Should i clean my air ducts

Even if the contractors observe maximum cleaning or close up the areas that were under renovation to prevent other parts of the house from untidy construction activities, dust, dirt, and debris always find their way in. Unless the HVAC systems are off or completely covered during the renovations, be sure that dirt and dust will have been sucked up into the ductwork. Therefore, you should consider cleaning your air ducts after any renovations.

Most homeowners know that duct cleaning is important. However, most have the common question, how do you know if your air ducts need to be cleaned? Well, there you have it. Engage the services of a professional technician if you witness any of the above-mentioned signs.

Back to blog. Take a look at our photo on work process before and after. Not sure if you need to clean your air duct? Dustless Duct. High quality inspection, restoration, cleaning and maintenance of ductwork. Call or fill out your details in the form below and we will call you back.

Our phone representatives are waiting to answer your questions. The dander will get into the duct system as well. Over time, it will combine with other contaminants and be forced out of the vents while the unit is running.

Dust and Dust Mites: You spend a lot of time dusting the furniture, vacuuming the carpets , and mopping the floors as a way to get rid of dirt and dust. Even the bed linens get attention partly due to the dust that can accumulate on surfaces during the day. Unless the ducts are cleaned from time to time, the dust and the mites will be part of what you breathe in.

Even if you have an exterminator come in and treat the house, the odds are high that some traces of those pests remain in the duct system. For example, there may be rodent carcasses and certainly some amount of waste contained in the system. Do you really want the forced air flowing through those ducts and out of the vents to move over remains and waste?

Mold and Mildew: Condensation can be set up in the duct system and leave behind enough residue to trigger the growth of mold. Mildew may also be found in the ducts over time. Think of what happens when the air moves over the mold; tiny spores break off and are carried into each of your rooms. Eventually, some of those spores are inhaled.

Have some allergy tests and see what you can find out. If they come back negative, you can either have the ducts cleaned or continue to sniffle, sneeze, and blow your nose on a regular basis. We have lived here for 13 years. Is it something I can do with a shop vac? Can i use a wet rag to get the powder dust on the inside of the vents off.

One vent has what looks like chunks of dry wall or thick paint sitting in the vent and none of the vents screw into the wall, the screws just fall out. No one ever reinforced the area so the wall just basically crumbles.

Kind of useless to spend the money on filters since the air and dust just blows out around the sides of the vents and one of the vents just falls right out of the wall when the heat is turned on.

Air duct cleaning is a total scam. Unless you have mold or some sudden illness you think might be related to the ducts, better leave well enough alone. The only substantial thing I noticed is them replacing the furnace filter with one of MY filters next to the furnace, and I had replace it less than a month prior. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that this is one of the most enlightening posts on this topic. Is duct cleaning worth it?

There is not a yes or no answer that suits everyone. On an Air Force base, the system was not air tight and there was leakage around the filters. The system got dirty. A professional company was called out. The Duct was big enough that a technician could go inside the metal duct and clean it.

There was a new Air Handler installed and things were sealed up better. In some older homes, there was a grey Mylar flexible duct. After years of use, it started to decompose. This is a savings on your part. You could also be sucking in Hot, dirty attic air. However, sometimes when a duct cleaning company comes out to clean it, the old duct can be destroyed and have to be replaced.

All of you have dentists, you have doctors, you have preachers, you have mechanics. Call your friends and family and ask for referrals. There are no black and white scam or not a scam answers here.

As the article states, unless you have undergone some type of extensive reno, or ducts have become contaminated, paying for cleaning is pointless. Its one thing if you have a 30 year old home that has never had a duct cleaning and you can actually see mounds of dust built up , especially in the return side, then go for it.

Keep in mind that most of the dust in your home is lint from clothes and linens, and skin cells from you and your pets and is constantly being generated. Dust that builds up in ductwork , generally stays in the ductwork. The power of suggestion, scare tactics, up sell!!! Very interesting article. I searched articles about services for cleaning ventilation systems.

But I have some questions. For cleaning ventilation system used special products for cleaning. Can I know in company manager about, which type of cleaning products they use? Your family members may be allergic in some components. But I find a lot of company.

Can I understand the company is professional or not, only looking through the website? What must I check on the website? Who has helpful information? I will very grateful for your help. Links I add for understanding my problem. They are random and not for advertising. My house was built about The ducts had never been cleaned. That also means that the system breathed air in from the basement and most of this type did not have a cold air return system.

A year and a half ago fall of we replaced the furnace and air conditioner. From what we could determine this was the third forced air furnace and second air conditioner unit for the house. The idea was to get more cold air to the second floor in the summer. It worked and for the first time the second floor and first floor temperatures were the same when the air conditioner was running.

Of course, to make the system work I close down upstairs duct damper doors in the winter and open them up in the summer.

