We chat with Roberta Mantenuto of ARIA VENT

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[00:00:24] Roberta Mantenuto: Yep. We have to turn on the light. Uh, those are all things that we are challenging and are going to ch. Change the way that we see those things. So started with Vince and now we're pivoting to a bunch of other things, and this is kind of what we call the aria effect, is that once you start to notice these things, it's like they've been in plain sight and we've ignored them this whole, our whole lives.

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[00:01:05] Roberta Mantenuto: Welcome

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[00:01:22] Eric Goranson: Roberta, thanks for coming on today. This is exciting.

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[00:01:34] Eric Goranson: here. This is great. Well, if you know people out there, of course you, you've got audio here, so they're like, what are we talking about?

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[00:01:49] Roberta Mantenuto: Yeah, I mean, I, I don't think regular events get the same reaction as ours, so I would, I would bet. I would bet, yes.

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[00:02:00] Roberta Mantenuto: create this? Yeah, so. We started the company with my dad about seven years ago.

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[00:02:24] Roberta Mantenuto: Um, but yeah, he, he came up with the idea. He's always been, This kind of mad scientist inventor my whole life. He's just always had the wildest. Ideas, and I promise you, this is the only invention he's made that hasn't cost my family money. Um, so we're, we're all very excited about it. Yeah.

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[00:02:48] Eric Goranson: If you look at the famous ones out there, they came up with thousands and thousands of things, and like 99% of 'em just absolutely. Failed. Yeah. But there's that one that's the home run.

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[00:03:07] Roberta Mantenuto: We just, we just ignore and carry on. Um, you

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[00:03:18] Roberta Mantenuto: of thing. Exactly. That's awesome. So, so yeah, he kind of came up with this idea out of, uh, a need that a customer had. So, uh, my parents used to own a.

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[00:03:48] Roberta Mantenuto: The first iteration of this product he showed to the customer. Um, the customer actually didn't move forward with it. He, he didn't like the look of it. And so my dad always likes a challenge. He thought, okay, you might not like it, [00:04:00] but I disagree. Um, and so during that kind of r and b period, he came up with probably a hundred different iterations.

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[00:04:28] Roberta Mantenuto: Um, he put water inside of the tray of the vent, and he showed my family and he said, I think I made a humidifier. And we were all like, you are crazy. That is a horrible idea.

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[00:04:45] Roberta Mantenuto: would've been a tough one.

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[00:05:00] Eric Goranson: be better putting a coffee mug on the countertop. Probably just letting go with that. Yeah, exactly.

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[00:05:11] Eric Goranson: Nice. And you know, it's one of those things and, and the first time I saw it years ago, I looked at it and I'm like, okay, what about airflow? And I know that's always probably the first one is people scratch their head and go airflow, but these flow really well when you look at it.

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[00:05:28] Roberta Mantenuto: And you know, rightfully so by looking at it, it doesn't look like it would have the same airflow as a regular grill vent. Um, we've done all third party testing. We've actually put all of these in like. My own home and my family's home and like we wouldn't. Do put out a product like this if it didn't do the one thing it's actually meant to do, which is move air.

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[00:06:21] Roberta Mantenuto: Wow. Congrats. Yeah, thank you. We never thought we would sell 1 million of anything that my dad invented. So again, very happy to be here. And um, yeah, I mean, you know, part of that social proof is you don't really sell a million of something if it doesn't do its core function, which is to move airflow.

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[00:06:40] Eric Goranson: You know, it's interesting, you know, in my house I started looking at it. Here's the thing. I looked at my hardwood vents at my house, right? And I started figuring out, What the airflow was on those existing vents. There wasn't much there. By the time you put big pieces of wood covering up the holes, I was shocked at how [00:07:00] little my existing airflow was, these are actually gonna move more air than what my existing vents are, where I would've thought maybe it was the opposite.

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[00:07:08] Roberta Mantenuto: so that's a great point actually, when you compare our product to other customized vents. Like the one that you're explaining, the, the custom floor vents that are stained to match so on. Um, none of those companies actually list their airflow reporting on their website. We are one of the few that actually do, and you're absolutely right.

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[00:07:40] Eric Goranson: absolutely right. Yeah. I started, do I, I geeked out. I'm like, okay, well how am I gonna figure this out?

