Agreed, having put a fan in the refitted bathroom in the old house I really miss having one in the currrent bathroom.
Quite, opening the window just leads to a cold bathroom for much of the year. and of course it either gets left open to long, or doesn't get opened when it could be useful to be so.
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that point is equally true of the window
I guess either setup can create its own issues. Generally I prefer a window a fraction of an inch open, locked there. Fans vary greatly in their air moving ability, too many are too feeble to be of much use.
NT
Agreed - when we moved into this house there was a good shower but no fan. We fitted a fan with humidistat almost immediately - it doesn't make a big difference to the amount of steam when you're in the shower, but coming home from work several hours later the bathroom is completely dry, whereas before there would still be condensation.
The other problem with opening the window I find is that the tiled walls cool down very quickly and form condensation more readily. With the fan most of the steam stays airborne until the fan sucks it out.
Put it this way, our shower room currently has the window open a couple of inches. You shower and it takes ten mins for the steam to clear, and the walls are dripping wet for hours. Once I stick I fan in I am expecting that to change dramatically.
(to be fair the problem has only really been really noticeable since upgrading the shower to mains pressure)
IIRC building regs are now mandating fans for bathrooms that have windows (obviously new builds, not retro).
I have one because my bathroom is islanded - and it does keep the place clear, and contains the fug when someone drops a smelly one!
Isolate it (SWMBO does not like the noise[1] in the bath) and the loo cistern is dripping in short order.
[1] The fan makes a small amount of noise, over the kitchen ceiling (it's bolted to the joists). However, the vent I chose makes a bit of suction noise. A "mushroom" type you see in hotels would be quieter.
A fan adds aids air room changes to the whole house (the seepage) and so is helpful.
Opening a window is so 1970s.
If you put a typical fan in, after 10 mins it'll still be wet. I expect you'll do something better, most don't.
10 mins of window 2" open is far too long IME, bound to make it cold.NT
In my last place (smallish bathroom - 7' 6' ish) I used a manrose 4" through wall fan with built in humidistat. That was "ok" - it made quite a noticeable difference. The only downside was that its slightly noisy being only 4". Did the same in the loft shower room and it worked better still there (smaller room, better insulated) - although the back draft shutter used to flap in the wind on that one.
In other peoples places I have used a 5" ducted fan, and those wwere better.
So I will go for a 5 or 6" ducted fan in this one since although the room is not that large, its very tall > 10' so there is quite a volume of air to shift.
(For good results with ducted fans, you can get combined light fittings / fan intakes that can go right over a shower. )
The window in permanently open at the moment, but it has little effect on clearing the moisture. Its also rather too difficult to open and close at the moment since you have to climb into the windowsill to do it!
(I will also trim the bottom of the shower room door to allow a little more air into the room from there).
Thanks for reporting that.
Thanks.
Does the humidistat not make it come on occasionally at seemingly random times?
I have that setup. At the level I set, it comes on and off a few times during and after a shower, which makes sense as it clears the moist air, switches off, moisture builds up again, switches back on, and so on.
You might get lots of spurious activation if set too marginally. Only spurious running I had was when I opened the window just after it had rained, and the moist air from outside activated it.
Simon.
I have the silent version for the downstairs toilet (fan in kitchen behind cupboards), and also the non-silent version (in the loft). Both pretty quiet, but with the downstairs one, most of the noise is air noise on the grille.
Annoyingly, when I turn the fan speed control down, the fan gets noisier. I will have to change the chopper speed controller for a DIY capacitor based circuit ...
Simon.
It can do if you get a very damp day. So long as there is a knob to hand, you can just tweak it down until it goes off.
Yes, but I have to stand on the toilet seat to reach it !
Simon.
Using a remote and stand alone humidistat has much to be said for it ;-)
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