Customer Reviews

Broan 655 Heater and Heater Bath Fan with Light Combination

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

as a result of doing major home renovations for the last 6 months, i ended up spending quite a bit of time researching all the products and appliances i had to install... so hopefully this will save you some time and headache. i ultimately needed two bathroom fans with heaters for one medium sized full bathroom, and a small half bathroom in my DC rowhouse. and since the bathroom fans had to be installed inside my ceiling, i wanted to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that i didnt have to EVER dig back into my ceiling drywalls to repair or replace.

well, after weeks of agonizing and reading review after review on site after site, i settled on a Panasonic FV-11VH2 WhisperWarm for the full bath, and am SOOOOO happy i did. it was definitely rated for a larger bathroom than mine, and is slightly more expensive than i wanted, but is SUPER quiet (both heat and fan), unintrusive, and does the jobs perfectly. just note that the heat isnt mindblowing, but does a great job if you live in an older house without central like mine, and there's no heat at all in the bathrooms.... a great help while soaking in the bathtub, also if you turn the heat on 15 mins or so earlier on cold mornings with the door closed before going in to brushing your teeth or showering in the am. im so glad i bought it, and wish i bought two! [truth be told, my electrician claimed that the Panasonics were the best from the start, but im still skeptical by nature so i researched extensively anyways. save yourself the trouble.]

for the smaller half bathroom, i regret deciding to spend less, and expect less. my rationale was that the bathroom was so small, was only a half bath, and i wasnt planning on really spending any time in there. however, i did want a heater because it's on a cold wall and FREEZING in the winter. anyways, after reading a ton about lower priced models for smaller bathrooms, i bought this "Broan 655 Heater and Heater Bath Fan with Light Combination" and am SUPER disappointed. it's SUPER LOUD and vibrates like CRAZY in the ceiling both in fan mode as well as heat mode as well as both modes. it does work and does get rid of the stink though, and has a heater as well, though it doesnt really put out much at all (lame even in this super small half bath). i suppose it's better than nothing.... Don't be fooled by the high Amazon.com Sales Rank like i was! spend a bit more and get a better unit. you wont be sorry.

[NOTE- im just a homeowner, do not work for either company, and ive posted this same review on both the Panasonic item i bought as well as this one.]

What can I say? It does the job, wasn't difficult to install. It's fairly quiet, and the heat works very well in our otherwise unheated bathroom!

I have owned this unit over a year but it has only been installed less than 2 months. The heater has already quit working. Of course it had a 1 year warranty. But, due to my own laziness, I didn't install it till 2 months ago. Well, that has come to haunt me as I only got 2 months use out of it and I cannot get any warranty help on it. I will note, that in 2 months the heat portion did not get used that much. It's just now starting to turn cool. Very dissapointed in this item. And of course I paid more than its selling for now. Considering buying another one since a whole unit is currently cheaper than the replacement parts. But how long will it last??? But I don't want to open up the ceiling again to change it out. What a mess this turned out to be. Not a happy customer of this item.

Update -

After talking to Broan's tech help, they told me to check the thermal fuse on the back of the heating element. Which I did, and it was blown. What amazes me is one terminal side of the thermal fuse wire is tightened between 2 nuts on a stud. Ther other side is just wrapped around the opposite stud. No fasteners holding it tight. I said a-ha, bad manufacturing, mistake on the production line. Well I called back explaining what I found, and to my disbelief they said thats the way they manufacture it, and have been for years!!! 1,300 watts at 110 volts goes through that loose connection! The fan running makes the unit vibrate ever so slightly. Which can cause the loose connection to vibrate and possibly cause voltage spikes / arcing! And they do it on purpose?? To save on not using 1 more nut!! Wow, that is some extrememly cheap manufacturing!!

The replacement Thermal Fuse is $7.88 plus $6.95 shipping from them! I am going to the hardware store and buy a $.03 nut. I am sure their cost is way less than $.03 a nut. I am not sure if there is a safety issue here or not, but to me it seems they are going a little too far to save a penny on a single nut!

LAST BROAN product I will ever buy. I have to pay $14.83 because they don't want to install 1 nut!!! That $14.83 is almost 1/4 of buying the whole complete unit from Amazon with Super Saver shipping ($68). If thats not a rip off I don't know what is!

This is an excellent heating unit. Our old Nautilus lasted for over 15 years so we decided to replace it with another. This unit is much quieter than the old one and more sleek looking. It slipped right into the metal housing in the ceiling so installation was a snap. We are very satisfied with it's performance and the great price from Amazon.com. JP

I purchased this fan/heater/light for a very small bathroom where I didn't mind the high sone rating. Unfortunately there was no plastic damper piece included in the box with the fan, which I wrote off as a manufacturing line mistake ... sometimes that happens, not a big deal. I contacted Broan, who sent out a replacement damper (part # 97014185) free of charge; kudos to them for not making that any harder than it needed to be.

Here's where the issue comes in, and I'm curious if no one else has had a similar issue? I can't believe the reviews here would have been submitted without mentioning it if they did, and I'm at a loss as to how to resolve this.

