Easy replacement for an old bathroom ventilation fan?
mbgreen
10 years ago
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mbgreen
10 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (13)Ridgid is really the only way to go especially over long runs. We usually spec 4" sched. 20 PVC pipe as it comes in longer lengths than 4" metal does around here , though elbows can be tough to source sometimes. Unfortunately most contractors / HVAC guys will use flexible corrugated hose because it's cheap and fast. If it's a luxury project they'll splurge for the flex aluminum instead of the plastic kind. This type of pipe can cut a fan' effectiveness in half over long runs. Little thought is really given to these fans in most homes today. They are often undersized for a given bathroom and poorly located too. The crappy pipe detailing makes a bad situation worse. Panasonic's website has (or used to) a pretty good tutorial on how to properly size a fan, where to locate it and how to properly pipe it to the outside. I think much of the problem is cost and ignorance. Most people know you get a fan in your bath , but when pressed they won't really be able to tell you its there to expel warm moist air from your home, not smells. They assume that the $34.95 version will be fine for them and a quick & dirty install will get ya out the door for a hundred bucks. The reality is, many master baths, and some hard working kids baths need a much larger fan than 35 bucks can buy. We are often talking $100-$200 for an adequate model, more if you want features or quietness. Add the increased piping cost and labor for the proper venting needed on higher capacity fans and this can quickly become a $500 line item - which starts to look crazy for something as pedestrian looking as a bath fan. Timer switches are also a very good idea as most fans even properly sized ones need to run a while after you've left the bath to completely exhaust the moist air....See MoreHow hard is it to replace the bathroom fan?
Comments (37)I just bought 2 nutone heat, vent light fans for $195 each at Lowes. nice product, 2 sones (very quite) with direction adjustable heat vent in cover. about 2" larger than existing bath fans. perfect imo, to just cut the hole a bit larger. I also installed daylight cfl bulbs. used hardcast brand mastic tape to seal housing to cut in sheetrock before installing cover. also used the mastic tape to install the damper (and penny) to the housing of the bath fan, and the venting to the damper. took about an hour per bath fan. not my first rodeo. I also like panasonic whisper quite fans, but twice the price of the nutone. never liked nutone before, but saw mostly elcheepo bath fans that sounded like a 747 taking off. these were quite nice, and the low sones rating means that they will be used. I recommend running the fan for half an hour after shower. best of luck....See Morebathroom ventilation fan with or without light?
Comments (20)Whether round or square, unobtrusive is what you want. Generally, you're not looking at your ceiling so something that fades into the background is preferable to a "design statement". More important is function. You want a fan that is properly sized (in terms of air changes per hour) for the room. When I did mine, I also paid a lot of attention to how noisy the fan was going to be. Anything over 2 sones is way too noisy for me. But because I was a new homeowner I allowed my HVAC guy to convince me that 2.2 sones would be fine. It isn't. Oh, and like everyone else has said and for the same reasons, separate fan and light....See MoreHow to replace bathroom fan with fan with heater
Comments (5)Most effective bathroom heaters are rated at about 1500 watts, and they recommend a 20 amp circuit. However, if your existing fan circuit is only 15 amps, and its not shared with anything else, it might still work okay. I have seen many remote switches for fan/light combos, but have not seen one for a bathroom heater/fan. However, that doesn't mean they don't make one. Again, the key point is that the remote device at the fixture end must be able to handle a 1500 watt load from the heater, so you would need a switch with that rating. It also needs to be designed and rated for hard wired installation, since your new heater/fan would have to be hard wired. Bruce...See MoreOlychick
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