Smart Vents - Good, bad, waste of time?

Hi,
I’m looking at possibly getting some smart vents to help stabilize the temperatures across the various rooms in my house, kinda like going zonal without the extortionate costs, with the idea of dropping my nest temperature sensors, use the sensors in (most) of the smart vents, and have HA coordinate it all.

I cant really find any definitive answer as to whether they are universally good, or universally bad.
With every article/post/ect. contradicting the last. :-p

The best i can tell is that most of the concerns from ‘traditionalists’ is that the backflow that a stopped vent can cause, COULD cause damage to the HVAC itself. But…most smart vents have a min ‘stoppage’ of 30% nowadays, so I’m guessing its no longer a concern?

Anyone got any experience with Smart Vents, and how they can tie into HA?

Thanks!

I’ve tried to improve my efficiency by manually adjusting vents in the past, but never had good results. Often it would cause my HVAC to start cycling on and off. Back pressure, I assumed.

Call me a traditionalist…
Just my $.02.

Jim

That’s how I’ve tried doing it now, it makes a marginal difference, but some of the vents are way too high for me to get too, to adjust. So i dont feel like I’m getting accurate ‘test results’ as a result.

I had issues with my AC this summer and the people that worked on my HVAC system told me that you should just leave all vents open completely and never close them. The system was designed to work best with all vents open 100%. I ended up going with a Honeywell thermostat that has circulate mode. Circulate mode cycles the fan for approx 10 to 15 minute each hour if the system has not run in that last hour, regardless of the system mode. I have found that this works better to keep temps stable across the house than attempting to mess with vents.

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Ah, i think the Nest thermostat has a similar function…i’ll experiment, good tip!

ecobee does this also.
How to control your HVAC system’s fan with your ecobee thermostat