Adam, I very highly recommend the progressive controllers. My fan comes on very very slowly. You barely hear it start, I would not be scared to grab the blades when it first starts, it is very gradual. At a guess I think that it never runs at 50% under normal circumstances. When my fan had no power, I discovered it from having a high idle, stopped for some mail, and smelled coolant, it hit exactly 270 degrees. I looked at the gauge, and cut the engine.
After about 8-10 minutes of testing with voltmeter and tapping on the circuit breaker, I got power back to the fan. It came on very fast and ran fast for a minute or so. The temp was 234 after the testing, and normal after that minute of the fan. I had to add about 50 ounces of water total, I caught it early, the temperature came up fast in that last minute or so.
I now have I believe some kind of thermostat problem. I have not lost any coolant, everything is fine except that the coolant is very slow to heat up. I see only about 145-150 degrees going 21 miles to work(70 outside). It takes a good 10-15 minutes of route idling to get up to 190 now. I think that the thermostat is somewhat stuck at a point which cools too much. I'll drive it for a couple of weeks, and then plan to change the thermostat(Failsafe - Motorad(they fail open)).
My circuit breaker is a 50 amp unit, I have it wired to feed my fan and 30 amp air compressor). Regards,
