Customer Reviews for Maxx Air 11 in x 28.5 in 2985 CFM White Galvanized Steel Automatic Shutter Whole House Fan

Description says 35.25”, but this is the 30” fan you’re looking for! Typical ceilings are framed 16” on center, so a 30” fan is the largest you can go with without having to cut the joists. Description is deceiving, but this is the 30”. Home Depot has it at a much better price than buying direct from the Cool Attic website.

I researched and chose this fan with the direct drive as apposed to the belt drive only because of the fact that a belt drive has 2 bearings instead of the 1 bearing on the direct drive. One less bearing to go out and I also read that the direct drive (may) be a little quieter. The fan came as advertised with no issues concerning quality or packaging. To me, the motor supports and frame construction seemed adequate, so I chose not to alter any of those [it does come with a 10 year limited warranty]. I did not care for the double switch configuration so I ordered and installed a single Hi/Low/Off switch that worked perfectly for my situation. I did make changes to the recommended install protocol, but only because of the existing conditions in my attic. 1) Where I chose to mount the fan, was in a centrally located position in my hallway, but because my hallway has a drop ceiling at 7'-0", I was concerned with the surrounding 8'- 0" ceilings directly adjacent to it and the accompanying blown-in insulation falling into the fan. Additionally, having a roof structure with 4/12 pitch, maintaining the recommended 36" clearance to the roof structure became problematic. So I built an extended flue out of 3/4" plywood to clear the fan above the surrounding insulation and also angled the flue at 45 degrees to increase the fan to roof clearance to well over 8 feet. This flue system also increased the fan blade to ceiling shutter opening to a developed length of just over 55 inches. I also installed a continuous 1/2" thick rubber gasket at the fan box to flue connection so as to reduce any vibration from the fan being transferred to plywood flue. This combination of gasket, angled and extended flue, has made this fan quieter, I believe, than if I would have installed it immediately above the ceiling joists. This extended angled flue with the improved clearance to the main roof structure promotes copious quantities of attic air movement to where the attic is actually as cool as the indoor air. Since I live in the California Central Valley, where summer daytime temps average 95 -108 degrees, this has been well worth the price and the effort. I leave the fan on the low speed thru out the night with a few windows open and with a well functioning ceiling fan over our bed, my wife actually gets a little chilly. I do not own a decibel meter, but I can have a conversation in normal speech volume directly underneath this unit while running. You do hear the unit running, like others have stated, but the sound is less than that of a 20 inch box fan. I had to preliminarily build and assemble this unit in my shop and then disassemble and reassemble in the attic because of the limited size of the attic access openings I was dealing with. [see pics] In the final analysis, I wish I would have done this years ago and I would highly recommend this unit to anyone.

Last summer, the weather was in the 100's, my house cooled down quite quickly after 6PM. Instead of getting AC installed, I decided to install this 4600 CFM 24" from Home Depot. The shipping was quite fast. The box came a little torn, but everything inside was intact. One of the blade was bent due to shipping, but with a little long nose pliers, I could straighten it out. The box actually came with everything needed to install, 2 switches - one for ON/OFF and one for HIGH/LOW speed which has instruction on how to install. I used the Joist-in installation, no cutting, just adding frames - The FAN is actually a little smaller than the cutout for the Shutters, so we need to make a frame over the joist to fit the FAN on top of the Joist frame (custom). The FAN works right out of the box, the switches work, the fan is a little loud because it's a direct drive instead of belt drive, I didn't want to bother with the installation so I bought this one. We only need to turn on 1-2 hours, so the sound to us is bearable. When the FAN is on, I went to the master bedroom with the windows and doors opened, I could feel the breeze coming through the windows - the fan is really powerful. I went down stairs and I feel the breezes on the windows too. It's amazing. I bought a WOODS timer 1-2-4-8 hr from Home Depot to replace the ON/OFF switch and it work wonderful. Now we can just set the time and forget about it. When we grilled meat in the house, the exhaust fan couldn't remove all the smokes, but this one really help to suck out all the smokes, wonderful. Do I recommend this one, yes, you do need to customize the frame over the Joist, find a good location on the hall way for all rooms. Make sure the FAN area is clear so the Air can go through easily. You'll need a few 2x4" 8' and some 2 1/2 in screws. If you want some tips and hear how loud it is, email me or search youtube 3dogs1monkey channel since I can't post videos here.

