bathroom ventilation fan

[Evan Mann]

My faster bath is no ventilation fan in it and when you shower it steams up really bad. There is a window to my patio, but even with that open, it is still pretty bad. It can take some time for all that steam and heat to dissipate.

The natural solution (to me at least) is an bathroom ventilation fan. My question is, how bad would it be if I just have it venting into the attic, as opposed to cutting a hole in the roof and putting on a roof vent.

My other potential option is to have it vent out onto my patio by cutting a hole in my exterior wall, since the bathroom is out the rear exterior wall. Would this not be a wise decision? Perhaps I could have it vent our the sofet?

BTW, I live in Central Florida, if that makes a difference or not.

[Joseph Meehan]

Real bad. Don't do it. It can cause a number of problems.

Sofet venting is better than nothing, but it is not a good idea since the vented moisture is likely to be picked up by a nearby sofet vent and brought right back into the attic. Out the side wall is OK.

[mwlogs]

But don't expect a fan to eliminate a steam-up problem, regarless of where you are able to vent it. Condensation (which isn't really steam) comes when warm moist air comes in contact with a cooler surface, the mirror, walls and ceiling in our case. Moving the moist air out quickly, with a fan, will help reduce the problem, but if you are taking a long hot shower, it's probably not going to eliminate it, particularly if the bathroom door is closes and there is not easy source for cooler, drier replacement air to flow in as the fan evacuates the warm moist air.

[Axial]

If you do get a fan and want a very, very quiet one, check out the Panasonic brand fans, they're great.

[Houseslave]

There's no need to vent the fan to the roof. You'll simply vent it to an outside wall. The whole installation shouldn't take more then a few hours. The hardest part is too mount the fan in the celing and run the electricity so it works of the bathroom light switch. I wouldn't put the fan on a seperate switch. If you do there will be many times when it doesn't get turned on. Also, buy a good fan because the motors wear out after a while. Then just make sure you clean out the dust from the fan once in a while.

[Evan Mann]

I always leave the bathroom door open which helps let cooler air in. That in combination with the open window helps to get rid of some of the steam, but a fan that is actually sucking air out should help even more, which is the route I'm heading.

[Joseph Meehan]

I agree. The cheap ones are both much noise than then need be, or you want and they don't move nearly as much air.

[Joseph Meehan]

It works for me. As soon as it starts getting cool outside, the bath will fog the mirrors and start condensing on the outside walls without the fan; with the fan no problems.

[barry martin]

Hi Evan!

EM> My faster bath is no ventilation fan in it and when you shower it steams up

Take a slower bath to not stir up the water?

EM> The natural solution (to me at least) is an bathroom ventilation fan. My EM> question is, how bad would it be if I just have it venting into the attic, EM> as opposed to cutting a hole in the roof and putting on a roof vent. EM> EM> My other potential option is to have it vent out onto my patio by cutting a EM> hole in my exterior wall, since the bathroom is out the rear exterior wall. EM> Would this not be a wise decision? Perhaps I could have it vent our the EM> sofet?

OK -- so much for the funny business. You should exhaust all the way to the outside. You do not want to put moisture into your attic. The local code does allow for flexible duct ==> the metal foil type anyway; doubt plastic.

Exhausting to the patio may be "embarrasing" ==> do you really want guests to know when someone is in the bathroom?

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