In 2017 there were over a dozen Fantech brand radon fans. As you can see, when you look at the fan curve chart, there was quite a bit of overlap and no fans could generate over 3″ of suction.
You’ll also see a considerable amount of name choices mostly starting with HP or FR. Fantech invented the modern inline fan. They make hundreds of products and only a small percentage of their line consists of radon fans. Many of the original radon fans were simply moisture resistant upgrades of existing inline fans. Radon fans move a tremendous amount of water vapor and a standard inline fan does not have the IP rating to deal with that. IP rating is water and dust resistance. The higher the IP, the more resistant to failure an electronic is when exposed to moisture. A radon fan should have at least IP44 water resistance or else it will fail quite early–sometimes in a matter of months.
These HP and FR series fans were named by engineers. Many of them they simply took the standard inline fan name and added a parenthetical “radon” afterwards. Fantech’s sales team noticed that this was diminishing the brand considerably. DIYers and folks doing fan replacements at home would google their fan name and see that the non-moisture rated fan was half the price. They didn’t know it was a different fan because it had the same name–without “(radon)” at the end. So they would buy the fan off eBay, install it in their home, moisture would kill it in a few months time, and the customer was left thinking, “man, Fantech fans really suck”.
I was lucky enough to be in attendance at a Fantech sales meeting for customer suppliers when this topic came up. After careful consideration, Fantech decided to get rid of the redundant fans and rename the entire line the “Rn Series”. Rn is the periodic shorthand for radon, so it’s the perfect prefix to signal: “hey, you’re buying a radon fan!”
The number next to each Rn fan signifies: airflow, suction, energy consumption (and to some extent noise). Look at the chart above: the higher the number, the higher noise, energy draw, airflow and suction and vice versa. Lower number Rn series fan are quieter and more energy efficient*.
What about the Rn2X? Well, the Rn2X bucks this trend. It does not have more suction than the Rn2. It’s an extremely similar fan as the Rn2, just in a 6” housing. Fantech considered getting rid of this fan entirely–thankfully I was at that meeting!! I stood up in defense of the FR-150 (radon) and we came up with a solution: private label. FR-150 radon = PDS-150 = Rn2X. If you have an Rn2X on your home, you can replace it with a PDS-150 and you’re getting the same fan with a different sticker: all while supporting family business. At PDS, we also turn many of the 150s in to our our KTA 150 low voltage. We have two full time employees build and sound check these fans for performance.
I love Fantech’s naming system and I hope something similar is adopted by other manufacturers.
Not sure what Rn series Fantech Fan you corresponds to the radon fan you’re replacing? See our replacement guide post here.
*It was also at this time that Fantech set a new bar for the industry by inventing the speed control fan. EC stands for “electronically communicated”. If your Rn Series fan has EC in the name, that means it’s extremely energy efficient at full power. It also means you can tune the fan to fit your home perfectly by lower noise, fan speed, fan suction, and airflow. Read all about these fans here.
Thanks for reading!
