but something you may want to consider. The brackets themselves would match the plans, but positioning them on the fuselage skin may be slightly different.
 
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Phil, The same would apply with the smaller vents. The hole in the mounting plate or panel for the vent would of course just be smaller.
 
WOW got my Steinair large vents yesterday and as everyone has said they are excellent!

I'm a budget shopper and it was tough spending $$'s on vents, BUT These vents are in a different league from the factory ones.
of course I couldn't just order vents(its a waste of shipping cost) so got a couple other trinkets.

Kudo's to Stein
 
Installed mine a few weeks ago - the $200 is very much worth it as the quality is 10 fold when compared to the Van's vents.

DSC04513_Resized.JPG


Chris
 
prkaye said:
Are the Stein vents the same as the ones from AffordablePanels ?
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No-No-No! Not even in the same league. Granted theirs are a step up from Van's, but the difference between the Van's Plastic Vents and the aformentioned vents is just about the same technological step between those and the ones we sell! HUGE difference in the construction and operation of them all around.

The only thing similar between the two is that both of ours are aluminum instead of the plastic from Van's. Quick dissasembly of both types will show you huge and obvious differences.

Cheers,
Stein
 
Thanks Stein. Here's the reason I asked... I'm seriously considering the AffordablePanels XL panel (for RV-7,9 slider). This has pre-drilled cutouts for the vents, that are drilled to match either Vans vents, or their own aluminum ones. I presume these cutouts will not work directly with your vents?
 
Just want to make a comment about the aluminum vents with the white dot. A friend of mine who owns a 6A makes these vents, and they are of EXCELLENT quality and are used on a few new aircraft, such as the Quest Kodiak and others I can't remember at the moment, and are sold thru AC$ and Wicks. He sells several dozen each month, and they are a direct replacement for Van's plastic vents. Unlike the other vents, they seal tightly when closed. The white dots were put in because folks were over-tightening them when closing, so pushing on the white dot is an easy way to make them idiot proof. I have them in my RV and have never had to push on the white dot to open them back up, all it takes is a light touch to close them.

I'll also add that they're made in the USA on a machining center in the back of a garage, if that sort of thing appeals to you.
 
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prkaye said:
Thanks Stein. Here's the reason I asked... I'm seriously considering the AffordablePanels XL panel (for RV-7,9 slider). This has pre-drilled cutouts for the vents, that are drilled to match either Vans vents, or their own aluminum ones. I presume these cutouts will not work directly with your vents?
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You are correct in the assumption that these don't exactly fit the Van's cutouts with the 4 mounting ears 100%. While we can purchase them with the 4 screw mounts, we elected not to because I tried both, and didn't see a reason to waste all that extra room for the mounting ears when all you need is a small flange in a round hole. Typically people just cut a round hole. You can just have the cutouts made with a plain old round hole of 2" or 2.75" depending on which sized vent you want.

Cheers,
Stein.
 
But that leaves questions...

SteinAir said:
You are correct in the assumption that these don't exactly fit the Van's cutouts with the 4 mounting ears 100%. While we can purchase them with the 4 screw mounts, we elected not to because I tried both, and didn't see a reason to waste all that extra room for the mounting ears when all you need is a small flange in a round hole. Typically people just cut a round hole. You can just have the cutouts made with a plain old round hole of 2" or 2.75" depending on which sized vent you want.

Cheers,
Stein.
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For those that already have mounted the Van's plastic and want something better. How much work to make yours mount in the same spot? I am still not clear as to what I will have to do. I know that I want to have better vents and that I will need to pay some more money. I just don't know what will be involved once I have remove the plastic and the screws that hold it in it current position.

Kent
 
Stein are you still out of smaller ones? when are you getting more of those? which ones are preferred? those larger ones seem kinda bulky?
 
kentb said:
For those that already have mounted the Van's plastic and want something better. How much work to make yours mount in the same spot? I am still not clear as to what I will have to do. I know that I want to have better vents and that I will need to pay some more money. I just don't know what will be involved once I have remove the plastic and the screws that hold it in it current position.

Kent
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All you need to do is put a cover plate over the Van's vent cutout on the panel. Once you have done that, simply drill a hole in the cover plate to accept Stein's vents. I think the smaller vents would work better than the larger version, though both could work depending on the size of the cover plate you fabricate.
 
While I have yet to test Stein's vents in the air, they look to be of superior quality and well worth the money.

I bought a couple, but only after I'd wasted my money on some el-cheapo versions. One broke during installation and the other doesn't really open/close well.

Unfortunately, I had already glassed one in place (didn't want to drill mounting holes) and the other cheapie is in the panel. Why that turkey Stein didn't just make the command decision to take out the cheap one and replace it with a good one when he was building the panel, I'll never know. One of the Grand Mysteries of Life.

:D :D :D
 
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