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

Installation was very easy, the wiring compartment was easily accessible and the fan noise is very tolerable. Most importantly, compared to the big box stores items, the motor sturdier and the price is way cheaper. I will try to update regarding durability but so far, I am cery pleased

The fan was an exact replacement for the old fan motor that suddenly stopped working. It was an easy replacement.

Ok, I love the fact that this exhaust fan is radically quiet, this was a huge improvement over what he had before. But here are some necessary improvements:a. The cover is garbage! I will not be able to use it and will have to replace it with some sort of more reliable air vent or grill. The thing looks horrible and won't stay.b. The bracket to secure it is sort of useless, and I you get it in place, i imagine it will be a true pain if you ever need to remove the fan again. They need to come up with something that can be easily secured and detached from the fan, like something with a brace or latch. I ended up screwing the fan from its sides, I had no other way.PS: this was a vertical install in a small bathroom.

Easy to install and quiet when it running

Super quiet

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).)

Our old bath fan was getting considerably loud and didn't seem to move the air well. After showering, the mirror would be solid fog and take at least 10 min to clear up. Our bathroom is only 8'x8', so I wasn't willing to spend $100+ on most other fans. I was obviously skeptical about buying this because of the price, but it was so cheap I couldn't pass it up.Installation:I've never installed a bath fan before, but this was dead simple. The old fan hole was slightly smaller, so I had to trim it out a bit, but it fit just fine. You can see in the picture there's a silver colored plate above the fan. That detaches and is screwed to your ceiling joist. Then the fan unit gets snapped into it. It holds the fan pretty solid, but I had some issues getting it level. Eventually I just left it and it looks good enough.One thing you MUST be sure to do is seal the exhaust hose to the fan in your attic. I didn't do this at first, and the fan leaked almost daily. I also installed this just as winter came on, so condensation was already an issue. However, I went back up, and simply duct taped around the opening and used two old sheets to insulate around the fan and first 1-2' of hose. I also shortened the hose (unfortunately it's not vented out the roof) and it works perfectly with no leaking! It even helped vent the moisture about 5x better than before.Noise:I've always experienced fans to be loud. I'm sure if you get into the $300+ range they're much quieter, but don't expect to hear a pin drop with this. The bathroom we installed this into is attached to our master bedroom and pretty close to the living room. With our old fan, when we leave it on we could hear it quite well from the bedroom and was rather annoying. Although we can still hear this unit as well, it's quiet enough to where you have to strain to tell if that's the fan or something else. From the living room it's near impossible to tell it's running with the door closed. A significant improvement from our old fan!Airflow:As stated, our old fan definitely wouldn't vent all the moisture from a single shower and could take up to 10 min after. This one performed about the same until made the changes noted in the installation section. Now we can take 2-3 showers back-to-back (depending on length) before the mirrors start to fog up. I don't know what size fan we had before, but this easily moves 2-3x the air. As stated above, the bathroom is only 8'x8', but I could see this going into one probably double that size (in square feet) based on the time it takes to start fogging up.Overall this thing is amazing! I would have said for the price, but I would have been satisfied paying even $60 for this. I couldn't even find another 90+ CFM for less than double the cost. Like I said, I've never had any experience with bath fans before, so I don't have a great basis of comparison. But I'm planning on buying a 2nd one for our 2nd 1/2 bath to help reduce the nose from that fan.

Kind of noisy works good lots of air movement