A musty odor in the bathroom is a must unless there is an exhaust fan installed there. Whenever you take a hot shower, your bathroom will be filled with moisture. As a result, there will be foggy mirrors and you can’t see clearly in the bathroom.
If the above scenario goes on for some time, mold and mildew will grow. Besides, the moisture will damage the paint, wall, and fixtures. Overall, it will damage the indoor air quality and have a negative impact on the living quality of all your family members.
In this article, you will learn everything about why your bathroom needs an exhaust fan and if you want learn all about great ventilation fans, visit ReliefInBath.com for in-depth information.More so, you can learn how to pick the right one.
Improved Indoor Air
The main function of a ventilation fan is to extract the excess moisture and musty odor from the bathroom through its duct. Unless you extract the moisture, they will escape the bathroom and enter into the other rooms and can make the overall air quality toxic.
An exhaust fan does not let that happen. Even before the musty odor and moisture start to spread, it extracts them outside completely. That way the indoor air quality of the bathroom improves significantly.
Since no excess moisture can’t build up inside the bathroom, mold and mildew can’t grow either. Which in turn prevents the respiratory health hazard. So, ensuring the improved air quality is the main purpose of an exhaust fan.
Improved Living Standard
Modern ventilator fans come with many other modern features like heater, humidity sensor, and night light. It’s good to have the night light when you need to go to the bathroom at night, right?
Besides, in the winter season, the heater will be a blessing for you. It will keep your bathroom warm enough to give you a comfortable shower experience. All that cool features won’t cost you much electricity bill per month.
Keeping The Bathroom Tip Top
Constant moisture in the bathroom is a natural consequence if there is no exhaust fan. These moistures will dampen the wall and the paint. Over a period of time, it will damage the integrity of the bathroom wall.
The fate is true for other bathroom fixtures the vanity cabinet, sink, shower, tub, etc. And exhaust fan will ensure the long term usability of these fixtures.
Picking The Right Exhaust Fan
There are so many popular brands in the market like Panasonic, Broan and so on. You can install it from any of them. However, you need to pay attention to some features like ‘sones’ level, CFM rating, and so on.
‘Sones’ level indicates the noise level of the fan. You definitely want to have an exhaust fan that creates the lowest level of noise while running. Sones level below 1.0 is almost noise free. However, they tend to be expensive as well.
The next thing you should pay attention is the CFM rating. It measures the air flow capacity of the fan. The more CFM rating means it can blow out more moisture from your bathroom. Ideally, 1 CFM is good for per 1 square foot of the space. So, if your bathroom has 80 square feet space, get at least 80 CFM fan.
Installation Guide
I am not talking about how to install it, rather where to install it. But before that, you need to identify what causes the most moisture inside your bathroom. Definitely, the shower, right?
So, to take the most benefit of having an exhaust fan, you should install it as near the shower as possible. That way, it can extract the moisture from the hot shower before it can spread everywhere inside the bathroom.
Pro Tips
How long do you need to keep the fan running? That’s a very confusing issue. Some people including some exhaust fan brands will tell you to keep it running all day and night.
But there are some experts who will tell you to keep it running only for 10 to 15 minutes after you use the shower or the toilet.
The truth behind these confusions that you should only keep the fan running 24/7 it is meant to use that way. Yes, there are some exhaust fans that should be running 24 hours. So, it’s very important to read the instruction very carefully.
But in most of the cases, you should keep it running only for 10/15 minutes after you use the bathroom.
Another great tip for you which is maintaining the vent fan. You should periodically clean up the fan. (americachip) Vacuum clean the blades and the housing. Drop some machine oil at the motor as well to keep it running.
However, some motors are permanently lubricated. In such cases, you do not have to use any extra machine oil.
Summing Up
So, exhaust fan not only just take care of the foggy mirrors, it prevents accelerated damage of the wall itself and the paint on the wall as well. By improving the indoor air quality, it ensures your healthy living. No matter whether your bathroom has a window or not, never forget to get one!
