How to Replace Air Vent Attic Fan Motor

Replacement of an attic fan motor can be done from inside. Air Vent, Inc has not changed the housing design of their roof mounted power attic ventilator. A RV26 motor can be installed in a XLR housing.

[@chrisstromberg6527]

10 years must be the life span on these fans, ours just died. Thanks for posting this video, I was scratching my head on how to go about fixing our fan without falling off the roof. Thank you!

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome, Chris. Best wishes for a quick change out.

[@guitarhvac]

I just want to THANK YOU!! I am all around a pretty technical person, but when I got up in my attic I saw no way to remove the motor from there, so I went on the roof at 10:00 at night. Lol.... not realizing how steep my roof actually was before I got up there(we just moved in this house)..... once I got up there I realized that I shouldn’t be up on that steep of a roof at night time. I was very very timid trying to crawl down...... the next day I tried to go up on the roof again and even with work boots on I couldn’t go up without slipping because it’s hot and the little pieces of asphalt were coming off and I was just slipping. Couldn’t do it.... then the next day I saw this video. Had the fan changed from inside the attic within 30 minutes! Thank you and thanks KZbin!!

[@Know-How-Now]

Thank you for taking the time to write about your interesting ventures on the roof. That's been my experience, I'm more brave going up the slope and coming down is dicey. I'm glad to hear you got down safely. You are welcome, way to go on changing out the fan from inside the attic!

[@edhardt1198]

Best video on KZbin on how to replace an attic fan motor. Great job, thanks for the help.

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome, Ed. Thank you for the compliment. I do my best to make quality videos.

[@Goathead85]

Great Video!! Short and to the point with the information I was looking for. 3/8 socket and 5/16 Allen wrench!! And good audio as well. Thank you and job well done!!!

[@Know-How-Now]

Thank you for the compliments on the video. I do my best to respect your time and still make quality videos.

[@Goathead85]

@@Know-How-Now I sincerely wish more tutorial videographers would do the same. Seems most think it should take 20 minutes to tell a 3 minute story. Thanks again!!

[@mam1653]

Thank you! This totally helped. Tried to get the fan blades out and your solution worked!

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome, Mary. It's my pleasure to help.

[@zhazha2540]

I just did exactly the your video suggested, the fan works perfectly now! Thank you so much!

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome, Frank! Way to go on the successful fan motor replacement.

[@sunkang681]

Thank you! You are a life saver. I got mine replaced by following this video

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome. Way to go on the successful replacement.

[@jjg3463]

are you FREAKING KIDDING ME i LOVED this video very very helpful & a woman doing a repair video even BETTER

[@Know-How-Now]

Hi JJ g, thanks for commenting. I hope the fan motor replacement goes smoothly.

[@paulh6591]

Thanks for the informative video. On my roof-mounted unit there is voltage present to the thermal switch, and the motor shaft is not seized, so yes it would seem that the fan motor is dead. Great idea you had to retain the old bracket, swapping the motor and blade exclusively, instead of trying to access the fat sheet metal screws holding the bracket itself to the housing!

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome, Paul. Best wishes on the fan motor replacement. I was happy to not have to climb around on the roof to replace mine.

[@mikeramsey9747]

I had not thought of that, now only if I didn't need a 20 foot ladder to reach the fans. This very steep roof has presented a real challenge for me to do a DIY fan change.

[@chjhooah1976]

THANK YOU!! Watched this a few times then went to buy a motor and thermostat at lowes. Had trouble getting the screws loose on the brackets- so also bought an attachment for my battery drill to reach up into the space to remove them. Will find out in the morning if this will work to remove the fan.

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome, Cliff. Best wishes for an easy replacement.

[@whitewolf6730]

Thanks! It looks pretty much like Ibexpected. Last time I had an electrician do it, will not be doing that again! *$$$OUCH*

[@Know-How-Now]

Best wishes for the repair. Yep, that's why I do as much as my own work as possible. It's expensive to pay someone else to do it and sometimes they do a crappy job, I pay them, then fix the crappy work. This channel has a lot of videos of the DIY work. Have a great day.

[@BruceConsidine]

Great audio level on your tutorial AND we could see what you were doing. :-) Many tutorials are undermined by forcing the audience to crank their volume to hear (plus echo and background noise.) In one tutorial, the camera is pointing in the wrong direction part of the time. Always a good idea to review the video before posting, and to clean it up with a video editor (free ones are available.)

[@Know-How-Now]

Thanks for the compliments, Bruce. I do spend a lot of time trying to make quality videos. The earlier ones a a little rougher, but I've learned a lot and am always trying to improve them.

[@jimarri]

Good video. To the point and informative.

