Product review (5 stars): Lasts a long time
I bought this dryer vent about 16 years ago. We had birds constantly trying to build nests inside the old style exterior vents.  I saw this in one of the "specialty" catalogs back in the 90's and thought it was worth the shot, even at $39 a pop back then.  Amazon & eBay were not around just yet so I had no choice but to purchase through a catalog.

Well it's been in steady use since I installed it.  Has survived hot summers, driving rain and snow storms.  It succumbed though last winter when we had a series of freeze-thaw & snow.  It's failure was not directly due to the weather and certainly not a product defect as it is still functioning today.  It met its demise when a huge icicle handing from a gutter above let loose and crashed into the top of the vent.  Well it still remained attached to the house but the removable cap was cracked in 2 places.  I was able to piece it together with some fiberglass resin but it just wasn't the same & didn't hold long.

I think the Heartland model would work better than the other brand with the floating cap as based on my experience, after time I think the cap would fail & remain slightly open.  That's all animals would need to get in, a slight opening.  The cap on the Heartland model is fixed and not easy for animals to open.

About a month ago we had a period of high winds which blew the cap off & into a neighbors yard.  The body of the vent is still attached to the house & unharmed.  But the latest air trip for the cap did it in.  I couldn't piece it together and I tried unsuccessfully using other plastic caps.  So that brings me to shopping for a new vent.  I don't remember the exact brand I bought years ago but the name Heartland does sound familiar.  and I really like the price this time around.

I only need the cap but it looks like I'll need to buy the whole unit.  Overall, a great well performing product.