Has anyone seen a vent fan in the wall directly behind a toilet. I am remodeling my bathroom and am leaning towards this method, the reason being that when doing ‘business’ on the toilet the stinky aspect of it will never make it past my nose if the air is flowing behind the toilet. It will be a vent dedicated to this function only with a switch nearby conveniently located. Or I could rig up some motion detector thing to run it if the toilet is used and shut off a minute or two later.
What do you think?
Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
Replies
I'll tell you what. Everyday at BT is something else.
You think you've heard the same question a half dozen times and then somebody comes up with something brand new.
Amazing.
I would think hard on the location and "magnitude" of the fan. A small panasonic (still for a 100 sf or so) would not be overly loud. Certainly would clear the area just in front of it.
You should locate it so your wife, her friends or some hipsters don't lose any hair. Maybe to the side and not above the tank would pull the bad air in. Also, by locating it on a trapped side of the toilet would help narrow it's pulling area (corner wall).
Good luck.
A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Good points. I had not thought of the long hair thing. Not married here but no telling huh? From what my design sense seems to be telling me it would be behind the tank and no one will ever know it was there. There is a small gap between the tank and the wall. And most likely (due to my space constraints), it will be an inline type fan in a 3" or 4" duct configuration and vent to the outside well away from any intake vents such as an HRV. The termination to the outside will be gravity flapper type so outside air can't force it's way back in.Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
Those flapper will block some things, but backdraft air isn't one of them. Same goes with the "flapper" on typical vent units. The beauty of running out the ceiling and round a ways to the exit, it adds pipe for that backdraft air to make its way into..........but it will produce a lot less air coming back in. A short pipe with just an outdoor flapper will not slow down much air entry. Maybe check on a small powered louver that's more meant to seal. A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Powered louvres? Oh no now you got me wondering about this whole vent behind the toilet thing. Lol not really... I am going to go ahead to do. It would be nice if every home had this feature. Or even public places. I have been in too many stalls that don't take something simple like this into consideration.Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
I had this concept once of actually sucking air out of the slot between the seat and bowl (in the back, by the hinges), while tightening up the seat-to-bowl gap at the front.
Figured this would get most everything, and could be a relatively small and quiet fan.
Further, my concept involved dumping the air into the vent stack through some sort of flapper valve, like a dryer vent cover.
Also, I was going to do some highly sophisticated noise-cancelling design in the bowl itself
"Completely Self-Contained, Odor-Proof, Sound-Proof Toilet' was going to be my pitch.
Still in the thinking stages, obviously.
Forrest - do you smell something?
Wow sounds kinda complicated. I mean, you got the concept right. And the vent stack is right behind my toilet. I would worry about sewer gases coming back in though. Be thinking on the pot :) (stinklessly)Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
A. A fan so close to the "user" might make a draft that is uncomfortable, at a time one is trying to relax.
B. Being so low, whatever it misses (suppose one forgets to turn it on) will have a difficult time getting back down to the fan level.
C. Bathroom fans are also used to remove humidity - which usually enters the main area of the bathroom at shower curtain height. This is approx 3' higher than the location of your fan. I do not think this fan location would be quite so effective.
Just a few thoughts.
Frankie
Experiment with the placing of the ingredients on the plate. Try the mozzarella on the left, the tomato in the middle, the avocado on the right. Have fun. Then decide it goes tomato, mozzarella, avocado. Anything else looks stupid.
Richard E. Grant as Simon Marchmont - Posh Nosh
a. Good point. Cold legs are no fun.b. I am sure I can install a close proximity motion detector with a timer from parts gleaned at Radio Shack so one can't forget to turn it on. c. This wouldn't be the primary vent for moisture. Just for nasal comfort.Please keep thoughts coming.PebbleHandyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
I always wanted to invent a toliet seat with built in fan, grap the odor at the source.
No worries...mine don't stink either. Of course the noise and the draft would make the pages of my FHB rustle and I wouldn't like that!
Just make sure you can access the fan for service or replacement.
Ahh pulling a toilet is easy as pie! But if my design turns out as planned the inline fan would be in the mechanical room behind the bathroom. Then it would be easy to access and no need to pull the toilet to service a fan.Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
Two words - Courtesy Flush!
Tried it and can't flush fast enough! Plus some of those public toilets flush so hard they spray water everywhere!Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
can see me need'n it.... mine don't stink
p
Mine does! :DHandyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
I'm impressed with your logic but would shoot you if you did that at my house. I'm trying to imagine having a vent fan running right behind my back whilst I'm taking care of business - lol.
I wouldn't want you to disappear into a black hole lolSo has no one ever done this in any of the houses they have built? No client specified this simple set up? Is this completely news? Of course calculations can be made to determine exactly what CFM flow would be effective and not be unsettling. I wonder what they do up in the space station. I am just going to slap a low CFM fan on it and brag about it when guests come over lol. No more peevish looks after the dinner!Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
Pebble -
I've never seen it and can't imagine anyone wanting it but if you're sold on the idea, go for it. You may start a trend - lol.
