I bought this for a pool pump house that needs a fan to meet code.

I cut a nice square hole in the stucco wall, framed it out and mounted the fan with no issues.

Two very minor gripes:

The mounting holes are not in a really usable location, so had to drill some new ones.

It's hard to describe, but the fan guard which is round, hangs over the inside edge of the frame, so if you're going to mount it to a vertical stud on each side, the fan guard hits the stud, so the holes miss the stud. You could cut out a little curvy bit to the stud on each side so the fan guard fits, or just drill new holes.

There are a couple of stickers on the shutter, made of that cheap sticker material that does not peel off cleanly. So now when the painters sprayed the building and the fan shutter, there are these two big squares where the stickers were.

When I ordered this I forgot to check about the fan bearings....they do not say it's a ball bearing motor, so this a sleeve-bearing fan. These typically last about two to three years so plan accordingly.

Overall the fan is fairly quiet, the shutter does not rattle, and it seems to move a good amount of air. I may buy one of these for my garage.

I purchased the 12" model for my new garage/workspace to vent fumes, cigarette smoke, etc while working and I love it. I have seen many people ask what the rough opening should be when framing for this and my 12" model required a 12 1/8" x 12 1/8" hole for the louvers outer casing to fit through perfectly with a tiny bit of relief on all 4 sides. Im assuming that all of the 12" models are the same and that opening worked perfectly for me. I framed for mine just like a tiny window and it worked out great. The fan works best for my application directly across from a door or a window to all the air through the room and its way more powerful than I thought it would be for a small fan. I bought a simple on/off switch from home depot and the wiring took me less than 5 minutes to complete. Do know that this is a hardwired fan and does not plug into the wall! One thing I was worried about was mechanical clanking noise sometimes associated with exhaust fans but this one was silent mechanically while operating. The only noise heard is the rush of the air and blades when its on. A simple fan that works perfectly, looks nice and does exactly what its supposed to do. Highly recommended!

I have a small 10'x20' shop with low ceilings and installed this fan in a solid core door to vent dust and provide some air circulation. Why in the door? Much easier and more accessible than installing in a wall where dealing with framing and vinyl siding. It works very well for this purpose and vents directly outdoors. After two non-working DOA Shop Fox W1830 fans I decided on a different approach and this fit the bill. And it has a higher max CFM airflow with fraction of the footprint than the W1830 at about half the cost. I plug wired with replacement 2-wire tool power cord ($10), heavy duty toggle switch ($5), and galvanized outlet box. 4 stars and not 5 as the louvers don't shut perfectly tight, but this is certainly not a deal breaker. It runs quiet for a fan pushing this volume of air and the motor housing does get a bit hot -- this is noted in the manual. I didn't have any issues with sharp edges of the fan sheet metal housing -- it was very well-finished.

I bought one of these fans to install in my new shed as I know that it can get very hot during the summer. It really does move the air out and I can feel a cool breeze coming in the door when it is on. I did not realize how well it worked until I was working inside the shed and the door blew shut with a bang even there was very little wind. When I tried opening it, I could feel the suction from the fan trying to pull it back shut. That did confirm that I will need to provide a couple of screened vents by the floor for it to do its job. I did find that the louvers do not completely close 100% of the time when the fan stops . I tried spraying some silicone lubricant onto all of the pivot points and that seemed to help a little.

For the user that commented that a screen is not needed to keep insects out - My louvers do have some small gaps when closed that small insects can get through - Should not be a big problem though as I will not be living (sleeping) in the shed, I hope.

I also found, like another user, that one of the blades would scrape on the housing when stopping. Just find the culprit blade and bend it slightly and all will be good.

This is shipped in light cardboard box with a minimum of support material inside. Mine arrived with one of the support flanges slightly bent. I was able to straighten it with a pair of pliers. There are some very sharp edges on the shutter frame that I filed off. I built a wood frame and mounted it in an existing window opening in my shop.

The motor has two short wires and a ground stud located inside a small junction box. You can either splice in a cord with a plug or hardwire the unit. I choose to hardwire and added a on-off toggle switch on the wall. When I went to place the conduit fitting in the junction box on the motor, I noticed that the ground screw prevented tightening the nut until the ground wire was secured. A bit awkward but no big deal. The other problem I had was in trying to secure the motor junction box cover, The supplied screw just would not thread into the supplied mounting hole. I finally used a small sheet metal screw to hold the cover. If you have to do this, be sure to file off the point so that it will not penetrate the insulation on the motor wires.

The fan runs fairly quiet and almost vibration free. It will clear the air in my 5000 cu. ft. of sawdust in around 5 minutes. The shutters operate smoothly, however they do not close off completely when the fan stops. This may cause a problem with bugs entering into my shop, not to mention the draft on windy days.

With most exhaust fans this size in the $300.00 and up range; what you get is what you would expect at this price point. I would not buy this for continuous commercial or industrial use but for the occasional use in my home workshop it is just fine.