I was shopping around for a good WHF and went through different reviews, I got this fan from Home Depot on line and got it installed couple of weeks back. I am happy with it. Pl read the reviews through different sources to reduce noise. I have added foam to reduce noise and a timer for ease of operation. Before purchase, please check whether your attic vent has adequate ventilation (calculators are available in the internet) to prevent returning the product which is not only inconvenience to the seller and manufacturer but also loss to them. Any inconvenience and loss incurred to them is also to us as price will be jacked up to compensate the loss. I very strongly believe that good amount of research is a must before any purchase..Less ventilation at attic would overload the fan motor. This WHF comes with wooden box, two speed switch and a on/off switch. I engaged an installer and paid $220.

When the fan arrived, the motor and blades were loose in the box. The motor is supposed to be fastened to the metal brackets with four screws. Three of them were completely off and one was hanging by a thread. Fortunately, the blades and motor did not get damaged in transit. The way the brackets were attached to the wooden box with screws is a poor design and would most likely loosen with the vibration. I took the screws out and replaced them with nuts, bolts, washers, and lock washers. The instructions are confusing, but I was able to figure it out. It took quite a bit of work to build the framework to seal off the air from the attic. I bought a fan years ago which had a better design. That one had a cowling that fit over the fan and sealed off the air from the attic so you did not have near as much work. . Also, they tell you to seal all the cracks with caulk, but neglect to tell you there will have to be a hole for the wire to go through. This was installed in the garage. Once installed, the fan is working well.

I'm glad I bought this fan, it was easy to install by following the instructions. It's not noisy at all, in fact it sounds just like a standard floor type fan. It definitely moves the air thru the house very well. Originally when I opened the box, it was missing the wall switches and Wall Plate that was supposed to be included, but just a quick call to Home Depot customer service corrected that. They immediately contacted the manufacturer which in turn Fedex'd me the missing parts. Overall my experience was great and I have already recommended this fan to my co-workers and My brother. We'll worth the $199.99 I paid. Not only cools down the house, but it also cools down the Attic quickly.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to install this whole house fan, but I was rather pleased to find out that is wasn't that difficult and was SO worth my effort to install it. I now use this fan almost every day to bring in cool air in the late afternoon or to just feel the breeze through my home...this was a "breeze" for me to install. I expect MUCH cheaper electricity bills now. I have yet to use my AC and much prefer to nice air flow through my home. I was very hesitant on trying to install this, for my expertise is not there, but surely I found that it went very smoothly, right down to installing the 2 switches (ON/OFF and High/Low) turned out to be not a big deal. The only drawback I could possible say about this fan is that it is a bit noisy...well, it is a large fan moving a lot of air, I expected it. But again, I cannot be more happy with the outcome. Even when my wife decides that dinner needed a little extra cooking, either the smell of fish sauce or the smoke of a neglected dinner on the stove, this fan is perfect and does exactly what I expected. From the montly savings in electicity for AC and the awsome effect of having fresh air running through my home, I 100% would recommend this fan for any home. The extras I needed to purchase to complete the installation was: 1. 2 lenghts of 2x3x6' for the base of the fan 2. An electric 2 bay box to install the switch (I actually used a 3 bay and replaced a single switch box that ran my laundry room fan into the 3 bay box that looks great) 3. 25ft of romex to install the power and switch 4. A power tester for the wire (I was being extra careful) Even cutting the whole in the ceiling proved effortless as the instructions were very easy to understand. Very pleased customer.

