My thermostatic attic roof vent fan made these horrible screeching noises and died.
I can turn the blades but it takes a lot of force where it should spin easily. I cut the power to it until I can get to fixing it.
This is one job I've never done before. It looks pretty easy to get out; am I going to be able to find an exact replacement? House was built in the 60s.
tried to lubricate the bearings?
Mine broke yestday. No screeching involved.
Mine is a bit tricky. It's held in place by 3 brackets, every 120 degrees,, which bend 90^ at the motor and bolt together to make a circle right around the motor.
In the past I could remember how I'd done it, but not this time. Maybe because it's been longer than usual, 13 years, or maybe because I'm old.
IIRC, I only had to loosen the brackets in the past, but this time I disconnected them at the motor (left them attached at the housing circumference, and had to work the fan blade step-by-step past the brackets. Not too hard, but now that I'm done, I realize I could never get it out without undoing those bolts. . Plus the two wires pulled out of the BX, later to be pushed back in.
All this from the inside of the attic, of course.
If you live in a city, yes. The motor, nothing else.
The Baltimore met area has about a million people and it has only one store that sells this stuff. (with two divisions now, but still.)
If you don't live in a city, I'm sure you can find the motor online. You can call the place I go, Electric Motor Repair, Toll Free:
888-894-4810 and they'll probably give you free information Might even ship you one, but maybe the same motor woudl be cheaper online.Today was the first time in 20 years they didn't have the motor in stock. He says they sell mostly 3-phase now, but they'll have it tomorrow. He said they might have stocked it at their other location, but it was too late in the day for me to get there, and it's twice as far away.
Are you saying the fan has been there using the same motor for over 45 years? That's incredible. I put a roof fan in 32 years ago and starting tomorrow I'm on my 5th or 6th motor. Almost surely the 6th.
This one lasted 13 years or so, but one lasted only 3 years.
Save the old motor so the next time the motor fails, you'll know what to buy and can buy a new one with out having to go up into the hot attic. You do have a hot attic don't you? If you don't, maybe that's why the motor lasted so long.
I doubt the bearings can be lubricated. Any motor that doesn't have to be lubed for 13 years can't be lubed, in my experience. All the more so for 45 years.
My thermostatic attic roof vent fan made these horrible screeching noises and died.
sily. I cut the power to it until I can get to fixing it.
am I going to be able to find an exact replacement? House was built in th e 60s.
*I have replaced several motors and thermostats for customers. You must ge t the name and model number and track down the repair parts. Broan and Nut one parts are available online. Home Depot sells thermostats which work fo r most fans and they sell replacement motors for one brand. You need a new motor. If you can't find a replacement, you can have the old one rebuilt at a motor shop. I usually get a new fan blade as well because the old one s can be difficult to get off the old motor.John Grabowski
Mine quit working and I left it alone.
Then a few years later I needed a new roof and roofer replaced it with a passive vent.
Mine was tough to access as I had to crawl through a panel in my closet.
Neighbor had one that caught fire. It was late at night and could have been serious if another neighbor had not seen the flames on the roof.
Glad I no longer have the fan and passive one seems OK as roof is in good shape even after 25 years.
easily. I cut the power to it until I can get to fixing it.
t; am I going to be able to find an exact replacement? House was built in the 60s.
get the name and model number and track down the repair parts. Broan and N utone parts are available online. Home Depot sells thermostats which work for most fans and they sell replacement motors for one brand. You need a n ew motor. If you can't find a replacement, you can have the old one rebuil t at a motor shop. I usually get a new fan blade as well because the old o nes can be difficult to get off the old motor.
Agree. Assuming the rest of it is OK. Some are made with plastic covers that are shot and starting to crack, fall apart, after 20 years. If the rest of it is OK, then good chance you can find a motor and replace it. HD has them and I recently replaced one, it fit perfectly. It was the type where a metal band goes around the motor, with 3 brackets then attaching to the fan housing. I think HD only had one type though, but it probably fits multiple brand fans.
If the whole thing needs to be replaced, that's a bit more involved, but still not too bad, if you have some basic roofing skills or are willing to look at some videos to learn. You just need to remove some shingles, replace the fan, put new shingles back, etc. Only special tool you'd need is one of those pry bar type gizmos that you use to get under shingle nails and remove them. Of course how accessible the roof is would be a factor too. If it's just the motor, that can be done from inside the attic.
if you can get by with a passive vent do that instead. that avoids a lot of expense. which depends a great deal upon the space and the heat gain and moisture levels, soffit vents, etc, but well worth the effort.
if you do end up replacing the motor get one that is the most efficient you can afford. some cheap ass motors will use a lot of energy that can be saved otherwise. the price difference will pay for itself many times over the years.
songbird
That's a good point. From what I see, most of the experts are in favor of ridge venting, using natural ventilation, and they aren't too keen on an attic fan. One problem with an attic fan is that if it's not sized right, it can create negative pressure in the attic, which in turn sucks air conditioned air from the living space through recessed lights, electrical outlets, access hole, etc.
I've been reading about passive roof venting and it does seem to have advantages.
I think my roof will need replacement in about 5 years and that would be the time to do that.
But the little hole the fan sticks through doesn't seem big enough to go that direction now, I think I'll replace the motor.
