Air King BFQ50 ENERGY STAR® Qualified SNAP-IN Exhaust Fan, 50 CFM

I replaced the fan in the first floor bathroom that was originally installed over 20 years ago by the contractor. This was always a noisy fan that moved almost no air. I took a chance on getting this Air King fan sight unseen since I was pretty sure almost anything would be better than the fan I already had.I had to enlarge the existing hole by about an inch on two sides to accommodate the fan housing. I nailed the bracket to the joist using a small sledge. I was cramped for room since my fan sits in the corner of the bathroom and I was not able to get much "muscle" into my hammer blows with a light hammer. I positioned the fan up into the hole and pushed it to one side so I could attach the duct. Then I pushed it over to the other side to give me room to push the wiring into the housing.I snapped the fan in place and was disappointed that the fan drooped about an inch below the ceiling on the side away from the bracket. I had to move the fan housing aside and bend the bracket downward so that when I snapped the fan in it would be held tighter. That was an annoyance but it seems to be holding OK. The fan still droops a bit but it is not noticeable at all once the grille is snapped into place. The grille hugs the ceiling closely on all sides, so it looks just fine.During the installation I was very wary because at least one reviewer was adamant that one could not install this fan without getting above it in the attic or making the hole extra large. I found no need for that at all. As long as you have sufficient room to move the fan housing to one side or the other inside the opening you can make power and duct connections through the hole in the ceiling. Then you have to work the fan into position so it can drop through the hole a bit while you catch it on the bracket lip and then push it up to snap it in place. If my duct had been rigid I could see where there might be a complication, but I used metal flexible duct. Even so, I'm not sure that rigid duct would have been that hard to work with on installing the fan, so I am unclear why some have had a problem with this.The fan works like a charm. I was hoping it would be a little quieter (actually I was hoping for near silence) but it is much quieter than the fan I replaced. I think some of the noise is just the sound of the air moving. I could not resist seeing if a paper towel would be held up tightly by the air pressure and it was. I think if I actually had 4-inch ducting all along the path it would be quieter. I believe the transition from 4-inch to 3-inch creates some back pressure. Anyway, the noise is not obnoxious it is just that you will know the fan is on that's for sure.I believe if you want a super quiet fan you are just going to have to pay the bucks for it. I did lustily eye those Panasonics, but they were just too much for me to bear cost-wise. Also, it looked like they would be a major pain to install if you could not get to the fan from above.I am happy with this fan. I think the motor alone is worth the price of the fan. It certainly looks like a quality item. So even though I am complaining that it not as quiet as I'd like, for the price I have no complaint at all. I am giving this fan 5 stars because it is more than one would expect for the price and it is very well made.(I also installed the similar Air King 140cfm model in a larger bathroom. That fan is rated at 4 Sones and is pretty loud. That fan is connected to a 4-inch duct without reducers so the noise is all within the fan and not my duct. It moves a lot of air and it is still quieter than the original cheap fan ever was while moving perhaps 4 times as much air (my guess).)

Performance: I had an old bathroom exhaust fan in a rather large bathroom with no windows and it just could not even dent the steam from a long shower so mildew would develop on the walls after a while. So I tried just replacing the guts with the 50 cfm Broan replacement fan. The fan fit in the old box and worked better and was quieter and very easy to install but it just didn't have enough power. So I returned it and got this one. Now after a long hot shower there is almost no fog on the mirror and what little is left is gone a minute or so. The fan is not that quiet, but is quieter than the 40 year old fan it replaced that only did about 20 cfm. And it is relatively inexpensive at $32. The $142 0.3 sone 150 cfm Panasonic was tempting, but I am very happy with this fan at 1/4 the price.Installation: The hard part of installation was taking the old fan box out, but even for that I did not have to get in the attic. It was held in with 4 nails but came out pretty easily, albeit with a cubic foot of blown insulation (important note, use a dust mask, and a headlamp is also very useful for this). The Air King easily installed also without going into the attic. Make sure you turn off the electric at the breaker before unhooking the electric on the old fan. First off, its a pretty neat design. there is an L-shaped metal bracket that you have to attach to the rafter. I used 4 one-inch drywall screws (it doesn't come with any hardware to attach the bracket). The fan is in a plastic housing that just snaps into this bracket. It has three wires, the black, white and green for the ground typical of most simple fixtures, perfect for my house which is all 3 wire. It comes with 3 wire nuts and an easy to use plastic wire clamp that holds the wires into the box. I took the fan motor out of the housing to aid in installation which is easy to do by just loosening two screws, but really you don't have to. Once you get the electric wired up through the body you can just snap the fan in and your done. I had to cut the opening an inch or two wider in the drywall but the plastic grate was thankfully big enough that it still easily covered the hole. I have installed several bathroom fans over the years and this was by far the easiest.

First, the good news: this is an EXCELLENT performer. It's quiet (for a bathroom fan) and yet moves a lot of air. We're using the 90-CFM in a small "water closet" type area of our larger bathroom and are very happy with the performance of the installed fan.Reading through the reviews before our purchase, I thought this would be a relatively easy fan to install. In our case, NO. To be fair, this WAS NOT a new installation. We replaced a "dead" fan with this one, so we did have to work within some location constraints. The problem came from the joist location for our particular installation. To make a long, long story very short, we had to hire a handyman to complete the installation and he did have to "install from above," meaning he had to crawl through the attic to successfully fit the fan into the "installation clip" mechanism. It was not physically possible to clip it in from below, as another Reviewer has claimed (perhaps he could, don't know), but we most definitely had to "clip" from above. It took more than 2-1/2 hours for "our guy" to finish the job (but again, this was replacement/rewiring time, too).The fan itself is great and I'm very glad we bought it. The price is definitely right and the components all look like they'll deliver years of service. If it weren't for the installation headaches, this would easily be a 5-star fan. In short, if you're doing a fresh installation (where you can put the fan anywhere you want to), this should be EASIER than what we had to do. Do I like the fan? YES INDEED; it's a winner. Whether your handyman will like it or not is another matter altogether : )

Works as it should , fast delivery

I purchased this years ago, but due to a lack of attic access I had not installed it. I finally used a reciprocating saw to break my old fan free of the mounting hardware so I could install this. It’s extremely quiet, which is great for our ensuite so I can get ready for work early without waking my wife.

The media could not be loaded.  Beyond expectations. Simple installation replacement. For me it was an Air King replacement for a 15 year old plus 120 CFM model 140 that just died. It worked well...but was incredibly, and unnecessarily noisy at the upstairs bedroom level. Serious overkill. Should have gotten this similar model level instead back then. Regrets 🫤. My bathroom is approximately 45 square feet. No fogging up of mirrors with this fan even after my three ladies of the house have back to back showers. I was pleasantly surprised. Ample draw in air flow. Extremely quiet and efficient. At 22 and 1/2 watts of running power usage and 2.0 sones... to get these results is a no-brainer purchase. Was somewhat hesitant before about the purchase based on my original fan CFM air exhaust level.. but so glad I did my research and bought this. Highly recommended.👍

Algo ruidoso si esta dentro de la habitacion/cocina

This was an exact replacement for a previous fan. It is a bit louder than a few more expensive bathroom fans but it is very effective at removing steam from a hot shower. A quieter fan unit is a fair bit larger so this was still the best choice for our need. The only reason for replacement was that over 10+ years, the plastic "squirrel-cage" fan wears/weakens on the motor shaft causing the fan to be offset enough to create vibration which carries through the walls. The purchase through Amazon was because, for some reason, none of the local hardware stores had this or could even order it! We needed 120 cfm minimum to push open the insulated ball-type vent that is part of this system.