Central bath vent fans

[Les]

I am changing my bathroom vent fan and have done all the "reading" about multi source exhaust fans.

Do any of you have any direct personal experience with a particular model or style? I have a long run of about 25' to one full bath, 20' to another full bath and 30'+- to a third. I want to mount it in my unconditioned garage attic. It will discharge up thru the roof, beyond snow line approx 8'. I can insulate all the ducts to the unit.

I would really like something to suck my socks off, but can't find one that is quiet. I have seen several houses that use a standard radon mitigation fan, inline, but can't find any mfg that talks about moisture laden air.

Never had this problem with the ole two holer!

[Tom Raymond]

We have a Panasonic at the day job venting three baths and it doesn't work. In the bath farthest from the fan it sounds like a jet engine and moves little air. The other two baths are very quiet but there is even less air movement. Each bath has a variable timer, 5 minutes minimum to fifteen minute max (no bathing facilities), and when two of these are turned on simultaneously the fan runs continuously until someone manually shuts of one off the timers.

I'd put a good quality fan in the bath I use every day, then something a little less perfect in the next bath, and then something around 80 cfm and 2 sones as the cheapo in the guest bath. It'll be a simpler installation, work better, and cost the same or less than the multi-source set up.

[Chad Fabry]

I have a Fan Tech unit. It's quiet; all winter I lose sleep wondering if my wife left it on. My nightmare centers on 350cfm of conditioned air being replaced by 350 cfm of unconditioned air.

I suggest timers.

[randynavarro]

I installed an Aldes fan to provide continuous whole-house ventilation with additional switches in the bathroom to boost the fan when the bathroom were in use. I believe the fan served 4 house ports with 2 ports for each bathroom.

The fan was installed in the attic and ran 24/7 for 5 years until we sold the house.

Never a problem. Never heard it.

Six years ago when I called and shopped Aldes, they provided a complimentary analysis by a mechanical engineer from their firm that reviewed my plans and told me what I needed.

I don't know if they offer that service today.

[hausdok]

I have a Fan Tech unit. It's quiet; all winter I lose sleep wondering if my wife left it on. My nightmare centers on 350cfm of conditioned air being replaced by 350 cfm of unconditioned air.

I suggest timers.

Looked at a house yesterday where they didn't want to use the whole house air change fans because they'd worried about replacing conditioned air with unconditioned air. The entire underside of the north slope of the roof in the attic looks like a habitat experiment - green, blue, white and black mold colonies growing all over the place.

Probably wouldn't happen in your place. As old as it is it probably breathes nicely; this place was a year old.

Les,

Around here, they've had good luck with Panasonic fans pulling from several baths. Don't know why it didn't work for the other poster.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Erby]

Save your money. Go back to the two holer and a bathtub on the kitchen floor.

[kurt]

Hahaha......

I've used both Panasonic and Fantech. They work great. They have to be sized to the rooms.

Yes, some of them sound like jet engines; these are usually oversized.

And, timers. Absolutely timers.

[David Meiland]

With 30 feet of ductwork you are going to lose a lot of airflow. I would oversize the fan(s) at least one notch. Most recently I've been using Panasonic WhisperGreen models and they work quite well. Check the specs, there are some nifty adjustments and functionality.