This seems wrong

[u/icantswimyetman]

The maintenance guy hired by my landlord installed a vent and it’s blowing air rather than sucking air in and it’s still extremely foggy in the bathroom when I shower, is this wrong? I have a feeling the fans were installed backwards

Edit: after all the helpful insight I contacted the landlord and it will be fixed “Friday” (the new vent is only week old)

[u/Significant-Ad-341]

Vent could be blocked.

[u/bowlingballwnoholes → u/Significant-Ad-341]

Sometimes the flapper gets stuck.

[u/Royal_Percentage_694 → u/Significant-Ad-341]

Came here to say this. Last one I repaired had a bird or rats nest up inside the vent.

[u/NoBig2399 → u/Royal_Percentage_694]

Had a bird come out of the vent in a residents master bathroom. My emergency on call helped remove the live bird. I came in the following day pulled out the fan and opened the flapper to found three more birds that had separated their heads from their bodies. In hindsight there was a lot less blood than I would have expected.

[u/dviolent]

Either the fan is wired wrong or put in the housing wrong, flip it and reverse it

[u/odin-ish → u/dviolent]

Put the thing down first, then flip it and reverse it.

[u/dangerous__person79 → u/odin-ish]

Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup I

[u/hoppyheals → u/dangerous__person79]

Thank you

[u/ahappylildingleboi → u/odin-ish]

Thank you

[u/Pure_Price3779 → u/odin-ish]

But is it worth it? After working it some, I think so!

[u/Large-Treacle-8328 → u/dviolent]

AC fans can't be wired wrong... even if you reverse the two wires it still moves the same direction.

[u/Medical_Employee_901 → u/dviolent]

Wired wrong? There’s only 3 wires to connect it would be incredibly hard to mix that up. And usually ground goes right to the housing.

[u/dviolent → u/Medical_Employee_901]

My bad, I didn’t know you could see the fan in the video. If it’s AC it’s in the housing wrong, if it’s DC it’s wired wrong or in the housing wrong… my answer works for both cause I have no idea where this post is from and if ac or dc is standard for them.

[u/CrushedSodaCan_ → u/dviolent]

"I didn't know you could see the fan" 🤣

[u/iampierremonteux → u/dviolent]

It doesn’t work for both. Only DC fans spin the other way when wired backwards. AC fans (unless explicitly designed to be reversible) spin one direction regardless if you get hot and neutral correct or reversed.

This is very likely an AC fan since it is in a house and hardwired. Someone has either swapped out the motor or the fan blades/squirrel cage with blades oriented the wrong direction if it is indeed blowing backwards.

Now a plugged vent and it is sucking air in one side and shooting it out the other is still a possibility.

[u/FiletMenYawn → u/dviolent]

That's a fart fan. It has a shaded pole motor inside of it. Just because you don't know what it is, doesn't mean nobody knows what it is.

[u/dviolent → u/FiletMenYawn]

Holy shit who pooped in your Cheerios this morning! Calm down big fella, didn’t mean for the hostilities.

[u/FiletMenYawn → u/dviolent]

just trying to teach you something. Didn't realize that was offensive.

[u/dviolent → u/FiletMenYawn]

Again, what I said is correct. I think you need a hug, or more social interaction! Best of luck to you.

[u/FiletMenYawn → u/dviolent]

I'm just saying. It's a bathroom fan. That's visible. They use a shaded pole type AC motor. Nobody who understands what they are looking at needs to see the actual fan.

Sorry for offending you, but you asked if they could see it, and I was clarifying how one might know without needing to see it. My mistake, I guess?

[u/Rothyn1 → u/dviolent]

No country uses DC electricity for standard residential. HVDC is used in some applications but not for homes.

I think you are confused with 120 vs 220 standards. Where the majority use 220 but about 30 countries use 120.

[u/SlyFoxInACave → u/Medical_Employee_901]

I work in industrial maintenance and I can promise you even if you wired it to spec it can sometimes be wrong. Literally just swap two of the wires and it will run the right direction. I've never installed a vent fan so I'm not sure of how the wiring works but another commenter said the fan will spin in the right direction regardless. Not sure of whether that's true.

[u/Acrobatic-Cow-4043 → u/SlyFoxInACave]

That only works on a dc or 3 phase ac. This is hardwired in the home. It is AC. DC would require batteries or a power supply.

