How to Clean Your Return Air Vent

DeeDee
by DeeDee
While you're Spring cleaning why not check your return air vent to make sure its not hiding lots of dust bunnies like ours was! Oh and while you're at it, why not give your vent cover itself a nice new coat of paint? Visit our blog to see what I did step by step to make ours look new again.
This is the after. After I totally cleaned everything. The vent, the wall and the actual return space from all dust and dirt.
This is the Before. Before all the dust bunnies moved out!
NOT a pretty site is it? NO! Are you going to check yours yet?
I simply used our shop vac to clean all the yuckiness away. After that I used a Clorox wipe to clean the wall where the vent rested and collect a really fine dust.
Aaaah! There we go, much better now! Dust bunnies all moved out!
I used some primer and white gloss paint to freshen the vent after I cleaned it.
The paint was a little chippy after cleaning it with the wrong cleaner. You can visit our blog to see what NOT to use! A little of the paint combo above fixed that though.
We now have a nice new looking return air vent in the hall way!
DeeDee
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 6 questions
  • Ans10803042 Ans10803042 on Sep 16, 2017

    Wait!? You use filters in your return air ducts and the floor ones too? I only filter the a/c heat pump unit. No wonder my house is dusty.

  • Rio4517398 Rio4517398 on Jan 09, 2018

    Can you use a filter in it

  • Judy Judy on Apr 15, 2019

    Should there be a filter on both the clean air and the return?

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