Are they worth the outlay?
Planning a bathroom renovation & thinking sbout this. Everyone i talk to seems to end up opening the window when showering anyway (as i do now) so it seems a little pointless.
The fan would be going where the old airing cupboard currently stands so there is already power wired into the area.

Definitely worth it IMO, means you can ventilate the area without opening a awindow if required.
This can reduce it from “I’d give it 20 mins if I were you” to “it should be ok in 5 mins”

Worth it, no – as you’ve said, and my builder did, they’re next to useless and just open the window. Don’t know if there are building regs that make them obligatory though?

yes. we’ve just had an extension built with a downstairs loo and yes building regs did require one.

If you’ve got room put an inline fan in. Much more powerful and if you fit smooth ducting it should be quieter too. You do need some natural ventilation to let air in for them to work efficiently. Cut the door a bit short at the bottom or fit louvres. Works well at clearing shower steam. No need to open a window. You would need to fit one in a new build for building regs but it’s not a requirement for a renovation.

Definitely. But don’t scrimp on a weedy little thing. If you can a nice inline one hidden away to keep the noise down OR a centrifugal type if you can’t hide a decent inline one. The small surface mount axials are a bit pants. More noise than air moving most of the time.

We got one that runs constantly on low and then fires up faster when the light is on. I would go that route again or get a humidity controlled one.

if you do get one(I would), one with a run on timer might be an idea, also in winter, cold and early at 6am having the window wide open is less appealing

Yes. Get a decent one with a humidity sensor on it too.
Builders always try to spec. the ten bob ones from a lucky bag.
In my experience, they’re better on an outside wall than ducted if possible.
(especially the long flexible type.)

I have a humidity controlled one but would not get again. It never switches off so you can hear it humming in the night which is very annoying.

Also if the weather outside is damp it will turn on in a futile attempt to dry out the world.

PIR next time.

^ surely you can adjust it?

One of the problems with bathroom fans is the routing and length of the ducting. If you can core drill through the wall and run a wall mounted fan directly outside through a short bit of 100mm waste pipe they are more than adequate. However, they are often installed with ducting that has a long vertical lift into the loft and then a convoluted run to a soffit or slate vent. Many fans can’t lift the air that far and what compounds the problem is the warm air then condenses and you end up with water in the ducting which either leaks or acts like a U bend and stops airflow.

Bigger fans with more litres/second extraction than the standard offering are going to be required if the run is anything other than short and downhill.

Also, you can get condensation traps though I haven’t ever seen one fitted.

Rich.

Where will the fan go? In the roof space with ducting or in the wall directly outside?

I would definitely recommend a decent extractor fan. The last two houses we have been in have definitely benefitted from one & the numerous rented houses I’ve lived in without them were mouldy, damp messes.
The ceiling in our current house was starting to go mouldy. I’d already cleaned it up & re-painted it once, but I was starting to creep back. I suspect the issue was that even though we have a large window, my Wife wouldn’t open it if the temperature outside might make her even slightly chilly.
We had an electrician fit an extractor, but it was one of those really weedy axial fans that didn’t actually do anything. I replaced it with an Aventa 4″ inline fan in the roof with as short a run of ducting as possible. You can’t really feel much ‘suck’ if you put your hand near the vent, but it really clears the bathroom out.
We recently swapped the crappy glass shower screen for a curtain on a curved rail & that has helped it work even more effectively because it traps a lot more of the steam into the area where the vent is.
If I was doing it again, I’d probably go for the 5″ version of the same fan – just because more is better, right?!

As mentioned above, make sure that the fan has access to some fresh air from somewhere – if the bathroom door is too tight fitting into the frame, there won’t be enough air flow for the fan to actually suck anything. We’ve got a small gap at the bottom of our door (it’s only a few mm) and if you stand barefoot by the door you can actually feel the air being sucked in through the gap.

I just fitted one to the outside wall and it works. Try to get one where the vent only opens when the unit is switched on as the constant tap tap tap when the slightest bit of draught causes the flaps to open and close is annoying.

I wired mine into a separate pull cord as I hate them coming on for 10 minutes just because you go for a slash in the middle of the night.

It would be direct to the outside through a solid wall. I’m thinking to place it where the old overflow pipe from the header tank currently is as that’s directly above the power line.
I’ll have to talk to the builder Chap to see what will work though.

I didn’t use a core drill. I have one of those cheap Titan rotary hammers from Screwfix and drilled a dozen small holes round the perimeter. Took half an hour all in, but 3 days to clean up all the brick dust from everywhere inside and outside the house.

Our pub bikes are right underneath where the debris fell out. The chain is a bit graunchy now.

Envirovent is the product you should consider.

This is quite timely because I didn’t fit extractors in our bathrooms when we renovated, thinking an open window would suffice. Well it doesn’t, even when the window faces west and gets plenty of breeze; mildew has appeared all over the showers and is beginning to appear at the tops of the exterior walls. I’m going to get a core drill and fit wall extractors when the next refurb comes around.

I stayed in the Serena Hotel in Kampala where they have foot-square louvered vents in the bathrooms and a massive fan up on the roof; the draw is so powerful that if you drop a piece of bog paper in front of the door the draft picks it up and it flutters up towards the vent! It actually takes quite an effort to close the bathroom door. The problem there is that there’s such a vacuum in the rooms and corridors that the disgusting odour of overheated groundnut oil from the kitchen chip fryer fills the hotel; I dread to think what would happen if there was a fire in the kitchen or lobby.

