Radon fans typically last 5 to 10 years and fail silently: the pipe stays, the hum fades, and the house quietly returns to its pre-mitigation levels. Repair means diagnosing the manometer and fan, replacing the unit like-for-like or better, and retesting to confirm the number. Fan replacement in the Plymouth area runs $350 to $700 installed.
Walk over to your system's vertical pipe and look at the small U-shaped gauge with colored fluid: the manometer. If the two fluid columns are uneven, your fan is pulling. If they've settled level, your system is off, and your house has been re-filling with radon since whenever that happened. Nobody hears a radon fan die. It just stops.
If you don't have a manometer at all, or you've just bought a house with a mysterious white pipe and no paperwork, that's worth a call too. We service systems no matter who installed them.
Manometer reading, fan draw, suction at the slab, and a check of seals at sump lids and major joints.
Like-for-like or right-sized: sometimes the original fan was undersized for the footprint, and a failure is the moment to fix that properly.
Sagging horizontal runs, missing pitch, and uninsulated attic sections cause the ice and gurgle problems New England pipes love.
Cracked sump domes and dried caulk lines quietly bleed suction.
Because "the fan spins" and "the house is below 4.0" are two different claims, and only one of them is the point.
Ask the seller for the install paperwork and the last retest. If neither exists, budget a service visit and a fresh test: a few hundred dollars to convert a mystery pipe into a documented, working system. Your inspector will note the system exists; only a test proves it works.
Manometer fluid is level: fan's not pulling. Check the obvious first: the fan's circuit breaker and any service switch near the unit. If power's fine and the fluid's still level, the fan is done. That's the standard repair.
Fan hums but manometer barely registers: something's blocking or leaking. Ice in the pipe (see below), a critter nest at the vent outlet, a failed sump seal bleeding suction, or a slab crack that opened. Diagnostic visit territory.
Loud rattle or grinding: bearings failing. The fan still works today and will die on a random Tuesday soon. Replace it on your schedule instead of discovering it months after it quits.
Gurgling sounds in the pipe: condensation pooling in a low spot of the run. New England pipes breathe warm moist soil air into cold attics and exterior runs; without proper pitch, water collects and eventually blocks airflow. The fix is re-pitching or draining the affected section, not a new fan.
Ice on the exterior pipe in January: same condensation problem wearing its winter costume. Exterior runs in our climate ideally get insulated; if yours wasn't, this is the upgrade conversation.
Moisture or staining around the fan housing: seals or condensation bypass. Worth a look before it reaches the motor.
A radon fan runs 24 hours a day, every day, for years: roughly 70,000 hours by year eight. The variables that stretch or shorten that: attic-mounted fans ride out weather better than exterior mounts; oversized fans loafing at partial load outlast undersized fans straining; and moisture management (that condensation again) is the difference between bearings that last and bearings that rust. When we replace one, we're also reading why this one died, because a fan that failed at year four usually had help.
Put a recurring reminder on your phone: first of the month, glance at the manometer. Uneven fluid, you're done, all good. Level fluid, call before the house has a full season to re-accumulate. That single habit is the difference between a system that protects your family for twenty years and a white pipe that stopped meaning anything in year six without telling anyone. We put a sticker with our number next to the manometer on every service visit for exactly this reason.
$350 – $700
fan replacement installed
Yes, routinely. The physics doesn't care about the logo on the fan.
Every two years or so, and after any fan replacement, renovation, or HVAC change. Cheap insurance on the number you paid to achieve.
Suction bleeds: new slab cracks, a failed sump seal, or soil changes. That's the diagnostic visit, not necessarily a new fan.
Usually the pipe and routing are fine and only the fan needs replacing, which is the cheap part. Full re-designs are rare and we'll say so plainly if you're the exception.
Radon Mitigation for Plymouth and Plymouth County. Test it. Fix it. Prove it's fixed.
(508) 503-6186