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Hope everyone is safe and well.

My house came with this old bathroom exhaust fan. The fan works but I feel it is not strong enough for the bathroom as my mirror and bathroom become foggy during a shower. This fan comes with a light and I have three switches - one activates the fan, the other activates the light, and the third one doesn’t appear to do anything. I would like to replace this fan with something new and higher CFM, with a light, however, I do not want to replace the housing of the fan. There is no attic above the fan (flat roof above it) and hence it will be a challenge for me to replace the housing and ensure the venting is properly connected. Ideally I’m looking to replace the fan motor and light fixture. I have emailed Broan to see if they have a newer model of the fan I have and they have confirmed that they do not make this model anymore. I have searched in Home Depot but couldn’t find one. Any recommendations for me? Can you please help me find a fan that will fit into this housing that I can easily replace.

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    Is there a large enough gap at the bottom of the door to allow the fan to do its job? I have seen where the door was tight not allowing the fan to move air. I was hired to put a larger fan in. I cut the bottom of the door just above the hall carpet and then the old fan did the job, the owner took the fan back and that was 1/2 of the cost of the call so the owner saved and was happy with a little off the bottom.
    – Ed Beal
    May 2, 2020 at 8:53

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This looks like the same fan I put in my master bath when I built my house 22 years ago. That fan came with a "life time" warranty, so when I wanted to replace the blower fan I was advised that Broan considered lifetime to be 10 years. I read the warranty words to their representative and asked where in the statement did it say that "lifetime" was defined as 10 years. I was able to get them to send me a replacement squirrel cage fan blade but that was all they would do. Here is what I would do for your fan, remove the motor and the fan blade by taking out the whole metal plate it is mounted too and carefully clean the fan blade. Use a small screw driver and air compressor to remove the built up dirt (there should be a lot) from the cupped vanes, reach up into the air discharge area and make sure that the discharge flapper is free to swing open. Go outside to where the discharge air exits the house and make sure that there is nothing in the discharge duct that will affect the air flow. If the discharge duct is laid horizontally make sure it is laid flat. Mine is laid with-in the soft insulation and has now formed a partial trap in the vent hose. During the winter the high humidity air causes the water to condense a partially block the air flow. My solution is to run the fan for a few hours when no-one is taking a shower to remove some of the built up water in the hose. (do not turn the fan off as soon as your shower is finished). Also as @Ed Beal35 said, make sure that the bottom of the door has a gap. I have found out that the gap should be at least 1/2" and that3/4" is even better. By the way, that 3rd switch is probably for a night light bulb which mine has. Great for night time when you need just a little light. Lastly, that 80 CFM should be large enough for almost any size bathroom.

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  • I think we can even see the night light bulb socket in the last picture below and to the left of the main bulb socket.
    – Ecnerwal
    May 2, 2020 at 11:43
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The best you can hope to do is replace the (perhaps) ailing fan motor. You should be able to find one at a good hardware store (not a "big-box" home center). There is the chance that the motor is fine and the fan was undersized originally, for your conditions.

Anyway, exhaust fans are not in any way standardized and you will not find some unit that will just "drop into" the housing from a different manufaturer.

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  • I have found if enough flow is available changing from a propeller type to a squirt cage blower can increase the flow reduce the noise in the original space.
    – Ed Beal
    May 2, 2020 at 8:55
  • Thank you all, your responses are very helpful. It’s interesting to hear about the night light as this bathroom has a main ceiling light fixture, a sink wall light fixture, as well as the fan light fixture - not sure why anyone would need so many light fixtures for such a medium sized bathroom.
    – Nis
    May 3, 2020 at 1:05

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