Like another poster says, vent fans are intended to pull moisture out of a bathroom and are usually installed in the ceiling where the warm, humid, air collects.
Have you seen this?
http://tbes.net/index.html
No I haven't. I admire any company that strives to make a good product for a niche market. I am not sure that making a toilet with the airflow inside the bowl is necessary. I am sure it is doubly effective but a decent fan in the wall behind the toilet would still do the job? Of course I won't know until I install it and try it out. Thanks for the link ELoewen. That was informative.Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
They stole my idea! That stinks!
Or maybe it doesn't . . .
Forrest
Here are a couple of relevant things:http://www.miracleseat.com/fans/http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4893359.html
If you filled a toilet bowl with water from the Bermuda triangle, would it eliminate the need to flush?
"If you filled a toilet bowl with water from the Bermuda triangle, would it eliminate the need to flush? "
Yeah, but then there'd be some guy in an alternate universe wondering who keeps poopin and not flushing the bowl.
This is a little cottage I built a few years ago. The owner was in the navy and liked "compact" areas. I mounted a fan in the wall above the toilet. Figured the toxic cloud would rise to meet the fan;)
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If you can't stand your own stink, it might be time to visit a dietician.
It isn't me I can't stand, it's others. I imagine you feel the same way? I am trying to make it easier for others to stand my stink by making sure there is none to be standed. Of course I am just a goofy handyman who likes to make life easier in little ways.Handyman, painter, wood floor refinisher, property maintenance in Tulsa, OK
If it's other's stink, I doubt the location of the fan makes a huge difference. Just make sure it's sized correctly for the space. As others have said, the main purpose is to suck out humidity, and that will normally rize in a warm shower, so you do want to put it up there in the ceiling area anyways.Or just get a few candles and put them on the back of the tank with a book of matches ;o)
I think it's a great idea; you don't need to have a fan that draws so much that it's uncomfortable, you just need one to move some air....by the time one person is finished creating and enviromental incident, and washes up, etc, it is usually a few minutes before the next person enters the room...and every little bit helps.
Personally, I'd consider putting it behind the toilet but below the tank, in that useless part of the wall...it would be interesting to see how that performed. Sounds like a great concept.
I think the main purpose for the bathroom vent is to remove moist air from bath/shower -- which is worst near the ceiling. Mounting a fan so low would make it much less efficient for this purpose.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
The gas that offends you propagates throughout the room pretty much on an instantaneous basis as soon as it is "released". No fan can keep up with that.
Think of it as particles so small that they basically radiate away from the "source", without significant interference, in straight lines, and then bouncing of any object they touch, much as light rays from an incandescent bulb. I think it could best be described by comparing it to a break on the pool table, with enough energy to keep going as long as the balls are on the table.
Only by removing essentially the entire air mass in the room can you prevent the offending molecules from striking your organ of smell.
A fan with enough force to remove the air in time to prevent this process would have to function much as a sudden depressurization in an aircraft, such as if a door would blow out. Unfortunately, this would pluck you from the throne much faster than has been the experience of the French royalty during the times of Napoleon.
Somewhere I read about a very fancy toilet setup, maybe a Japanese brand. It has a seat warmer, builtin exhaust, washing system for your undercarriage (male and female), and a warm air dryer.
Then of course there's the three seashells from that movie Demolition Man that Stallone was trying to figure out how to use them.
the company is Toto, they also make rather impressive toilet seat covers.
don't we all need a heated, massaging, warm water wash and blow dry toilet seat cover! all for a meer 1 grand LOLhttp://www.totousa.com/productpage.asp?PID=708
That is really a royal throne!More seriously, in Japan they sell a toilet which automatically measures sugar levels for diabetics.
One of the local Hutterite Colonies here has manufactured a small fan with the inlet made from sheet metal between the bowl and the seat. apparently they are in common use in their homes. The only one I ever saw was in the mens washroom at the lumber yard they bought a lot of material from.
I do remember reading somewhere within past threads that bathroom exhaust fans are meant to be mounted in a ceiling so that the fan is in a horizontal position versus the floor. Vertical installations (perpendicular to the floor) puts undo stress on the fan motor's bearings and will cause premature failure.
Maybe someone has a better recollection of this than I.
I installed a Panasonic fan on the wall high up in a bathroom that had cathedral sloped ceilings. I put it as high up as possible. Vented out the wall and thru 9 feet of attic, then out the gable wall.
Panasonic said that the fan will work fine like that but it could reach an earlier failure of the motor.
I have the same idea, and I've got a bathroom down to the studs at the moment. I've got a broan 505 fan which pulls 180CFM. I'm going to hook it up to a pair of 3" vents and place them on either side of the toilet bowl in the wall. The fan will be in the attic out of the way.
I'll set this up and try it out to see if it will work. My wife's nose will be the judge!
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
<a pair of 3" vents and place them on either side>
I kind of like the "dual exhaust" look - maybe you could put some big chrome tips on the inlets!
Forrest
Be careful you do not have too much cfm going on that close to the "deposit" area of the toilet! You only want fumes being pulled into it, or you will have a 'stuff hittin the fan' situation.