List Price: $13.79
Sale Price: $6.99
Today's Bonus: 49% Off
I recently built a master bathroom addition out over a lower roof. I live in the northeast, right by the water. It is a very windy area, and in the winter it blows down hard and cold from the NE & NW. My builder installed this product on the exterior soffit as part of the bath exhaust system. It is probably 25' up to the soffit. The two side damper flaps do not stay shut in windy conditions (I could clearly see the flaps opening and closing from looking at it through our bedroom window). This is due to the fact that this vent protrudes down from the soffit 3 4", and catches the wind. Not only did we have cold air pouring into our new bathroom through the interior bath fan, but the damper on the interior fan was flapping like crazy due to the wind rushing in, causing a racket we could hear with the door closed. We ended up installing a flush mount vent with damper, that works perfectly.
Bottom line is that the side damper flaps do not stay closed in moderate to heavy winds. If you live in a cold windy area, do not buy this product.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
One of these came with my house and I'm getting rid of it as soon as I can. While this vent cover can't be buried in snow, (I'm in Ohio) it does little more than keep birds and squirrels out of the bathroom fan exhaust duct.It won't keep insects out since it has no screen. I had to clean out some old (and empty) wasp nests inside it. The previous homeowner placed a piece of fiberglass screen over the end of the vent duct where it exited the soffit. It was fastened to the plywood soffit by staples and the edges were sealed with caulking. The vent cover was fastened over this screen. This arrangement is ok until the screen clogs with dust, which mine had.
As Chaz points out in "Functional, but exacting install" this vent cover requires careful installation, otherwise the flaps will stick. The vent duct is attached to the soffit with two plastic L-brackets. Each L-bracket is attached to the soffit by one screw and then to the duct by another screw. Not very sturdy.
I cleaned everything up, caulked the gap between the duct and the soffit, installed a new piece of aluminum screen and reinstalled this engineering nightmare. Not my preference, but it'll take care of things until I replace my roof in the next few months and then I'll switch to a through-the-roof vent.
If you're stuck with using the soffit for an exhaust vent, which is not much better than venting directly into the attic, find a better vent cap. Find one that allows you to clamp the duct securely to the vent cap and then screw the vent cap to the soffit. Something like the Lambro 143W Under Eave Vent, 4". At least with this vent cap you can point the exhaust away from your house.
Best Deals on EVE6 Undereve Vent®
Were adding attic insulation, so had to quickly add 4 fan vents, and chose this model. It has double flapper vents which work ok, and if installed correctly seems to work fine.There are several things which make this vent a bit trickier to install. First, there is no outlet tube on the back to attach the vent hose to. Instead, the hose exits a hole under the eaves, and this vent simply covers the hole and the bare end of the hose. However, the problem arises if this vent isn't installed EXACTLY centered over the hose, causing the hinge side of the flappers to bind with the hose, and not open or close correctly. Second, there are clamps which are supposed to be used to hold the hose in the hole, but they are somewhat useless, and cause more of the problems with the flaps binding. After trying the clamps on the first vent, I gave up on them and went to simply running a couple screws through the hose and into the plywood. Third, although these vents worked well on plywood soffit, care needs to be taken on aluminum soffit. When mounting to the aluminum, the screws caused the soffit to bow ever so slightly, again causing the flaps to bind. A simple push of a screwdriver to bow the soffit away from the hinge to eliminate contact solved that problem.
Once installed correctly, these vents look nice, and seem to function well. They vent on both sides, so there are 2 flaps to bind, which may be a negative, though may also let more air through. I've installed these on 110 CFM bathroom fans, and the flaps open just over 1/3 of the way when the fans are on. I used 4 inch ducthad 3 inch been used, the hose would have had better clearance to the flaps, but 4 inch seems to be standard. If I were to do the job again, I would look for a vent that has the flange out the back to attach the hose, as that would simplify installation, and prevent flap binding.
No comments:
Post a Comment