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[00:07:57] Roberta Mantenuto: so you bring up another good point [00:08:00] is that a lot of our H V A C systems, especially in um, Tract housing or um, subdivision homes, you know, they're built for masks.

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[00:08:31] Roberta Mantenuto: Um, there's. Like always that imbalance in homes anyway. Um, and so ultimately if you want the best airflow, it really comes down to the design of the H V A C system ensuring that it's optimized for airflow. And in a lot of cases it's not. So when doing renovations consulting that H V A C specialist is important because, um, It could make a difference or it cannot.

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[00:09:01] Eric Goranson: it's, it's a smart way to go. And, for instance, I've got a brand new system. So I have a carrier system, uh, their Infinity. All I have to do is go back over and hit the reset on it, and it will actually, since it's variable speed, I'll put it through the self-test section.

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[00:09:21] Roberta Mantenuto: have a bionic system? That sounds

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[00:09:36] Eric Goranson: So I, I'm excited to see how this goes cuz obviously I'm gonna flow more air, which means my system's gonna be more efficient. You guys have different vents. For the floor, and then you've even got 'em on the wall. But let's talk about the floor a little bit. You guys have 'em where you're building the floor, you're putting either a brand new tile or wood floor or anything else in, and then you've got your kind of original, which is the retrofit.

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[00:09:57] Roberta Mantenuto: right? Yeah. Yeah. So all of our [00:10:00] vents are made to be as simple as possible. So they're all modular design, which means that you have one vent. That can be applied to absolutely any floor surface that you have. Um, co cork tile, uh, hardwood, vinyl. Uh, we even installed it with Lego for a trade show one time.

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[00:10:35] Roberta Mantenuto: So typically in a home, you might have three or four different surfaces, including all the bathroom tile and the hardwood. Maybe there's carpet upstairs. You can use the same vent across all surfaces. Um, so just like you would standardize, The door handle or trim. Now you can also do the same with vents.

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[00:11:00] Eric Goranson: That is so easy cuz you don't have to sit there and go, okay, I gotta order 22 different vent styles. Cuz of course you've got different sizes, but you don't have to worry about the different applications.

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[00:11:26] Roberta Mantenuto: Floor event where they have to go and do a return trip to the site, they can install them same day, close up the job, get paid, and carry on to the next one. And the other thing that we do is in all of our products, we make a d I Y version and a flush mount or a pro version. Um, it depends for the different level of, uh, install that you have.

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[00:12:07] Eric Goranson: Yeah. That's so beautiful on that. And trust me, when I was, uh, placing the order on mine, I was like, how much do I wanna do for work? Yeah. Because I've got an existing hardwood floor and I was like, do I want to tear that far into it? It's tempting. Yeah.

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[00:12:23] Eric Goranson: I thought about it, but I, yeah, I thought about it and I was like, no, let's, let's go.

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[00:12:41] Eric Goranson: And so that way you can bring in your H V A C person to make sure that you're not, uh, causing any system problems like you would with any event that you're out there shopping for. Yeah,

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[00:13:02] Roberta Mantenuto: In the internal walls where you have those big ugly air returns, they always end up being in the hallway. Um, usually where the bedrooms are. Yeah, those are really big eye sores. Um, so you can use our drywall vents. We have, again, two different models. We have one that's a pro version, it has a drywall bead, so you just mud in that frame and drywall, sand that all in just like you would any other drywall corner bead.

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[00:13:50] Roberta Mantenuto: And it gives you a totally elevated

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[00:14:10] Eric Goranson: I don't like the air returns on the floor because people with pets tends to grab even more dirt. Mm-hmm. And stuff. So I get that. But, uh, oh my gosh. Between that and then do you have anything that addresses and I'm. Don't know this question, anything that addresses the ceiling as well, cuz we have plenty of those ceiling return vents as well.

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[00:14:28] Roberta Mantenuto: So all of our wall vents can be used on the walls or ceilings. There are some wacky, wild, very large sizes that we find out in the states that we do not have sizes for, but, um, I would say probably 90% of the sizes that you, you would find on the market we have in, in our drywall product for sure.

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[00:14:52] Eric Goranson: That is cool because yeah, even my house, I've got that ugly vent. You walk right in the front door and if you look right up, there's that return air [00:15:00] vent like there. And I'm like, really? Did we have to put that right in the foyer when I walk in?

