Nuaire drimaster heat experiences

Hi guys

Does anyone have any experience of the above mentioned unit. We live in an old terrace house and suffer from really bad condensation in the winter months. Would like to hear of your own experiences with one of these before I part with the money.

Thanks

Ian

Solid walls ?

Yeah solid stone walls.

I’ve one, only installed over the summer ready for the condensation season, so it’s probably a bit early to say, reminds me need to setup the timer for the heater bit so it’s not on all the time heating air for no reason!

Early indications are that the air in the house is fresher as you’d expect as when the loft is less than 24 degrees it pushing air from the loft into the house all the time, does feel nicer in that regard.

So far so good, but we haven’t hit condensation time so we will see how we get on, I can report back, I was/am skeptical but thought I’d just take the punt and see how it goes.

Only thing I’d mention you can get a slight small of the loft, I’ve installed one of those battery air fresheners near the vent and so it now distributes air freshened air rather than air slightly tainted of loft 🙂

Thanks forge197 air freshener is a good idea to remember . Anyone else ???

You after the heat one specifically? I have the non heat one but as the poster above not had it for the winter season yet. Mine doesn’t smell of the loft though!

How much ventilation does the loft need? I’m interested in one of these but our loft only has small round vents in the soffits, I’m slightly concerned one of these would just end up sucking in air through the bathroom downlighters instead of from outside…

Hmmm.

Ive got that model installed. In the year/2 years it’s been installed I haven’t used the heater apart from for a few minutes. It raises the temperature slightly but not much ie the air still feels cool.

It can feel a bit cooler on the landing at the coldest times, but we are tight Yorkshire folk so never switched it on. Besides you don’t spend time on the landing.

I think if I bought again I wouldn’t buy the heat variant

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/positive-pressure-ventilation-loft-units-which

You after the heat one specifically? I have the non heat one but as the poster above not had it for the winter season yet. Mine doesn’t smell of the loft though!

Wonder if we have the fan speed a little high it’s a taint rather than full on, mrsforge didn’t notice it just me 🙂

I am intrigued when we start having to have the heating on and the colder weather comes if it really does sort condensation we have had on Windows and a couple of walls, we’ve tried a number of other remedies like windows on vent and dehumidifier.

Ours does smell of the lift, but only faintly and after a really hot day when the fan has switched back on.

Normal days doesn’t at all

Ctk, yeah I think it’s the heat one we’ll be going for.

I’ve one, only installed over the summer ready for the condensation season, so it’s probably a bit early to say, reminds me need to setup the timer for the heater bit so it’s not on all the time heating air for no reason!

Only does heat when air temp in the loft is <10deg from memory.

I can only smell mine when it’s been a really hot day. It’s not perfect but it’s the best solution we’ve come up with yet for an old house.

I installed one in our loft last year around this time and it’s been fantastic best £250 I’ve spent on house stuff. Where we used to get a large amount of condensation we now have none and there is no evidence of mould in the corner of exterior walls

I have just installed the basic drimaster version (non heat) in my 3 bed small terraced house.

2 kids, 2 kats and a Mrs with a tumbledrier fetish. As of last week prior to install, I was still getting moisture on the bedroom windows.

Since fitting the drimaster the moisture has completely disappeared so initial impressions are very good.

Does hum a bit on speed 5/6 but on current setting of 4 you can hardly hear it.

It’s pretty expensive for what it actually is though. Cheap moulded plastic housing, fan and a bit of ducting. The duct is a poor fit onto the drimaster unit so needs to be secured with tape to prevent air leakage. The heat unit is better in this regard as has a solid tube to tie the duct into. When I got mine the fan was really noisy and rubbing against the housing should have really sent it back, but took the filters off and centralised the fan myself. Something to look out for anyway.

Wiring is easy… Comes with spur so I mounted that in the loft and run an extension of the light switch.

So yes expensive for what it is but seems to work so far.

Slight loft smell but air smells fresher and kids rooms are much less stuffy.

my 3 bed small terraced house

current setting of 4

Too fast! Try it on speed 2. Nudge it up to 3 if needed.

Anyone want to have a go on my query from a couple of days ago which seems to have killed the other thread?;

“This thread is making me very interested in a PIV unit. We get a musty smell in some of the upstairs rooms and a bit of mould on one outside wall in the lounge behind furniture where there is limited air circulation.

One thing that worries me though is that we definitely get condensation at times in the loft on the felting on the underside of the roof. I can’t see that pumping air from the loft in this situation is going to be a good idea as it obviously isn’t that dry. In the loft with the light off I can see slivers of daylight entering under the eaves so there is some kind of ventilation up there.

Maybe condensation in the loft is a sign something is not right with the insulation/ventilation up there? The musty rooms are under the loft space thinking about it.

Any advice?”

@timmys – how is your loft ventilated? There should be a free flow of air through it. Is there a fan from the bathroom venting into the loft space rather than ducted to the outside?

Dudie thanks OK…. Will try 2 for a few days and bump to 3 if needed. I guess you want the slowest speed that gets rid of moisture.

Also any tips of setting the temp limit… Best to leave on the default of setting 1?

Thanks for the replies so far guys, I think the majority of reviews I’ve read are positive.

I might try the lower speed also it’s on three now, temp set to 10 for the heat going to leave at that, will sort timer tomorrow evening so it’s ready.

Do like the fresher feeling air and better smelling as it circulates air freshener which is a bonus.

And the loft smell as its cooled last few days it maybe from the warmer weather.

wrecker – Member

Hmmm.
😆 😛

@timmys – how is your loft ventilated? There should be a free flow of air through it. Is there a fan from the bathroom venting into the loft space rather than ducted to the outside?

