I need an electrician's help. Or a handyman who understands electrical. Husband broke my bathroom exhaust fan. Can you help, pls?

[AmandaYVR]

Greetings old friends. I'm super tired and the thought of explaining this properly is a lot, so apologies. 2000 characters disappering...

My bathroom exhaust fan was a bit noisier than usual when I turned it on today.
I figured I'd vacuum it, remove some dust. I've done this once before.

Told my husband, asked him 1. If he thought that white 'fluff' stuff might be mould, or if it was just dust (we both decided not mould), and 2. What brush he thought I should use. (He's way too into cleaning, and I am not, so I asked. Big mistake.

All I was asking for was advice. Instead, he took the entire fan housing out of the ceiling. To vacuum it. He unscrewed, unplugged.
When he finished and plugged it all back in, it was broken. Won't turn on.

Please advise what he did wrong. And fuck being democratic or pussyfooting around. Tell me straight. He's historically overconfident when it comes to repairs, especially with things electrical. He almost started an electrical fire before. He works in IT. He's arrogant about other skills like home repair.

He did not turn the breaker off when removing it, nor remove the timer switch piece.

Below the fan timer switch, there is a notch I noticed. It can be pulled out to deactivate the switch. He did not do this. The lights no longer come on, on the timer. We can compare it to the same model timer in our 2nd bathroom, which does have lights on permanently, even when not turned on.

He then completely removed the fan. He plugged it into a regular wall outlet, and it powers on. So, the fan is operational.
But when installed back into the ceiling, it receives no power.
He checked the outlet on the fan, and it shows no current, or not 120 V. It reads 0. xx.

Did he somehow fry the timer switch? How? Can we fix the problem by replacing the timer? We have the same model in the 2nd bathroom.

The fans are cheap, not more than $50, maybe. What I'm concerned about is he doesn't know what he did, and he may do it again, if we replace parts.

I think you need to replace your fan timer switch.

Your husband could have electrocuted himself.

Your husband's an idiot.

Your husband screwed the pooch but I wish I had a husband.

He short-circuited something.

I think the wires came loose internally on the housing when he pulled it down.

I have no idea what to advise you, sorry.

Updates

1 y

Nutone 696NO.

Ran out of characters. Couldn't explain more.

Updates

1 y

Hallelujah it's fixed! What a relief.
Not too much damage done.
An electrician fixed.
$263. Ouch.
He did not have to replace any parts.
He said there was an issue with a connection. He rewired them on both ends, from ceiling fan to fan timer.
All signs point to a wire - as Anpu concluded, probably a ground - coming loose, when my husband yanked it all out of the ceiling.
Thank you to all for your help and advice. 💛
And to any men, never take out the entire fan housing just to vacuum it!

[exitseven]

hey Amanda!

The fan seems to be okay. However power is not getting to the fan.

If you have a multimeter, test the GFCI outlet (picture #9). See if the GFCI breaker has tripped. You can reset it.

If it resets and there is still no power at the outlet you need to check the breaker panel and make sure the breaker on the panel is not tripped.

If you can reset the outlet and the little light goes back on in the timer switch you have found the problem.

If the light does not come back on you need to use the meter to see it power is getting to the switch.

Your husband should make sure he trips the breaker before he re=installs the fan.

[Jersey2]

Yep. GFCI is the first thing to check followed by the circuit breaker.

[Wiredone]

@ amanda this is very good advice. I am a licensed electrician. @exitseven, I taught you well.

[exitseven]

@Wiredone glad you weighed in on this, Thanks for that. Always thankfiul for your good advice.

[AmandaYVR]

The breaker did not trip. Though the husband flipped them all anyway (grrrr).

The GFCI is amber.
Resetting it did not fix it.
It is not operational. Nothing plugged into it is getting power. The non--GFI receptacle in the bathroom on the other side of the wall is also not operational.

Still no lights on the timer switch.

