Bathroom fans

Repair help for the do-it-yourselfer.
For mobile home parts, click here.

Moderators: Greg, Mark, mhrAJ333, JD

Locked
LisaBoyer
Posts: 64
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:36 am

Finally sold our place!

Minimal requests by the buyers for closing, but one thing they asked for was working bathroom exhaust fans.

Ours were hooked up to a dial timer thing, that never worked, so we just never bothered to use it. I had this brilliant idea to replace the timer, with an on/off switch, since I heard the fan click on several times, I knew they worked. The wiring is proving a challenge. The fans work if hooked directly to the "hot wire", but if you hook a switch to the wiring, the fans won't work.

We thought the fan itself might need replacing, since a couple times we saw the blades struggle to start, but it's been at least 4 years since they have been used, so maybe a good cleaning? I hate to replace the entire unit, if a little elbow grease and love will get the job done. Still doesn't explain the wiring...but we are at the point of calling in a pro., this is out of our league.

Anyone have experience with these things? What worked?
mh_doni49
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 5:53 pm
Location: Holts Summit, MO

If the fan works fine when connected directly to the panel (not via a switch) then the fan should be ok.

How are you connecting to the switch?

EDIT: make sure you're connecting the white from the panel directly to the white from the fan (it shouldn't touch the switch). Then connect each of the black wires to the two screws (not green) on the switch.
Don I
Holts Summit, MO
(Central MO)
LisaBoyer
Posts: 64
Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2012 10:36 am

Not wanting to burn the place down, we called a pro. Took him 20 min to do both rooms, and replace bad fan motors. Money well spent :)

I noticed when he took the motors out, how gross and dirty the insides were...not sure how often you are supposed to clean them, but I'm pretty sure these had never been done.
Locked
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post