I need to replace the bathroom light/fan unit, but I assumed that it would be hard to find a replacement since the unit is old (maybe from 1980). I was in the hardware store recently for another purchase and I noticed that all of the bathroom light/fan units looked roughly to be the same size. There were two shapes: circular and square.
Does anyone know if these units are based on some standard size? If so, has this standard been around for a while?
Obviously I can measure the unit and sort it out at the store, but I thought someone might know this answer off-hand.
Do you mean size for the rough opening or how large of a bathroom the fan can clear of steam/odor?
They might all fit into the same sized rough-in, but I was under the impression that they had different ratings depending on how large the bathroom is and how far the duct work has to travel to reach the outside, but I could be wrong.
Also, you might get a better response over in the BarnHouse. Just ask before cross posting.
Good point. I meant the size of the rough in. I didn’t think of the fan power as a function of room size, but now that you mention it, I will verify that.
I replaced my c. 1977 ceiling fan a couple of years ago and found a wide variety of fans as far as fitting the rough opening. What I couldn’t find was one that had the right size exhaust duct. The new ones were all close to 5" or 6", the very hard to get at hose in my attic was 4" IIRC. I had a real hard time getting a new hose out to the soffit because of the shape of the roof.
I’m not sure if this is of any help to you, but typically they are sitting up on top of the drywall ceiling and then screwed on one side to a 2x4, since it’s only one side, it’s trivial to just cut the drywall opening to fit the new fan,* There’s no woodwork involved (that is, nothing has to be framed or rebuilt, just cut away the drywall to make the new one fit).
BTW, each fan will have a square foot rating on it, find one that’s close to the square footage of your bathroom.
*if you can’t find the same size, but a bigger one, it’s much easier to cut away drywall to accommodate a bigger one then to patch the drywall for a smaller one.
No, they are not a standard size. Pull the cover and measure. BTW, if it’s just a slow motor then chances are you can pull it and oil it. The older the fan, the better the motor so you may be throwing away something better than you’re buying.
When you go shopping for fans, they will be rated in 2 categories, Cubic Feet/Minute (CFM) to indicate how much air they move and Sones, which is an indication of how loud the fan is. The higher in CFM and the lower in Sones, the better the fan is.
The fan still works well. It is the light fixture that is broken. One of the wires was pulled out of the junction, but the junction is screwless so I can’t reattach the wire. If I could find a replacement junction, it would be a two-minute job and cost under $5. Thinking about it more, I could solder the wire back on.
It’s a good point and that type of problem is exactly what I was trying to discover in order to weigh between “searching for a replacement outlet” vs. “just slapping a new unit in”.
without seeing what you’ve got you should be able to buy a replacement socket/mount and rewire it. I’m amazed at how sturdy some of the old fan motors are. I’ve pulled some out that looked like the drive motor for a nuclear submarine. Apparently the older engineers thought cockroaches would need exhaust fans after the apocalypse.