The damper doesn't fit. Plain and simply, I cannot get the damper to fit no matter how I try to rig it. The exhaust orifice on the fan housing is 2 1/4" wide x just under 3" high. The orifice on the damper they sent me is 3 1/4" wide by 3.0" high. I have spent over an hour on the phone with Broan tech support 3 or 4 different times already, and no one can explain it or make it work. They sent out another part to be sure I received the correct one, and it was exactly the same. I know the width/height orientation between the two parts is correct because of the "clips" molded into the sides of the plastic damper that are SUPPOSED to click into the similarly oriented rectangular holes in the sides of the metal flap that the damper attaches to. The damper is 3 1/4" wide, and the exhaust port is 2 1/4" wide; there is NO WAY to make these two items "click" in to place. On the last call Broan tech support said that that is just the way it is because they use one damper for multiple fan models; his suggestion to me was to use duct tape to secure the damper.

Being that I paid an electrician to install this exhaust fan in November and have wasted countless hours trying to get this resolved since then, I was willing to try anything ... so I dutifully went into the attic with a roll of duct tape and the damper. Alas, the metal extending from the fan that I am supposed to connect the damper to only sticks out 3/8 of an inch, and with a full inch of empty space between the damper and fan housing there isn't any way for me to put the damper on and get a grip with the duct tape.

Has anyone else had this issue? If so please send e mail to d t 2 1 1 5 <at> G Mail; I can't believe that I'm the only one this issue has come up with.

Broan, what am I supposed to do at this point? Since the fan is exhausting into a 1 foot crawl space because the duct can't be connected the only option I can see at this point is to buy a new fan, with a damper that fits, and completely redo the install. If I do that, I can promise you IT WILL NOT BE A BROAN and I'll make sure to dispute the charge for the original fan purchase.

All I want is a working fan ...

David

I maintain an all electric 55 plus residential that has installed ((all Broan heated bath fans)). over 200 units locally and thousands nation wide.
My comment is negative of the bath fan because Ive had several burn the grill cover (scare's the heck out of the elders).
Here's what occurs the heater fan after the 5 year mark "slows" allowing the coils to superheat.
Luckily Broan has installed a solder type superheat switch which pops the coils off way to late, severe damage grill and chard grills occur.
Im going to contact Broan on this matter since we have thousands of its units on our property's.
And we have had fire department calls from excited elders because of the Broan heat fan.

Until we get adjustment for these units I recommend disassemble every 6 months full fan dusting and mineral oil lightly each motor.

Broan has a lot to learn from Cadet heaters! Specially the superheat switch!

The fan has a 5 year warranty and it lasts a full 5 "but" whats your house worth!

i am still using this product, however i am so displeased with the way it functions. it is sooo noisy! you cannot have a pleasurable bathroom activity with all the noise the machine makes. i like the warm air sent out by the machine, but the noise is really upsetting. i wish that i had not gotten it, but i need the heat so i turn it on and shut the door let the room warm up then go in and cut off the machine then have a pleasant sit.../ if there where a way to exchange it for a quieter one i certainly would. i would not recommend this machine for anyone!

This is a very noisy unit. I replaced an existing Broan unit with this one. The older unit was not nearly as noisy as the new unit. Quality control has really slipped at the company which makes Broan products.

We own several rental properties and pride ourselves on providing some extra conveniences to our tenants. In line with that we installed several of this model over fourteen years ago in various units. They are very well received as adding a little bit of luxury & convenience in otherwise pretty basic dwelling units, ie, the tenants really like them. We installed a timer on the heater side of the units to conserve energy. The original cost has been recovered many times over on these combo units.

What we like about this particular unit, although a little noisier than other models, is the durability and the fact that when one of the three components (fan, lite, heater unit) goes out they are still not only individually replaceable but the ones being sold today will use the same components as ones sold 15 years ago so we don't have to tear the ceiling out to install a different unit...we just replace a component! This is a huge advantage on the maintenance side.

In conclusion, we have only had to service two of the units in over 10 years! Quite a resounding success for any mechanical device that probably gets multiple daily uses.

There are two of these in my house, a 650 and a 658. They are over thirty years old and still running strong, which speaks to their durability. Of course there isn't much to go wrong, fan motors and a heater are about it. The ventilation fan motor and fan wheel combo (BP28) is the only thing I have had to replace in almost 20 years. Parts are easily available from Broan since the 65X series fans have been built the same way for over 30 years.

However, the ventilation fan has been too noisy for my liking, but recently I was able to reduce the sound level. Broan introduced a squirrel cage fan wheel in their 690 Upgrade Kit ("reduces sound up to 50%"). The fan wheel alone is P/N 97016962 and is under $3.00 plus shipping. The fan wheel is rated at 60 CFM and 3.0 Sones so you don't lose much in capacity but a lot in noise. However, before you buy one, read the next paragraph because the fan wheel requires a minor modification.

The fan wheel fits the motor shaft and fits the fan housing (height and diameter). Unfortunately, the inside of the fan vanes hit the motor. After trimming the vanes 5/8" straight down from the rim (and cutting them off), the fan wheel fits without obstruction. A strip of heavy paper curled to match the inside of the fan wheel can help gage the depth of the cutting.

Cutting the fan wheel is tedious and time consuming (about an hour). So, stay alert and be careful. It isn't worth losing a finger.

It would be nice if Broan introduced an already made squirrel cage fan wheel for the 65X series fans. If enough people left comments with them, they might. With the number of 65X series fans out there in the world, I think they could sell a ton of these.