Do you know the purpose of a bathroom exhaust fan?

[SoonerTexan]

After 8 years of marriage, my husband still doesn't turn on the bathroom fan when he showers. It drives me nuts. Today I finally asked him why.

"I never knew what it was for before you told me and it isn't a habit. Growing up, I just thought it was for a really nasty poo, but it didn't seem to help then either so I never used it"

We have a group text with his family. I asked them if it was true that no one had ever told DH what it was for growing up.

Today I taught all my inlaws (including my MIL and FIL) what that noisy switch in the bathroom is for.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

That is hilarious.


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[civilspouse]

I probably shouldn’t admit this but even though I know the purpose I rarely use the fan especially in the winter because it just makes the bathroom colder. I pay the price when I have to wipe down the walls and ceiling every spring.


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[spotty_dog]

I probably shouldn’t admit this but even though I know the purpose I rarely use the fan especially in the winter because it just makes the bathroom colder. I pay the price when I have to wipe down the walls and ceiling every spring.

This!! To be completely honest, although I know the value of running it regularly in order to clear out humidity, I consider its actual "purpose" to be the stinky poo problem. Our home inspector recommended setting it up on a timer so it would run regularly. I can't imagine running it during every shower! Maybe it's a Southern thing??

[rufflesanddots]

Our landlord doesn't have an exhaust fan in the bathroom. Hate. 🙄

ETA: southern landlord

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[SoonerTexan]

I don't notice much of a difference in larger bathrooms, but in small, enclosed ones it makes a huge difference.

MIL said they didn't have one in small town Iowa where she grew up. My parents are both northern transplants though--it's a thing up there too.

[MrsC]

I don't use ours either. Mostly because the noise annoys me 😆 The downstairs one is so loud and it vibrates the floor above it.

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[Auspicious]

I do not think this is a northern/southern thing.

Interesting that so many people don’t use them!

In addition to the humidity and the stink, the white noise helps mitigate any “sounds” coming from the bathroom.


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[OrionGrad]

We have one in the “toilet room” portion of our master bath, but that’s not near the shower. 🤔 I’m thinking it must be a bigger issue in smaller bathrooms than larger ones?

[spotty_dog]

I guess I was thinking, I grew up in Alaska and the retained humidity in the bathroom was the only thing that would get me out of a shower when I was a kid. Otherwise I'd stay in forever!

Whereas in humid areas, it does make more sense that shower humidity would be a problem worth establishing a fan-running habit over.

I dunno. Such a funny thing to have such diverse perspectives about!

[rainbabies]

We just dumped $2k into the kids bathroom. Their old fan wasn’t strong enough to pull out the steam. We replaced moldy Sheetrock. We installed the heaviest duty fan avail. Used kilz on the walls and ceilings. Then painted walls and ceiling with bathroom paint. No flat textured paint!! Installed a low flow shower head and put in a 16oz capacity dehumidifier. And we turned down the hot water heater. Take that, kids😈

When I say “we” I mean the carpenter and electrician. Except the painting. I take credit for that, lol.

So, we use the fan for the humid air!


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[civilspouse]

For the same reason as me DH doesn’t use the fan when taking a shower but always turns it on when going to the bathroom. I’m not sure what made him get in the habit but his parents do it too and the white noise does help muffle other sounds. Its really interesting reading everyone’s perspectives.


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[civilspouse]

We just dumped $2k into the kids bathroom. Their old fan wasn’t strong enough to pull out the steam. We replaced moldy Sheetrock. We installed the heaviest duty fan avail. Used kilz on the walls and ceilings. Then painted walls and ceiling with bathroom paint. No flat textured paint!! Installed a low flow shower head and put in a 16oz capacity dehumidifier. And we turned down the hot water heater. Take that, kids😈

When I say “we” I mean the carpenter and electrician. Except the painting. I take credit for that, lol.

So, we use the fan for the humid air!


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This scares me. We really should run it during showers for this reason. We already have some rust problems at a corner where the Sheetrock cracked at a corner.


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[scarlett09]

We have an enclosed bathroom and humidity = mold. We don’t see it, but I’ll bet it’s under the surface. When we take a shower, the humidity in the bathroom without the fan is intense. Like, the toilet sweats. We were without it for a few weeks when it was pretty hot out and taking a shower was uncomfortable. The sweating commenced as soon as you turned off the water.

I also always thought the fan was to make sure you could use the bathroom mirror immediately after taking a shower and to cover up bathroom sounds. The one in the house is absolutely necessary, in more ways than one.


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[diggitydot]

One of our first upgrades in the current house was getting a correctly sized fan for the master bath. It’s a HUGE bathroom with a walk-in shower and is attached to our enormous walk-in closet. The fan they put in when it was built would have been OK if it was a slightly smaller bathroom or not attached the walk-in closet. That’s just too much air volume for the rating of the exhaust fan the builder used.

Dude not only ordered a fucking jet turbine of a fan to replace the existing one, he had to enlarge the exhaust to the outside. He figured while he was knocking around in the attic that he’d add a vent directly from the shower, too. It works beautifully and cuts the time to clear out the steam to just a couple minutes. We have it on a sensor, so it kicks on even if someone forgets to turn it on and automatically shuts itself off when it’s cleared out the moisture.