Heller 250mm Round Extractor Fan with LED Light

Short Term Life – I bought one of these fans 5 years ago when I moved into my house and installed it above the shower. Two years later it stopped working so I replaced it with another Hellier Fan. Now another 2 years later and this one has packed up. Do I have anything nice to say about Hellier Exhaust fans? NO. Would I now buy another one? NO. I will be looking for a replacement brand.

Fan too noisy, unit quite deep – This fan (HEX250L) gets only two stars because of the noise, but there are installation issues too. I bought this Heller fan as a replacement for another brand. In another room I have a Heller 250mm model without a light that has gone well for a few years, but that model is now harder to find. Technical information that is important for DIY installation is not clear on the Bunnings website. • The unit is for ceiling mount only, not wall. Most applications will be ceiling, but this limitation is buried in the specifications and should be more prominent. • Overall dimensions and cutout size of 290mm round are not shown. • The height of the unit (not specified) is more than some other brands, so internal ceiling clearance may be an issue. • Not stated is that there are two mains plug cables, one each for the fan and the light. Thus, two sockets are needed in the roof space, or a double adapter if you are happy to have the fan and light on together. Otherwise, you need an electrician. • Not stated is that the LED is daylight 6000k, not warm white if you wanted that.

Visiting the shop and looking at the sealed carton, some information printed on the outside is missing or turns out later to be wrong: • Again, no overall dimensions. • “Draft stopper included”- not found. • “Wall switch included” – not found. • Dual power leads not mentioned. The installation photo on the carton shows a model without an LED transformer and only one lead.

Opening the carton once home, these omissions and discrepancies come a bit late if they present a problem.

Installing, the cables should be plugged in first. Before positioning the fan in the round cutout you need to have a clear picture in your mind of how the three built-in securing clips work: pushing up the screws, making a 90 deg clockwise turn and tightening. Once the fan is lifted into place you can no longer see the clips from underneath or feel them with your fingers, as the shroud around the fan is 65mm deep,

Alternatively, there are three holes for screws (not supplied) to fix the 2kg fan directly on to the ceiling, if the ceiling material is suitable.

On my unit, the lighting mains cable was not properly secured in the LED transformer terminals, a factory assembly fault.

The motor has ball bearings, a good feature. The main drawback, however, is the loud noise. My earlier Heller fan has a 34W motor and the noise is acceptable, The motor on this fan has been upgraded to 50W, to increase the fan capacity, and the noise is no longer acceptable. I shall be replacing the whole unit when I can find a quieter model.