Attic Exhaust Fan replacement cost

[truongln]

The exhaust fan in our attic is dead. We have asked someone to take a look at it, and they said it'd cost $365 to replace the old fan with a new one (this includes labor). Is this the usual price for this type of project? I've looked around, and the price for an exhaust fan seems to be around $230 at the most. Is is a relatively easy task to change the fan? If it is, then I may switch to this option instead (if you know of any site that gives instructions for doing this, please let me know as well). Many thanks, nguyen

[dave]

why not replace the motor, all else being okay with electrical and mount.

[CJT]

You might be able to replace just the motor for much less than that.

[CJT]

Oops, I see you already voiced a reaction similar to mine.

[JimR]

First, make sure you've checked that it's not just a bad switch. Then, find the manufacturer and the model number on the dead unit. While at it, you may want to remove the dead motor -- this will show you just how easy it is replace with a new unit. (Obviously, ensure power is off --) With any luck at all, you can find the manufacturer's web page along with customer service information. That should give you the part number of the motor and a way to order it directly from the manufacturer. -- Regards --

[trader4]

And if you do decide to have the whole thing replaced, make sure you get in writing what they are going to replace it with. You $235 estimate for the cost of the fan would be for a good one. You can get cheap ones for $75 at HD. You should know the make, capacity etc.

As to whether $365 is a good price for the whole job, it depends on where it;s located, how accessible, is it a gable that just goes in quick from the inside, or does it require work on the roof, maybe a diff size hole, etc.

[mm]

I would just replace the motor. I ordered my first replacement motor from the maker of the fan, but the next time I went to a a motor repair place in town, and they had the same thing in stock. Take the old motor with you.

I think their motor was 80 or 85 dollars. Removing the motor took 5 or

10 minutes the second time I did it. Putting in the new one, including putting the old blade on the new shaft, took 10 or 15 minutes. (not counting going to the basment to turn off the breaker)

Your motor may fail again in 5, 10, 15 years. Save the bad motor you have now, so you can use that to get a duplicate when you need to. Otherwise you'll have to go up in the hot** attic twice, once to remove the motor and later to replace it. I saved mine, but I've gotten some other good motors lately and lost track which is the one that fits in the attic. **I do this at dawn, so it's not really hot.

I love my roof fan. When I'm not using the AC, which is most of the time, it takes at least 10 degrees off the second floor. Maybe if I doubled the insulation it wouldn't be able to make such a difference, but now it does.

This year there was a lot of milkweed-looking stuff in the air for a while in the spring. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but both my soffit vents and my neighbors are covered with lint-like stuff. I have a powered fan and he doesn't, and we both need to clean this stuff off to get decent circulation through the attic. (Of course I cleaned the outside of my soffit vents 10 years ago, and I think he has never done so.)

OH, BTW, I got an email last June from someone who found a post of mine in groups.google He ended up just buying an entirely new fan, removing the motor and blade from it, and using that. IIRC it was cheaper than buying the motor separately! Although if he had bought the bigger fan it would have been the same price.

OK, here's the last letter he wrote to me, or I wrote to him, except for the picture of the motor, which I can email to you if you want for some reason.

At 07:35 PM 6/20/06, PK wrote: Greetings;

Thanks for the info.

Although I originally installed the attic fan, I didn't relish having to go up on roof of our 2-story house, and there was no need to disturb the shingles and replace the vent cover.

You have to go on the roof to change the motor? Not with mine.

So I went to Lowe's this morning, and purchased a complete 1170cfm vent fan unit. $54.00+tax

I think that is cheaper than I paid for the motor alone, but I don't know the specs. I wasn't interested at the time.

Then, in the stand-up attic area, I unscrewed the 3 bolts holding the support frame, motor and attached fan blade & thermostat housing, and bolted it all in place. Connected two wires, and all is working again.

Yep.

I note the new motor has 5-06 black-penned on it; the motor removed was similarly marked 7-96.

So yours lasted 10 years about. That's a good long time.

Now I have a new grey metal dome unit with the flashing surround to be donated to AmVets.

The new motor doesn't have the Leslie-Locke brand name on it, but the new motor is identical in size and appearance to the old one. Has a 5-year warranty, but it's with the manufacturer (Texas address)-- requires that failed parts be sent to them for verification and replacement (at least they say they'll cover shipping back to me of the replaced parts). Odds are it'll be working OK five years hence, but ~10 years is the likely failure point. I considered spending $79.00 for a higher air-volume unit (1,320 cfm; same dimensions-- 14 3/4" dia housing).

I might still have the box my fan came in. I put most of that stuff in the attic, but old boxes got covered by newer boxes. And the ladder I use to get to the attic is on loan.

But since I wasn't adding any additional air-input vents, didn't think I'd notice any increase in ventilation.

I'd found an identical motor on Home Depot's website for $42 + tax

+shipping (temporarily unavailable online), Emacs! and they have a complete unit for $57.95

Lowe's was a bird in-hand, $3.95 cheaper, and I got a clean, firmly attached blade and new thermostat as well.

