I have an Ozark Trail 41-2243 2-Speed Portable Battery Operated Fan with Fluorescent Light that I am trying to restore to working order. Mainly, it needs new batteries. I know how to open the battery box once the fan is folded open but mine is folded shut and I can’t figure out how to open it up. Does anyone have any of these, instructions, help for the google-weary? Thanks in advance.
You have to install something to get this, but here’s a download link for a manual
I think you have to pull the handle to it furthest extension to open it. If it has a handle. Some don’t.
It has a handle but it does not extend
I’ll have to check out that manual link.
Does the handle swivel or move in any way
The handle is not the Magic Opening Device. It does move, but at no point in its travels does it unlock anything.
I noted in my internet searching that this model is no longer made. This sort of difficulty may be a contributing factor.
Is this it?
In one of the pictures it a bit blurry but appears that there are legs that fold or swivel away from the body of the fan.
Sorry.Just trying to help. I have a light by them that folds into its self. The handle is the main moving device. The light has to be completely flat to access the battery compartment.
Good luck
Yep, that’s it.
Yes, the legs do fold/swivel away from the body. That is exactly what I want to happen so I can access the battery compartment and change the battery. As it happens, that picture has a very nice view of the instructions on how to change the battery. What it does NOT have is instructions on how to unfold the legs to that configuration. That’s the missing step, it’s not obvious, and I’m am quite frustrated.
You’ve seen this item, I haven’t. Maybe I need to drink a tall, cold glass of STFU. At the risk of speaking out of my ass though, are you sure this isn’t a brute force issue? The idea of using a non-obvious mechanical catch seems to be an odd design choice. Most such consumer devices would use a simple friction joint to position the foot. Double that for the “Ozark Trail” (Wal-Mart brand) cheaper than cheap, Chineseum version.
Did you acquire it in it’s current state of have you already used it extensively? Do you have much invested in it? If you accidentally break it while trying to open it up, how distressed would you be? It may be time to up the degree of force exerted and see what happens.
DISCLAIMER: This is merely a WAG.
Have you tried this: Push the top/front part of the unit (i.e., the not-legs part) down toward the hinges? Judging from nothing but the pics and some vague experience with hinges like those, you may need to slide the front of the thing down about 1/8" to give it room to swivel freely. NB: If this is the case, then the front should slide down without too very much effort at all; try not to break the thing based on some anonymous interwebz guessing.
P.S. – Don’t bother with that manualz link; they lied. All they have for Ozark Trail manualz iz a portable grill.
I have one of these fans; it seems similar to yours (without the light, natch). Here’s a video review of it. At 1:56, the reviewer folds the legs up to the back, you should be able to grab one of the “legs” and pull down in a similar, reverse fashion.
… and from the series of clicks in that video as the legs open up past various detents, I’d second the “pull harder” brute-force suggestion from Alpha Twit, above.
^ It’s possible the “cogs” have busted teeth, so the brute-force technique ain’t gonna make it any broker. 
Yank away.
Oh, I agree with your general assesments, but this is a case where the design is not well done. When we first acquired these fans (we have more than one) we did get them unfolded. Well, we had to in order to get batteries into them in the first place. There actually is a catch that keeps them folded once folded, I’ve seen it. But this was long enough ago that I don’t remember how to unlatch it.
We bought them new (possibly on clearance) and used them during a couple of power failures as, in addition to a decent light, they also provided a cooling fan. Arguably, I have already gotten my money’s worth. I’d rather not break this particular one as I know it is still operable (last used it about a year and a half ago) but I have another one whose operational status is questionable and perhaps I’ll attempt to brute-force that one.
It’s not a crisis level problem, more a puzzle that would have the pay off of continuing to have it as an emergency lighting/cooling item. If it were destroyed entirely I could, of course, purchase a new sort of battery-operated fan much more sensibly designed.
As I said, there may be a reason this model is no longer manufactured.
Last ditch effort:
Is it possible for you to take some well-lit pics of the stand area–particularly, the latch you mentioned–and post them somewhere for us to examine?
I was able to zoom in a bit on that first pic that has the box and the fan in it and it appear that there are sliders on the two legs that need to be pulled apart in order for the battery compartment to flip open. This would be after the legs/stand is folded down away from the fan. If that’s the problem, it could be that something is rusted/seized and you just need to give it a little more force.
No - because when it’s folded up the latches holding it folded up are entirely concealed.
In this image you see the legs unfolded. The latch that locks the folded legs is visible as a nubbin under the “E” in “Ventilateur”. It is not visible when the legs are folded up.
Another view of the legs and “nubbins”. Side view..
It’s all plastic, nothing to rust.
Those images were superb and a huge help.
One more suggestion and then I’m stumped–take two butter knives (or something even thinner but sturdy) and slide them down between the stand legs and the back of the fan. See if you can push the nubbins down simultaneously. As you’ve said, pretty stupid design, although I guess you can take butter knives camping with you. 
If all else fails, buy kayaker’s handgun, prop the light/fan up on a post out in the country somewhere and teach it a lesson. (Kidding. Sorta.)
If the nubs on the legs engage an internal catch then I would expect a central spot to press on the top/back of the fan unit. If there is nothing there then swivel the handle to the up position. You could take a flat head screw driver and insert it between fan and leg and gentle rotate it or lever it up.