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[00:15:14] Roberta Mantenuto: They need to be there. We need air in the home. It is, it is what it is. And just carry on. And, and that's really kind of the ethos of our brand and of our products is really challenging that status quo to question like, does that actually need to be there? Does it actually need to look that way? Can we improve the design in some.

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[00:15:55] Roberta Mantenuto: Yep. We have to turn on the light. Uh, those are all things that we are [00:16:00] challenging and are going to change the way that we see those things. So, started with Vince and now we're pivoting to a bunch of other things. And this is kind of what we call the Aria effect, is that once you start to notice these things, it's like they've been in plain sight and we've ignored them this whole, our whole lives.

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[00:16:29] Eric Goranson: like, how about that ugly doorbell? Right. That doorbell that's in everybody's house. That, sorry bro. Nutton.

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[00:16:43] Roberta Mantenuto: What about like, All of those like toilet cleaner accessories that we all tuck behind our toilet bowls thinking that our guests are not gonna notice.

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[00:17:09] Roberta Mantenuto: That's the Ari effect. Now you start to see the problem, right.

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[00:17:26] Eric Goranson: And I get it. People are like, well either put it there, I'm gonna put it in the vanity. But then nobody wants their stuff jammed up against it. In the vanity either cause. Well, it's crouch, right? Yeah, exactly. Now you guys came up with a solution for that.

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[00:17:48] Roberta Mantenuto: And we wanna make it super simple. So previously, if you wanted to build out a niche, you would have to frame it out, you know, cut a hole in the wall, frame it out with two by fours, all that stuff. It gets really [00:18:00] time consuming and it's definitely something that you need to be doing at the build stage to retrofit.

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[00:18:22] Roberta Mantenuto: And the WC niche, the one that we're talking about right now is a little bit longer I think. About 30 inches and it comes with a hinge door. That hinge door opens up, it has that garbage bin inside that comes with the product. And then on the other side of it, that's where you can hide the toilet bowl cleaner, the plunger, the brush, you can even put, um, extra toilet rolls in there.

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[00:18:59] Roberta Mantenuto: It was just [00:19:00] behind the walls, just a little cavity. Um, so it's just like those little pockets of optimization of space and utility, that's what really excites us. Well,

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[00:19:23] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Nobody wants to see when you spend that kind of money on a toilet. Nobody wants to see the ugly stuff sitting around it. I mean, you're paying for lights and everything else on this crazy thing. Yeah. Why not use that and hide that

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[00:19:34] Roberta Mantenuto: away? Yeah. We've, we've invented toilets that literally speak to you, but for some reason there's a pleasure behind it.

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[00:19:50] Eric Goranson: I love it. And, and your other boxes too. I mean, this is great, but so many times the more automated we get with, with switches and controls and things within [00:20:00] a home, you know, the, the smarter the home gets, the more junk we've got to hide places, right.

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[00:20:07] Roberta Mantenuto: well. Yeah, so we have, um, a smaller niche, um, that basically you can mount your alarm keypad and then it comes with a hinge door. And inside that hinge door, we also have a little pocket in there where you can hide other things like, you know, your keys or if you have a dog, you, your pad.

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[00:20:46] Roberta Mantenuto: And then, yeah, they'll copy it and then they'll just drive off your, just drive your car off your driveway with your car. Um, Do you, I always ask people in the States, are you guys finding that? Does that happen?

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[00:21:06] Eric Goranson: That is, that does happen. Okay. It does happen.

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[00:21:24] Roberta Mantenuto: Add that to the list. Um, that, no, that was just a happy accident, but that's, I mean, that's something that people don't really think about and um, as our users just continue to use different products, we come up with these other, you know, selling points of them. So that's one that was a very happy accident.

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[00:21:59] Roberta Mantenuto: The other excellent [00:22:00] use for this is also pot lights. Um, or flush mount. Oh, lights. Yeah. Yeah. So if you wanna buy a flush now. Uh, light in Canada, we call them pot lights. Mm-hmm. Is that what? Yep. Same

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[00:22:16] Eric Goranson: Call him pot lights here. Everybody figured it out.