I live in the path of the East Coast hurricanes, I figure there's a good chance to get the roof paid by insurance if I wait it out.
I wouldn't count on that. Around here insurers use Google Earth and even local adjusters to take pictures of roofs so that they can pro-rate yours. If they don't have a picture, for some reason, they'll just figure depreciation based on when the roof was last done.
I've actually had people stop at my house and say they'll replace my roof for free, they see storm damage and they can convince the insurance company.
No way I'm touching that kind of contractor! Aside from the moral issue, anybody willing to cheat the insurance company is probably willing to cheat me, and won't do quality work.
That depends on the terms of the policy. If you have replacement cost coverage, then they pay for the full replacement cost of the badly damaged roof planes, without depreciation.
Not saying it's a good strategy to gamble and wait though. What I'd be worried about would be that while you could get insurance to pay for a major portion of the new roof, you also have a good chance that you'll have water damage. Of course the insurance company will cover that too, but is it worth going through it? Will they give you enough to cover everything that needs to be repaired, etc. With a new roof, it might survive a hurricane with no damage, or just a few shingles blown off.
If they can legitimately convince the insurance company to do it, why do you have a problem with it? I had a roofing contractor on site to argue with my insurance company and he pointed out many things the adjuster missed, increasing the claim. Nothing wrong with that.
If anything, having the roofer there, prevented the insurance company from screwing me. A good example of that, was interestingly, an attic fan. It had a plastic cover that the wind tore off. We were almost done, the roofer was headed back to his truck and the adjuster told me that they would only pay for a "new cover". I tried to tell her there is no such thing, you can't go by a new plastic top cover part for a 25 year old fan. You can't even typically buy one for a new fan. She wouldn't budge. So, I yelled down to the roofer, he told her I was right, and another $200 was added to the total.
If you're saying the roofer in your case wanted to go tear more shingles off your house, commit fraud, then that's a different story.
I never really thought of this before reading your post about how a passive roof venting system may have some advantages, but...,
I wonder what it would cost to have a roofer just add a new ridge vent to an existing roof without doing a whole new roof? If I am not mistaken, I think they just do two cuts along the ridge line, remove what is there between the two cuts, and then add a new ridge vent over the newly-created opening.
of for free, they see storm damage and they can convince the insurance comp any.
e, anybody willing to cheat the insurance company is probably willing to ch eat me, and won't do quality work.
There wasn't any damage I could see. It's not a new roof but still in appa rently good shape. He said he would swear there was hail damage and the in surance company would be okay with it. Maybe...........but it seemed a goo d chance it might be fraud, and if so I wouldn't trust them to do a quality job.
They declined to leave a card "in case I changed my mind." Just saying.
It depends a lot on what state you live in. Florida homeowner insurance needs a rider for wind storm damage (similar to flood), usually twice as much as your fire and liability. Even then there is a very large deductible. Seldom will simply replacing the roof shingles even be worth a claim.
I should add that some rain bounces off the roof, makes it through the screen, and lands on the fan motor. Maybe this shortens the life of the fan, I don't know. I looked at it with intention of putting in a second layer of screen to stop the mist from reaching the motor, but didnt' see a practical way to do that.
In the past I don't remember paying more than 50 or 60 for the motor, though maybe I'm forgetting. Yesterday the motor was 119**. No charge for shipping because, after paying for it at the retailer, it was a beautfiul day and I drove 45 miles to the wholesalers. Also went to Monocacy Battefield National Park and found free air at that particular Wa-wa.
**It's 80 pus 14 shipping online, but in the past I bought it right in Baltimore, and I thought it was less than that. So I paid $26 extra, but at least it won't arrive while I'm out of town.
My old motor and my new one are both labeled thermally protected.
I think they have a self-resetting thermal switich. I turned off the power to the fan for a while and turned it back on and I could see the fan blade "spinning" at about 1 rotation / 30 seconds. But no overheating.
The last 5 motors all stopped spinning but no fires!
They do push attic ventilation, active and passive, as a way to pretect the roof, but the advantage I get from it is that the cooler attic doesn't radiate heat into the 2nd floor.
Before the fan, during the summer, it was too hot to sleep upstairs. Even though I had full width soffitt vents on both front and back and a full width ridge vent.
I didn't even go upstairs when I got home from work, I slept in the basement, and got new clothes upstairs the next morning.
Of course if one uses AC, the AC hides all this, but it runs longer and one has to pay extra to cool off the top floor of the house. The fan uses electricity too, 3.5 amps, 1/10 HP. But you still get a much bigger bang for the buck.
Passive roof vents do not vent hot air near as well as thermostaticaly controlled fan. When mine went out I noticed an increase in my electric bill.
Andy
The problem with "attic fan" is that people don't know if one is talking about the fan in the floor of the attic or the top of the attic. That's why I use the phrase roof fan.
Huh? Of course it creates negative pressure. That's how it blows the hot air out.
One should make sure he doesn't have such holes in his ceilings and if he does, seal them.
Hot air rises whether there is a fan or not.
WRT trap door to the attic, I put foam around the opening and fiberglass above the wood just to insulate the opening regardless of the fan. I've never had an electric outlet in the ceiling. And I don't have any can lights on the second floor, but people with one-story houses are more likely to have can lights on the first floor.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.