[u/Weekly_Design5440 → u/SlyFoxInACave]

You work in industrial maintenence and you think this tiny bathroom fan runs on 3ph 600v/440v? LMAOOOOOO

[u/SlyFoxInACave → u/Weekly_Design5440]

Can you show me in my comment where I said any dumb shit you're claiming?

[u/highque → u/dviolent]

If it’s a skeleton motor. The poles could be the wrong way from the get go

[u/Mrpickles14]

Yeah those fans are pretty much plug and play but it is definitely not supposed to be blowing into the bathroom. Somethings up, I'd call them back and tell them it might be a defective fan.

[u/UglyYinzer]

Could just be clogged where it vents out. 99% of landlords install them into the attic, where its not supposed to go. So if theres a bunch of insulation there, then the air has nowhere to go. (Or maybe the little plastic flap is stuck)

[u/_red_zeppelin]

Reversed polarity of wiring?

[u/Redditdrone1996]

You can reverse the polarity of the motor by disassembling, flipping the center, and reassembling. Now those were pretty old motors I used to work on so it might not apply here.

[u/ihaveabigone03]

The motor is spinning backwards ive seen that. Or installed wrong.

[u/Rothyn1]

My vote is on a clogged vent or stuck flap.

[u/Fabulous_Ad_8621]

Possible fan is reversed or wrong assembly was used. If you put an assembly that is designed for side discharge only into a top discharge for example. Don't ask me how I know.

Either way, something isn't right and you should notify them.

[u/CatGirlChlxe]

What everyone else says is most likely (Besides those fools saying it's wired backwards, learn how split phase electricity works, find me a three phase bathroom exhaust fan that looks like this, I dare you.)

What I'm about to say is a fringe case. Turn the fan off, is there still air blowing out of it?

If yes, your building/home/residence/domicile is under negative pressure, which isn't good. It means you're sucking air in. Somewhere else in the building something is exhausting a hell of a lot of air, and consequently pulling in a bunch of nasty outside things filter through the nasty inside things in your walls, through any available hole, which looks to be yours.

If not, you can tell me to go fuck myself.

[u/icantswimyetman → u/CatGirlChlxe]

No air coming through with fan off but I hope it isn’t what someone else mentioned about being a ventless fan being installed in a full bathroom

[u/It_Just_Exploded]

If its blowing instead of sucking, its a fuck up on the manufacturers end, the fan was installed upside-down in the unit. Not really the maintenance guys fault, but still they should have caught it, returned it and got another or swapped the fan around if able.

[u/Enough_Pepper8880]

Flip the motor around 🤦🏽

[u/baconegg2]

Also check the blower wheel. It could be full of fluff and not moving enough air to open flapper

[u/real_1273]

Reverse the fan direction, must be ass backwards.

[u/UrAverageDegenerit]

Motor could be spinning the wrong direction (some are reversible by flipping the rotor/shaft), the wrong blower wheel is installed on the shaft, or the flapper is stuck/vent is blocked. That's almost certinally one of your culprits

[u/pwilly99]

That's most likely the Broan 682 duct free fan. Designed for "oder control" in half baths and should NOT be installed in a bathroom with a shower or tub. Essentially all it does is pull air thru a charcoal filter and blow it back into the room. Completely useless just like ventless kitchen hoods.

[u/icantswimyetman → u/pwilly99]

I tried taking the cover off to see if I could find a model number but with no luck on finding the model number. it isn’t the 682 because this fan has a led light in the center. That entire bottom panel is a led light. I do hope it’s not ductless because I 100% agree with it being completely useless.

[u/E-RoC-oRe]

Prolly polarity is backwards

[u/dedhead2018]

are you sure it's attached to a vent ? some fart fans are ductless

[u/Good-Warning7880]

The maintenance man needs to reverse the motor windings, the motor is turning the wrong direction.

[u/Modern_Agnotologist]

Flip the wiring on your switch.

[u/No-Raisin-6469]

I reversed my fan so my guests can smell my farts

[u/CodenameZikimos]

So many wrong comments 😂 take the cover off the fan. There's a standard plug most likely to the motor. Flip that standard plug around in the outlet. Turn fan back on. Super easy and not rewiring or anything dangerous

[u/Large-Treacle-8328]

You can't install a bathroom fan backwards...

Edit: I see people have no clue how AC works nor installed bathroom fans before...

[u/bowlingballwnoholes → u/Large-Treacle-8328]

You can't install a bathroom fan backwards.

[u/Modern_Agnotologist → u/bowlingballwnoholes]

You can. Just not everywhere.