Help with air conditioning vents

[Sherlock Holmes]

Hi,

I'm reaching out here to see if anyone can shed light on something.

We recently got a new air conditioning system installed, we kept the ductwork of course but replaced the machinery.

Now I'm trying to adjust the ceiling vents so as to get uniform cooling in different rooms, this is a single storey southwest house in Arizona.

The ceiling vents all look like this (some are small and some are larger)



Well as I began to do this I noticed that the white curved blades are only part of the story, behind those are a set of flat inclined aluminum blades.

These blades are not movable easily and I can see there is a small recessed round hole that seems to accept some form of tool or key used to turn it.

It looks like turning this will open/close these flat aluminum blades, some vents have these wide open and some almost closed.

However I simply cannot find any mention of such a tool on the web, I've searched for hours and can't find any articles discussing this kind of vent and how it gets adjusted, it is a complete mystery.

So here is a photograph of this as best I can get, I'm hoping someone knows something about these so I can track down the required tool.



Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Grand Mal]

Hi,

I'm reaching out here to see if anyone can shed light on something.

We recently got a new air conditioning system installed, we kept the ductwork of course but replaced the machinery.

Now I'm trying to adjust the ceiling vents so as to get uniform cooling in different rooms, this is a single storey southwest house in Arizona.

The ceiling vents all look like this (some are small and some are larger)

View attachment 67277264

Well as I began to do this I noticed that the white curved blades are only part of the story, behind those are a set of flat inclined aluminum blades.

These blades are not movable easily and I can see there is a small recessed round hole that seems to accept some form of tool or key used to turn it.

It looks like turning this will open/close these flat aluminum blades, some vents have these wide open and some almost closed.

However I simply cannot find any mention of such a tool on the web, I've searched for hours and can't find any articles discussing this kind of vent and how it gets adjusted, it is a complete mystery.

So here is a photograph of this as best I can get, I'm hoping someone knows something about these so I can track down the required tool.

View attachment 67277266

Any help is much appreciated.

Can't tell from the pic but it looks like a socket wrench, (ratchet handle? Don't know which term you would use) maybe with an extension, might work. Might have to be slightly small to fit in that socket but the flat side might come up against that tab in the socket and let you turn it.

 

[swing_voter]

It looks like a socket wrench with an 6" extension would work.

Usually, you don't want to adjust these because if you open them up, rooms down the line won't get much air. So the closer you are to the blower, the more restricted the vents are.

(looks like Grand mal beat me to it.)

 

[Rexedgar]

Robertson Screwdriver?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-T...Round-Shank-Cushion-Grip-Handle-662/202282844

 

[Mycroft]

Hi,

I'm reaching out here to see if anyone can shed light on something.

We recently got a new air conditioning system installed, we kept the ductwork of course but replaced the machinery.

Now I'm trying to adjust the ceiling vents so as to get uniform cooling in different rooms, this is a single storey southwest house in Arizona.

The ceiling vents all look like this (some are small and some are larger)

View attachment 67277264

Well as I began to do this I noticed that the white curved blades are only part of the story, behind those are a set of flat inclined aluminum blades.

These blades are not movable easily and I can see there is a small recessed round hole that seems to accept some form of tool or key used to turn it.

It looks like turning this will open/close these flat aluminum blades, some vents have these wide open and some almost closed.

However I simply cannot find any mention of such a tool on the web, I've searched for hours and can't find any articles discussing this kind of vent and how it gets adjusted, it is a complete mystery.

So here is a photograph of this as best I can get, I'm hoping someone knows something about these so I can track down the required tool.

View attachment 67277266

Any help is much appreciated.

It looks like it requires a special tool, with the notch and the protrusion. Also, it's hard to tell from the picture what the size of that socket might be. 1/8"? 1/4"? Probably not 1/2".

I suggest you contact an HVAC company. Show them the pictures.

 

[Sherlock Holmes]

Thanks everyone, I did dig out one of those screwdriver that has a hexagonal receptacle at the end and found a weird phillips-like screwdriver end that fits in there.

This does the trick and allows me to adjust these now.

Much appreciated!