Bathroom & Range Hood Exhaust Fans
#1
04-26-20, 10:03 AM
Bathroom & Range Hood Exhaust Fans
Hi there,
I hope this finds everyone healthy and safe in our new "Covid" world.
My daughter just moved into a new carriage home and after we finished moving her in I decided to check on all the infrastructure, etc, during my next visit and noticed a couple of curious things.
1 - The bathroom fan runs constantly. When the wall switch is in the off/down position, the fan runs at, what I would call, a "normal" speed. Then, when you put the switch to the on/up position, the fan speeds up slightly. Is this normal? I originally thought maybe the landlord had it wired a certain way to make sure tenants properly vent the bathroom during showers, but then I tried the range hood exhaust which leads me to...
2 - The range hood has a 3 setting; Off/Low/High. Off works fine. Switching to Low turns the motor on, but there's no measurable air flow. It won't even keep 1 square of toilet paper suspended at the grate. Switching to High is the same as the Low setting.
My daughter has called and emailed the property manager bit the landlord seems slow to respond so I thought I'd throw it out here and see if I can get some advice and help her out.
Thanks for the time. I look forward to reading any replies.
Cheers,
I hope this finds everyone healthy and safe in our new "Covid" world.
My daughter just moved into a new carriage home and after we finished moving her in I decided to check on all the infrastructure, etc, during my next visit and noticed a couple of curious things.
1 - The bathroom fan runs constantly. When the wall switch is in the off/down position, the fan runs at, what I would call, a "normal" speed. Then, when you put the switch to the on/up position, the fan speeds up slightly. Is this normal? I originally thought maybe the landlord had it wired a certain way to make sure tenants properly vent the bathroom during showers, but then I tried the range hood exhaust which leads me to...
2 - The range hood has a 3 setting; Off/Low/High. Off works fine. Switching to Low turns the motor on, but there's no measurable air flow. It won't even keep 1 square of toilet paper suspended at the grate. Switching to High is the same as the Low setting.
My daughter has called and emailed the property manager bit the landlord seems slow to respond so I thought I'd throw it out here and see if I can get some advice and help her out.
Thanks for the time. I look forward to reading any replies.
Cheers,
#2
04-26-20, 11:02 AM
Group Moderator
moved into a new carriage home
The fan running on low sounds like it was setup to circulate air thru the home.
There may be a makeup air inlet somewhere.
#3
04-26-20, 12:13 PM
Thanks for the reply.
You're correct, I'm not the landlord.
I thought about the bath fan being related to an air return system. My parent's condo had an extensive air circ/return system but the bath fans could still be shut off at the user's discretion. That was in a different municipality, so, maybe our building codes are different.
My daughter was concerned about unnecessary power consumption but I don't think bath fans use much power.
Will try and see if the PM can get an answer from the landlord.
Cheers,
You're correct, I'm not the landlord.
I thought about the bath fan being related to an air return system. My parent's condo had an extensive air circ/return system but the bath fans could still be shut off at the user's discretion. That was in a different municipality, so, maybe our building codes are different.
My daughter was concerned about unnecessary power consumption but I don't think bath fans use much power.
Will try and see if the PM can get an answer from the landlord.
Cheers,
#5
04-27-20, 10:10 AM
The range hood isn't too surprising. Many are installed to circulate air back into the kitchen. Which is code-compliant in most areas, but rather useless. Have you/she checked the grease filters in the hood? They can certainly get clogged up and stop the airflow. It's also possible it was installed incorrectly to try to vent the air outside - but without a vent, it's just venting into the wall.
#6
04-27-20, 10:55 AM
@Zorfdt... Thanks for the reply. I'll be visiting my daughter this afternoon and am going to do a little more investigation work. She's the 1st ever tenant in the suite so I never thought to check the filters for grease, so, maybe I'll suggest she run them through her dishwasher to see if that makes a difference.
Your suggestion about the vent running directly into the wall sounds plausible, too. I remember a townhouse complex, where I used to do exterior maintenance, and after finding evidence of mold it turned out that most of the units in the project had their clothes dryers venting directly into the attics instead of directly outside. Crazy!
I'll report back if I find anything today.
Cheers!
Your suggestion about the vent running directly into the wall sounds plausible, too. I remember a townhouse complex, where I used to do exterior maintenance, and after finding evidence of mold it turned out that most of the units in the project had their clothes dryers venting directly into the attics instead of directly outside. Crazy!
I'll report back if I find anything today.
Cheers!
