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Our radon system is right under/outside our 6 month old's bedroom. Over the fall and winter I never heard it but now it is running a lot and it is very loud and it is affecting our daughter's sleeping. We never used the room she is in last spring so I do not know if it ran a lot last year.

Is there a way to either: A. Reduce the system noise? or B. Schedule when the system goes off (i.e. have it run during the day rather at night)?

Thanks for your help.

UPDATE: The guy came out said the fan was good but the unit was touching the house so any vibrations were transferring into the house. He also thought the system could be a bit louder than usual due to high ground water levels from excessive rain of late. He repiped it to move the fan off the house and put foam between the pipe and the house. It was under warranty so that was a plus.

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  • Are you positive it's the radon system and not a sump pump?
    – Tyson
    Apr 5, 2017 at 19:21
  • @Tyson don't have one
    – salisboss
    Apr 5, 2017 at 19:21
  • I agree with the answer below then, somethings wrong with it.
    – Tyson
    Apr 5, 2017 at 19:23
  • Strange the exhaust fan is located there. I thought the pipe had to be extended up to a point 2' above the roof. That's why we usually install the exhaust fan in the attic, where it's out of the weather.
    – Lee Sam
    Apr 5, 2017 at 19:48
  • @LeeSam our pipe goes up the inside basement corner then outside along the house where a box that I presume is the fan is then then the pipe extends further up.
    – salisboss
    Apr 5, 2017 at 19:50

3 Answers 3

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If you can hear it, then it's broken. You probably have a broken fin on the blower blade/impeller or a failed bearing. Get someone to check it out before it completely fails.

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  • That's crazy because it was only installed in Oct 2015 right before we bought the house.
    – salisboss
    Apr 5, 2017 at 18:11
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    Nope, not crazy. Stuff breaks.
    – longneck
    Apr 5, 2017 at 18:12
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Some thoughts:

  • It might still be broken, but it sounds like it may have been making that much noise before and you didn't notice it. You probably should check to see if there's some internal problem - they're usually pretty quiet. Ours is right outside our bedroom, and we barely hear it. But it's on the other side of a brick facade wall, so that probably deflects a lot of the sound.

  • You could check the wiring for the fan. The way ours works, it's just an appliance power cord plugged into an outlet in the basement. That's a pretty old install, yours may be hard wired, but it's worth checking. If it's just plugged in, you could just plug it into a timer. However, any time the fan isn't running you'll have the problem of some amount of radon leaking into your house. If you go that route, you should do a follow-up long-term radon test to see if you're just changing from one problem to another. (Of course, all of us with radon systems should do periodic long-term tests - thanks for the reminder!)

  • If it is hard wired, you might contact an electrician to see if it could be modified to put on a timer. That may or may not be possible under your local code, and you might be able to do that work yourself, but it's probably better to find an electrician to be safe.

  • You could have a quieter fan installed. The fans are replaceable, at much lower cost than the original install. But it still may be a few hundred dollars.

  • You could always take various measures to dampen the sound of the fan, either on the fan itself or the walls between. Try wrapping a blanket around the fan, just to see how much it reduces the noise. If that helps enough, find some weather-resistant material to wrap around it, or maybe put it inside a constructed shell that matches your house exterior. It also might work to put some kind of wall-covering on the inside wall next to the fan.

  • It probably won't work to try to reduce the sound by reducing the speed of the fan. It is possible, but kind of in the same way you can convert an SUV into a pickup truck.

  • Had another thought yesterday - how is the fan attached to the house? If it's a rigid support to the wall, it may be transferring vibration to the wall, which may be reverberating. If you can feel a vibration in the wall, that might be part of the problem. You can try adding one or more rubber washers between the support and the wall. Have help holding the fan if you try that, and remember that the rubber washers will break down over time.

Good luck, and kudos for being a thoughtful parent!

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We called the radon company and they came out and replaced the fan and also added some foam between the fan and the house so no vibration transferred.

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