Shower extractor fan

Janetew

Everything seems to be going wrong at once in my house at the moment!

The extractor fan in my shower is supposed to come on when the light in the shower is turned on. They are both on one switch. The light comes on but the fan doesn't.

I've been up in the loft and checked the cabling and ducting which all looks ok. I've undone the switch itself (which is on the ceiling with a pull cord) and that looks ok.

Before I ring an electrician, I wondered if anyone has any pointers as to what could be wrong?

Thank you so much in advance

Janet

latecomer

Do you have a multimeter? If so you could check whether there is voltage at the extractor.

You could try cleaning it if looks particularly dirty but its unlikely that would have caused it to just stop, normally if will run badly first. If you are going to do this make sure there is no power going to it first i.e. isolate or turn off at the mains.

Duncan_H

Hi Janet

Chances are it is an issue with the fan itself. It may have its own fuse that needs checking but also look to see that the fan is not blocked or anything is restricting it moving. If you can connect another electical item to see if that work when you hit the switch you can narrow the problem down. Be careful though, don't do anything you're not sure about, especially where there is water around

WobblyGoblin

Sounds like it could be fan motor. In my old house we had the same problem twice. First time it turned out to be rubble in the vent which blocked the fan and then the motor burnt out. Second time it was a robins nest which had clogged the fan.

We got cheap replacement fans from eBay (just looked up the model number and did a like for like swap. It was dead easy (if you're confident about simple electrics like changing a light switch). Make sure you turn the power off at the mains first though!

Janetew

Many thanks. I'm going to go up into the loft again and check again that its not blocked and check the model.

I do love this site!