[@Know-How-Now]

Thanks for the compliment, Jim. There are now over 200 how to/repair videos on the channel, you can find them by clicking on the channel name. They are organized by playlist. I'm having fun making them and will continue to make more.

[@sdean4816]

Nice video, thanks for your efforts.

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome. So far, I am having fun making the videos. It's nice to hear they are helping people.

[@aggienodari453]

I was able to replace my fan today. Fairly easy, but removing the fan from the old motor was a challenge. I swung a sledge hammer and punch over 50x to get the motor off. Plan on bending the fan blades. You can balance the blades with a stick and marker to make sure the blades are fairly level. If this happens again, I'm just going to buy a Gable vent fan and mount it up in the rafters.

[@georgeklimes7604]

Nice video. Great explanation and video. Subscribed.

[@Know-How-Now]

Thanks for watching the video and subscribing, George. Have a great day.

[@igoldin74]

Life saver!

[@danmidkiff5416]

Great video! Just what I needed to know! Thanx!

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome, Dan.

[@danmidkiff5416]

I installed the new fan today! It works! THANK YOU AGAIN!

[@Know-How-Now]

Good to hear you got the fan replaced, way to go! Have a great day.

[@admirableawesome2317]

great video thank you

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome.

[@ralphgomez9006]

Will the fan motor last longer if it turns off now and then according to temperature or one that runs 24/7? Thanks for the help.

[@bradleyelkin3783]

If you don't care about the fan itself, you can bend the blades up/down/over to make it easier to slide out of the mounting brackets

[@paulh6591]

Bradley, I could foresee bending the blades on the forsaken motor to facilitate removal but using a different approach for installing the new unit, removing the set screw mentioned in this video. Install the new unit in two pieces and re-attach the fan blade to the shaft.

[@PaulHainesNJ]

Last time I did this I had someone help me unscrew a bolt from the roof. Now 8 years later, I needed to replace it again. That was a great tip using a 4.5" piece of wood to bend one of the brackets backwards and hold in place. I was able to get the motor out with the fan blades reasonably easy from inside the attic by myself manually bending the other two brackets. One thing I'm trying this time around on the new motor... On the set screw I used some anti-seize to make it easier to remove should I need to do this again in another 8 years. I also put a skim coat of lithium grease on the end of the motor shaft (1/2" exposed) after attaching the fan blade. Maybe that will help preventing it from rusting. To get the fan blades off the old rusted motor shaft, I used some penetrating oil sitting for 24 hours and removed the set screw. To remove the rusted fan blades off the motor shaft, sand down the rusted motor shaft the best you can and add penetrating oil. Then lift the whole thing, supporting from the underneath the fan blades in the center between your finger. Now use a hammer to drive the motor shaft down. With a few quick hits and some luck, you'll force it downwards. Should the fan blades drop down the motor shaft even further in the wrong direction (which mine did), then sand the whole old motor shaft clean, use penetrating oil and slide off.

[@Know-How-Now]

Thanks for taking the time to write about your detailed repair. It's been a while since I made the video/replaced mine. My memory is a little fuzzy, but this is what I remember. After changing it out, I tried to remove the fan. There were several soakings with PB Blaster. I could never get it free. In one of the comments someone suggested the manufacturer used permanent thread locker on it. I didn't try heating it up with a torch.

[@wyattswildadventures8183]

awesome. I would test the motor before I install though when everything is wired. I will use this to install a new fan. Thank Know How Now

[@Know-How-Now]

You are welcome. If you scroll down in the comments, I believe there is some very detailed information from a fellow viewer.

[@KyleMerl]

Interesting. My attic fan hasn't worked since I bought the house - the power supply to it was completely removed and I think it's seized up. I hadn't considered fixing it, I was going to replace it with a solar powered fan. Maybe I'll try to fix it instead. Either way, it's serving as a good place for hornets to build nests for right now!

[@Know-How-Now]

This one was not hard to replace. I can reach it with out a ladder & can climb out a window & walk up the roof (a little scary) to remove one of the brackets. I tried getting the fan blades past the brackets (bench top), it can be done, but it will be a struggle. I added a mechanical timer & set it to run from 5pm to 5am & set the temp to 100 degrees. My fan works like a whole house fan, it draws warm air from the house, through an attic hatch that I leave open. I don't think the fan does a lot during the heat of the day, that's why I installed the timer. I can shut the AC down at night, open windows and open the closet door where the hatch is located.

[@WV591]

Now that's meticulous. TU + Sub

[@Know-How-Now]

Thanks for watching the video, commenting and subbing. I do my best to make videos worth the time spent watching them.

