pull string on my bathroom fan?

[I & H Prees]

We just put on a dormer addition with 2 bedrooms and a 2-room bath. Our tub/toilet room has one ceiling fixture which includes a heater, fan and light. It was wired with two wall switches, one for the heater and the other for the fan and light together. Problem is, the fan is pretty loud and especially in the middle of the night, we don't like to use it, but of course we need the light; it is the only light in the small room. We should have had them wire it with three switches, but didn't think about it at the time. We were thinking of opening up the fixture, detaching the fan wiring from the switch, and putting on a pull string so we can work the fan independently. Is that ok to do? We don't want to open any newly plastered/painted/tiled walls up. Thanks. Holly

[HA HA Budys Here]

Holly - who wired the addition? Every electrician knows a HVL needs a 2-wire and a 3-wire cable so that each function, Heat, Vent, Light, can operate seperately. In fact, many of the units are sold with the triple switch packed inside the box.

Get the original contractor / electrician to do the job right!

Short of that, in order to add a pull chain you'd have to mount it to the removable cover, I doubt that would conform to electrical code.

And the pull chain wouldn't work the fan if the light was off anyway.

[Marilyn and Bob]

«Short of that, in order to add a pull chain you'd have to mount it to the removable cover, I doubt that would conform to electrical code.» You could mount the pull chain switch on the support bar (or any other appropriate place within the housing) and have the chain come throug a small hole drilled in the removable cover. Should work.

[George E. Cawthon]

Sure. Probably the fastest and easiest way now that the walls are closed up. Just find the correct wire, hook it up to a pull switch, and mount the switch on the fan grating.

[meirman]

In alt.home.repair on 03 Feb 2004 13:22:56 GMT [e-mail] (HA HA Budys Here) posted:

Darn, I never thought of that. And I did it to both fans in my mother's apartment, that she didn't even own. But, management didn't charge me anything after she moved out, after about 10 years.

True but my mother never turned them on. In my own house, one bathroom had a proper switch, for another it was easy to add, and in the third, I just unplugged it inside the ceiling. Gosh I hate that noise.

Meirman

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