If An Air Vent Isn't Working In Your House, Try TikTok's Simple Fix

That biting cold during the winter months is no joke. While heavy blankets and warm socks are fun to keep cozy with, you also need your heating system to be on point as well. The last thing you want in the dead of winter is an air vent that's not blowing warm air and leaving part of your home shivering cold. Before you go calling your HVAC technician, though, you may want to try a simple TikTok fix for a "broken" vent: As TikTok DIY creator Ken Long explains, all you might need to do is open the air vent's damper to allow the hot air through.

The damper is a valve that's positioned inside the air vent with the job of regulating the direction and passage of air that flows through it. If your air vent doesn't seem to be working as well as it used to, you don't need to panic right away. First, determine what's wrong with it — you don't have to be an expert to run some basic diagnostics. The damper may simply be closed and will need to be reopened. To do this, crack open the air vent cover with a screwdriver, removing any screws that may be holding it in place. Reach down into the vent and check if the valve is closed. If it is, open it right up, and that should do the trick.

Reopening your air vent damper is a piece of cake, but not all dampers look like the one in Ken Long's TikTok video. There are different types of air vent valves, so identify yours before you reach in and try to close it. The damper in Long's video is called a butterfly or single-blade damper because of the lone blade. It can easily be rotated in place to open or close it. A multi-blade damper has multiple shutters that move all at once. Other types of dampers exist as well, though they're less likely to be found in homes. In addition, some dampers are manual, while others are automatic; the former are opened or closed by hand, and the latter can be adjusted via the thermostat or another control device. Manual ones may be opened or closed by directly moving the blades or by turning a handle. All that said, butterfly dampers like the one in Long's TikTok are common.

If all you need is to open up the damper to get your air flowing, make sure that you are wary of any sharp pieces of metal as you reach in — you don't want to cut your hand by accident. If you've made sure your damper is open and your vent still isn't letting any air through, then it's time to contact your technician for possible repairs to your HVAC system.