inline shower fan

[ianphilip007]

hi need some advice. Recently fitted a 100mm 20w standard inline shower fan for a very small shower room. the fans stated extraction rate is 90m3 but it appears to have very little suction and the customer is stating that it isnt clearing the room when the shower is in use. Now i have checked the ducting and it appears to be extracting as there are signs of water in the ducting where it attches to the fan. Now is it a case of the fan just not beeing powerfull enough and i need to fit a more powerfull fan ? As i thought 90m3 would be sufficent any ideas please?

 

[ianphilip007]

to add this is the first inline fan i have fitted so not too sure on how much suction there should be/ or you can feel. All i know is that when the fan is running it wont even hold a smoke paper or piece of tissue to the grill is this normal

 

[stuart569]

No that is not normal.I fit expelair ones and they almost suck my hand up.Is it one of these with the lights inside the grill?What make is it?

 

[stuart569]

And the water is the steam going up into the cold loft and condensing.Insulated ducting should help

 

[ianphilip007]

thanks stuart. The fan is made by a company called airvent was part of a kit the customer supplied. i did not do the full install just replaced the broken inline fine with a new one too existing ducting and wiring (fusing down to 3amps as required) only thing i can think of is the fan is 5ft away from the inlet grille could this be causing a problem? if so it will have to be rewired so it can be repositioned. But it sounds like the fan is just not powerfull enough or is faulty as i said it wont even suck a smoke paper to the grille.

 

[ianphilip007]

and no light just a standard inlet grille

 

[ianphilip007]

the instructions stated no maximum distance from fan to inlet grille all i can think of is the 5ft from fan to inlet is too much hence a loss is in suction

 

[stuart569]

Just sounds like its not big enough for the job!A decent centrifugal would be better.60 odd quid

 

[ianphilip007]

yeah ive told the customer that a larger fan higher extraction may be required. a mixed flow in line fan ( 180m3/245m3 ) should do it, Do you think the length of ducting from fan to inlet grille is the problem ? thanks stuart for your advice

 

[Des 56]

yeah ive told the customer that a larger fan higher extraction may be required. a mixed flow in line fan ( 180m3/245m3 ) should do it, Do you think the length of ducting from fan to inlet grille is the problem ? thanks stuart for your advice

Just sounds like its not big enough for the job!A decent centrifugal would be better.60 odd quid

 

[ianphilip007]

a mixed flow fan would be suitable for a small shower room would you agree? they appear to be more powerfull

 

[ianphilip007]

especially with my customers current ducting arrangements. which lets say are not ideal

 

[Octopus]

You can edit your posts and add in more information. lol

 

[Marvo]

Axial fas won't handle much pressure, the mixed flow variety are generally better at handling pressure, they're also quieter and they don't overload the motor if grills become blocked. If it's a very small bathroom (like an en-suite) I would work on at least 20 room changes per hour. Measure the volume of the room and multiply by 20 to get the hourly volume required. Then find a fan that can do that duty. You might also need to fit an air vent in the door if the room is well sealed to allow the fresh air in that's replacing the extracted air.

 

[ianphilip007]

thankyou marvo

 

[Lofty]

I use the Vortice mixed flow fans at 245 cubic metres and insulated ducting.

Cheers,
Lofty.

 

[HandySparks]

Marvo's right about making sure that there's a route for allowing air into the room. I cut the bottom off the door, making sure that there's at least half an inch gap.

I tend to go for a high pressure fan of 160 or even 250 cu m /h. The ordinary cheap in-line fans are OK for trickle ventilation but can't really cope with the amount of water vapour produced by a good hot shower. Also make sure that any flexible ducting is as straight as possible with any corrugations pulled out flat. If necessary cut the ducting shorter and pull.

 

[nick611]

a cheap fan kit will only pull upto three meters in length. a vent axia or other quality make will pull much further,but no fan will stop the room steaming up only make it steam up less. if your fan can hold a single piece of toilet paper then thats it working. you get what you pay for

 

[HandySparks]

...no fan will stop the room steaming up only make it steam up less.

A few years ago I added a 250 cu m /h fan to my own shower room, pulling air from immediately above the shower cubicle, and provided an air inlet to the room. Since then neither of the mirrors in the room steam up. Mind you, there's quite a draught under the door!

The fan is triggered by a flow switch in the pipe feeding the pumped shower head and runs on for a few minutes.

 

[Amp David]

I have fitted these recently, both with full rigid duct 7m and flexible ducting at aroung 5m in length and as of yet no compaints.

Domus Silavent 100mm (187m3/hr) Mixed Flow Timer Fan [VIT100T] - £46.91


Those inline kits are pants

 

[GLENNSPARK]

got an inline in my shower room at home and its a load of crap.......will sling it and get a better one.....it`t a manrose by the way....cheap contract crappiness..lol...........

 

[Marvo]

A few years ago I added a 250 cu m /h fan to my own shower room, pulling air from immediately above the shower cubicle, and provided an air inlet to the room.

Extracting from directly above the shower would be the best way to gbviously you get a lot of condensation through the system so I would make the run-on period as long as 10 minutes if you can to dry it out fully after a shower.