Attic fan Humming Noise: Why and How to Resolve?

While it’s summer, an attic friend is definitely in the short list of a homemaker’s best friend. Not only the home users, it’s quite an essential part of any industrial or mechanical setup as well.

But there is a catch.

Running an attic fan isn’t just running any other fan of your home. There can be issues like motor dis-function, ball bearing damage and so on. And the first signal of any such issue is the attic fan humming noise.

Therefore, take this noise issue as an indicator and step ahead to solve it right away.

Reasons Behind Your Attic Fan Humming Noise

Reason 1 of 4: Bent Blade

Blade is made of thin metal sheets in most of the household fans. And there is no exception with the attic fans as well. Due to excessive pressure or sudden strikes, these blades might get bent or damaged. If so, the rotating blade will create some noise, and the airflow outcome won’t be as expected also.

So, this can be a possible reason behind attic fan humming noise.

Reason 2 of 4: The Ball Bearings

To rotate the blade from the motor power, a set of ball bearing are there in between them. Usually, they are in charge of running the blade and the fan smoothly.

But if the ball bearings run out of lubrication, or get worn out, they won’t work as they are supposed to. On top of that, they will create noises too.

Reason 3 of 4: Loosen Up Parts and Mountings

Attic fan contains a mounting cover on it. In some cases, these mounting can be loosen up and that might bring on reasons to create humming and rattling noise.

Reason 4 of 4: Damaged Motor

This is the most severe issue which will cost you a good number of bucks to come over. And that’s when the attic fan motor gets out of order. In those cases, it’s better to go for a new motor without attempting to fix it up.

Steps of Deducting Attic Fan Humming Noise

At this stage, we will go through the steps to figure out the real culprit behind your attic fan trouble, and take step to eradicate it for good. As we have told you before, there can be multiple culprits behind this, and throughout our process, we will troubleshooting the entire attic fan to solve it out.

Let’s scroll through the steps below-

Step 1: Prepare for The Troubleshooting

First thing first, you have to prepare to get into the inner portion of the attic fan. For that, start with unplugging the attic fan from the power source. In case it’s an electric fan, you can go for turning the main switch off for maximum security.

Step 2: Make a Pre-assumption of the Noise Source

At this stage, you should have done some pre-assumption on the location of the noise. As it’s a humming noise, you should be able to locate it’s source as you get close and observe it with attention.

Once done, mark those areas where it’s possibly the noise is being created.

Step 3: Check for Bent Blades

Blades are essential parts of every fan, and there is no difference with attic fan as well. In case the fan blades are imbalanced or bent, it might call up a humming or rattling noise in the fan. This might cause due to the striking of the bent blade to other parts of the fan.

In case you have found any bent or unbalanced blades, you should step in to fix it up. It’s the same process for what we do in case of larger fans.

But our advice would be not to repair or fix them, but to replace them with a new attic fan blade. This is more obvious in case your blade are hitting each other’s parts. We can call it almost an irreparable situation.

In case you buy a new blade on the attic fan, make sure to be exactly precise about the size and the power requirements of the blade. If they come to be oversize or undersized, it won’t fit properly.

Step 4: Check for Malfunctioned Ball Bearings

Ball bearings are not some obvious parts of an attic fan, but not every attic fan has it. But in case your one does, that can be a possible source of humming noise.

You should know that the purpose of the ball bearing is to make the fan run smoother. But if they run out of lubricants, or get work out, that can create some troubles, and a humming noise is one of them.

If so, you might try to put some grease or oil in there. If that also doesn’t work, we’re afraid you don’t have any choice apart from replacing it with a new ball bearing system.

In case you head into the local shop to buy one, make sure you’ve taken your previous bearing to match the sizes and number of bearings.

Step 5: Check for Any Loose Parts

This issue that we are talking about right now, takes place in case of almost every attic fan out there. And that’s the loosen up parts and joints issue.

Now, the question is, which parts of the attic fan system can get loose? Well, mostly it’s the mounting system. This will be more likely to happen in case your attic fan is housed onto the roof or ceiling.

So, how do we fix it up? Do we have to go for a new attic fan?

Not at all, buddy. All you need is a screw and a screw driver to put the screw on. In case the existing screws come to be loose, all you need is a screw driver to tighten them up. In case of any external loose part of the mounting system, you might try screwing it up with an entirely new screw.

Either way, make sure that the loose part of the mounting system is not loose anymore.

Image: Metal Turbine Attic Fan