Keen Home/Ecovent

[jtara92101]

Since it came up in another thread, I thought I'd start a topic for Keen Home/Ecovent:

https://keenhome.io

I've had the Keen Home vents for quite some time, since it was a Kickstarter. They were subsequently on Shark Tank, and more recently bought EcoVent, which has a similar product.

Since I've lived with these for years, I have a few tips. And I've lived through the various kinks that are frankly typical of Kickstarter/Shark Tank projects...

• The vent that fell from the sky
• Insufficient clearances
• some other bad mechanical design
• expensive exit filters made of unobtanium
• inflexible management

That said, it is a truly ELEGANT product! And most of the issues are fixable.

I promised to post this after another user mentioned a use case of one room that gets too cold. That is probably the IDEAL use case. Balancing rooms in general? Meh. I use it mainly to shut off a bedroom during the day.

The Vent That Fell From the Sky

So, there's a mechanism attached to a mounting plate. Guess what they (originally) used to attach the (heavy!) mechanism to the mounting plate? Double-faced sticky tape, that's what. Note even foam. Just double-faced sticky tape. Why didn't they use foam? You'd have to ask them. Probably because of their elegant design that leaves minimal clearances. (See next).

I had one vent installed in the ceiling. Note that Keen does NOT officially support this! So, one day... the vent fell out of the sky.

A neighbor had been so impressed with the elegant design, he bought a few and installed in his apartment.

Guess what?! Another vent fell from the sky!

Fortunately, neither of us was standing under a vent that fell from the sky.

The problem has been corrected, they now have a (elegant, of course) metal mounting clip that insures that vent will not fall out of the sky. They shipped me new cover plates and mounting clips. But never made the promised replacement of the vent that was damaged when it fell from the sky. My neighbor finally gave me one of his vents that he no longer uses. It worked, after fiddling with different battery cases to find one with just the right manufacturing variation to actually work when installed in the ceiling.

Insufficient Clearances

Did I mention that the design is very elegant? Yes, it is. Unfortunately, it is so elegant that all clearances have been minimized.

Cover plate height out of tolerance? Interferes with vanes.

Filter a bit fat?

Interferes with vanes.

Breathe?

Interferes with vanes.

Expect it to open when you want it to open, and close when you want it to close?

hahahahahaha! No, insufficient clearances. Maybe it worked once, in the shop, when they assembled it, at the ambient temperature of the shop on that day...

That said, there is a fix! I had to rebuild a Corbin Ruswin mortise lock. (Anybody ever accomplish this for the first time in less than a half day? If so, you are a mechanical genius!) Anyway, thanks to that I discovered TriFlow, which I guess is what locksmiths use today instead of graphite grease. TriFlow is magic. TriFlow makes these vents open when you want them to open, and close when you want them to close. No more blinking red lights! Just lubricate the plastic forks that move the vanes. It is pure magic!

Better that they'd put in sufficient clearances. Is that plastic teflon? If not, it needs to be.

Some Other Bad Mechanical Design

The elegant magnetically-attached covers have little molded-in plastic bosses. A metal center bar is attached at the ends with tiny screws. You will eventually find tiny screws on the floor and wonder where they came from. They came from the cover. The bosses have insufficient material, they will eventually break off. On their own. Presumably from normal expansion/contraction from heating and cooling. Because... wait for it... this is a part of your heating and cooling system.

Fortunately, neither the screws nor bosses are needed. You see, there are several holes in the metal bar, and little plastic protrusions extend through the holes, and in the manufacturing process the tips are melted to attach the bar.

Expensive Exit Filters Made of Unobtanium

The filters are cool and elegant. And $20. Each. And recommended replacement every 3-6 months.

I researched the material. It is a DISCONTINUED 3M product. Available in different thicknesses. It's called HAF or High Air Flow. Look it up. You will find it on the 3M site. But 3M does not sell it.

It has some other uses. For example, it's used to filter the inlets to slot machines, to keep the nasty smoke from the smokers out of the slot machine.

I thought I might be able to get some filter material, surely it doesn't cost $20 for a little square. And in fact it does not. If it were not made of unobtainium!

