Your exhaust fan needs to receive a thorough cleaning every 6 months. Here are 5 simple steps to properly clean your bathroom exhaust fan.
When it comes to cleaning the bathroom, there’s one job in particular that most of us tend to put off until it becomes more of a problem than it should be: cleaning your bathroom exhaust fan. Your fan actually needs to receive a good, thorough cleaning every 6 months in order to function properly, so we really should pay more attention to it.
One reason we ignore this task is because, well, “Out of sight, out of mind.” There are no little lights or beeps that signal “Hey! Up here! Clean me!” But it must be said: properly cleaning your bathroom’s exhaust fan is an important job that needs to be done consistently to keep this room functional and comfortable.
That fan helps rid your bathroom of lingering odours and works to reduce the amount of moisture in the air, hindering the growth and spread of mold and mildew. It also works to remove the airborne contaminants left behind by many household cleaning products. If your fan is caked in dust bunnies and other various unmentionables, then it can’t work efficiently. When the fan can’t do its job, the excess moisture has nowhere to go, and your porcelain sanctum can slowly but surely become a hot, moldy mess.
First things first: Safety, folks. Unplug the fan if accessible or turn off the fan at the circuit breaker to make sure no power is flowing to it while you’re working.
In order to safely remove the cover and get to the fan itself, you should gently and carefully pull down on the cover; once you have done so, the fan should be visible behind it. With the cover fully extended, squeeze the metal mounting wires on either side of the cover and gently slide them out of their respective slots. At this point, you can probably see the amount of dust and dirt that you are going up against. Now the real fun begins.
This part of the cleaning process is very simple and straightforward. In order to have a properly functioning fan, the vent cover needs to be cleaned out and rinsed thoroughly. This can be accomplished using your bathroom’s sink, some warm water, and 3 or 4 drops of dish soap. The vent cover should be left to soak in the soapy water for about 5 minutes in order to loosen up any impacted particles or clumps of debris.
After the soaking is done, you should lightly scrub the fan cover with a cloth or a dish brush. Once the cover is free of dust, dirt and grime, you can leave it to air dry on a fresh towel. While the fan’s cover is drying out, it’s time to get to the main event: cleaning the actual exhaust fan.
Find some protective goggles or glasses, and let’s get to it.
Using a dust buster or your full-sized vacuum’s extension wand, start removing the dust from the fan blades themselves. To clean the fan’s motor, housing and other components, you will want to use the vacuum bristle brush attachment. The crevice cleaning attachment is probably perfect for the hardest to reach areas of the motor.
Your vacuum skills just took care of the dry, loose dust that accumulated. Now things get really interesting. You can probably see clearly the exhaust fan is covered in a pretty good layer or grime. To clean this off, just use a dampened microfiber cloth and carefully wipe down the fan’s blades, motor housing and other components.
Having cleaned the fan completely and washed and dried the cover, you can start putting things back together. Carefully plug the fan back in if you unplugged it while the cover was off.
Next, take the cover, squeeze the mounting wires and insert them into the slots. After pushing the cover back into place, you can now safely return to the fuse box and restore power to the bathroom.
And that’s it! Your bathroom, and your bathroom vent will thank you until it’s time to repeat the process six months from now.
