Air condition vents (condensate caused rust on cover)

Recently, while visiting my mother-in-laws home, which we now own since she has passed away, we noticed that several of the vents have brown spots, most likely rust, on them. It is likely a result of poor insulation on the duct work causing condensation.

My question is has anyone got a remedy for removing the spots.

  1. I tried Evaporust, which I’ve had great success with in the past on rusted tools and
  2. Oven cleaner - thinking the spots might be something else

I hear that you can use Kilz on them and then repaint them, but I didn’t want to do this just yet. In fact, I’m more inclined to just replace them entirely.

Of course, I have to address the duct work first.

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It might help people to identify how to help if you could post some pictures

Is it rust or mildew? I had that problem long ago and a water bleach solution cleared it up.

There are three vents with similar problems. None of them are horrible and all of the other vents are fine. Here’s a picture of the one from the dining room;

I’ll try the bleach solution and see if that has any effect. Thanks for the tip @eadams1971