Load Bathroom Extractor Fan

mortimer33

Hi Guys.

Recently the bathroom extractor fan in my apt has started making loud noise (as if its under pressure)... It usually only starts making the load noise after the shower has been running for a while. I've never noticed this before now.. Is there a filter/piece that needs to be replaced/cleaned every few years? The extractor fan is about 4 years old.

I would be grateful if someone could give me some advice on how I can resolve this!

Thanks!

crosstownk

This happened to a fan I had in a previous house. It appeared as if the bearing was knackered and it got worse the longer the fan ran. I just replaced it. They're not too expensive.

wyndham

Is the fan on the ceiling or is it vented on an external wall? You can remove the cover of the fan anyway and have a look into it, it may be clogged up with dustbunnies and stuff. If it comes on automatically when you switch on the bathroom light, make sure that you don't have the light turned on when you take the cover off. I had an incident with one of these that was not working. I took the cover off and was cleaning around it with a flathead screwdriver. It suddenly jolted into action and the screwdriver was flung out of my hand at quite a speed, just missing the e200 bathroom mirror. These rotate at a surprsingly fast speed, so watch your fingers.

Sparky

Switch off your lighting breaker that the fan is on, thats if its an overrun fan as there is a permanent live in it for the overrun (the switchwire from the light is really only is a signal to switch on).

Id say its caked up with fluff, dirt etc. And the steam makes it worse.
Its best to replace the whole unit.

mortimer33

Thanks for the advice.

The unit is on the ceiling. I'll take off the cover first to see if its dust etc.. I wouldn't be surprised if it was - I bought the apt recently and it looked like the previous owners never did any cleaning whatsoever..

GreeBo

Sparky-s wrote:

Switch off your lighting breaker that the fan is on, thats if its an overrun fan as there is a permanent live in it for the overrun (the switchwire from the light is really only is a signal to switch on).

sorry to hijack the thread, but do you mind going into a bit more detail about what you mean here?

Ta.

Sparky

GreeBo wrote:

sorry to hijack the thread, but do you mind going into a bit more detail about what you mean here?

Ta.

You have a permanent live wire at the fan, usually comes from the common (always live) part of your bathroom switch.
This live wire is here so that the fan always has power for an overrun after you switch off your bathroom light.
This live is in the (L) terminal of the fan

Next you have a switched live, marked (S/L) on the fan terminal. This wire is generally looped from the life termainal of the bathroom light as this is wholely used to send a signal to the fan to switch on upon sencing AC from the light.

Your neutral (blue) and earth (green/yellow) is generally looped from the batroom light also.

GreeBo

cheers
just to confirm when you say the "always live part of your switch" do you mean the live before it hits the break/switch or another live wire (har har) that not part of the switch.
i.e a fourth wire.
I was adding an under cabinet light to some existing ones in my kitchen, when I got at the connections there were about 8 different crappy connections (using those plastic 2 screw connectors) so I replaced them with a couple of junction boxes.
What confused me was there was an extra live just hanging around not connected to anything...
(though it did seem to be dead, as in I couldnt find any power in it, no matter what I turned on)

thx again.

Sparky

GreeBo wrote:

cheers
just to confirm when you say the "always live part of your switch" do you mean the live before it hits the break/switch or another live wire (har har) that not part of the switch.
i.e a fourth wire.
I was adding an under cabinet light to some existing ones in my kitchen, when I got at the connections there were about 8 different crappy connections (using those plastic 2 screw connectors) so I replaced them with a couple of junction boxes.
What confused me was there was an extra live just hanging around not connected to anything...
(though it did seem to be dead, as in I couldnt find any power in it, no matter what I turned on)

thx again.

Yeah the live part , its either marked com or L, and its always the one terminal on its own at the top of the switch.

That extra live could be anything really, but as long as it doesn't become live you know its either a looped live to something else, or a switchwire from somewhere else.
Customers usually find out what it is when something then suddenly doesnt work. So if something does'nt work at some stage, refer to that wire and see if anything has changed with it.