Inline Duct Fan reversible ?

[Sid 03]

Can I buy an "Inline Duct Fan" that is reversible ?

I don't anything like that on-line? Why Not ?

Thanks

[Ed Pawlowski]

Probably not much call for them. Most are used as a booster for an existing system or have a shutter on the exhaust that closes when not blowing.

Buy a regular fan and adapt it to the duct.

[Sid 03]

But most small fans have shaded pole motors and can't be reversed with disassembling them ? Need to find one that is reversible

[Ed Pawlowski]

Try these guys

[Scott Lurndal]

Why would you want such an inline-duct fan in the first place? Running air through the heat exchanger in reverse against the furnace air handler doesn't seem very useful.

[trader_4]

That assumes it's a funace duct. I could see maybe having a vent to the outside and wanting to run it in both directions. The few I have experience with were all only one direction.

[Sid 03]

I doubt it would create enough air-flow to push air back through the exchange. Just one example: The fan would be installed just before the vent and suck some warm air from the rest of the house into that room while the rest of the rooms are being cooled. That person seems to be cold all the time no matter what temp the house is.

[Marilyn Manson]

What do you mean by "just before the vent"? What vent? Do you mean the return duct back to the blower? What other vent would have "warm" air available when the house is being cooled?

How "warm" is the air that you plan to "suck in"? Is it warm enough to offset the cooling effect of the air movement caused by the fan? Return air in a house that has been cooled by the AC isn't very "warm".

Why wouldn't you just close the AC duct to that room and block the return? When I do that for our spare bedroom, it gets considerably warmer in that room.

[micky]

Because reasonably priced motors don't reverse.

They make 21" box fans with reversible motors, but the motor is almost as big as a heating duct. I supppose they make smaller too

I'm curious, why do you want this? And if we knew why, there might be an easier solution.

[micky]

Then maybe you don't need reversible, maybe just a regular one installed backwards?

When I was a new-born, my father had a fan put in the duct leading to my room.

Now, I have a laundry chute, and when the AC wasn't working, I put a fan in the mouth of the chute to blow air from the cool basement up to the second floor. I think it took 2, 3, 4 degrees off the upstairs temperature, which was difference between verry uncomfortable and hot but not bad. I looked in stores and online at loads of fans and only found one that fit, but it fit great.

[Clare Snyder]

Reversing the motor is the easy part - the fan, if it is any good at all, is directional and is only about half as efficient running backwards.

[Marilyn Manson]

Really? I have had fans like this for years. I don?t even remember when I bought my first one, but it?s been well over 10 years.

Dual fans, individually reversible, thermostatically controlled. $40.

As shown above?

[trader_4]

Sounds like the intent is to put the fan into the return duct and pull more warm air from a room into the return vent? If that's the case, why does it need to be reversible?

[Mhes0303]

In my case I’m using an inline duct blower to move cool ac air upstairs in the summer however I heat with a gas fireplace in the winter and a bi directional fan would move the hot air that accumulates upstairs back through the vents downstairs, I would like to see them available also.

[Dean Hoffman]

Is something like this workable with some modification?

[Marilyn Manson]

Would this work?

In the winter, close all the output ducts for the upper floors and cover the returns on the lower floor.

Run the main blower fan either 24-7 or just when it gets too hot upstairs.

The blower will pull the hot air from upstairs through the returns and push it out the vents on the lower floor.

IOW, all input to the blower is the warm upstairs air and all output goes to the first floor.

What do you think?

If that would work, the "upgrade" would be to wire the blower to a thermostat on the upper floor so that it turned on and off automatically.

On a different but related subject, when I close the ducts to the unused spare bedrooms, I also cover the returns. There's no point in cooling or heating the air from those unconditioned spaces before pushing it back into the living spaces.

[Dean Hoffman]

I had a little better luck searching for reversible ventilation fan or reversible exhaust fan. Maybe you'll have to test your woodworking skills. You could just manually rotate the whole fan in the spring and fall if worst comes to worst.