Air Diffuser condensation is a serious problem. Here’s what you can do to avoid it.

Here’s the deal, as much as we love summer, we don’t love what it’s doing to our interiors. With the recent influx of heat and painstaking humidity in many parts of the country, you may have begun to notice that your AC vents are starting to glisten. And not in a good way. This definitely isn’t the kind of dewy, summery glow we had in mind. What’s more, southern states and humid coastal locations are hit the hardest⁠—even outside of summer months.

You may be wondering whether this is because there is something wrong with your air conditioning unit or duct-work, but you’d be surprised to hear that’s not typically the case. More often than not, the ceiling or wall air vents (see also: air diffusers, grilles, and registers) are the culprits.

Here’s why:

• Hot air can hold much more humidity than cold air.
• As the humidity in the air rises, so does the dew point.
• The cold air that your a/c is blowing out is below the dew point which causes the vent to condensate.

Unfortunately, most popular air diffusers and grilles are made from metal (commonly aluminum or steel). This is a problem because metal responds very quickly to temperature changes (the surface of a metal diffuser becomes cold shortly after you turn the a/c on). Warm air has the ability to contain more moisture than cold air. It loses that ability when it comes into contact with a cold surface and creates water droplets as a result. That’s condensation.

Picture this: If you’ve ever gone outside and enjoyed an ice-cold can of soda on a hot afternoon, chances are you’ve noticed that tiny droplets would start to appear almost instantaneously.

So, to sum it all up: 

Metal diffuser + Cold air supplied from a/c + Warm, moist air existing in the room = Condensation

Does this mean we’re doomed? Not really. There’s a silver lining to this story. Luckily, a small team of HVAC professionals recognized this pesky, unrelenting industry problem and sought out to find a way to, finally, nip condensation in the bud. How did they manage this seemingly impossible feat, you ask? Simple. They stopped using metal diffusers and took matters into their own hands. They ventured outside of the familiar and, through a few years of trial and error, discovered an innovative composite material that would ultimately cut condensation by as much as 95%. Compared to metal, the surface of the composite material maintains room temperature and can tolerate a much higher dew point without any condensation. And thus, InviAir was born.

InviAir’s founders didn’t just want to develop something that looked good. They wanted to push the limits of innovation and create a product that functioned at peak performance (and also happened to look great in the process). All without a single droplet of water in sight.