Panasonic FV-0811VF5 WhisperFit EZ Retrofit Ventilation Fan - Quiet and Powerful Exhaust Fan for Easy Installation

James S.: I replaced all of the ceiling fans in my house with this fan.. baths, kitchen and laundry. What a difference! They are very quiet (if the conditions are right). The baths have 5 inch vent pipes so the sound is really quiet. My kitchen only has a 4 inch pipe and a longer run - so the kitchen fan is louder but still much quieter than what was in there before. The fan housing is big so measure before hand to be sure you have enough space between joists.

Canada on Nov 08, 2020

Karin D.: It was not as easy to install as I was hoping as I had to cut the ceiling to make it wider and reroute an exhaust pipe to make it fit. But once this done, it's a fantastic unit, extremely quiet, you barely notice it is on (on lower level) and it moves the airflow nicely. I used to have heavy condensation on my bedroom window and with this on during the night I did not get any this year... I used a WiFi connected switch so I can remotely trun it on or off and there is a routine to have it on during the night (with basically zero noise). Best bathroom fan I ever had.

Canada on Mar 02, 2020

JM: happy with the low noise; you won't hear it when you are outside the room. I run it at 80 cfm with 6 feet of 4 in pipes and two 45 degree elbow.

I have extensive DIY skills but still stuggled to understand the installation instructions. I unplugged the electric circuit from the outside fan housing instead of inside; from there, the installation went from what would have been easy to way more confusion and waste of time; good thing I had access to do the installation from the attic or else it would have also been harder to do a good job.

I had to add spray foam from the attic to block draft around the fan housing. Also to block significant draft between the fan housing and the side pannel used to connect the power and duck. Dont expect air tight installation if you do it only from the ceiling.

It would also have been time saver to have the dimension of the hole to cut in the drywall ceiling. Could not found that on the instructions.

Canada on Sep 22, 2019

MattMatt: Great fan, no steam on mirror.
This fan has a switch under the cover to select one of two speeds. I have it on the highest speed and it is very quiet. Not silent but no fan is.
-install was a pretty big job since I had to do electric, roof vent and fan but I did it with no help and basic skills.
-instructions were not great but watch a YouTube video to get a better understanding.
-I did not use the supplied metal bracket because I felt lining up the screws to metal bracket would have been tricky, I made a wood frame around the hole in addict and it worked great.
-Be sure to vent the fan out a 4inch metal roof vent (I bought one on Amazon since hardware store had cheap plastic) and use insulated 4 inch ducting.

Canada on May 24, 2019

AlexAlex: Fan works well, install took some time. Had to figure out what the instruction meant . Anyhow , this replace a cheapo contractor grade 90cfm 4 sones using 4” duct. This Panasonic is set at 110cfm and does a fantastic job at sucking the air BUT it does it at a price . Its pretty noisy , more then what I had , averaging 54db at 6 feet distance. Not a huge dealbreaker for me but it may bother some

Canada on Dec 30, 2018

AppleSaucy: I wasn't aware that the previous owner of our house didn't install a roof vent and the old--and noisy--bath fan (probably 30 years old) just vented the bathroom moisture into the attic! Fortunately, I didn't seem to find any mold in the attic. It was also located in a very tight space--where the roof meets the ceiling at a 30 degree angle. So, I needed a fan that can be installed from the ceiling rather than the attic. After doing a lot of research, I settled on this low profile Panasonic fan.

Since this was my first ever DIY bath fan installation including roof vent installation, it took me many days of planning. There are several things I want to highlight, especially if you are also doing it yourself the first time in a situation like mine:

(1) The fan doesn't come with a cardboard to mark the area of the ceiling drywall for you to cut. I made one myself by tracing around the edges/flange of the the fan with a marker. (There is a cardboard for you to cover the unit while you are painting, but you can't use that one.)
(2) The unit is meant to be installed from your bathroom. You can't do it from the attic, since the screws for securing the unit to the bracket...

United States on Mar 28, 2016

KB: Did the job and did it very well! Definitely a fair value for the price. I've done enough bathroom fan upgrades in enough houses that I was skeptical about the install with the folding "remodel" mounting bracket but it worked really quite well, thank you to the Panasonic designers addressing our need and also to all the prior reviewers for convincing me to take the risk. By far the easiest remodel install of a bathroom fan I've ever done. If I hadn't had to make a new hole to relocate the vent hose because of the new orientation of the fan outlet, it would have been a 2-3 hour job.

It's not as quiet as their FV-08WQ1 wall fan (that's an amazingly quiet fan!) but it's quiet enough if your vent run is short and you don't need to use the higher fan speed -- I can still hear the fan running outside the closed door and just barely thru the floor to the bathroom above. Panasonic -- we all really would pay more for truly QUIET fans! You already set new price points for these families of fans, just give us the option for buying even better ones for the houses we keep!

Cutting the square hole in my ceiling was the hardest part, 2 layers of old school tile backer board with...

United States on Mar 15, 2016