Friday, November 24, 2006 - 07:01 am, by: Tobias Trinks(Toby)
Hi. I am about to replace my A/C vents with new ones. Is there anything I can do to prevent them cracking again? I read somewhere that spraying the register in a lighter colour would help, also reinforcing the corners from the rear?
Friday, November 24, 2006 - 11:53 am, by: Tobias Trinks(Toby)
Yeah, the heat expands the plastic, the cold air from the aircon cools it down and the holes in the wood aren't big enough. Why can't they just use a better material for the replacement vents?
Friday, November 24, 2006 - 12:30 pm, by: Lawrence Ostle(Lawrence)
Tobias, I recall reading that the new vents were made slightly differently (smaller?), so that any expansion due to heat could occur without the vent self-destructing.
Friday, November 24, 2006 - 04:07 pm, by: Mike Triggs(Mikeandimah)
I wondered if it wasn't possible to have a vinyl "sticker" made up. I restored a cracked vent and it looked great except for around the vent symbols where I masked it off- the paint edge is quite visible. A precut black textured sheet with the white vent symbols to cover the lot would look OK. Better than a cracked vent, anyway.
Saturday, November 25, 2006 - 09:29 am, by: Mark Paddick(Sparks)
Enlarging the hole is the go.
My vents have never cracked and don't look like ever doing so.
When I had it apart it was obvious that someone had gone to a great deal of trouble with a set of new vents. All the mounting holes have been enlarged and this is no mean effort when you look at the steel sandwich construction of that panel. This allows much better for the different expansion rates of plastic, wood, metal and anything else that got in there. The vents are NOT tightened to within crushing pressure either, they are allowed to float a bit.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 - 04:51 pm, by: Lawrence Ostle(Lawrence)
... and from Clublexus:
"I replaced my cracked register about 2 years ago with a new part but it cracked again. I worked out the reason for cracking is the cold air from the air/cond vent blowing on the dark plastic register frame. In hot weather the plastic tends to expand more than the wooden cutout allows, then the cold air cools it down quickly and the register frame cracks. Before installing a new frame, it could be reinforced from the rear side by gluing strips of carbon-fibre or similar material to the corners where the cracks usually develop. Also, spray painting the register frame a light colour (e.g. silver) will reduce its tendency to expand by heat"
Others suggest reinforcing using fibreglass. Expect Araldite or similar would work as well.
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