Does your exhaust fan sound like an Airplane? Time for a new one?

Quick, name the top 5 reasons people do not use their bathroom exhaust fans:

1. It's too loud

2. It's too loud

3. It's too loud

4. It's too loud

5. It doesn’t work anymore

Unfortunately, not using the exhaust fan in your home can cause some serious issues with mold, mildew and indoor air quality. We get it, if it sounds like an airplane engine in your bathroom, you don’t want to turn it on.

The first thing to do is determine if the problem might be able to be corrected or if that is just how loud the fan is. Air King offers many troubleshooting tips in the FAQ section at www.airkinglimited.com. Common issues include blockages in the ducting, build up of debris on the blades of the fan and mechanical issues such as broken welds on the fan housing.

If it is not a problem with the fan, it might be that the fan just is that loud. Many times in new construction, not a lot of attention is given to the exhaust fans, so less expensive – louder operating models are used. On most models there will be a label that tells you the sound level. If your model doesn’t have a label, you can try and find the model number and the manufacture to see if they have any information online.

Sound is measured in sones. A rating at or below 1 sone will be very quiet. 1 to 2 sones will still be quiet but anything over 4 sones starts to get loud. If your fan’s normal operating level is higher than what you want, or any of the troubleshooting tips do not solve the issue, you might want to consider replacing it. An exhaust fan replacement can typically be completed by a homeowner with some electrical and general handyman skills in an afternoon. There are many factors that can influence the ease or difficulty of the installation including the size of the ducting, if the new fan is larger than the existing one and if you can access the fan from above.

Air King always recommends consulting a professional if you are unsure about any aspects of the installation. Air King has a large selection of energy efficient, quiet exhaust fans to meet the needs of almost any home. To learn more about Air King’s bathroom exhaust fans, visit www.airkinglimited.com.

This is a Smoke Free Area – Ventilating your kitchen

It’s time to start cooking dinner. You think about what to make then prepare all the food to be cooked. You turn on the oven or cook top and start cooking. Here’s the question – did you think to turn your range hood on?

The kitchen can be one of the largest areas of indoor air pollution of the home. Think about it. When you cook you are generating smoke, gas fumes (if you have a gas range), putting grease into the air as well as all kinds of odors. That’s just if you cook everything correctly! We haven’t even added if something is burnt during the process. There are plenty of reasons as to why you don’t turn the range hood on – it’s too loud, I didn’t think to do it, all it does is put the smoke back into the room, etc. All of those reasons can be solved.

A properly functioning kitchen range hood can be a critical piece in maintaining Indoor Air Quality (IAQ). While the original function of a range hood was to protect the undersides of your cabinets from burning, they have evolved to be a vital piece of good ventilation. It is highly recommended (and in some areas of the country mandatory) that the range hood be vented to the outside of the home. This provides the best ventilation situation, taking all the contaminates generated during the cooking process and exhausting them completely out of the home. Some range hoods recirculate the air back into the room through a grease and odor filter. These are known as ductless range hoods. While they are better than not using a range hood at all, they are not ideal as they do not fully ventilate the area.

The most common excuse for not turning the range hood on is the amount of noise it makes. We agree that there are a lot of hoods out there that you feel you need to have earplugs on to use. There are also a lot of options that are considerably quieter. The sound is measured in Sones. As a comparison, 4 sones is about the sound of a normal conversation. Air King offers one of the largest selections of energy efficient, quiet operating range hoods on the market today with normal operating sound levels of around 1 sone. Having a new range hood installed can typically be done by a homeowner in an afternoon although there are many factors that can add to that time including if ducting needs to be replaced or new ductwork needs to be added.

Air King always recommends consulting a professional if you are unsure about any aspects of the installation. To learn more about Air King’s selection of kitchen range hoods, please visit us at www.airkinglimited.com.