Best Exterior Vent Covers For Your Home During The Winter

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Winter months can be tough, especially when undergoing a much-needed home renovation. The cold weather certainly doesn’t help in speeding up the process. As such, it may be a better idea to begin winter preparations early, while the weather and temperatures remain bearable. Besides researching the price of a heated driveway, it is wise to consider maintaining your exterior vent covers.

What are Exterior Vent Covers?

Exterior vent covers are useful all year-round. But these components really shine during winter. Exterior vent covers help remove heat and moisture build-up from your home’s vents. This helps to relieve pressure from your home’s ventilation system and minimize the risk of damage. Essentially, exterior vent covers work in conjunction with your home’s overall ventilation system to ensure that warm air is properly redirected to areas that need it the most.

Why Use Exterior Vent Covers?

Vent covers for outside crawl spaces are extremely important. Not only do they work to protect your HVAC system from large debris, but exterior vent covers also increase your heating and cooling system’s efficiency and can lower your monthly bill when used wisely. They can also help to ward off insects and rodents that are known to squeeze their way through poorly screened vent openings. In other words, these covers are specifically designed to save you from a lot of trouble, especially during the winter months.

Best Exterior Vent Covers For Your Home

1. Exterior Louvered Vent Cover

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The Funmit Store is offering oversized exterior vent covers for your home. These wall-mounted covers are made of durable plastic and are designed to keep wind, rain, and snow from entering your vents. Complete with a UV stabilizer to reduce fading due to exposure to sunlight, this louvered vent cover is sure to last all year round. It also promises to keep birds and rodents out.

2. HVAC Vent Cover

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This HVAC vent cover by Vent Systems comes complete with a built-in pest guard screen. This ensures that insects, rodents, and other pests are kept out of your vents all year round. Suitable for use both indoors and outdoors, this cover can also keep wind, rain, and snow, out of your vents. Paintable metal components are rust-free and contain a UV stabilizer to reduce fading due to exposure to sunlight.

3. Stainless Steel Exterior Vent Cover

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These exterior vent covers by VUYBVY are made of durable, anti-rust, and corrosion-resistant 304 stainless steel. It sports pressure-sensitive flaps which open and close to keep the draft from coming through the vents during cold days. These vents are also specially designed to prevent water and rodents from entering your home.

4. Ventilation Maximum Outdoor Home Air Vent Cover

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Maximum’s outdoor ventilation air vent cover is designed to prevent cold, rain, snow, and wind from penetrating the unit. It boasts a ​​triple-sealed and insulated exhaust flap that aims to provide energy efficiency by shutting airflow from the inside. Meant for outdoor use, this vent cover may be installed as a dryer vent outlet, bathroom fan vent outlet, HVAC air exchanger, and furnace intake or exhaust cover.

5. White Plastic HVAC Vent Cover

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Kiss your winter-season rodent issues goodbye with the help of this white plastic HVAC vent cover. Not only will it keep pests out, but this vent cover is also easy to install and suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. It will also blend in effortlessly with the exterior facade and interior design of your home. Its paintable ABS plastic material is coated in a UV stabilizer to reduce fading when exposed to harsh sunlight. What’s more, it is entirely rust-free.

6. Calimaero Exterior Vent Cover For Walls

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These exterior vent covers from Calimaero sport anti-draft gravity flaps and are made of brushed anti-rust and corrosion-resistant stainless steel. They come complete with countersunk screw holes and a rubber gasket to create a tight seal between the vent and the wall. Suitable for the winter season, these vents prevent cold air from entering your home and can be easily installed by inserting the nozzle into the ventilation duct.

Caring For Your Exterior Vent Covers

As your HVAC unit’s first line of defense, exterior vent covers undergo a significant amount of erosion due to the natural elements, wild animals, and more. These covers are prone to collecting filth, grime, dust, and hair, and as such should be cleaned regularly. While more modern iterations come complete with self-cleaning and antimicrobial features with improved dust guards and more streamlined designs, most traditional wood, plastic, and metal covers still require a good scrub.

If your exterior vent cover is not dishwasher-safe, consider conducting monthly wipe-downs with any mild floor cleaning solution.

How To Replace an Exterior Vent Cover

If regular cleaning won’t save your inefficient exterior vent covers, it may be time to consider replacing them. Thankfully, the process of replacement is much easier than finding the best cover for your home.

Using the materials and tools listed below, here is how you can replace your exterior vent covers without professional help:

Step 1: Start by removing the old vent. Use a scratch awl to scrape off any paint that is covering the screws. This will give you uninhibited access, and enable you to remove the vent without damaging the area.

Step 2: Most exterior vent covers are surrounded by ductwork. These refer to the system of metal or synthetic tubes that transport air from heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment throughout your home.

When removing an exterior vent cover, it is important to access if the ductwork extends out from the wall. This may cause issues when trying to install a flush-mount vent cover. Therefore, you will need to cut away the excess ductwork with lineman’s pliers. Remember to wear safety glasses and heavy work gloves, and protect the wall around the vent using painter’s tape.

Step 3: Once all excess ductwork is removed, peel away the painter’s tape to make room for the new exterior cover vent. To fit your new vent, simply slide the cover into position and secure it with screws. Always ensure that the louvers are facing down. If needed, use your scratch awl to carve out points for your pilot holes before drilling.

Step 4: Start screwing first with your hands before transitioning to a screwdriver. Test the vent to ensure that it functions properly at every step. Lastly, if needed, run a bead of caulk along the perimeter of the frame to seal it.

Conclusion

This concludes our article on the best exterior vent covers for your home during winter. Many of the items on this list, can be used all year round, and provide other benefits such as pest deterrence and UV resistance. They are also extremely easy to install.

Don’t let winter catch you by surprise, check out the best firewood storage options as well!