Radon remediation?

[Wade Lippman]

When I bought my house 5 years ago it had radon of 5, so the seller threw in money for remediation. That dropped it to 0.5. But it is noisy. My wife and neighbor don't seem to notice it, but I find it annoying.

My understanding is that the fans last about 5 years, so it doesn't owe me anything. If I replace it with a quieter fan with half the CFM, what results should I expect? When I turn the fan off, it goes from 0.5 to 5 in about a day. Turning the fan back on drops it to 0.5 in 3 days. The manometer on the exhaust pipe shows 1/2", for what that's worth.

The installer sealed the perimeter with caulk, but that doesn't seem to do anything because the reading without the pump on are the same as before any remediation. Would sealing the concrete floor do anything useful.

Thanks.

[Matt Day]

Huh, mine barely makes a sound. I’d replace with the same fan and insulate tomreduce noise, if necessary.

Remember the whole radon thing isn’t exactly a science to begin with.

[Mel Fulks]

I'm caulking the slab perimeter of the basement. Not finished yet because so much stuff has to be moved around. Sorry to hear that treatment is not working! We are in an area that has a lot of granite. We have mainly relied on the often open garage door. Some of the houses around us have mitigation systems.

[Wade Lippman]

I tried insulating the fan, but it doesn't help. I presume the noise comes from the pipe going back to the house, and insulating the fan doesn't affect that.

[Jim Becker]

I think you need to stay with a fan of the same performance specifications since it's doing an important, dedicated job. But perhaps you can find a quieter replacement or figure out why there's so much sound transmission from the current unit.

[Matt Schroeder]

Could you add something that isolates the fan noise and vibration from the pipe coming into the house, like rubber couplings on the pipe and/or rubber washers on the mount, if they are not already present? Doing a quick search online for proper radon fan installation it appears rubber couplings are recommended. My system uses them, which not only isolates the sound but makes replacement of the fan easier.

[Jerome Stanek]

Where is your fan located

[John C Cox]

I would see if you can contact the installer to see what they think.... The fan could have bearings going bad - which makes them a lot noisier.... Also it could be loose and vibrating....

But yes - there are different models that produce different noise levels... Cheap fans tend to be noisy.

[Steve Wurster]

The fan for our house sits outside and is fairly quiet even on the outside. It did start making noises about 5-6 years ago; turns out it was going bad and it died shortly thereafter. Had it replaced with the same model and it's just as quiet as before.

[Wade Lippman]

The pipe comes out the basement wall, goes up a few feet, the fan is mounted on it, and another pipe goes up another 10'. It is attached to the pipes with grey plastic couplings. They are very hard; there are black ones that seem softer. I am thinking they might isolate a little better.

The noise is pretty much the same as when installed, so i don't think the bearing have gone bad; and if they were bad to start with, i would think the fan would have failed by now.

I know a smaller fan won't work as well, but if instead of reducing it to 0.5 it reduced it to 1, that would be okay.

I have a AMG Maverick. Is there a better brand?

[George Bokros]

Puzzled why you have two fans. Everybody in my neighborhood that has mitigation, including me, has only one fan.

[Wade Lippman]

Puzzled why you have two fans. Everybody in my neighborhood that has mitigation, including me, has only one fan.

Just one fan. I type faster than I think. Sorry.

[Mark McClurg]

The remediation fan on our home's system is original - about 14 years of age.

[Matt Meiser]

Ours went bad at maybe 10 years old. It was making an annoying noise I could hear at the kitchen sink (fan is just outside the window there.) It’s mounted with rubber pipe couplers to and bottom so changing it out was simple to change and Menards sold the exact fan.

[Rich Lester]

Is the 10 foot vertical pipe attached to the house? If so try isolating on both sides of the bracket with rubber washers where the screws run through.