Painting the inside of a 21 yo house and wondering what I should do with the duct vents. Some are metal, some are plastic and yellowed from age.

1.) take each down, clean up and spray paint with semi gloss.
OR
2.) take each down, clean up and re-install so when painters paint the ceilings, they can spray the vents as well.
OR
3.) buy new vents at $20 or so each - probably $400 for the whole house.

P.S. this is a former rental getting ready for sale in the $375k range.

TIA

Cross posted on outdoor board.

I vote for option 2.

Take down, clean them up fairly well, then soak them in some bleach water overnight. If it works, great. If not, turn them into $2 bills and buy new ones. I would buy the plastic ones for a house I was selling. Also check Amazon.

I went with option 1 at my house. I started down the path of option 3 but had some oddball sizes that were going to be tough to replace. They turned out really good and have held up for many years.

Clean them and paint them with killz spray primer!

I would fire any painter that didn't pull the ceiling registers before they painted. So I would pull and clean them now, and either spray bomb them or ask the painters to hit them when they show up and then reinstall yourself. Don't forget to label in case you have oddball sizing so you can figure out where they go.