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[00:22:32] Roberta Mantenuto: And count how many you have. It can get very expensive very quickly. So with this device mount, you can actually recess, a top mount can light inside of it. Um, the mount itself is about, uh, it's a fraction of the cost. I think it's about $12 US something around there. Oh, wow. You just install it the same way you would the top mount.

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[00:23:09] Roberta Mantenuto: That's usually like the three things that all of our products are trying

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[00:23:29] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And then now we're back into LEDs again, but, and you can spend a ton of money. On good l e D lights these days. Yeah. And just in recess can lights. Yeah, absolutely. Or pot lights as you call them. Yeah,

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[00:23:42] Eric Goranson: we have plenty of good Canadian followers, so,

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[00:23:48] Roberta Mantenuto: It's one product. It's five inches by five inches, and you can use it across. All these different devices. Um, so for our retail partners who stock inventory of our product, it's one skew that they have to [00:24:00] carry. It's not that every single device we have to keep up to date with all the development of each device.

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[00:24:12] Eric Goranson: Wow, that is awesome. And again, that somebody can have that in the back of their truck or their car and it's got so many uses for that, you know, remodeler contractor

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[00:24:29] Roberta Mantenuto: Maybe they don't know how to drywall mud or they're not as comfortable with that. There's also a framed version of it. So we try to again, hit the pro, hit the diy, make it easy to install. And just like applicable and modular to everything that you can think of.

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[00:24:51] Eric Goranson: I mean, any secrets of new stuff coming out that you're working on? Cause I tell you what, uh, you, every time you guys come out with something new, I'm like, I didn't even [00:25:00] know we needed to address that, but of course we needed to address that. Yeah, because it's so obvious, you know, you see it and you're like, just like the bathroom stuff.

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[00:25:12] Roberta Mantenuto: But it's there. So this year, uh, every third Tuesday of the month, we have something called innovation week, where we're launching new products. Um, some months it's just one product. Some months it's a few at a time. Um, Everything that we're launching this year is pretty much not air registers.

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[00:25:34] Eric Goranson: it. Well, here's one of the things that I love too, by the way, is I love your receptacle, like your outlet niches where you can flush mount that. Yeah, that looks so trick. Yeah.

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[00:25:50] Roberta Mantenuto: Kind of contention of, you know, the electrician comes in, they set something up that the drywaller needs to fix, that the, you know, like the plumber is upset. And so [00:26:00] we're really trying to bring peace to the, to the, uh, job site is also one of the core values of our products. And so, yeah, with the receptacle Mount, again, any other competitors on the market are really expensive and they're also very challenging to install.

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[00:26:32] Roberta Mantenuto: It's using the existing apparatus. You don't need to make any adjustments to the receptacle mount or anything like that. There's just a simple adjustment that it needs to be slightly recessed. That can be done easily by the electrician, and then the drywaller comes in and just. Puts this receptacle mount, um, and then the receptacle box is attached to it from the back and you're good to go.

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[00:27:13] Roberta Mantenuto: The receptacle mount, um, is flat with the drywall. It doesn't protrude from the wall. And these are really small details that just elevate a space, right? Um, we're, we're so focused on curating every single detail. Why should the receptacle mount stick out from the wall? Why should there be two screws that you can always see it just.

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[00:27:40] Eric Goranson: what I love about this too is that I've tried to use some of the other products as a designer in the past, cuz I've got 29 years of interior design trying to get those guys to put those, you'd almost have to put those boxes in at rough in Exactly.

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[00:28:07] Roberta Mantenuto: go. Yeah, basically, yeah.

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[00:28:30] Roberta Mantenuto: We should clean that and then we never do nasty. Yeah. Yeah. So

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[00:28:40] Roberta Mantenuto: months. Yeah. Well this is the thing is like now I look at these things cuz this is my job and I get into people's houses and I'm like, yeah, we should probably fix something.

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[00:29:05] Roberta Mantenuto: Everything is tucked behind and you actually don't see that ugly grill fan. It has a mount that you just close it and you just see this like beautiful plate that you paint to match your drywall. Um, so we've had the metal product out. So the metal version of that product we've had out for a few years, it's actually one of our top sellers.

