Bathroom mold despite working in line strong extractor fan

11fernsroad

Hi
our shower room always get minimal mould on the ceiling in spite of having working strong (285 litre/hour) in line extractor fan with extractor fan to soffit insulated ducting distance is 50-70 cm.
it has got timer on for about just over 3mins,and extractor fan itself is just 2 years old .
Mold is seen in wintertime when we don’t open ventilator window.
heated towel rail comes on for about 1-2 hour in evening.
what could be wrong?
many thanks

Liverpool85

It will be a mix of the bathroom potentially being colder, and ventilation being less. The extractor alone on the timer it’s on must not be enough 

can you open the ventilation window in winter? We open the window during or after every shower with the bathroom window shut, until the room is no longer steamy. Then leave the bathroom door open after that.  

we only have the towel rail on the evenings but our room stays warm enough. 

We have a passivent which continually vents out through the loft, it’s not electric. I hate the fan sounds so I’m glad this seems to work well 

Emmia

3 minutes doesn't sound long enough to extract steam / moisture however powerful the fan.

I'd adjust it to run for a lot longer, or replace it with a model with a humidstat.

Green_hopeful

Mould is caused by too much moisture condensing on cold surfaces. Our bathroom used to be dreadful. We vax down the shower after use and leave the extractor on for a couple of hours every morning. Can you adjust the run on time on the extraction. Also are you sure it is connected to the outside. We had one where it wasn’t connected to the pipe and was just blowing wet air into the loft insulation. The other issue might be cold spots. Our insulation was not going completely into the edge of the ceiling so there were areas where the ceiling was much colder and so there was more condensation and hence mould. We lowered the ceiling and insulated that area but you might be able to insulate better in the loft. 

mexican_dave

Yes I agree with these suggestions. My bathroom fan has over-run of 10 minutes, background heat of 200w all day, hardly open the window. Cosy bathroom no mould.

Spies

Do you squeegee the shower after use? I found it helps a lot to remove a lot of moisture

mexican_dave

@Spies no I don't, although I have advised others to rinse the walls down after their shower to rinse any traces of soap etc away. It think the traces support the mould. Reckon it depends how much people splash the suds around.

Emmia

mexican_dave said:

@Spies no I don't, although I have advised others to rinse the walls down after their shower to rinse any traces of soap etc away. It think the traces support the mould. Reckon it depends how much people splash the suds around.

Squeegeeing the water off the screen and tiles does help to reduce the dampness created by showering. Whilst rinsing the tiles will remove shower gel / shampoo etc. it will also leave the tiles wet. 

I just use a regular squeegee, an Oxo Good Grips one which has a suction wall holder, to do the shower screens and tiles, finishing off by giving the tray a quick go over to encourage water down the drain.

We have no window, but we do have an excellent fan with a humidstat and this keeps the mould away.

KxMx

Run the extractor fan for longer in the winter, as compensation for the ventilator window being closed. 

tacpot12

3 minutes is not enough. You would be better off having a fan with a humidistat that runs the fan until the room is dry. Some days this might take a few minutes, other days it might take 20 minutes. Having a humidistat will save you electricity as the fan will only run until the room is dry enough that mould won't form. (<70% RH). 

jonnydeppiwish!

Open that window and close the bathroom door. Then increase how long the fan is one for - 15-10min at a minimum