I just swapped out the one in my bathroom and it’s made a big improvement. Previous owners had filled the old fan with expanding foam as it’s facing the prevailing wind. I just got one with a good one way back flippy door thing to stop the breeze coming in and spent a bit more to get a quiet fan.
It’s a small bathroom with shower so gets damp quickly but the fan is now drying it out much quicker.

yes. we’ve just had an extension built with a downstairs loo and yes building regs did require one

Isn’t that only where there is no opening window present?

Get a big inline one and they are worth it.

Get this version, not the newer ‘updated’ one as it isn’t meant to be as good.

Try put the grill directly above the shower if possible to get rid of the steam at source.
Otherwise the moisture will still settle on the ceiling and eventually you will get water staining.
If ducting through a roof remember to insulate and fit a condensate trap.

tbh if I was specifying stand alone ventilation I would go with a single MHRV unit. Putting in a full house system into the new place.

Yes we visited a super-insulated house in Argyll and they have a full house full-time extraction system; we noticed the complete lack of mildew in the bathrooms.

Not read the whole thread but I saw Envirovent mentioned. I’ve solved the problems in our bathroom (damp walls after showers, towels not drying etc.) by swapping out a bog-standard fan for one of their cyclone 7 jobs. I’m seriously impressed. It shifts a huge amount of air, is super-quiet, very easy to fit and the moisture sensor just works. Worth every penny.

Get this version, not the newer ‘updated’ one as it isn’t meant to be as good.

Quite a timely thread as my bathroom fan has just packed up!

The bathroom has a double switch – one for the light and one for the fan. Can a fan like this (with a timer) be set up without the timer?

If anyone wants one of those manrose inline fans for the cost of postage let me know – I have recently replaced a little used one with a through the wall fan 🙂

we recently had an extractor fitted to comply with building regs during some work we had done. It was rubbish. So fitted one of those inline fans ^^ and we don’t even get mist on the mirror whilst having a shower. Ducted through roof and about 2m to vent to outside. Well worth £60 and a bit of tinkering. Turns on with the light.

If anyone wants one of those manrose inline fans for the cost of postage let me know

Doh, I just ordered on! Thanks anyway… 🙂

sturmeyarcher – Member
Not read the whole thread but I saw Envirovent mentioned. I’ve solved the problems in our bathroom (damp walls after showers, towels not drying etc.) by swapping out a bog-standard fan for one of their cyclone 7 jobs. I’m seriously impressed. It shifts a huge amount of air, is super-quiet, very easy to fit and the moisture sensor just works. Worth every penny.

how much did you pay for it?

The bathroom has a double switch – one for the light and one for the fan. Can a fan like this (with a timer) be set up without the timer?

So you just want to switch it on and off using the second switch? Yes you could do that – just wire it up as per instructions (if the wiring exists) and then set the timer to zero so it will switch off as soon as you switch the switch. If you only have a switched L & N up there already then you won’t have the additional wires for the constant anyway so the timer couldn’t work.

Brilliant, thanks Johndoh!

I’m just replacing the existing one, so I’m hoping it should be fairly straightforward.

Can these fans be run off the light supply?

Can these fans be run off the light supply?

Yes – they are (generally) run off the lighting circuit as they are activated by switching the light on.

*tick*

need to replace the current ceiling mounted fan with something a little better

councilof10 – Member

The bathroom has a double switch – one for the light and one for the fan. Can a fan like this (with a timer) be set up without the timer?

Most manufacturer’s do a timed & a non-timed version of their products.
The timed ones normally have a T at the end of the product number….

Non-timed one, like this:

https://www.voltelectrical.co.uk/products/Ventilation/Extractor+Fans/Manrose+4+Inch+MixFlo+Extractor+Fan/2089893516

although weirdly it’s more expensive than the timed version.

its worth putting some vents in the bathroom door to let the air in, and replace the air sucked out by the fan. if you don’t do that the fan will struggle to shift much air. I’ve a small axial going out through the wall, and always leave the door ajar (still haven’t got round to fitting the vents!) and although i do leave it running after a shower for a while, it does make a huge huge difference. no more damp tiles and moldy grout in this house.

opening a window often doesn’t work as the air goes in through the window and straight to the fan which is often closeby, not picking up any moisture on the way. the air ‘in’ needs to be across the room to the air ‘out’

@nwmlarge

how much did you pay for it?

Just over £200 IIRC. Certainly not cheap but good kit.

Dickyboy
If anyone wants one of those manrose inline fans for the cost of postage let me know – I have recently replaced a little used one with a through the wall fan

Hey, i’ll put that to good use if it’s going spare? Our bathroom is internal & the current one is just a random noise generator 😐

Cheers,
John

They are great – we fitted one in our en-suite three years ago, my wife’s showers take approximately half of every day yet there is absolutely no signs of mildew and the mirror clears very well.

100% Get one. I’ve finally (5 years late!) got round to fitting one in the bathroom of my house (totaly ball ache as it’s got an overhanging roof so I had to use a vent tile and balance on the end of ladder desperately trying not to die). Every winter we used to get mold on the ceiling despite having a window open, the mold disappeared within a few days of fitting the fan and hasn’t reappeared.

The one I got (a manrose) is somewhat overspecced. It can empty the bathroom of all it’s air every 1.5 minutes 🙂 Almost silent as well.

Note you can get the manrose from Screwfix as well, but the model they sell isn’t the timer version, so get it off amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01G8DM5UA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Also whilst marvelling at the fan after fitting it I managed to shove my hand in the blade and break it. Manrose sent me a new blade for free 🙂