There is another issue. He pulled the fan housing down from the ducting, and now it's not legal for an electrician to put it back without properly securing it. It was a new construction installation (I'm in a massive tower, and on the 28th floor) so electricians I've spoken to here are now concerned about access to the ducting. They may have to cut drywall, and they don't repair that.

Two or more people have now mentioned the ground wire could have come loose when husband pulled it all down. That could explain some of this.

There's nothing for me to reset to get it all working.

The fan is operational when we plug it in to a regular receptacle elsewhere. So I'm trying to have an electrician reuse this fan. But they are not supposed to. Now it's supposed to be a remodel version.

It's a f'ing mess.

Are you saying the breaker needs to be switched before reinstalling the fan? Why's that?
And we did try that.

An electrician is supposed to come, but he hasn't shown up. I hope he doesn't just bail.

[AmandaYVR]

Ugh, scratch that. I thought the GFCI wasn't working but I guess I had it on the wrong side, that switch. I plugged the ceiling fan into it and it works.
But there's a problem with it if it only has an amber light, no green light, right?

[exitseven]

@AmandaYVR I do not know what an amber light means. The documentation that came with the switch could tell you that, Maybe you could find it online. I am thinking that if the fan works it is okay, I installed one of these units in my bathroom a few years ago. I just have it on a dimmer switch so I am not familiar with the timer switch.

[Ariesman81]

A lot of times the fan switches are fused. It could very well be a bad switch.

[Wiredone]

@AmandaYVR if you have an amber light on the gfci outlet did you try pressing the reset button on the gfci? It means there is power there but it's not flowing through the outlet. If it doesn't reset and go green, it needs to be replaced

[Wiredone]

@exitseven I'm always willing to help if I can

[AmandaYVR]

@Wiredone I researched the colour coding and that's what I was theorizing.

But electrician told me that amber is normal on this particular brand-model. It did trip, but was not fried.
There is no green on this kind. Sheesh.

[Wiredone]

Ok it must be an off brand. All the ones I've used either had a green light or none at all when it's working properly.

[AmandaYVR]

@Wiredone Yeah, that's frustrating. He said "this brand" but didn't specify but looked very confident/not concerned at all so I'm trusting him.
It's really close to a sink in a very small washroom, so it made sense it might need replacing.

Weird.

[Wiredone]

Gfci outlets usually last 5 to 7 years depending on use. Did the electrician show up?

[AmandaYVR]

@Wiredone He did. I posted an Update.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎. Merry Christmas Amanda.😊😊😊

[Anpu23]

Amanda sounds like he pulled a wire when he pulled it down, the switch isn't getting power so it's before the switch or possibly the neutral line came undone as it's before the switch without being there with a meter I can't say more. Feel free to reach out to me directly and I'll try and walk you through a diagnostic.

[Anpu23]

Saw your update, sounds good

[Anpu23]

Thanks for MHO

[mobiusforniner]

First isolate if it is the fan or switch. Put a voltmeter in the leads. If it’s hot when switch is ON, you got a bad fan motor. If it’s not, either the switch is bad or you got a blown fuse. The power outlet is a GFI type. A couple of switches may be daisy chained on that circuit. Reset it. Check the breaker in the breaker panel (likely in the garage)

if it’s the fan motor, it’s better just to replace the unit. Trying to repair the motor piece by piece will be more headache and cost than it’s worth.

[phraseology]

You said he's way too into cleaning, so the problem seems obvious. There is a soft ground fault due to moisture from cleaning. That water/cleaning fluid is causing unwanted electrical conduction which is tripping the GFCI outlet. Let it dry out and give it another try. The wire insulation looks fine and the wires from the angle you show do not look lose, so I doubt there is a short. There are two hot wire (black), 1 neutral (white), and one ground bare copper attached to the device. That's what you would expect for a light/fan bathroom fixture. One hot goes to the fan and the other to the light. the Neutral and ground are shared.

