bath exhaust taking a while to ramp up speed

14 years ago

We have a broan bath fan in each bath. They are likley 20 year old. I noticed in the winter the lower bath fan would take awhile to ramp up to speed (you could tell by the noise level) but not so much when it was warm out. Now my upstairs one is doing the same thing...though it is hot out....unless the room is cold from the ac.

Would room temp have an effect on these fans? They are both vented through the attice to the outside. I checked, they do not appear to be clogeed or anything. The lower bath appears to be fine now that it warmed up outside...though the upper bath is starting to act up.

Ideas?

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Comments (10)

brickeyee
14 years ago
Bath vent fans mostly use shaded pole motors, and bushings for the motor shaft instead of bearings.

They are 'impedance protected' so even if the fan cannot turn there is no danger of overheating and fire.

You could try using a shop vac and going over the motor to see if you can remove any dust that has collected over the years on the bushings.

The motors are not really serviceable (they are often riveted together) but if you are willing to drill out fasteners you may be able to take them apart, clean them, add a little grease, and then get them working again.

I only bother with older ones that would be very hard to replace the unit.
normel
14 years ago
Sometimes cleaning and WD40 can do wonders... at least temporarily.
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Thanks for the suggestions. Text communication being what it is, I may have been misunderstood on a couple of points. The reason for not wanting to vent near the porch or under windows has nothing to do with appearance from the street, but rather what I thought was a more obvious objection to moisture and odor wafting in through open windows during the warmer months, or making the porch a less enticing place to relax or entertain when the bath is in use. I confess to being a bit fussy about details, so if I did go through the roof, I wanted the vent to be in the same line as the other two bath vents, which are a couple feet apart in the same shingle row, thus the offset in the attic. Another Q/A site suggests that the worst two places to vent a bath is 1) into the attic, even if under a ridge vent, and 2) under a vented soffit. The site "expert" instead recommends going through the roof, though the bath in this case is on the highest floor. The two existing baths have vented through the roof for many years with no apparent issues. The runs are relatively short, the duct is insulated and the vents themselves have dampers. Enough warmth seems to escape to keep snow clear around the vents. The clothes dryer also vents through the roof as the alternative would be to vent directly out to the front porch, which would create a nice steamy fog on cool days, not to mention the moisture rising up through the porch ceiling vents. Again, no apparent issues after years of use. Having said all of this, I appreciate the concern about running a duct from the basement to the roof. If I can find a path to an acceptable point along the rimjoist, I'll take it.
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brickeyee
14 years ago
WD40 may help clean things out, but it leaves no real lubrication behind and leads to the final destruction of anything that rotates, bearings or bushings.
jakethewonderdog
14 years ago
the bushings are toast already. Whatever lubrication that was in there has oxidized and thickened to the point of it not being able to spin up normally.

The fan unit will normally come out (and even has a plug so you can unplug it) Take it in to Lowes and see if you can match it up. You may end up buying the entire fan to get the replacement insides.

If it's not an easy replacement, clean the fan and then clean the motor bushing with WD40 while spinning the fan. The idea is to clean out what was once grease and is now wax. Wipe that down and let it dry. Then add a few drops of oil. It's all temporary. You will need to replace the fan eventually.
brickeyee
14 years ago
"The fan unit will normally come out (and even has a plug so you can unplug it)"

Depends a lot on age.
Some of the early units had a plug but still riveted the motor in.
andrelaplume2
Original Author
14 years ago
ok, its funny that sometimes it ramps up and other times it starts at the right speed. I will try to clean again and WD40. The fan is fairly cheap at HD...I worry more about the reinstall.
jake2007
14 years ago
I don't know about all of them, but many of the fans come out with their mounting brackets and everything. Usually one or two screws hold it in place inside the fan housing.

What I'm saying is see if you can just take out that unit and replace (while leaving the housing in place). You don't want to have to remove the entire housing if you can avoid it.

You may have to buy the entire housing to get the fan assembly. Just take out the new fan assembly and plug it into the old housing.
Martin Stares
2 years ago
Had the same symptoms. The fan assembly was slipping on the motor shaft. At startup, the shaft spun and the fan didn't, gradually transferred angular momentum to the fan. Glued it on with epoxy, problem solved.
Ron Natalie
2 years ago
If you've ever pulled the cover on this, you'll find it's a combination of them being full of dust and being cheap pieces of crap to begin with. You may have to replace it. The neat thing is that those cheap NutOne and Broan bath fans you can drop the motor/fan out and put the new one in without having to change the housing. It even uses a regular plug to hook up.
Jeff Jensen
2 years ago
Don't use WD-40!!, it actual collects dirt and dust making things worse. Use a silicone based lubricant to clean it out it.

bath exhaust taking a while to ramp up speed

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brickeyee

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bath exhaust taking a while to ramp up speed

Comments (10)

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andrelaplume2Original Author

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