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[00:29:43] Roberta Mantenuto: Easy DIY framed version. Nice. Um, it'll have all of the same functions, but it's actually gonna be less than half the price of the metal counterpart. Um, You're, you're now gonna be able to get that finished, look at a more accessible price point, which is what we do with [00:30:00] all of our other products. We have a higher end metal version and then a, and then a mid to low end plastic version that has the same function.

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[00:30:32] Roberta Mantenuto: Yeah. Um, quality is also very important to us and our customers as well. Um, you know, our products are more expensive than, you know, the status quo. Which, you know, is logical. Um, yeah. But it's

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[00:30:48] Roberta Mantenuto: Yeah, absolutely. And every single product is hand inspected by our team, uh, on our assembly line.

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[00:30:58] Eric Goranson: sure. [00:31:00] Nice and that's cool. Yeah. That's hiding that bathroom fan. Brilliant. That is absolutely brilliant. Because man, there's not a single one out there that I go, Ooh, that's sexy. No, they all just need to be hidden. I love it. Yeah. One thing I do like that you guys have is how does that shower niche work that you guys have, that's kind of trick too.

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[00:31:38] Roberta Mantenuto: Um, it comes now in two sizes. Um, so there's a, I think it's a 12 by 12 and then a 12 by 20 size, so a little bit longer. The beauty of this niche is that it fits between the. So you don't need to move, reframe anything. Um, they actually fit into preexisting, um, you know, anybody who has a, a waterproof, [00:32:00] um, Mount like Schluter has one.

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[00:32:26] Roberta Mantenuto: So put all of your, you know, your lofa, your shaver, your ball, your. Shampoo bottles and you just put all that all in there. Mm-hmm. You close the door and nobody can see it.

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[00:32:44] Eric Goranson: As the design wise, I always try to hide them. I. You know, as a designer, cuz I've designed thousands of bathrooms out there, as in my career of doing it. I'm always like, well, they're like, why'd you put the niche way down over there? Because I don't wanna look at it. Yeah, right. I just, you know, so many people make that the [00:33:00] centerpiece and I'm like, Why should somebody's Costco bottles be my centerpiece in this beautiful $20,000 shower?

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[00:33:18] Eric Goranson: So, so that there's not a niche that's made to fit that. Yeah. You know, and trust me, I built my own custom one.

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[00:33:40] Eric Goranson: Yeah, exactly. It won't fit in anything.

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[00:33:59] Roberta Mantenuto: But you [00:34:00] know, of course, just like anything else, the niche does not absolve anyone from cleaning their shower. You absolutely need to do that. And so you'll clean our niche just like you would any other niche. It's actually stainless steel. So in terms of molding, it's actually better than a tiled. Uh, niche that actually can, especially if it's natural stone, it could start of, start absorbing that water.

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[00:34:30] Eric Goranson: Oh, trust me and I, funny story on that, just a little side note. I had a, uh, when we started using some of the new high performance grouts a few years ago in projects, it was this easy, clean grout, everything else, and a customer had us come back, me and the contractor come back, look at a.

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[00:35:03] Eric Goranson: And I'm like, dude, clean your shower. Yeah, we're this isn't, you can't get away from that. I mean, there's things you can do, but that's. You still gotta clean it. Yeah.

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[00:35:25] Eric Goranson: The closest, my shower is the closest out there that I have now. It's, uh, it's a, uh, drying shower system, so there's air vents in there that blow my shower. Yes. And so my, my, my steam shower has 13 air vents that blow in the glass, the doors and across the floor to dry it. So in 20 minutes my shower's dry.

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[00:35:48] Roberta Mantenuto: in like a bionic home? Like what do you have

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[00:35:52] Roberta Mantenuto: wow, I didn't even know that was a thing. That's insane.

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[00:36:03] Eric Goranson: So I'll show you pictures of that off air. It's cool. Yeah, it's, it, it makes it so when you're doing a shower, it's no other way to do it. Literally, you just hit the timer and walk away. And I just make sure my bath fans runs faster, you know, longer than the, than the drying system. But yeah. Hey, in

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[00:36:23] Roberta Mantenuto: So you don't need a towel. Absolutely.

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[00:36:39] Eric Goranson: System, right? Yeah. If I

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[00:37:00] Roberta Mantenuto: The bras actually, um, are modular so they can attach to each other. So depending on how wide the span is, you can just keep attaching them and going as wide as you need. They're also pretty solid. I think they, each bracket alone can hold, uh, upwards of 150 pounds. So of course you need two brackets. That's 300 pounds right there.

