Keen Home Smart Vent System — Reviewer's Guide

Reviewer's guide covering the Keen Home Smart Vent™ system — room-by-room temperature control vents and the Smart Bridge™ hub that connects them, including setup, technical specs, and troubleshooting.

What It Does

Smart Vents™ control a home's airflow, letting homeowners redirect conditioned air away from rooms they don't use and toward the rooms they do. Many homes have 2-4 rooms that run too hot, too cold, or sit unused for large portions of the day — Smart Vents solve that room by room, wirelessly, from a smartphone.

Who It's For

• Imbalanced homes — an upstairs hotter than downstairs, or a kid's room colder than the master bedroom, are ideal Smart Vent locations.
• Budget-conscious homes — homeowners stop paying to condition unoccupied rooms, and the whole HVAC system runs more efficiently.

How It Works

Smart Vents adjust airflow to over-conditioned rooms and redirect it to rooms that need it most. Vents are controlled wirelessly from a smartphone via the Keen Home app, and can integrate directly with smart thermostats such as Nest.

Benefits

• Increase comfort — set every room to the right temperature
• Room scheduling — don't pay to heat a kitchen while you sleep
• Decrease energy — room zoning can cut energy costs by up to 30%
• Easy control — manage hard-to-reach vents from the app
• Automate your home — integrates with Nest and Iris/SmartThings-connected devices
• Faceplates — better aesthetics than standard metal grill vents

App Features

Auto Mode: Set rooms warmer or cooler, and the installed Smart Vents work together to drive air to or from those rooms automatically. Manual Mode: Manually adjust each room's vent level to control how much airflow reaches it, create an open/closed occupancy schedule per room, and connect a smart thermostat (Nest supported; Ecobee support planned) for end-to-end HVAC control.

Smart Vent™ Hardware

• Safe — never forms a complete seal (prevents overclosure), always improving via wireless firmware/software updates, embedded temperature and pressure sensors monitor in-duct conditions
• Easy to clean — the Herringbone faceplate is dishwasher-safe (top rack, no-heat dry); the rest of the vent can be cleaned with glass cleaner, diluted alcohol, or screen wipes (do not submerge)
• Customizable — the Herringbone faceplate can be spray-painted with acrylic paint to match any room's color scheme

Smart Bridge™ Hardware

A small, compact smart home hub that's easy to tuck into a cabinet or shelf. Any Smart Bridge can act as a ZigBee wireless repeater to extend the range of Smart Vents and other supported ZigBee devices — repeater mode works with the Keen Home Smart Bridge and the SmartThings hub.

Technical Specifications

• Faceplates: Herringbone or Arbor styles
• Placement: Floor, Wall, or Ceiling
• Sensors: Temperature and Pressure
• Connectivity: 802.15.4 Radio / ZigBee
• Compatibility: Nest, Samsung SmartThings, Lowe's Iris, Securifi
• Battery: 4 x AA batteries, 2+ years battery life
• Control: Smartphone-controlled, iOS 8+ or Android 4+

Setup: Preparation

What you need: Smart Vents, a Smart Bridge, the free Keen Home app, mounting screws and clips (included), a screwdriver, and a ladder if installing in the ceiling.

How many vents you need: Keen Home recommends replacing at least 1/3rd of a home's vents with Smart Vents, though they can be installed in every vent. More vents give greater temperature control. Good candidates: rooms that need better conditioning (too warm in winter), over-conditioned problem rooms (too cool in summer), and rooms that go unused for large portions of the day.

Where to put the Smart Bridge: Face its "blind spot" (where the power and ethernet cords plug in) away from any Smart Vents. Avoid placing it in a cabinet or near other wireless gear, which decreases performance. Metal ducts can obstruct wireless signals — e.g., when a Smart Bridge sits below a Smart Vent installed in the floor above — use a second or third Smart Bridge as a ZigBee repeater to work around this.

How many Smart Bridges you need: One Smart Bridge for every 8 Smart Vents, plus one per floor (e.g. 16 vents across 2 floors = 2 bridges).

Setting Up the Smart Bridge

1. Download and launch the Keen Home app
2. Orient the Smart Bridge with the power and ethernet cords facing away from where Smart Vents will be installed
3. Connect the Smart Bridge to an open router port with the included ethernet cord, then connect to power
4. Configure the hub per the in-app instructions

Setting Up a Smart Bridge as a Signal Repeater

1. Plug the repeater Smart Bridge into power midway between the main Smart Bridge and the farthest Smart Vent — do NOT plug it into ethernet
2. In the Keen Home app, select the room nearest to where the repeater will be located
3. Tap "Add Smart Devices," then "Find Smart Device"
4. The repeater should show up immediately — add it just as you would a Smart Vent

If a Smart Bridge was previously set up as a hub, hold its button down for 5 seconds to reset it into repeater mode.

Connecting & Installing Smart Vents

Connecting in the app (one vent at a time):

1. Tap "Add Smart Devices" in the app
2. Tap "Find Smart Device"
3. Pull the green arrow tab on the vent
4. The vent's LED double-blinks green
5. Tap the radio button next to the vent, then "Add Selected"
6. Once added, continue adding all remaining vents

Physical installation:

1. Remove the old air vent register
2. Insert the Smart Vent
3. Align the metal mounting clips with the screw holes on the vent
4. Secure the Smart Vent in place with the included screws
5. Repeat to install all Smart Vents

Troubleshooting: Smart Vent LED Key

Resetting

Unjoining from a bridge or hub: Remove the vent from within the Keen Home, Lowe's IRIS, or SmartThings app. The vent has left the network when its LED lights green for three seconds and then starts double-blinking green. If it doesn't start blinking (or when using SmartThings), press the black button inside the battery compartment to force it to leave its bridge.

Low power state reset (vent left in pairing mode too long / unresponsive to 5-button presses): Remove the battery pack, press the black button a few times (once is enough, three is safe), then reinsert the battery pack. The vent should power back up and double-blink green.

Power cycle (to resolve an obstruction): Press down the battery release lever and fully remove the battery cartridge, then reinsert it to restart the vent — it will recalibrate before returning to normal operation.

Red Light Troubleshooting

• Obstruction present: Remove the obstruction, eject batteries, reinsert the cartridge.
• No obstruction: Eject batteries, adjust them (pull two batteries with positive ends up far enough that copper ends clear the cartridge, push negative ends down into the cartridge), then reinsert the cartridge.

Pricing (at time of publication)

• Smart Vent 4"x10": $84.99
• Smart Vent 4"x12": $84.99
• Smart Vent 6"x10": $89.99
• Smart Vent 6"x12": $89.99
• Smart Bridge: $39.99

About Keen Home

Keen Home develops proactive hardware and software products to protect and enhance a home's core systems, aiming for increased comfort, improved efficiency, a healthier living environment, and a better-maintained home. The Smart Vent was the company's first product, conceptualized in 2013 by co-founders Ryan Fant and Nayeem Hussain. In February 2015, Fant and Hussain appeared on ABC's Shark Tank and closed a deal with investor Robert Herjavec. The Smart Vent launched in winter 2015 and became available at 600+ Lowe's retail stores nationwide and through select e-commerce channels.