Sunbeam SWF2000 Twin Window Fan – Cleaning and Servicing

Hello viewers, today we're going to be cleaning a Sunbeam window fan. This is the same as the Holmes HAWF 2021 window fan, so if you're looking for instructions to clean and service that one, these will work. It is the same product. These are nothing but a joy to clean. What a horrid design. And the official recommendation from Holmes itself is to just kind of split it halfway open and reach your hand in there and poorly wipe off the dust. This is a non-serviceable product. I don't accept that as a reasonable thing, so I'm going to service it anyways. Because these are not cheap. They were not cheap when they were new and they're certainly still not cheap now. I did some searching prior to this taping and I couldn't find any of for under $30. Most of them are more towards $50. So it's a significant amount of money. So this is running properly, but it's just kind of grungy and needs to be lubricated. I got this secondhand and I just like to clean stuff up pretty good before I use it in my house. So the biggest problem here is the clips. We'll address those later. We're going to begin on the back side where there is a plethora of screws. You need a long handled driver for this. There's a screw here. There's a screw here. Now at least these are all regular Phillips screws. Sometimes you see weird security bits and things that some people don't have. Although with the advent of online shopping, it's becoming a lot easier to obtain non-standard tools like that. But these are at least all regular Phillips screws. Quite a few of these things. All are on the outside. There's one in the middle. Only more than is probably necessary. I think a lot of these are put here just to deter people from taking it apart. And there's still one more to go, which is in the top near the handle. Okay, on my carpeted surface, I'll turn this over to get out of there. There's still one in there. Still one in there. Okay, there goes that one. Not just this one. No, I missed that one. Probably because there was one right next to it. I just didn't think about it. Okay, so there should be two, four, six, eight, nine in total. I think four would have been sufficient. Okay, so with that, all those screws removed, this side opens up. And Holmes' recommendation is just open it like this and clean it. Really? These clips are what's holding it on. And sometimes I can get these off. Sometimes I can't. I have varying levels of success with these clips. They are not designed to be removable in any way, shape, or form. The windows in my house are so small that if we open the panel that much, it probably covers the whole window. So I don't personally really care about these things. I typically just break them off and throw them across the room. But I will try to get them off on camera in case you like them and want to use them again. I do not guarantee any degree of success here. And I have not found many videos of doing this, so I don't really know of any better ways. There's two actions that need to take place here. And this also becomes much more difficult as these age and become brittle from sun exposure. The tip of it has to get pushed down while the outside of it is being pulled out. So we'll try a plastic spudger here and get that over the top and then try to pull this forward. And this is where it usually breaks. This is actually not working. It's not getting the clip down far enough. I'm going to use an even wider spudger. This way we're putting as much surface area on there as possible for the outward force. So this top screwdriver here is keeping the latching part down, which will allow it to come out. And now we have to pull it forwards. And it's just not coming. Wow, this one's very stuck. It's kind of worse than what they usually are. I hate this design. It's very stupid. This one's just not, it's not budging at all. Maybe we'll start with the front and see if that's any easier. I tend to doubt it because I think it's the same, but it's not working otherwise. So we'll try something else. Huh, okay. Well that came out fairly easy on the front. Huh, that is the single easiest I've ever been able to remove one of those. Let's try it again on the front here. I don't see why that made any difference. It's completely the same on both sides. Stupid thing. All right, so push it down and pull it out from the front then. I think that was a fluke. Now this is stuck as well here. Huh, okay. So this is coming out moderately well today. That's not usually the case, but there you go. So that's how you get them off, I guess. Start from the front and kind of push. This part has to get pushed down because there's a lip there that has to get pushed down and then it can pull back. Piece of junk design. Okay, so with that defeated, now this should open up and now we can just drop this in the dishwasher or however, however you want to clean it. Because this one is Sunbeam branded, which is kind of a rare branding, I don't want to put it in the dishwasher in case that branding comes off. Okay, so now we can take the accordion panel out. The blades just, they should just pull off. Sometimes they get stuck over time. There's a, there's a spring type clip here that doesn't usually hold it on very well. Yeah, it's, it's just stuck from rust, rust and moisture. These usually are used at night and they pull out moisture through the, through the windows. This is coming, it's just taking a long time. We'll have to use a little bit of leverage to pull it up from the bottom. Wow, this is really stuck. It is starting to move, but not nicely. Wow, stupid things really stuck. Okay, what can we use? It's hard to get a puller on here because this isn't kind of flat on the bottom, but we might have to. Come on stupid junk, get off of there. Wow, this is one of the most difficult times I've ever had getting these off of here. It's like not even halfway off yet. Gosh, you gotta be kidding me. Well, that's it for this one until further notice. The blade completely shattered trying to get the rest of it off. I don't know if it's because this sat in the sun. It doesn't seem like it's particularly brittle. I mean, I've serviced tons of these over the years. I've never had a blade break like this. It does sound kind of brittle. I don't know if it's, if it's brittle because the plastic was dyed a different color or what, but it's, that really sucks. I was looking forward to using this because this is a rare version and I like the color scheme and now we don't have it. So I'll just put it back together and maybe someday we'll find parts. I, I doubt it. The likelihood of this blade showing up is probably slim to none, but maybe we'll find another one. I don't know. There's no point in doing anything to the other one right now. It's not useful. And if this is the problem, I have to, you know, heat this up or do something to get it off very delicately. And I'm not in a good state of mind now to patiently work on that. So we'll just put it back together and call it a night. This, I guess I'll just stick this over here. That is extraordinarily disappointing. Extraordinarily. I think I'll just drop these clips in here. On the off chance I happen to find a blade for this, no point in trying to fight with the clips twice. Just leave them off. Well, I hope someday I can get parts for this, but until then it's just going to have to get shelved.