I still haven't turned on the AC yet this year; they just said on TV that temp got to upper 80's,

Me neither. It was 95 on Sunday, remember, and I was home and got hot but humidity is reasonably low, so it's bearable. Only ~10 weeks til Sept and the advent of cooler weather. Thanks again; hopefully the motor you got last year will last longer than an OEM motor.

Thanks. It's been 4 or 5 years already. The receipt I found was from the first one, I think but I have all the receipts somewhere.

I also want to resolve the reliability of yp.yahoo.com, but I doubt they'll even answer me with more than a form letter. And I guess no matter what they say, I'll know the phone book is better, when I have a phone book. I used to have a collection of DC phone books, but a water leak ruined them all. I'll have to ask my friend in Alexandria to start saving last year's books for me.

Maybe there is some bug in the system and if I tell them about EMR, it will be the clue they need to find the bug. I guess I'm a cockeyed optimist.

Thanks for the follow-up.

MM

Phil

============== At 11:20 AM 6/19/2006, you wrote: At 10:05 AM 6/19/06, PK wrote: Greetings;

I noted a google groups discussion from 2005 to which meirman contributed info regarding replacing a Leslie-Locke attic fan motor.

I don't think I knew the fan being discussed was Leslie-Locke, but there is a good chance mine was. (I saw such fans for sale but I don't remember for sure what I bought.)

I believe you mentioned that there are only two sources in Baltimore area for replacement motors.

AFAICT.... Well I see I was mistaken afa the phone book goes. I don't remember if I called some of these places and they didn't really sell motors, or not. Maybe there were only two that were close enough to me.

I'm in Clarksville, and my Leslie-Locke 5 1/8" dia white attic fan motor has seized up and needs replacement.

If you're the individual who contributed to that discussion last year re attic fan motor replacement, I'd be grateful if you could email me the two sources that you found for that motor.

That''s me. One was on the near NW side. I can picture the street and the parking lot but I have to look it up to get the name. Their listing in the yellow pages indicated to me that they were as good as the other, so I went to them first because they were a little closer. But they didn't have it, and iirc, didn't even have to check to know they didn't have it. It struck me as a standard size, so I was disappointed.

The other was called Electric Motor Repair and it's at something like

300 E. 20-something street, on the north side,

I brought the old one with me and I was in and out in 10 minutes. I would save the old one, so I didn't have to take the one you buy now out, in order to buy the third one. It was about 80 dollars, which was more than the whole fan several years earlier, but well worth the price. It was 95 in Baltimore yesterday, and it was pretty warm on my second floor, but not hot. I was at my desk most of the day, wearing shorts and no shirt, and it was tolerable. I may have said that before the fan, I couldn't come up stairs even at 11PM. I'd have to sleep in the basement.

I don't like to waste the money for AC, although if there were more people here, it would be less per person,. and I expect electric charges will keep going up, so I don't want to get used to it, but the notion that the fan takes anywhere near as much as the AC does not ring true with me. And I like the windows open, which even if I did not care about money, I could have open for a couple more months a year, when otherwise it woudl be too hot.

OK so I looked in yp.yahoo.com yp=yellow pages.

It doesn't seem to be there anymore. I printed out what I found under "electric motor" The first store might be Lange, or maybe Wisner. I would call before I went there.

Well I looked in the real yellow pages, if you consider the One Book to be that, and it was easy to find under Electric Motors-MFRS & DISTRS. 700 E 25th very close to what I said. 410-467-8080. Of course this book is from 1999-2000.

NO, I called them and they are still in business as before. I told them that they weren't in yp.yahoo.com and she said she'd tell someone.

There are some other entries in this section also but the Electric Motor Repair Co. has 5 separate box entries at the same address, for different brands of motors. (So they are big and probably have everything.) And none of the other entries in the whole section match entries from yp.yahoo.com, except Lange. That's strange even for a 6 y.o. phone book. This is very disappointing because it means I can't count on yp.yahoo.com at all anymore.

Plus there is a separate category called Electric Motors, Dealers and Repair, and EMR is in there too, and so are some of the listings below, and even if you combine the two secions, there are at least twice as many companies in the phone book, If you only look at Mfrs & Distrs, only one item is in yp.yahoo.com.

You know I thought yp.yahoo.com was more reliable than this.

Eesco Pump & Valve Inc [phone] 634 S Brice St Baltimore, MD Map

Kauffman Electric Co Inc [phone] 3400 Boston St Baltimore, MD Map

Keystone Electric Co Inc [phone] 2807 Annapolis Rd Baltimore, MD Map

Lange Electric Co [phone] Web Site 2626 W Patapsco Ave Baltimore, MD Map

Paul's Repairs [phone] 11718 Eastern Ave Baltimore, MD Map

Team Svc Corp [phone] 1401 Angela Ave Baltimore, MD Map

Wisner Electric Co [phone] 2701 Frederick Ave Baltimore, MD

Thanks.

PK

[Jerry]

replying to truongln, Jerry wrote: You tube us your friend