[@danlanan3795]

Very helpful video! I ended up having to use a plumbers torch to loosen the set-screw for the fan blade. Unfortunately, I bent some of the fan blades when re-installing and now it vibrates when running. I have tried bending them back, but it is difficult to tell when looking up into the cylinder from the attic. Do you have any recommendations on fixing this issue? Can I remove the fan blade from the roof and then better straighten or should I just by a replacement fan blade? Thanks for your help.

[@Know-How-Now]

If you know that you have one blade that it not bent, you could mark it's location on the cylinder. Then spin it and bend the blades to line up with the mark.

[@danlanan3795]

@@Know-How-Now Thanks. I ended up having multiple bent fan blades. Instead of doing trial and error with straightening the fan blades (along with the hassle of climbing in the attic and removing the motor/fan blade assembly) I bought a 12" fan blade from McCombs with the 1/2" diameter shaft opening. It is a slightly smaller diameter (12" vs 13" fan blade with 5 blades instead of 6, but heavier gauge metal and not easy to bend). I then went on the roof, removed the fan cover, and replaced the blade. Took me 10 minutes on the roof. Works great! Nice and quiet. One note, this was easy since I had already removed the fan blade a few weeks prior and the set screw was not seized.

[@Know-How-Now]

Thanks for the update, Dan. You were lucky to get the fan blade off the shaft. I tried to get mine loose and if I remember correctly, I even treated it with PB Blaster penetrating oil. I see in your previous comment you had to heat yours with a torch to get it loose.

[@nickpanhead7209]

Hi thank you for making video, question do you know if I can replace motor from roof side. By removing cap on roof and pulling it up from there. Attic is a tight hard spot to crawl to fan to do it from there. Thank you

[@Know-How-Now]

I don't know of a way of changing the motor out from the roof side. You might just want to replace the whole unit.

[@nickpanhead7209]

@@Know-How-Now ok thank you for getting back to me, and thank you for making these videos

[@Know-How-Now]

I tried removing the fan blade from the old motor. I could not get it off of the shaft.

[@6dmiller]

Note that with most fan motors you can twist off the wire conduit and re-use it with the new motor.

[@cb8125]

Hello, I have a question. This is the only video that got me close to replacing the motor. I didn't a whole new one because motor only was half the price but I saw no way to get cover off from the roof. I got brackets loose, disconnected from elec box and got stuck on removing it from fan blades. After hours and days I gave up. Do I need to loosen the bolt on the side or the rusty looking one on the top? I took pics and tried to get help from Air Vent but they didn't help me. Thank you

[@Know-How-Now]

I'm a little unclear on your question. I think you are trying to get the fan blade off of the motor? For kicks, I tried to remove my fan blade from the old motor and could not get it off. I think I recall a comment of someone else who tried and thought maybe it was treated with permanent loctite. Here's a link on how to remove something treated with red loctite. next.henkel-adhesives.com/us/en/articles/how-to-remove-red-threadlocker.html

[@aggienodari453]

Nice job. With the 4.5 wood piece to space out one of the brackets, did the fan come out easily?

[@Know-How-Now]

It took a little wiggling, but it came out. Later out of curiosity, I tried to remove the fan. Even after soaking it with PB Blaster penetrating oil, I could not get it to break loose. PB Blaster has rarely failed to get something loose.

[@aggienodari453]

@@Know-How-Now thank you for the response. I'm wondering if they put Loctite at the factory. If that's the case you have to take a torch to it.

[@Know-How-Now]

That's a good thought.

[@DasGonz13]

Since you installed a 1 speed fan into a 2 speed controller, what speed did you get?

[@Know-How-Now]

I replaced both the fan motor and the controller. I only used the existing housing.

[@evenavarro0803]

Das Gonz

[@rogerg4916]

My roof is not very steep. Would it be easier to remove it from above?

[@Know-How-Now]

If it's safe & easy to get on the roof, I'd just replace the entire unit. For me it was best to make the repair from the inside.

[@pedma23416]

The video was informative but the only thing you did wrong was when you hooked the electric back up you spliced the hot leg first. That’s a no-no. Always hook up the neutral up first. I know you shut the breaker but it’s good to do it so you always do it right.

[@Know-How-Now]

Both the hot & neutral connections are already made, I'm only twisting on the wire nuts ... though you are correct best practice is to connect the neutral first. You likely noticed the order of disconnect in the beginning and it's done correctly.

[@e3uphoric51]

Yeaaaahhhh im just going to get a turbine lol

[@ralphgomez9006]

Will the fan motor last longer if it turns off now and then according to temperature or one that runs 24/7? Thanks for the help.

[@Know-How-Now]

For sure the bearings will last longer if the fan doesn't run 24/7.