I talked to a 3M sales representative. She's heard my tale of woe before! All she could tell me is that they discontinued it for "business reasons". I asked for some justification. Was it ineffective? Difficult to manufacture? Difficult to get a needed material? Supply chain issue? All I could get was "business reasons".

I talked to a sales representative of a casino equipment supplier. Out of stock.They have a projected stock date. hahahahaha! They do have a few filters with frames in stock. Old stock. (Some OEM makes a single size of filter for gaming machines. It's a simple frame that is installed over any hole of size smaller than the frame size, the frame attaches to the outside of the gaming machine.)

I didn't bother to call the manufacturer of the portable dehumidifier that recently switched to different filter material, because the filter they were using is made of unobtanium.

While not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but if there's a valid COVID-19 conspiracy theory, it SOMEHOW involves this filter material! (Probably not because it kills or filters COVID-19. Maybe because plants were ordered to make more masks and so had to cut back on making "unessential" products. This specialized material would seem easy pickings if you had to shift some production.)

Inflexible Management

Remember the vent that fell from the sky? And the promise to replace? And wasn't replaced?

So, OK, I forgot to remind them that they hadn't sent the promised replacement. For a couple years. (Like my landlord, who took an insurance payment for water damage from the roof, but never replaced the flooring... so I have a bare 1/2 bedroom floor. After so many times, there's no point in reminding them. You just keep the fact for future use...) I brought it up recently, and they basically said hey, those are several years old and way out of warranty, no way are we replacing it. OK, fine, I forgot to keep reminding them! But, OK, what about a replacement of the cover with the broken plastic boss? Nope! Not only won't them replace it for free - they don't even SELL them. So, mess up a plastic cover, buy a new vent!

Hopefully, this is just due to their clueless, script-following call center in the Philippines. (Despite the fact that everybody else - at least banks - had to close their clueless, script-following call centers in the Philippines due to COVID-19, and clueless script-following call centers in the Phillippines being packed in like rats...)

----

So, you think after all that that I would HATE Keen air vents!

But, actually, I love them. They are elegant. Really, really elegant. (As elegant as Ecovent products are ugly!)

And, really, there is nothing wrong with them that a bit of TriFlow, ignoring little screws you find on the floor, and a bit of software working with an undocumented API can't fix.

 

[jtara92101]

Well, so much for Keen Home...

As of today, the app doesn't work, the website login doesn't work, and even the stupid chat box on their website doesn't work.

Unfortunately, this is one of those products that only works with "the cloud", there doesn't seem to be any local controller. So, no workie. I'll have to disconnect the bridge and manually open the vents.

I tried log out/log in in the app, but can't log in.

I tried logging in through their website, but unable to log in. Noticed some errors on the Javascript console. Malformed JSON as well as invalid certificate date. Did somebody forget to renew a certificate?

Looks like their website is a Shopify site. Don't get me started on Shopify.

I have an eerie feeling.

Facepalm.

I was considering writing a Poly for Keen vents. Now I think I will see if anybody has discovered a local control API, so that I can perhaps still use my vents.

I sent a message via the stupid chatbot, as well as an email, and included the Javascript console output. There is no phone number. One of those.

I think they didn't renew their SSL certificate for the API.

[jtara92101]

FYI, Keen cloud service is back.

And that's what they - circularly - blamed it on.

"At the time of your issue was submitted, we were experiencing issues with our cloud services"

No, the SSL certificate was expired. Which caused an "issue" connecting to the cloud service.

As well, there was (and probably still is) a problem with the website not expecting an expired SSL certificate, and incorrectly indicating authentication failure.

The app just did nothing. That is, stopped responding if logged in, and no loging with no message when logged out.

Some offshore tech support service fields complaints. It is nice though that it's in the app (as well as website) and they do follow up.

I hope (but don't have an expectation) that they've seen it as an opportunity to add another network test. e.g. actually log in and see if it succeeds!

What a contrast to UDI, where the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer is keenly (pun intended) plugged-in to customer concerns!

Still like the product. It does the job of shutting off my bedroom vent during the day without having to climb a ladder!