I went up to the loft and had a bit more of a poke around. The only ventilation mechanism seems to be under the eaves. With the lights off you can see daylight entering along about a 6 ft length (see pics below). At the bottom of the roof slope towards the eaves there are some plastic ‘things’ which might be to do with ventilation (see pics below)? Bathroom extractor def does not vent into the loft space.

The cheap humidity meter I bought off eBay also arrived yesterday. If it’s correct then I had around 75% humidity on the upstairs landing of the house outside the musty rooms. 😯 It was a horribly warm wet day yesterday so probably about as bad as it gets. This morning it’s registering 68%. Yesterday the loft was maybe 3-5% lower than the landing.

As there does seem to be ventilation in the loft, even though it is humid up there at the mo, I’m hoping the PIV unit would induce enough air flow to sort things out?

Best news was that digging around in the loft I found there’s power to an old unused water pump up there so fitting the PIV would be simplified.

Lights on (plastic things anything to do with ventilation?);

Lights off (daylight entering);

POWAR!

I am thinking of buy one of these as well. Our small 1905 built house has solid fly ash concrete walls and is soaking in winter. In our bedroom your hand is wet if you run it along the top of the curtain rail. My main concern is the 500 watt heater unit. My loft has two large breather slates so is very cold in winter, I would guess several months below 6 degrees. House is 2 bedroomed and small (62 square meters). Thinking the heater unit could hammer the bills ?

….

I’ve installed one in our ~1890 5 bedroom house (not huge for a 5 bed though).

Not had winter yet but the air does feel fresher. Loft smell has worn off quite a bit too.

We’ve recently done quite a bit of work insulting down stairs which had made a big difference too (kingspan under floating floors and thermal boards on the solid exterior walls).

I’ve knocked the drimaster down to seeing 4, and the heater is on a separate switch. In hindsight I could of put a socket in so it could run a timer.

In hindsight I could of put a socket in so it could run a timer.

Our heater is connected to a central heating thermostat £35. Means you can turn it on and off without having to go in the loft. As I’ve said thought we never use ours anyhow…

Thinking the heater unit could hammer the bills ?

Do some googling, when I’ve just looked it says about 8p per hour. Leaving it on for 4 months 24hrs a day would be approx. £200.

As I’ve said, it only tempers the air, it doesn’t warm it, so we don’t bother.

Do some googling, when I’ve just looked it says about 8p per hour. Leaving it on for 4 months 24hrs a day would be approx. £200.

As I’ve said, it only tempers the air, it doesn’t warm it, so we don’t bother.

mine is left on automatic. I haven’t noticed any significant increase in my electricity bills.

however, I do live in the balmy subtropical westcountry.

Jambo – do you actually think it warms the air? We didn’t really notice any difference, or so we didn’t think.

I guess its an offset thing, does warming the air coming in mean that you can use central heating less?

probably. I took the view that its pretty mild here so the amount of time it would be below 10deg in my loft (mid terrance as well) were minimal and not worth the effort of switching it on/off.

I have actually got one of those salus units spare, how did you wire it in?

The box is just a switch in essence, so you just put it in between the power supply to the heater element.

Do you have to have all the window trickle vents open or could you just have one open. We have vents on main bedroom and downstairs ?

I am happy to install but need an electrician to wire up. Going to try the “heat” version. Any advice ? Going to put vent outlet into the top of the stair well. The electricity will come off a light in the loft. Sounds like we need speed setting 2 or possibly 3 (62m2 house – small terraced house – very cold attic) and set thermostat at 12 degrees ?

thanks 😆

Just been chatting to nuaire. Not surewhich one to get as our loft does get cold.
Option 1. Standard unit and change central heating to compensate for cooler air at night.
Option 2. The standard setting from factory is 2. Buy heat version and set therm to 6 degrees

I got one put in last year – it has certainly reduced the condensation without eliminating it entirely. However, it is in the hall and there are closed doors between the unit and where the mould is so we’re probablt not making the most of its performance. We have the heat one but haven’t switched that bit on as I can’t work out how to do it!!

The air is definately fresher and I notice the noise. Its not irritating but its there.

Do you have to have all the window trickle vents open or could you just have one open. We have vents on main bedroom and downstairs ?

We don’t have trickle vents, still enough holes in the house to allow the air out

i could hear the noise when it was bolted to the ceiling joists. i hung mine from the roof rafters and can’t hear it anymore.

Would you go heat or the cheaper standard model ?

After calling Nuaire and being reassured that if I could see daylight entering the loft then I would have enough ventilation I bit the bullet and bought one. £232 from i-sells.co.uk (standard model), ordered late Wednesday, delivered Friday morning on the cheapest shipping option.

Fitted it yesterday without too much hassle. It’s been on overnight and so far the most noticeable effect is the fusty smell from the loft is being distributed around the first floor of the house 🙂 Early days though so, fingers crossed, that will clear as fresh air is pulled through the loft.

Day 3 report

Loft funk still being pumped around the house. Humidity level still resolutely sticking at 70%.

Meh. Lift ventilation thingys ordered to try and improve the situation;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00M97O5YY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just finished putting mine in. I got a heat for £285 new and delivered. “Timmys”I would get a roofer to come and put two breather slates high on the roof and each on opposite sides so you get a good through flow of air. My loft had a 1970’s membrane which did not breathe so put some slate vents in and its now clear and dry. Soffit vents will still trap some of the damp air at the top of the roof.