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best bathroom vent fans?

14 years ago

Hi all,

We are buying a house built in 1965 that has 2.5 baths, none of which include a vent fan. What's the best model for us to buy, based on your experiences? Budget is a concern, but we don't want to buy junk. Also the vent fan does not need to have a light attached.

Thanks!!

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Comments (14)

roobear
14 years ago
Purrus, we're still in the middle of remodeling one of our baths in our 1966 home and decided to install a Nutone recessed light and fan. We didn't have a vent previously at all, the cost was around 90.00.

It works great in a smaller bath, is quiet, not hard to install (with all the venting etc. through the attic/ roof took about 2 or 3 hours DIY), and my favorite part it doesn't look like a bathroom fan. Our ceilings are only 8ft, so we didn't want a bulky fan and light hanging down. We added a couple of regular recessed lights as well and you can't even tell a difference.
tzmaryg
14 years ago
Roobear, what model Nutone did you get? I need a replacement and my criteria seem to be like yours. Thanks.
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It's better if the duct in the unconditioned attic space is insulated, it'll help the evacuated air stay warmer and help prevent held moisture from condensing on the walls of the pipe and running back down into the fan housing during cool seasons. Again, condensation may not be a problem in your locale, with cold attics condensation is more of an issue. There really aren't any code restrictions on locating a bathroom vent termination hood. Except that they can't vent into an attic or into a crawlspace. Plumbing vents, yes, there are restrictions. Pot/attic vent outlets, there are guidelines for those too. I'm in New England, with snowfall and roof penetrations in mind, personally my first choice is to vent out an attic gable wall. If you're going out the soffit, do not let the duct be a blind termination behind perforated soffit material. You can go through the soffit, there are termination caps designed for this. One caveat with soffit venting is that it can sometimes create a mold/mildew build-up on the sidewall of the house and on the underside of the soffit, and the evacuated air can be pulled back in to the attic if you have soffit-to-ridge vents. That's not as big of a deal with bathroom vents as it is with clothes dryer venting, but I thought I'd toss it out based on the stuff I've seen over the years. If you need to go out the roof, that's a common location, no worries there. Your bath vent has a certain CFM air movement rating, it's based upon a certain amount of resistance as the air moves through the exhaust duct. If you use ribbed flex duct, if you have too long a length, or too many turns in the dict, the resistance increases and your CFM decreases. So short and straight works best.
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A bathroom exhaust fan should produce 4 air exchanges per hour. Your bathroom is 7 x 7 which is 49sq.ft Assuming an 8' ceiling the total volume would be 49 x 8 = 392cu.ft We want four complete air exchanges per hour so that would be 392cu.ft x 4 = 1568cu.ft per hour. There are 60 minutes in an hour so we divide 1568 by 60min and it equals 26.13cfm. You currently have a 50cfm fan, which is twice the size you really require yet your having problems with the mirror fogging up. I suspect your problem is not the fan. Nature abhors a vacuum therefore a fan cannot push air out of a room unless there is provision for an equal amount of air to enter the room. You can test the theory by running the shower and leaving the bathroom door slightly ajar to allow more air to enter the room. Generally they make a slightly higer gap under the bottom of a bathroom door to allow more space for makeup air to enter the room but in some circumstances that does not provide enough makeup air. The solution then is to install a duct through the wall to an adjacent room and put a grille on either side. That will allow the additional air.
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Mary, Handymac's advice leads me to bring up one more point. People who post on the forum are, obviously from varying geographic locations. As such, we build under different codes and regulations. You mention that you have no specific code that you fall under. I'm in CT and fall under the IRC. For a bit of guidance, the IRC 303.3 states: Code Requirement: * Minimum ventilation for the bathroom is to be a window of at least 3 sq. ft. of which 50% is operable, or a mechanical ventilation system of at least 50 cubic feet per minute (cfm) ducted to the outside. (IRC R 303.3) There are always state and local amendments or variances to a national code, but in a heating environment, which I'm in, I wouldn't intentionally vent warm moist air into an attic space. I've seen too many wintertime cases of it condensing on the cool underside of the attic sheathing or on the exposed shingle nail points, then dripping down. Much depends on the age, air tightness, and climate that the house is in, as well as the amount of moisture being generated, the effectiveness of the fan in evacuating it, and physical size of the attic in comparison to the amount of moisture being vented. In the end, for me it simply comes down to code. IRC requires bath vent fans to be vented to the outside. Best, Mongo
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"energy_rater, if you vent the humid air from a bathroom to the soffit, what's going to keep that moist air from going right into the attic?" back draft damper attached to bath fan housing. venting attached to back draft damper. venting exits soffit to exterior. fan being on will push air out of venting, venting to exterior of attic will keep moisture out of attic. also, if you ever take off the cover of the bath fan from inside the house..there is an oversized cut in the ceiling that is covered by the cover of the bath fan. sealing this cut is recommended to keep attic air/temps/ insulation particles out of houses. I use Hardcast brand mastic tape #1402. I also use this tape to attach back draft damper to housing of bath fan for air tight seal, and to attach venting to back draft damper. best of luck.
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roobear
14 years ago
I think it was model 744NT, they sell them at Lowes/Home Depot.
sevenecho
14 years ago
The Panasonic fans are nice and quiet. You can research and purchase them here...

http://www.rewci.com/panvenfan.html

I got one from them and the service was good and shipping fast.
tzmaryg
14 years ago
Thanks Roobear, the 744NT looks great.
iapq1990
14 years ago
I love our Panasonic. It's so quiet that when our electrician first turned it on after installing it he thought it was broken. It does a good job too. I've purchased a second one to go in a new bathroom.
junicb
14 years ago
We also love our Panasonic FV-08VQ3. It is super quiet. The only hard part about installation was going through the 3 layers of brick (and then re-laying the brick that we accidentally knocked out...).

We bought it online through FaucetDepot.com - I think it was about $90 (I used a coupon I found online and it qualified for free shipping).

Here is a link that might be useful: Panasonic FV-08VQ3
kevin1727
14 years ago
I bought 4 Panasonics. Love them. Quiet (if you get the ones rated for lowest sones) and they move a lot of air.
Best price and service I found was at wamhomecenter.
jakkom
14 years ago
We started with Nutones in our 1989/90 whole house remodel. I would hope they have improved their quality as both fans got progressively noisier over the years, to the point where the larger fan in the master bathroom could be heard on the ground floor.

In 2003 we dumped both Nutones for the Panasonics. So far so good, no increase in noise. Contractor who did the install was impressed with the build quality on both (one was the 70 cfm size, the other is the big WhisperWarm).
sombreuil_mongrel
14 years ago
I bought an inexpensive Nutone basically for the very low-profile _metal_ grille. I hate yuckky plastic grills that stick down 1/2 inch or more, and eventually yellow.
Casey
kimkitchy
14 years ago
I have a different perspective. In our 96 year old house the bathroom downstairs is immediately off the kitchen; upstairs it is just off a sitting room. I WANT some fan noise, if you know what I mean (LOL)! I think ours are Broan and they do make noise - and they do the job too. :-) -Kim
MongoCT
14 years ago
Depite whatever sone ratings that manufacturers claim, the quiestest I've come across are the Panasonic Whisper series and Fantech's fans.

I did the same as kimkitchy, I installed a noisy one in our downstairs half-bath for the same reasons. Sounds like a jet taking off when you're in there, but hey, it is what it is.

john604, spam, spam, spam.
MongoCT
14 years ago
Based on my experience with the links that John604 referenced, I wouldn't buy from any of them.
just_julie
14 years ago
way to mess up the board, dude!

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