Radon fans die at around the ten-year mark, installers retire or vanish, and some systems never actually worked in the first place. Whoever installed yours. We service it. This page covers the three calls we get most.
“The gauge dropped to zero”
That U-shaped tube on your pipe is a manometer, and unequal fluid levels are its way of saying the fan is pulling. Levels gone equal means the fan is off or dead. Check the obvious first, breaker, switch someone helpfully flipped, unplugged attic outlet, and if power isn't the answer, the fan is. Replacement is a quick, moderately priced visit: same-size modern fan, new couplings, and a check of the whole system while we're touching it. Your home has been unprotected since the fan quit, so this is a this-week call, not a someday call.
“There's a system, but the test came back high”
A running fan is not a working system. The usual culprits: an undersized fan losing to tight clay, an unsealed suction point pulling basement air instead of soil gas, drain tile the system assumed was intact and isn't, or a suction point that never reached half the footprint. We diagnose with pressure readings under the slab, actual measurements, not squinting at the pipe, and quote the specific fix, which is sometimes a bigger fan, sometimes real sealing work, and sometimes an added suction point. Then we verify by test, which is the step whoever built it skipped.
“We bought the house; the system came with it”
Smart call. An inherited system gets a health check: fan draw, manometer reading, sealing inspection, discharge height, and, the only opinion that matters, a fresh radon test. Ten minutes of inspection plus 48 hours of measurement tells you whether you inherited protection or plumbing.
Frequently asked
Can you replace a fan on a system you didn't install?
Yes. Fans and fittings are standardized enough that the original installer is irrelevant. We match the replacement to the system's measured needs, which occasionally means upgrading a fan that was undersized on day one.
How do I know how old my fan is?
There's usually a date on the fan housing label. No label and no memory: if the system predates your ownership and the house has changed hands since, assume it's on borrowed time and let the manometer be your early warning. Or just have us look while quoting anything else.
Every system we install is guaranteed below 4.0 pCi/L and verified by test. See how installation works, what it costs, the towns we cover, or send a test result for a firm quote.