Making the bathroom vent fan a little quieter (2 Viewers)

[alia176]

Our master bath vent fan is noisy and there's little I can do about that unfortunately. The fan is rated at 4.0 sonnes which is fairly loud but I was more interested in reducing the vibrations from operating the vent fan or the heater fan.

It just so happens that I had some Rattle Trap noise dampening material left over so they went on the fan housing. The fan housing these days are made of thin sheet metal but in the old days, like our house, they were made with thicker sheet metal. Still, adding little bit of Rattle Trap really brought down the vibes. After this mod, we only hear noise caused by the fan blades.

In case some of you haven't explored your bath fans, they're very modular and easy to take apart. In our Broan unit the heater fan, light and the vent fan came out easily. If you clean the fan blades with a toothbrush and little compressed air, your vibes will be reduced even more.

I suppose one could use the roofing material known as Peel n Seal, found in home improvement stores. My only concern was whether or not you would be able to smell the asphalt when the attic got super hot in the summer. Granted, the vent fan is under a thick layer of insulation so this maybe a moot point.

 

[scottm]

An engineer I knew growing up did a lot of sound deadening testing. He used a square of shag carpet from his basement as his standard, and the manufactured sound absorbing materials he tested never beat it for absorbing reflected sound. It is cheap and readily available.

 

[PAToyota]

A lot of the noise is just rattle and vibration. Using the expanding foam insulation around the unit also works well to hold the unit in place and give it some better support.

 

[Spook50]

An engineer I knew growing up did a lot of sound deadening testing. He used a square of shag carpet from his basement as his standard, and the manufactured sound absorbing materials he tested never beat it for absorbing reflected sound. It is cheap and readily available.

Yeah but how many of us are going to line our Cruisers (or other vehicles) with shag carpet?

 

[DSRTRDR]

my 40 came with shag carpet in it

 

[splitshot]

my 40 came with shag carpet in it

And your hearing has deteriorated since you removed it right?


Mine has.

 

[TemboTusk]

How old is the fan? Are the bearings worn out?

 

[se2000]

Why can't you replace the fan? Because of a little drywall? The new quiet ones are the ones you want for your bedroom bath. Put the noisy one in the powder room near the living spaces to muffle the human noises.

 

[alia176]

How old is the fan? Are the bearings worn out?

Nope, super smooth bearings.

Why can't you replace the fan?

Don't wanna

 

[JohnVee]

Why can't you replace the fan? Because of a little drywall? The new quiet ones are the ones you want for your bedroom bath. Put the noisy one in the powder room near the living spaces to muffle the human noises.

Agreed.

--john

 

[othater]

The new quiet ones are the ones you want for your bedroom bath. Put the noisy one in the powder room near the living spaces to muffle the human noises.

You are so right.

 

[BLUE73FJ40]

Replace it with a Panasonic fan. I have sold them for years and are the best fans.

 

[Dazrin]

An engineer I knew growing up did a lot of sound deadening testing. He used a square of shag carpet from his basement as his standard, and the manufactured sound absorbing materials he tested never beat it for absorbing reflected sound. It is cheap and readily available.

Ewww....

A piece of shag carpet in a bathroom fan where there will be plenty of moisture (shower especially) is a bad idea. Good for sound, bad for health. Whatever is used needs to be anti-microbial/anti-fungal, especially in a moist environment.

As several people mentioned, the best bet is probably to replace the old fan with a new one if it is too noisy.

 

[Spook50]

Why can't you replace the fan? Because of a little drywall? The new quiet ones are the ones you want for your bedroom bath. Put the noisy one in the powder room near the living spaces to muffle the human noises.

Or your own noises for those days when you look at the toilet and say "challenge accepted"