Finally figured out why my attic fan wasn't kicking on after 2 summers of guessing

Last month I climbed up into my attic for the fourth time this year to stare at the fan motor. I had replaced the thermostat switch twice (wasted about $60 total) and checked all the wiring connections. Turned out the humidistat was set way too low for Amarillo summers (like 30% instead of 60%). Soon as I cranked it up to match the outdoor humidity the fan started running like new. Has anyone else had trouble with those digital humidistats reading wrong over time?

3 comments

3 Comments

nguyen.angela17d ago

@the_jamie brings up a good point about factory calibration. But what about those combo thermostats where you gotta hold two buttons for 5 seconds to even access the humidity setting? Did you check if the sensor itself got covered in dust or spider webs over the 2 years it was sitting idle? In my experience, those little sensor nubs on digital models get finicky if they aren't cleaned once a season. Any chance you peeked at the actual sensor element under a bright light?

the_jamie17d ago

Hold on a minute, I'd be careful blaming the digital humidistat here. Most of those units are calibrated at the factory and don't just drift unless they got knocked around or got wet. Sounds more like you had the setting wrong from the start and the device was working fine the whole time.

nancyg1417d ago

Oh man, you actually got me thinking here. I'll admit I used to jump on the "digital stuff is unreliable" bandwagon pretty quick. I had a bad experience with one a few years back and just figured they were all junk. But you and @nguyen.angela have a solid point about factory calibration and those hidden menu settings. I never even thought about dust or spider webs getting on the sensor, that makes total sense after two years of sitting around. I guess I was just blaming the technology instead of looking at the real problem. Now I'm wondering if my old unit was actually fine and I was just too stubborn to clean it or check the settings properly. You've definitely changed my mind on this one.