If You Pour Water Into a Floor Register on the Second Floor What Will Happen?

Overview

• In your home, the floor registers are connected to duct work that runs to your home's furnace for heating and central air conditioning for cooling. These ducts, which run throughout your home, hidden beneath the floors and behind the walls, distribute air from its source to the rooms in your house. Because they're meant to transport air, the ducts must be kept dry and are not meant to be wet.

Smell

• If you mistakenly pour water into a second-story floor register, logic would dictate that the water would run through the duct system until it reaches your furnace or central air conditioning. This is highly unlikely, however, as a home's ducts are installed horizontally in several locations. The duct layout would mean that the water would find a low point in the duct and get trapped. Over time, it would evaporate, but in the short term, you would smell any scent from mold or mildew growing in the ducts.

Rust

• With prolonged exposure to moisture, the aluminum ducts could rust or corrode. Though this would take place over an extended period of time, the results could be serious and costly. If a section of the duct corroded until it developed a hole, some of the air passed through the duct would escape. You would need to hire a contractor to repair the duct, which would likely mean removing a wall or part of your ceiling to access the duct.

Covers

• If you have small children in your home, it's important to educate them about placing any substance, including liquids, in the floor registers. Additionally, cover each floor register with a cover that allows you to open or close it. When the furnace or air conditioning is in use, adjust the covers to allow air to escape. When you don't have the furnace or air conditioning on, close the covers to lower the risk of something falling into the registers.