Which brand/model of bathroom ceiling fan would you recommend? Panasonic?

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see only the quiet ones with separate fan unit, spend the bigger money now for the solitude you will wish you bought:

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We have Panasonic fans and they are good. These were recomended by our Architect and General Contractor. Stay away from NuTone. The Nutone ones are very noisy.

Best, Mike.

Panasonic fans are very good. The ultra quiet Broan fans are very good . The Fantech remote fans are unobtrusive and very good

I 'hear' that about Nutone. No, I really do. I have several and they sound terrible.

We upgraded our master bath fan from a crapola Nutone to a Panasonic and I first thought I had forgotten to plug the motor in, it was so quiet. Then we added one at our cabin, and went with the low profile model to work with our existing ceiling space. The model was FV-05VF2 (the 50 CFM unit). We later upgraded it to the 80 CFM because the room was very sealed with a low ceiling, and shower steam did not disperse immediately. The 80 CFM unit is only nominally louder than the 50.

Note that the "2" at the end of the model seems to designate whether it is a right or left vent unit, as viewed from underneath. When we first upgraded we ordered the wrong version. If you are matching an existing vent setup, take this into account.

I installed a Broan 140CFM 2.5 sones fan that I bought from Lowes about a year ago. The original builders put the only master bathroom fan in the little room off to the side of the main bathroom where the toilet is. This didn't vent the bathroom properly and so the ceiling and walls got pretty wet when the shower was run. So, I pulled out an extraneous light from the bathroom ceiling and installed said fan - using the same switch that used to control the light. It's pretty good, although it's only been 1 year. I wouldn't say it's "silent", but when the shower is running, you definitely can't hear the fan at all, and it's much quieter than the small 60CFM NuTone fan in the separate room. Overall, I'm glad I spent a little more to get the high-flow, low noise fan. Panasonic wasn't carried by Lowes, so I can't speak to those fans, but I would buy the Broan again.

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I won't speak to brands, but I will speak to size. I suggest that you oversize the unit by one. In other words, whatever model is sized for the square footage of the bathroom, buy the size for the next highest square foot range. The volume level will not be significant, but the unit will keep the room clearer and sweeter.

In addition, use a timer switch or, even better, a humiidstat.

Noise isn't always bad. My NoiseTone fan reminds me to turn it off. Otherwise I might leave home with the NoiseTone vacuum pump still running which will create a negative pressure that is not efficient when it comes to heating or cooling a house.

That's what a timer switch is for.

If you want to spend the money on it.

--- That's what a timer switch is for.

- If you want to spend the money on it.

True. I guess it comes down to this question: "How much am I willing to pay for quiet?"

To me, quiet (and automation) is worth the $20 I paid for the timer.

Nutone makes cheap and more expensive ones. We had one in our 30 year old house that still worked fine. They make very quiet ones also.

Not sure why anybody would want a silent bathroom fan anyhow. It's nice to have some noise to mask other naturaly occurring noises.

"TH" wrote

I doubt they make them that loud.

Steve

An array of twenty of them might do the trick.

I do have to admit, though, that I turn on the fan and water and flush sometimes when it's particularly bad. And I hate it at Home Depot, when someone's being particularly loud who's eaten a lot of prunes and beans. They need some sound deadening in there. The echo is monstrous.

STeve