WELL, this summer when I opened them up we had black dust spewing from one of the upstairs vents. It resembled the fuzz that comes off new towels. This prompted us to look into duct cleaning. We heard from someone who had it done several times, said it was worthwhile, and knew of a firm that did a good job. He proceeded to clean each heat register by removing the grille and blasting it with an air pressure hose toward the duct opening thinking that the dust would magically be sucked inside.

In one room this caused a ceiling smoke detector to go off because the excess dust fooled it into thinking there was smoke.

Although we discussed how I open and close damper doors, I realized later that he never checked, opened or adjusted them during the cleaning. He could have closed all but the one he was working on in order to increase suction results.

This is important! In a newer house, ducts have long straight runs from the furnace. In older houses like mine they can turn and twist. In fact, the duct we have a problem with runs straight up from the basement inside a wall and turns 90 degrees into a soffit for three feet then into two 90 degree turns to get into the floor joist area for another two feet and finally a 90 degree turn up to the second floor register.

When he cleaned this one he could only get three feet into the register with the hose or squid because of the turns. That was the case with most. Hardly what could be described as a decent cleaning. The next step was cleaning the cold air returns. The procedure matched the other air ducts except that when he finished at the two cold return registers he drilled several holes in the cold ducts in the basement and blasted air into them. Because of our houses age and the upgraded return system, I noticed that the main sheet metal return duct had no top but was just butted up against the ceiling in the basement.

When he blasted air in, dust and crap shot out the edges along the ceiling. The sanitizing consisted of using a compressed air paint style sprayer with a can the size of a cola to spray the inside of the furnace, filter and cold air return after I turned the heat on for a few minutes to warm it up.

It took 30 seconds and the basement room filled with a mist from overspray. In addition, the black dust was found in most of the heat registers. Also, in the register in the basement he described the black dust as being oily.

The reality of that situation is that I had the AC on until the morning of the service and minutes after he snaked the hoses in my back door it started raining. The basement register had condensation from the humidity all over it. It was not oily but wet. He asked for an old towel and wiped it out. Never saw anything so black — because I never had to clean soot. That is what I have in my ducts.

Soot from years of the old coal furnace. I turned on the AC when he was finished and immediately saw black fuzz balls the size of marbles come out of several of the registers. He said that was expected since everything was shaken up.

So much for describing the service as cleaning. I paid him and sent him on his way. I cannot imagine that this type of service is worthwhile in anything but a new house. Apparently in old houses such as mine I can expect that using a whole house humidifier in the winter followed by a great AC can loosen the soot. Maybe this is to be expected for the first few weeks of summer each year. I now have lined the inside of the registers with cheesecloth to catch the fuzz.

I like to know why our house smell like ammonia it even taste it too after the man cleaned only 1 air vent it started too smell my tongue feels funny like numb also I feel sick in the stomach. I too have an ancient abode which once had an octopus in the basement and now is on a 3rd forced-air gas heater, and have been contemplating having the ducts cleaned, and now am better equipped to make a decision thanks to you.

It is people like you that make the world a better place! And doing it one word at a time with no misspellings. I was with you until you said avoid steaming cleaning or moisture, there is no way you can remove mold or any other type of biological without moisture.

The best way to do this is in fact with a steamer using a commercial disinfectant and a non reactive odor remover so your home smells refreshed and not like a hospital. This is directly contradictory to your article. How exactly do you expect to kill or remove mold without it? I have worked cleaning HVAC in my area for almost 5 years.

I always do a thorough inspection and cleaning, providing before and after photos. I have completed some jobs where I felt that it was not entirely necessary, but ultimately what the customer wanted. With that being said, I have endless photos of unspeakable horrors. Hotels are usually nasty, post construction mess is certain, pets and kids create lots off debris, bugs congregate and die, then spiders set up and die, I have even had one supply that was nearly plugged with sand!

My best advice is to ask questions and evaluate the company. Also, go into vent cleaning with realistic expectations. This is to Blueberry who. I would call your city property standards dept. And let them know what. There is no excuse for living in those conditions when most problems like that are easy fixes.

Especially if your kids are getting sick. Tell your landlord your. Now I have an idea on how will I hire a duct cleaning services company. Mostly I did it myself. Thanks for the tips and Ideas. Here in Frisco, TX…just had a tech come out to clean vents. He told me I have 3 AC units and groupon covers only 1. I told him to do the unit upstairs where the kids sleep. He decided on his own to do the downstairs unit. I yelled at him why he is not doing the unit I told him to do!

He said they are all connected. I will clean two for you for the price of one… Oh really? I let it go. They should be, the house is only 2 years old, and I have no pets!

Rodents and insects are fond of making air ducts their home. Prevent the spread of disease and illness from these vermin with air duct cleaning. Mold is a dangerous contaminant. Remove visible growth as soon as possible. But you'll also need to remove the source. Mold spores are air borne and may spread easily through your vents.

If you encounter this problem, talk to your technician about restorative and preventative measures. Home renovation work generates massive amounts of dust, dirt, and debris.