Airflow alarm sounding
Either the airflow really has dropped, or the monitor has drifted and is reporting a fault that is not there. Both need measuring before anything is replaced.
Likely part
UK · European · USA models
Timely Fume Cupboard Repair
A cupboard out of service stops the work in front of it. We attend, diagnose and where possible repair on the first visit, with common spares carried on the van.
Unit failed and the lab is down? Call the office and describe the fault. You will speak to someone who knows fume cupboards, not a call handler reading a script.
Common faults
What usually goes wrong, and what it takes to fix
Most breakdowns come down to one of five things. If you recognise the symptom, the part it needs is linked below.
Extract fan noisy or stopped
Slack or broken belts, worn bearings, a seized motor or a tripped starter. Noise almost always precedes failure, so a rumble is worth reporting early.
Likely part
Smell in the room
On a ductless unit this usually means filter breakthrough, and the cupboard should be taken out of use until it is confirmed. On a ducted unit it points to a leak or reverse flow.
Likely part
Sash will not hold or move
Counterbalance cables fray and pulleys seize. A sash that drops is a hazard in its own right, quite apart from the containment it stops working.
Likely part
Failed a test
A fail on face velocity or containment needs the cause found, not the symptom patched. We work from your report, whoever carried out the test.
Related
Something else
Lighting, service taps, drainage, controls, glazing, liner damage. If it is part of the cupboard, we repair it.
What we repair
Any make, any model, whoever installed it
Our engineers are trained across UK, European and USA manufactured equipment and are DBS checked, which matters when the work is in a school or a hospital.
We hold a large range of spare parts and consumables for our own equipment and can quickly source parts required for other makes and models.
- Ducted fume cupboards
- Ductless fume cupboards
- Bench fume hoods
- Benchtop cabinets
- Laminar flow hoods
- Balance enclosures
- Ventilated containment enclosures
- School fume cupboards
- Laboratory extraction hoods
- Dust and particulate extraction
One contractor, four jobs
Repair rarely arrives on its own
A breakdown usually raises a question about the test, the service interval or whether the unit is worth keeping at all. We cover all of it, so you are not coordinating three contractors around one cupboard.
If the fault could affect containment — an airflow alarm, a smell in the room, a sash that will not hold — take it out of use and label it. Call us and we will advise on the specific symptom before you lose a day’s work unnecessarily.
Yes. There is no requirement to be an existing service client. Tell us the make and model if you have it, and photograph the data plate and the fault if you can — it often means the right part is on the van.
Usually, yes. A well-built cupboard has a long life and most failures are in replaceable components rather than the structure. Where it genuinely is beyond economic repair we will say so, and can quote a refurbished replacement and removal of the old unit.
If the repair touched anything affecting airflow — fan, motor, ductwork, filters, sash geometry — the unit should be retested before it returns to service. We can do that on the same visit.
Yes, all of them. A great deal of our work is in schools, colleges and hospitals, so it is a condition of the job rather than an optional extra.
Report a fault
Report a fault or request a repair
If the unit is out of service and the work is held up, phone rather than email — 0113 245 4111.