Is back pressure protection still active when manually controlling vents?

Follow
Avatar
Pierre-Andre Folot
I would like to know when back pressure protection is enforced and when it is not in the following different use cases: 1- System Mode is Auto and vents are closed using the slider in the app or via the API. And does Enhanced Circulation Mode change that behaviour in any way? 2- System Mode is Manual and vents are closed using the slider in the app or via the API.
0

Comments

13 comments

Sort by Date Votes
  • Official comment
    Avatar
    James C.
    • Edited

    Hi Pierre-Andre Folot,

    Thank you for the great questions.

    When the System setting in Flair is Manual (i.e., not Auto), there are no back-pressure protections in place.  You can close as many vents as you desire, but this is not recommended.  Our back pressure protections are in place to protect your HVAC equipment from the damage that can result from closing too many Smart Vents and creating too much static pressure in the system.  When Flair is in Manual the system operates as if you had old manual vents, where you could, though it's not advised, walk around and close all of your vents.

    If you have your Flair system in Auto (i.e., not Manual), the behavior is the same whether or not you have Enhanced Circulation enabled.  Flair will close a maximum of 1/3 of the total smart vents you specified as being part of this thermostat zone. 

    If you have any other specific questions, please let us know. 

    Regards,

    The Flair Team

     

    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Robert Gates

    Appearently this isn't true anymore.  My system has been in manual mode for a year or mode and just recently it's started preventing me from closeing vents and displays the message "Back pressure protect is active.  No further smart vents will be closed."  How can I disable back pressure protect?

    1
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Trammell Lynch

    Same, just started tonight. This is enough of a deal breaker for me to uninstall them and never use it again honestly.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    David Farr
    • Edited

    It did it to mine also... Hope they correct this. We should be able to adjust it as we want to. I can only close 1 vent at a time now.

    Also, I thought it was suppose to be 1/3 of the total vents not 1/3 of the smart vents that could be closed.

    1
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Trammell Lynch

    Agreed. I tried increasing my total number of vents and it did not fix it. I'm sure everyone uses flair differently but I use it manually to open and shut my kid's vents without going in their room while sleeping. Last night I had to choose which kid's room got to freeze

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    David Farr
    • Edited

    I increased the number of vents also to overcome this and nothing. At night we close that parts of the house that we are not using (living room, dining room and the kitchen 4 vents). The ducts are larger on the end of the house where the rooms are because they are so far away from the air handler. We live in a 70's block house and the bedrooms are on the outside walls so they require more air to cool.

    I paid a lot of money for these and now they are almost useless.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    David Farr

    I contacted Flair support and they told me that their engineers are working on it.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Trammell Lynch

    Thanks David! Glad to hear.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    David Farr

    It's working again!

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Trammell Lynch

    Not for me, yet. Glad to hear!

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    David Farr

    If you're using the app on your phone, try going into your phone settings for apps and go to Flair app and force stop then clear cache in the storage. When you restart the app it should work.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    Steve Stratoti

    I am also experiencing this issue. I couldn't figure out why some vents were opening and closing on their own when it was set to manual. Now my upstairs is 10 degrees warmer than my downstairs. I've submitted a support ticket as well.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink
  • Avatar
    David Farr

    Right now mine is set to manual and nothing opens or closes without me telling it to. If I use the auto mode it will limit what opens and closes.

    0
    Comment actions Permalink

Please sign in to leave a comment.