Extractor Fans Buying Guide

An extractor fan is an essential tool for every home to remove moisture and unwanted odours from your kitchen, bathroom, home or office. Our extensive range has got you covered with products available in a range of styles and colours to suit all room sizes and locations, the right extractor will help to prevent unwanted steam from lingering and to help avoid damp problems.

What Are Extractor Fans?

Extractor Fans are wall or ceiling mounted fans connected to a venting system that draws air from inside the room and expels that air outside. In the home, Extractor Fans can most often be found in bathrooms, used to remove excess humidity caused by steam from the shower or bath to manage humidity that, if unchecked, can lead to mould. They also have the added benefit of removing odours from the room and circulate air through the room at an increased rate.

Extractor fans are also commonly found in kitchens, in particular in cooker hoods to remove steam and food smells from cooking.

Extractor fans are essential in every home. Mould and mildew will grow in conditions where it is both warm and damp, and a lack of airflow such as an open window or door can exacerbate your damp problem. Damp can cause serious structural problems for your home as well as reducing the air quality for occupants, particularly anyone with asthma or allergies. Installing an extractor fan can help to alleviate these issues by removing moist air from the home, leaving you with more tolerable and manageable moisture levels.

There are 3 kinds of Extractor Fan:

Axial: Most common. Best suited in situations with short ducting required (2m-3m). Axial fans work by pulling air through an impeller and then out through the whole in an external wall. As such, they can be ducted straight through the impeller and then outside.

Centrifugal: More power than standard axial fans and can therefore be used with much longer ducting solutions. Centrifugal fans pull air through at right angles to the fan's intake and then moves the air away using centrifugal force. They are therefore capable of extracting more air than standard axial fans.

Inline: Ideal for rooms without an external wall, or where the noise of your extractor fan is an issue. Inline Extractor Fans can also be used to prevent heat loss as the need for a hole in an external facing wall is removed. Inline fans often sit in ceilings above the room and therefore make less noise and can be used in situations where extremely long ducting is required.

Fan Size Considerations

There are multiple different fan sizes available. your decision will largely be made for you if you're retrofitting an extractor fan into an existing hole, but if you're designing or renovating a space, here's a handy guide on how room sizes correlate to thesize or hole required:

4 Inch Fans: 4 inch fans are perfect for smaller rooms around the home such as en-suite bath & shower rooms. Any room under 9m² is the ideal size for these smaller fans.

6 Inch Fans: 6inch fans are only necessary when used in rooms larger than 9m² with moisture extraction needs. You may also want to consider a 6inch fan if you live in a homewith multiple occupants with perhaps one main bathroom that is in frequent use where the increased extraction levels are required.

4inch fans are suitable for most applications around the home and are capable of removing moisture sufficiently. 6inch fans are only necessary when used in rooms larger than 9m² with moisture extraction needs. You may also want to consider a 6inch fan if you live in a home with multiple occupants with perhaps one main bathroom that is in frequent use where the increased extraction levels are required.

Bathroom Extractor Fans

How to choose the prefect Bathroom Extractor Fan

1) Hole Size Consideration

This desicion is normally out of your hands when it comes to replacing an existing fan. It is important to ensure the your desired fan is compatible to avoid unnecessary stress & cost.

2) How to turn the fan on

You have a choice of options for this. You can turn these fans on by a cord switch wich is the simplest option yet it requires manual operation every time you need it, PIR (Passive Infrared Sensors) that turn on when they detect movement in the room, Humidistat sensors that turn on when the sensor reads that the humidity level of the room has risen above the specified limit or units featuring sensors that can detect odours and will turn off once the odour has been removed.

3)Noise Levels

Be sure to check the noise level of the fan you wish to purchase to ensure this won't be an issue for your property. All extractor fans are measured with a standard test of Decibels recorded at a distance of 3m. This is important to keep in mind when checking specifications

4) Is a Heat Recovery option required?

Air extracted from the home is passed through a heat exchange expelling the moist air from the home whilst recycling much of the heat, allowing greater climate control

Shower Extractor Fans and Fan Light Kits

Shower fan light kits are packs that contain all you will need to install an extractor fan in the ceiling above your home shower. The kits include the shower light, inline fan, outdoor grille, flexible ducting and all the clips and connectors you'll need. 

The shower is often the main source of excess moisture in the bathroom so installing a fan light kit in your bathroom is a great step to bring down humidity in your home. Our range of kits includes premium features such as variable overrun timers allowing you complete control.

Extractor Fans from AirconCentre.co.uk

Our range of Extractor Fans feature brands such as Manrose, Xpelair, Vent Axia, AirVent and Envirovent. We also offer a range of Finish/Colours such as White, Black, Pebble, Silver, Grey, Metal, White/Chrome and Chrome. Extractor fans come in different fan size diameters starting from 4 inches up to 12 inches.

Our selection of extractor fans covers axial fans, centrifugal fans, ceiling mounted fans, window fans, inline fans and work to provide effective ventilation for bathrooms, kitchens, toilets and utility rooms. Creating a clean and fresh air environment for the homeowner.