Bathroom exhaust fan broken

Bad bathroom fans are a common cause of house fires. Make sure to disconnect it, regardless of your plans to replace it.

At some point they started adding a thermal fuse to bathroom fans to prevent it from going up in flames if the motor is jammed up.
 
I had a house with an old bathroom fan from the 70s and the motor quit. All of these fans use shaded-pole motors and they all seem to be the same so I just used a motor from a newer fan to repair it.
 
Okay.... I saw a few people point to the wall switch as the possible issue but I don't think this is the case based on ^^ this.
 
Bad bathroom fans are a common cause of house fires. Make sure to disconnect it, regardless of your plans to replace it.

That doesn't surprise me. I've had two fans fail but it wasn't the motor. The delay timer uses a very crude means of dropping the mains voltage to feed the electronic timer circuit. They simply drop the voltage using a series resistor which runs so hot that they eventually burn out. Besides anything else that's an appalling inefficient way to do it. Visual inspection of a timer circuit that hadn't failed showed the resistor had been very hot. I now fit an isolator next to the light switch so that the timer circuit is not permanently powered up.
 
Is there any harm in having double the CFM of the original exhaust? Or the panties will get sucked up in exhaust? :)
 
If you are going to replace it, like @PimTac suggested, Panasonics aren't cheap, but they are built to last and move a ton of air volume quietly.

If you want to repair what you have, you need to get the cover off and see what make/model you have and if the fan assembly can be swapped out with something else.

I feel your pain on fan replacement. My two upstairs bathroom fans are cheaper ones and are their exhaust piping is that cheap white plastic dryer hose and it's all completely buried in blown in insulation in the attic space. I can't even tell where the fans are up there.
 
Is there any harm in having double the CFM of the original exhaust? Or the panties will get sucked up in exhaust? :)
It might have a larger outlet if double CFM but more is better however make sure your piping is smooth so you don’t get noise or the turbulence back at fan. I have a Panasonic and it’s quiet and pleasant .
 
If its up so high, I would put a good fan up there. Have a contractor do it with a ladder.

My last house in Austin had broan contractor fans that started getting noisy. I put the retrofit kits in each one, they are as simple as plugging them in, and walking away.
 
From the symptoms you describe, it's not the switch. I had something similar after about 10 years of operation. Decided for the relatively minor expense to replace with Panasonic if I could find one that fit.
Took the old one out. It was unbelievably simple. Cleaned and lubed it. Put it back in and it worked for another 10 years before I had to do it again.
 
I'm adding your story to my list of reasons to hate high ceilings.
Oh yeah, I was on a jury trial once where someone cleaning their bathroom was on a ladder and fell. Broke 4 ribs. One was near her aorta and while in the hospital getting scheduled to do a CT scan, she coughed and the broken rib punctured her aorta so she exsanguinated in about 10 minutes while the doctors were right there in her room trying to save her.
 
Oh yeah, I was on a jury trial once where someone cleaning their bathroom was on a ladder and fell. Broke 4 ribs. One was near her aorta and while in the hospital getting scheduled to do a CT scan, she coughed and the broken rib punctured her aorta so she exsanguinated in about 10 minutes while the doctors were right there in her room trying to save her.
Wow, great! even more incentive to NOT get on ladder now :)

Expensive HVAC bills and unusable square feet of space (aka carpeted area) are couple more reasons to hate high ceiling. Yes high ceilings look nice and make the house look spacious but it is NOT worth it
 
Wow, great! even more incentive to NOT get on ladder now :)

Expensive HVAC bills and unusable square feet of space (aka carpeted area) are couple more reasons to hate high ceiling. Yes high ceilings look nice and make the house look spacious but it is NOT worth it
I got the impression that the ladder wasn't even that high, maybe only 6-8 feet. But I think when you're cleaning, you probably lean over and that's probably how she fell.
 
last fall the bearings in the original 1974 Braun fan in our bathroom went out. no easy attic access to remove the housing and all, Menards sells kits to just replace the motor. The original motor is long discontinued, bought a motor kit, took a little mild finagling to get it to fit properly and work right. (Completely different motor /case design, and fully different mounting system)

but For $50 and a couple hrs work... it's a new fan.
 
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