Technologies Return Air Pathways (14X8 Retrofit)

My supply is on the same wall as the hinge of the door. For the last 11 years I've tried leaving the door cracked to allow for a return air path. I didn't know about this product. Needless to say both bedrooms were never that comfortable. Out of sheer frustration I went online to do research and found these. I was skeptical as in my mind it couldn't work because the return path is still right next to the supply vent. So I called the HVAC company to come out and put returns in both bedrooms. He said the easiest and cheapest would be to install, you guessed it, these. Maybe not these in particular but a return air path which is essentially what these are. So I didn't even wait for his quote and I installed them myself. Watched the video on tamarack website and YouTube and noticed today that the rooms are much more comfortable. Normally the spare bedroom with the computer would get hot. Today I was on it and felt comfortable. That hasn't happened in 11 years. Cost me $200 for these and new oscillating tool blades plus my time. Well worth it. I bought a manometer to test the pressure, ok it cost me $240, and I'm getting the same pressure in the supply and out the rap. Well worth it for me. It fits my old brick construction home with my 2x4 walls that have plaster and sheet rock not lathe. Yes I was surprised too. Pleasantly surprised. I had widened a door before so I new what I was getting into. I chose not to center the rap as I didn't want to cut a cripple. It fits perfectly between the cripple and stud.

It was a hour long project that fixed the over pressure in our bedroom. It cuts about 95% of the light but I installed it into our closet so there are no light issues at all. Works great the 3 heat/AC registers work at full capacity now with the bed room door closed where it only worked at 10% before.

These is an affordable alternative to running a new return duct. I keep my office door closed all the time, and the air is definitely less stale after I installed on. It is a little difficult to install because it is not complete square. One of the three units I ordered was dented. I had to hammer it back into shape and struggled pulling the two pieces apart and then struggled to reassemble them in the wall. Also, the spacing between the holes on the grate is not large enough to clear the metal flanges. For each one, I had to drill through the sheet metal in order to screw the grate into the wall.

Product has everything I needed to complete my project. The noise blocking material also did a great job of blocking light.

Easy to install. I purchased two, installing them into my family room’s wall, which adjoins the hall where the unit’s return is. Although I have noticed a difference, I live in SE Texas…. It’s still hot.

I'm assuming the price was developed by comparing this solution to a much more expensive alternate solution of installing jump ducts. However, my only complaint is about the price. It's built well and went in super easy (worst part was cleaning up drywall dust). The telescoping halves make it usable on various wall thicknesses, and I had no problem with them sticking together from shipping. I cut my openings, slid the sides together, and sealed the telescoping junction with foil tape. I drilled small pilot holes in the duct lips for the grate screws and used my own, much-shorter sheet metal screws with a dab of white paint from a paint marker. It's satisfying to feel the pressure release from my master suite, where 5 supply vents (of 15 total downstairs) were crammed through one gap under the door as a return. I was likely losing conditioned air out two bath vents, and I know I was losing air around outlets and can lights by the dust patterns formed behind the trim plates/rings.

This positive review is based on 1. the product being provided exactly as described, and 2. excellent customer service by Tamarack.

I recently installed the return air pathway between my master bedroom closet and a hallway that leads up to my master bedroom door. This allows the return air to get back to the furnace intake which is located in the hallway. The installation was relatively straightforward as it just required me to cut out the correct size opening in the sheetrock. I was able to go between two studs that were 16” apart. Although the register serves the purpose of creating an extra path for return air, I was a little disappointed by a few things. The first was that the sheet metal inserts are pretty crude. Mine weren’t rectangular and when slid together left reasonable size gaps along parts of several edges. My sense is that these units are bent by hand on a sheet metal folding machine without proper jigs to make sure the folds are precisely where they need to be. This isn’t a big issue as the gaps could be sealed with tape. The biggest complaint is that the baffle inside seems to do almost nothing with respect to noise. I can now hear everything that is going on in the hallway (and vice vers) as if there was an open window in the wall. A lot more noise comes through the register than comes under the door to the bedroom. My wife is not thrilled with this lack of privacy as any talking in the closet can be easily heard by anyone in the hallway. I am now going to have to try to erect a noise baffle to try to mitigate this issue without compromising the air flow. This is going to add to the cost and effort of adding the return air path. If I had realized the amount of noise that would go straight through the register I would have run a long flexible duct in the attic to create the new return path or installed a whole new secondary furnace intake with filter. Probably a bit more work and expense than this solution but these other solutions would have removed the privacy issues that come with this simple solution.