For some reason, Home Depot chooses to have the van built completely upside down to where the homeowner has to completely disassemble the fan and rebuild it so it will work properly the only place that has posted a little inch sticker on the bottom on the bottom of the fan. Not sure why anyone would do this because an average homeowner would think there was something wrong with the fan. Hi a professional installer just got lucky and happened to see the sticker after we installed it and couldn’t figure out why the fan would not spin. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen or heard.

Great fan, easy to install and wire. Nice and quiet …… planning on using it this weekend as the warm weather has returned.

Overall good buy. A few surprises when installing in an older house were expected. The existing wiring from the old switch plate to the fan was only 3 wires (white/black/ground) and did not have the extra Red wire needed to connect properly. After removing the old fan I ran a new set of wires. They overcomplicate this install by having a separate on/off switch and high/low speed switch. I installed a single High/Off/Low switch so I could keep the existing single gang box.

It could not even lift the shutters. Not enough power

Fan is working well and I’m very happy with it

This fan has variable speeds but we only have one switch so they fan is always on high speed. I don’t mind that at all (our last one was the same) but the noise level is insane. It is so loud you have to almost yell to talk or have the tv blaring to hear it. That is my only complaint about this fan. I hate even having it on, I use to love having an attic fan on in the house.

Noisy, impossible to sleep with it on. Free shipping was nice.Plan on returning it soon.

I'm sorry to say this fell WAY below my expectations. :( We had this same model for over 15 years and worked like a charm! That little engine finally gave out and I ordered the same brand and size as before. Unfortunately, it worked worse than my broken fan. The engine barely had enough power to open the shutters and ran at a speed a bit lower than the "Low" of the older one. I am returning it and ordered a different brand. The

Quick easy install. Runs good.

Fan was easy to install the shutter was smaller than the fan so framing and some Sheetrock fixed that ..only complaint is high and low basicly the same speed .you can hear a slight difference but hardly any

Would rate higher, however, it's as noisy as a B-24 taking off With a full bomb load.

It's great, a little noisy but not too bad with the use of sound proofing on the frame. Really moved the air and so we don't have to use our air con at night or in the morning. The fan blade was a bit tricky to remove due to the way it was shipped and getting access to the small square bolt to loosen and flip it was all. Cooler house happy

Easier to install as a replacement than I expected. Quiet, grea performance.

Was sturdier than one replaced. Shutter a little tight. Easy enough to convert to pull-chain with 2-speed switch, separately. House original was pull type. Quiet. NEEDS PROPER ATTIC VENTILATION!

exactly what I wanted

Well made, draws air very well, but MY GAWD, what noise!! This fan unit is so loud that you can't leave it on and sleep or even hold a normal conversation - even on 'low' speed. 'High' speed is a roar. Installed the fan in new construction. Fan specs were confirmed appropriate for the house attic venting capacity. Installation was straightforward. Instructions state if noise is an issue, install blocks to raise the fan unit further into the attic space, so I did. No noticeable change. Contacted the manufacturer (Ventmatic) and sent them a video. They indicate the noise is 'normal' and nothing further can be done. I have had these fans in previous houses and none of them were this loud. NOTE: The fan blades are installed upside down for shipping. Make sure to loosen the set screw and remove the blade before installing. Otherwise it is amazingly awkward and difficult to reach under the blades!

If you plan on installing it your self you will need some tool and know basic electrical. Took a friend and I about 6 hour to complete project. Only thing I don’t like is on high it loud, but I put it on low and open 3 windows half way all night when it 68 or lower and it get the house cold.

Kinda loud but works great

We replaced a existing fan so it wasn't hard to hookup. We haven't used to often as yet due to using air conditioning at this time.

Swapped out an older fan, same size, for the new one seamlessly. Just had to run wiring for the switches. Previous model had a pull chain switch. Very pleased.

Nice fan! So far, it works works very well and is quieter than expected.