Bathroom is a closed and moist place. This area essentially needs a fan which can extract the moist and stale air out of it. Exhaust fans are used in most of the bathrooms to control moisture and provide proper ventilation. These bathroom extractors or exhaust fans extract the air and circulate it in two ways.

Bathroom extractor fan can be of two types: propeller or axial fan and the centrifugal fan. Propeller or axial fan is the same as the regular fan we use in our homes. It circulates and moves the air by circular movements. There is no need of large pressure in moving it. These fans are inexpensive and very efficient. Another type of extractor fans is centrifugal fans which are not that popular for bathrooms. The centrifugal force is used to force out the air out of the radial vanes in the plates. You can fit these fans yourself as they come with fitting instructions.

An extractor fan when switched on starts extracting the stale air out. These fans have blades or impellers attached to the electric motor. When the motor rotates, it draws out the air and throws out of the grille.

These fans can be mounted in two places. You can mount it on the window but you’ll need to make a hole in the glass. For this you will require a special tool for cutting holes. But you can also mount it on the wall. You need to have a drill to make the hole in the wall. Depending upon the thickness of the wall, it can take long time to be drilled. It is also very tedious job as you need to make a force on the drill.

Some fans have automatic cut-off switches. When the humidity in the bathroom decreases, it switches off automatically and when the humidity increases, it switches on again.

Besides automatic switch fans, you can also go for manual fans which require you to pull a chord to switch on the fan.

Most of the extractor fans are connected to fuse-spur which is placed outside the bathroom fitting. To let the extractor fan work properly, it should be placed appropriately. It should be placed at such a place where it can draw stale air and replace it with fresh air. A self closing grille with shutter is installed outside the fan to prevent back the siphoning of the expelled air. It prevents stale air to come back into the room.

If you want your fan to keep working at maximum capacity, remember to maintain it regularly.