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[00:37:41] Roberta Mantenuto: Um, so yeah. And now they've really kind, they've really taken off. So again, that's that the, the. Goal mission for that product was just to make the install easier and to have something that's already, um, pre-made. So you can just use that in any application.

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[00:38:02] Eric Goranson: I don't have to go sit there and try to fabricate something. Yeah. And it gives you a place where you can hide your Costco bottles underneath it. Yeah, exactly.

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[00:38:21] Roberta Mantenuto: Doing their job instead of building all these substrates and, you know, putting all these things together, we just wanna make it super easy for them. And then of course, the homeowner will see the upside of that as well, because they're gonna be able to get the job done faster and um, with more precision.

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[00:38:58] Eric Goranson: The hard corners of [00:39:00] that, how sleek that is. It's, it's trick. Yeah,

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[00:39:12] Eric Goranson: Yeah. You know, I, I, I just had this conversation cause I had to do, uh, for the TV show a few weeks ago, I had to do a drywall patch segment and I'm like, next to doing insulation.

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[00:39:26] Roberta Mantenuto: Yeah. We, we had to make a sample for a trade show a few years ago and I told, I'm pretty artistic myself. I told my dad like, I can probably do it. Like how hard could it be? You know, I didn't, I did it. He looked at it and he's like, we need to throw that out.

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[00:39:46] Eric Goranson: Oh, that, that is the worst part with me out there, because I'm not an electrician, I'm not a drywaller, I'm not a plumber. So I was doing a segment last week and I'm sweating pipe. With the torch and I'm like, I can hear every plumber [00:40:00] making fun of me in the background.

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[00:40:19] Eric Goranson: How do people find these? How do people buy them? How do they put 'em

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[00:40:39] Roberta Mantenuto: So there's a whole list of retailers that you can buy from. In Canada, we sell some of our products through Home Depot. If you're in Quebec, bmr, uh, those are like the biggest names. Other than that, yeah, any really flooring store, um, you can find our products in. The best place to find all that information is Aria event do com.

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[00:41:12] Eric Goranson: Cool. Cool. So what else have we missed today, Roberta? This is great.

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[00:41:24] Roberta Mantenuto: The majority of them have been protected by patents. Um, as a brand, we're really trying to. You know, change, uh, the industry and provide people products that are modular, functional, they look beautiful. Um, and yeah, just kind of get people to love things that have just been. Mundane and you know, status quo for the longest time.

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[00:41:49] Eric Goranson: So if it doesn't say Aria vent on it, it's not the real thing. Yes, yes, yes. There. Yeah, for sure. There's always, [00:42:00] you know, that's like, they always say, oh, it's when people copy. It's flattering. No, you're ripping me off. Don't copy me. Yeah. That's just how I look at it. I'm sorry. Yeah, and I mean, I don't like the, I don't like the knockoff stuff.

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[00:42:17] Roberta Mantenuto: I mean, and it's kind of the name of the game. When you have innovation, you'll always have copycats coming to the market with different products. Um, and so as a, as a innovation company, really one of our mandates is to protect our patents and make sure that, um, we're honoring, uh, our inventions and our innovation.

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[00:42:50] Roberta Mantenuto: Um, and so absolutely, yeah, that's, that's really one of our strategies is to make sure that we're protecting our patents. And of course, we protect our partners as well. All of those retailers that [00:43:00] find on the store locator, they're invested in, uh, the success of Aria. They're carrying inventory with us.

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[00:43:15] Eric Goranson: Yeah. So if you're tackling that project this weekend, head down to your local retailer, might be able to grab it off the shelf today, and then if you're getting it off that list, you know, it's the real thing as well.

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[00:43:33] Roberta Mantenuto: 2023. Yes. I appreciate you having me so much. It, this was just so much fun. And, uh, yeah, we're on a mission to get people excited about air registers and other unloved building products, so I think we did that here today, at least between you and I.

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[00:43:49] Eric Goranson: All right, Roberta making those ugly things in our home. Sexy again, our event. Thanks for coming on. Thank you so much. I'm Eric G and you've been listening to Around the House[00:44:00]