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Help removing bathroom vent fan!

2 years ago

Please help me understand how to remove bathroom vent fan! Photo attached. There are clip/spring fittings on 2 sides that I can push in bit this does not release the fan motor even if I pull down on the "handle" you see in the middle. There are no other screws or attaching clips I can see. There is no access from above. Suggestions? Fan is likely 60 years old. Thanks for any ideas....

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Comments (7)

kudzu9
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
If you don't see any screws, this could be a moderately big job. Unfortunately, a number of these fans are not easily removable. Often the fan is held by brackets that are spot welded to the box -- so they are not removable from the box -- and the box itself is attached to unseen brackets that are nailed or screwed to the joists. If that is the case, and since there is no access from above, the only way to remove the unit is to cut away enough sheetrock until you can get at the brackets. This means you'll have an oversize hole and have to do a sheetrock repair when you replace the fan with a new one. Even many new fans are still manufactured in this way. You might be able to use a power jig saw with a bi-metal blade to cut out the fan and hack the box into pieces, but that would be difficult and you would have to be careful to not cut into the electric supply wires and/or damage any vent work.

What are the interior dimensions of the box? Do you know the brand?
ci_lantro
2 years ago
I'm not clear on whether you want to remove the whole shebang or just the motor--not that I can even see a motor.

Is there attic space above or is there another story above? If attic, go up there & look see.

Immensely helpful for us if you want to remove the entire thing would be to vacuum out all of the dust bunnies & post new photos.

I replaced a cheapo bathfan that was installed in the first floor powder room. The housing was attached to the joists with just screws, accessible after the vent cover was removed. There is too much debris collected on your fan for me to be able to see if yours is attached similarly.
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I'm not an expert, but from what I've read, you're right, that's not going to be enough. If you haven't already, why don't you ask on some of the GW building forums also to improve your chances of getting this answered before the contractor gets there tomorrow :) Here is some info I've saved from our master bath remodel. Hope you find it helpful. If not, maybe someone else will :) Monica Venting exhaust If he is venting the exhaust into the attic air space, that's bad. Even if there are attic vents (normally gable wall louvered vent panels, or a combination of soffit and ridge vents) in the attic that allow air to move through the space. If he has the end of the duct just pointing at the attic gable vent, that's no good either. The goal is to get the moist air outside the house, not to dump it directly in the attic, or dump it near the gable vent, where air currents can keep the moist air in the attic. If he is bringing the duct up into the attic, then continuing the duct laterally and running the duct out through the gable wall and installing a vent cap out there, then that's a good thing. I prefer the vent to be rigid metal instead of the flex duct, and I prefer the lateral run to be sloped slightly lower as it runs towards the gable wall. I use aluminum tape to tape all seams in the duct, taping both the seam that runs the length of each piece of duct as well as around the circumference where two pieces are joined together. This way if there is any condensate in the duct it runs out the vent instead of pooling and/or running back down into the fan. It's a small, but important detail. Personally, I prefer as few holes in the roof as possible. Mongo Rigid ducts are fairly easy to slope, they just need periodic support along the horizontal run. In a attic it can either be hangers coming down off the rafters, or wood scabbed to the floor joists running up vertically. Oooooh. I didn't think of a brick house. Brick can be more difficult, but it is done. Still with brick, it might actually be easier to go out the roof, but hopefully only if it's on the back side of the house. I'm not certain if venting to the outside is required by code in your area, you could give your local building department a call. If it is a code requirement (it is in my locale), then it should have been included in the scope of the work. After all, he should bid the job and complete it to code, right? Then again, I wouldn't want a ticked off contractor cutting a hole in my brick wall or in my roof while angry and while trying to do it on the cheap.
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Thanks all, I finally got access to the condo's message board and got some help from another resident. He said the ductwork was there and said something about a "door" in the fan unit. I poked around inside of it again and lo and behold, a small piece of sheet metal fell off the side of it and there was the duct! The sheet metal piece had a piece of tape on it that I think may have been a hinge, of sorts--so that it would flap open when the fan was on and then fall back over the duct opening when the fan was off to keep drafts out. But a thick coating of greasy dust had kept it from working properly, and also made it hard to see that that's what its function was. The duct opening is only about 1x2", not the big 3" or 4" round opening that I was thinking it should be. It's still not a great fan but at least it's not blowing all of the air right back into the room! And I will have to figure out how to put that flap back on once the weather gets cold, but I have a bit of time before that will be necessary. PS-- no window in that room, unfortunately...
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It's possible to get replacement bare motors sometimes. Broan are good about having replacement bases -fan/motor, that fit into the existing box. They have a plug/socket, so you don't have to do any wiring. That being said, I just replaced one, and it turned into quite a big job because the replacement base was more than a whole new unit. I put in a new one, which meant a bit of carpentry etc because the boxes were different sizes. I had to cut the nails/screws holding the old one in, and insert the new box from below, which required a bigger hole, and careful saw cuts in addition to allow for the nailing tabs. The fan cover covers the repairs from it, in the ceiling. The insulation around the duct had no vapour/air barrier so I used a mylar bubblewrap product and foil tape for it. Since the house was old enough to not have had an vapour bag around it, I built one with the mylar stuff and sprayfoamed it in. Lastly I decided the fan should have its own switch, so I could use one of those timer/humidity sensing ones. It turned out well and I'm glad I did it, it works better and is much quieter. But in most cases, just replace the fan motor and base.
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HU-178658043
2 years ago
How forceful were you in pulling the fan out when depressing the clip? I believe that is the release but it will take a bit of convincing with 6 decades of rust holding it in. I'd slide a piece of metal under the clip to scrape out accumulated corrosion.
kudzu9
2 years ago
I agree with HU...43 that if that is indeed a spring clip (at the top of the second photo) it would take a lot of force...maybe prying with a flat edge screwdriver to move it out of the way. But even if you can get the old fan out of the housing, the likelihood of finding a replacement for it after all these years is, unfortunately, remote.
J Smith
Original Author
2 years ago
Thanks for the thoughts. In response to the requests for more info:
1. The box is 7 inches by 9 inches. No idea of brand. Likely 60 years old. Still works, though noisy.
2. I have no access from above.
3. The 2 clips on the side are not what's holding the motor in. I can easily release both sides with screwdrivers but the fan motor still feels solidly in place.
4. I have cleaned out the dust and am attaching additional photos.
  Thanks again for any ideas that don't involve creating a bigger hole in the ceiling!
kudzu9
2 years ago
Based on the info you just provided, I continue to be of the opinion that the fan is not something you can disconnect from the box and replace. Since it's a lot smaller than typical joist spacing, the box probably has an inaccessible bracket you can't see that is on one of the sides and is screwed to a joist, or there is some other kind of inaccessible bracket across the top that's adjustable to match the joist spacing. In either case, it's going to be nearly impossible to get the assembly out without cutting into the ceiling. However, many newer fans are enclosed in boxes that are larger than 7X9, so you have some leeway even if you damage the edges of the ceiling opening.

The only other thing I can suggest is that you cut through the sheetrock with a multi-tool all around the edge of the box. It looks like the four sides of the box each have a half inch flange that rests against the sheetrock; once you cut away that small amount of sheetrock, it's possible that you could exert brute force upwards and break the fan box free of the bracket.

Good luck. Beyond this, I'm out of ideas ;-)
ci_lantro
2 years ago
After you muscle it out like Kudzu suggests, this fan might work for you:

https://www.build.com/air-king-bfql50/s1324341?uid=3156858

You don't need attic access to install it and it is a bit larger than the current fan.

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