Bathroom fan won't come on after dropping kids off at swimming pool

So the old bathroom fan was connected to the lights. Didn't like drafty baths, so I changed it to a semi-decent envirovent 125 with timer & humidity sensor. All's good, till my family started using the bathroom for other purposes.

Oh dear - family need a way to turn the fan on after dropping a deuce in the ****ter - to avoid choking out the rest of the house.

This wasn't completely unforeseen - I did buy a fan with a timer. Easy thinks me, put up a wall-mounted momentary-on cord-pull switch, connect switch to the fan, and drop a cord from the cord-pull switch for bathroom safety.

Not so easy cowboy. I've been unable to find any wall-mount cord switches. What do you suggest for this situation?

Buy a fan with a built in cord pull switch .

Use a PIR instead of a pull switch.

terryplumb said:

Buy a fan with a built in cord pull switch .

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll do exactly that next time the fan humidistat breaks down, they seem to have a life of 2-3 years. Meanwhile, I need to do something to avoid 2-3 years of a stinky house.

RF Lighting said:

Use a PIR instead of a pull switch.

Click to expand...

Which one would you recommend? Not sure a PIR switch is right here, don't want fan coming on every time someone goes into bathroom to wash hands, check their makeup, or any of the 101 other things that teenagers use bathrooms for - fan would never get a rest.

RedTomato said:

fan would never get a rest.

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So what? A typical modern fan will run for more than a hundred hours on 15p worth of electricity, and if it has a ball-bearing motor will be inmost inaudible in the bathroom, and certainly inaudible on the other side of a closed door.

RedTomato said:

... Easy thinks me, put up a wall-mounted momentary-on cord-pull switch, connect switch to the fan, and drop a cord from the cord-pull switch for bathroom safety. .... Not so easy cowboy. I've been unable to find any wall-mount cord switches. What do you suggest for this situation?

Click to expand...

I've quite often wall mounted standard pull switches (designed for ceiling mounting). The cord does gradually get worn/frayed where it does a right-angle bend and comes through the hole in the switch (and is then difficult to repair/replace, because it is on the 'wrong side' of the 'cord connector') but, depending upon the exact design, it could well last for a good few years in the sort of situation you describe.

However, bear in mind that you are not allowed to have a switch of any type unless it is more than 600mm (horizontally) from the edge of a bath/shower and/or at least 2.25 metres above floor level.

Kind Regards,

why can't you just mount a pull cord in the ceiling? This is almost certainly ensure it's outside of the restricted zones as well

Fwad said:

why can't you just mount a pull cord in the ceiling? This is almost certainly ensure it's outside of the restricted zones as well

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That’s how mine is set up. Under normal conditions, when having a shower it comes on after a few minutes automatically but if I want to turn it on manually, I pull the cord to turn it on, then pull again to turn off and it will run for however long the timer is set for.

JohnD said:

So what? A typical modern fan will run for more than a hundred hours on 15p worth of electricity, and if it has a ball-bearing motor will be inmost inaudible in the bathroom, and certainly inaudible on the other side of a closed door.

Click to expand...

It's more about the dampness. The bathroom is on the outside corner of a 1930s semi, so two walls are cold and have black mould problems. I've set some constant background heating for the bathroom which has helped, but when the fan comes on, it dumps all the warm air outside. Fine when it's ejecting damp air, not so good when it's ejecting perfectly good dry warm air.

JohnW2 said:

I've quite often wall mounted standard pull switches (designed for ceiling mounting). The cord does gradually get worn/frayed where it does a right-angle bend and comes through the hole in the switch (and is then difficult to repair/replace, because it is on the 'wrong side' of the 'cord connector') but, depending upon the exact design, it could well last for a good few years in the sort of situation you describe.

However, bear in mind that you are not allowed to have a switch of any type unless it is more than 600mm (horizontally) from the edge of a bath/shower and/or at least 2.25 metres above floor level.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the warning about the regs. I've just ordered a mini side-pull cord switch, 1cm thick by 3cm long. Will see if there's space for me to screw it to the wall inside the fan vent housing (which is exactly 2.25m above floor) and bring down a longer cord through a small hole in the vent shell.

Mottie said:

That’s how mine is set up. Under normal conditions, when having a shower it comes on after a few minutes automatically but if I want to turn it on manually, I pull the cord to turn it on, then pull again to turn off and it will run for however long the timer is set for.

Click to expand...

Yes, if the mini switch doesn't work, will go for a ceiling switch. Might be able to get ceiling access via the attic, then can screw it to a new joist noggin so the placement is correct (and kids won't pull down the ceiling), and bring the cord down through a small hole in the ceiling for tidiness.

RedTomato said:

It's more about the dampness. The bathroom is on the outside corner of a 1930s semi, so two walls are cold and have black mould problems. I've set some constant background heating for the bathroom which has helped, but when the fan comes on, it dumps all the warm air outside. Fine when it's ejecting damp air, not so good when it's ejecting perfectly good dry warm air.

Click to expand...

So put a timer on it.

Extra ventilation will not make it damper. Quite the reverse.

Updating with success story. I see a few other people have the same problem as me, so have added more detail about how I fixed it.

Ordered a side pull cord action switch, looks a bit like this:


Mine was rated for 240v 3A. Small little thing, about 1cm x 2cm. Took off the short cord and put on a longer cord. Switch has to be 2.25m or more above the bathroom floor, so you will need a longish cord, especially if you need it to be accessible to kids.

Took off the cover of my bathroom fan. Plenty of room under the cover. Baseplate already had a slot for a cord, but the cover didn't. A bit of work with a knife sorted that out.

Tested the switch with a battery and a LED. Switch activates once you pull the angled lever arm past roughly 45 degrees down from horizontal. However, the way it's manufactured, if you install the switch vertical, you're not guaranteed to get that >45 deg pull if you pull the cord straight down.

With mine, it looks like the cord is supposed to run up, over the top and down again. Idiotic - the cord is guaranteed to catch in the mechanism if you do that. The reason for that setup might be to ensure the wiring enters the switch body from underneath, to avoid condensation entering the switch body. However the mechanism also has a gap at the top so either way is just as bad.

I installed it with the cord hanging straight down, means the wiring enters it at the top, nothing I can do about that. There is a single screw fixing hole - won't prevent the switch from rotating and becoming useless when you pull the cord. I fixed that by supergluing the the pull switch to the fan baseplate. I superglued the switch at an angle, about 30deg from vertical so that any downward pull of the cord is guaranteed to pull the lever arm past 45 deg.

Wire connectors on the switch are the push-in type. Easy with solid core wire, an absolute pain if you are using stranded wire. My wires were stranded core (from switch to fan) so I used an unbent paper-clip to push in on the connectors and make some room for the stranded wire to go in. Wouldn't have gone in otherwise. Not a fan of the push-in connectors, but this switch only does momentary contact, so it should be OK. (I wouldn't use any latching (on/off) mains switch if it came with these connectors.)

Used 2 short wires, one from fan mains input to pull switch, and another one from pull switch to fan switched mains input connector. Both brown.

You may have a third wire coming into the fan labelled switched mains. Don't make the mistake I did and use that to connect to the pull switch. It's from the lights, and using it means the pull switch will only work when the bathroom lights are on.

All working now. Fan comes on for 10 minutes when cord is pulled. (Fan still self-activates when it detects humidity in the bathroom). Stinky bathrooms are now a thing of the past.