When the Fan Whisperer stepped out of the minivan baring his distinct insignia his stoicism was sort of striking. He’s an older man with thick glasses and a tough demeanor. Standing alone by the kitchenette in a bright blue short-sleeve button-up, he turned to our camera and performed an authoritative salute.
“I fight noise pollution,” John Comeau said. “I’m a hero.”
Originally from Nova Scotia, Comeau started fixing noisy bath fans during a vacation to Florida more than 15 years ago. Sometime around 2009, he said.
“I lived with a couple of seniors in a high rise, and we had a noisy fan—we couldn’t use it, it was so bad,” he said. “No one could fix it; they couldn’t [sic] have parts.”
While on vacation, Comeau began to experiment on different bathroom fans. He went around for six months fixing people’s fans, pro-bono. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Comeau hesitated as he reflected on his sudden bath-fan fixation. “For some reason, I just got … consumed with them.”
His interest led him on a search for the right parts; bathroom fans are clunky and typically not installed with upgrades at top of mind. Around this time, he found an upgrade kit that was being used by Broan-NuTone, a leading fresh air solutions company in North America. According to Comeau, the upgrade kit worked on 17 home bath-fan models and brought them,
“It wasn’t much, but that’s what I started with down there,” he said. “When I got back home, I continued on and I kept learning.”
According to Comeau, bath fans get old and dirty and wear out for a variety of different reasons. His approach to upgrading them is rooted in common sense, while a more conventional approach would see one re-installing an entirely new system. With this context, it is evident why his business model works: his pricing is competitive because he doesn’t have to renovate the entire bath-fan installation.
“I just take the guts out and then I put in modern day technology with the use of magnets,” he said. “When I’m done, you can remove [the fan] in eight seconds for easy cleaning.”
After perfecting his approach, Comeau shifted his focus to marketing. His messaging and his strategy have both remained consistent since the start, apart from some minor formatting tweaks. His main form of advertising is an infamous four by ten-inch sticker that features bold, black text on a white background and the following text:
“I FIX NOISY BATH FANS 1-888 888 2134 THE FAN WHISPERER.”
Sometime around 2017, Comeau began making regular trips from Nova Scotia to Ontario—putting his job driving a cab on pause—so that he could put his stickers up all around the GTA and beyond.
Four thousand stickers. Every six weeks. Ten days straight, from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Comeau did this for three years: drove cab, fixed noisy bath fans and made his regular pilgrimage from Nova Scotia to Ontario.
When the pandemic hit in 2020 and he could no longer travel freely back and forth to do business, he was faced with a decision, but one with an obvious choice. He had upwards of $50,000 worth of jobs lined up in Ontario and no business back home.
Comeau made the move and has been looking towards the future ever since.
After our conversation, Comeau made his way over to our bathroom along with his apprentice, Adam.
They proceeded to remove the cover from the fan and then clear all the dust and debris from the ventilation shaft. He pulled a small apparatus from his work bag and removed it from its packaging, before he used magnets to affix it to the shaft.
It took him 18 minutes, which he said is unusual. It usually takes him only eight.
This article was written with files from Ayden Elworthy.
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