[TheRealPepperPotts]

I am thankful this got fixed for you. :D

As a widow, I have done simple electrical work myself, so it's not as scary as some people make it sound. I think it's pretty normal for a guy to want to try and take on something like that. I think the real issue is his ego. The more you try to explain to him that he needs help, the more determined he will be to prove that he doesn't. But you cannot convey that to him in the moment because he'll be too amped up (bad pun, sorry...). :D

It's something you'll have to work through if you feel it's important enough. If I were you, I'd just leave the premises in future situations and go do something else and let him cuss his heart out over it. In my humble opinion, it's not worth fighting over something like that, especially with an older guy. This is how some guys learn, and some guys learn better when the pressure to show off to a woman is removed. Just some things to consider, since it'll likely happen again.

[MrOracle]

That's the same fan I have - I know because it has a 3" exhaust output, and only two different models exist at that size, and they are nearly (but not quite) identical. You can get them for $20 from Amazon.

But the fan is removable from the can, and you are normally not supposed to remove the can. You can buy a new fan kit and just replace the fan section without replacing the can.

Anyway, glad you got it fixed.

[ImalwaysrightOK]

Whatever you do, turn off the power to that room now. Someone could accidentally flip the switch and send electric current, hell it might even be live wire now because they could have run the switch in such a way that the actual live current is at the fan and the switch is just diverted.

[ImalwaysrightOK]

by the way, not an electrician, you need one.

[Likes2drive]

You got charged a lot it seems from just a poor connection to the plug in the fan and sometimes the fan is protected by the gfi if it’s located in the shower area. I used to work as an electrician for 10 years and it didn't seem like a big problem but those guys get big bucks for a house call

[msc545]

I think the GFCI breaker is tripped. I think if you reset it the fan will work when plugged into the outlet. Here:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/B475Rhxs36A

[katiesmuff]

This may have never entered your mind, but you suppose maybe calling an electrician or hvac tech to come in and repair or replace as needed.

[AmandaYVR]

I would have been much happier living with a dusty fan.
Talk some sense into my husband. He's the troublemaker.

[ArrowheadSW]

Well, in the interest of safety, he really should hire an electrician to tackle this problem.

[Nikki1989]

My husbands approach to all repairs is always F**k it, I will buy a new one.

[nawtee_me]

First check the breakers to see if he might have tripped it taking it apart. Second push the reset button on the gfci outlet. That should reset it.

[AmandaYVR]

Yeah we checked the breakers yesterday and none had tripped.

I also reset the GFCI but the light is amber and resetting has not brought back the lights on the wall switch fan timer.

[Wiredone]

I'm glad you got it fixed. That's not a bad price, I'm guessing he was there for about 2 hours

[AmandaYVR]

40 min

And he refused resetting a receptacle in the kitchen.
He’s all about money.

[Wiredone]

Only 40 minutes? Damn, I got to start raising my rates.

[Agape93]

Looks like he just blew the motor out.

[AmandaYVR]

But it works when he fully disconnected it, and connected it to a different wall outlet. It runs then.

[Agape93]

Ah ok.

[joehypo1]

Try pushing the reset button on the wall socket

[Ariesman81]

Try resetting the GFI outlet.

[AmandaYVR]

I've just ascertained that the GFI is now dead.
There's an amber light on it when I reset it.
I was concerned about plugging anything into it for fear of damaging the appliance, etc., but I just re-plugged in my hairdryer, which says "Off" normally, in an LED display, and it is not receiving any power.

Don't know why or how, but the 2nd bathroom, which is just on the other side of this one, does not have a GFI, it just has a regular outlet (note to code, I guess), and it is also not receiving power, from my hairdryer off test.

[Wiredone]

Both of your bathroom outlets are being protected by the gfci in the bathroom that you're having problems with. They are all on 1 circuit. It's a common way to wire bathrooms but I don't do it this way

[Jmmmfi4]

Repair men exist for a reason

[AmandaYVR]

I couldn't agree more. Just because someone is knowledgeable in one field doesn't mean they have nearly enough knowledge in another.

[Wiredone]

If you lived near me I would troubleshoot the problem and fix it. I am a licensed electrician