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I bought an extractor fan from homebase. One of these: https://www.homebase.co.uk/humidity-controlled-extractor-fan_p594561 . I didn't get very far with fitting it though because step one is "Remove the front cover" but this is proving very difficult.

I have made a little video of me explaining the problem (with a bit of help from a 3 year old!)

On the top edge there is a clip which pops open with a screwdriver, and it start's coming open (I can pull it apart about 4 millimetres and start to see inside from the top), but at the bottom edge of the fan there is no clip, and the front cover does not want to come off at all. I can just about prise it apart by about a millimetre. I can push a knife blade in there along the whole bottom edge (see following photo), but something in the middle near the bottom (by the red light) is holding the front cover on tight.

a knife blade inserted along the bottom edge

There are various holes which look to be mostly for the screws which will hold it to the wall (from the direction of inside-out, meaning I need to get inside of course). Near the middle there's an interesting looking screwdriver-sized hole you can see in the photo, but solid edges all around. No clips or moving parts to poke at. I can't see any other clips or screws, but I feel like I must be missing something. I could just pull harder, but it feels like I'm at the limit before plastic starts snapping.

Oh I almost forgot the funniest part. The instructions have a sentence explaining how to do it! But it seems to be badly translated or something. Here it is word for word:

"Remove the front cover. To remove the front cover, first remove the hole plug than using screw driver to remove the self tapping screw, then cover can be remove unclip"

It's strange because the rest of the manual is well written. Just that one sentence... which is the sentence I need! Where is this "hole plug" / "self tapping screw"??

Maybe I could find out more from a manufacturer, but it's just generically homebase branded. "Homebase Extractor Fan. Humidity Control Model". There is a sticker on the fan itself with the numbers "SPA255 B141319"

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    Is it possible to remove the red lens/cover of the light? I suspect that this is the "hole plug" which the self-tapping screw is hiding behind. It's the only removable-looking part which is accessible from the front.
    – brhans
    Commented Sep 24, 2019 at 22:08
  • No I did wonder that myself, but the red light plastic seems to be thoroughly sealed onto white plastic making up the front.
    – Harry Wood
    Commented Sep 26, 2019 at 18:30
  • (Turns out I should have tried harder to remove the red light. See accepted answer)
    – Harry Wood
    Commented Nov 14, 2019 at 12:36

1 Answer 1

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Took me a while but the red light is just a cover for the screw, use a small screwdriver to lift it out.

enter image description here

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  • Hello, and welcome to Home Improvement. Thanks for the answer; keep 'em coming. And, you should probably take our tour so you'll know how best to contribute here.
    – Daniel Griscom
    Commented Nov 9, 2019 at 13:38
  • Thanks Terry. That is the right answer! I know this because I took it back to homebase. The guy there was also stumped. He decided give me a refund and then rip the whole thing apart with brute force :-D Having done that, we could see that the screw was behind the red light. Tricky to prise that cover off though hey?
    – Harry Wood
    Commented Nov 10, 2019 at 0:26

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