Air duct cleaning provides many benefits to a home and is something you should have done at least once every few years. It’s also a good idea to have the ducts cleaned before moving into a new home or after renovations or remodeling since construction creates a lot of dust and debris. Attempting to perform a complete duct cleaning on your own isn’t effective. Professional duct cleaning involves specialized equipment and expertise to ensure the entire system is thoroughly cleaned. DIY methods often only reach a small portion of the ductwork and may not remove all the dust, debris, and allergens that can accumulate over time. Additionally, improper cleaning techniques can damage the ducts or HVAC components, leading to costly repairs.
What to Do Between Professional Duck Cleaning Visits
Vacuuming out the supply and return vents in your home and cleaning the grilles or vent covers between professional visits is definitely a good idea. Doing so reduces the chances of the vent covers getting clogged with debris, ensuring that every room receives sufficient airflow from your heating and air conditioning. Clogged vents in any room will interfere with airflow, making it colder than you would like in winter and warmer in summer. If more than a few vents are clogged, it will also affect how well your HVAC system works and how much fuel or electricity it consumes. Your heating and cooling system will have to work harder to maintain the temperature if your supply and return vents are blocked.
Clogged or closed vents prevent air from circulating through the air ducts as it should. This means air starts to build up in some of the ducts, leading to an increase in static pressure in the duct system. Higher static pressure creates more resistance, which results in the HVAC blower being unable to move as much air around the house. Consequently, the HVAC system will use more energy since it won’t be capable of cooling and heating the home as efficiently as it should.
Homeowners can maintain their supply and return vents by regularly cleaning them with a few simple tools. To clean your vents, you’ll need a vacuum cleaner with a brush attachment, a screwdriver to remove the vent covers, a soft cloth or sponge, and mild soap and water. First, use the screwdriver to remove the vent covers, then vacuum the grilles to remove any dust and debris. You can also use the vacuum to clean up where your ductwork begins inside the vents. Next, wash the covers with soap and water, ensuring they are completely dry before reattaching them. Also, ensure they are in the open position and not blocked by household items like furniture, area rugs, and drapes.
An Overview of How Professional Duct Cleaning Works
The only effective way to clean a building’s entire ductwork system is to create an airtight seal around all of the vents using plastic. HVAC companies then use an industrial-strength vacuum to remove debris from the entire duct system. Although the vacuum is incredibly powerful, it would not create the necessary suction to clean the duct system if the vents were not sealed first. Sealing the vents allows the vacuum to create negative pressure inside the ducts, making it easier to suck out debris from all the different branches.
In most cases, HVAC technicians attach the vacuum by cutting a hole in the main supply duct. They then insert the vacuum hose into the hole and fully seal around it. If the vacuum were attached to a single vent, it would mostly only remove debris from the branch that supplies that vent. Even if they were to use the vacuum on each vent in the home, there still would be a significant amount of debris remaining in the main trunk duct, making the process less effective and more time-consuming.
Professional duct cleaning often involves additional specialized equipment such as rotating brushes, air whips, and compressed air tools. These tools help to dislodge and remove stubborn debris and contaminants that the vacuum alone might not capture. This comprehensive approach ensures that the entire duct system, including all branches and the main trunk duct, is thoroughly cleaned.
Using proven methods allows the technician to collect and bag all debris, ensuring that the process does not create a mess in your house. Since all the vents are sealed, you do not have to worry about dust blowing out of them into your rooms, maintaining a clean indoor environment during the cleaning process.
Benefits of Professional Duct Cleaning
Getting your ducts professionally cleaned every three years or so provides three different but equally important benefits. One major benefit is that it helps prevent indoor air quality issues and keeps your home cleaner and less dusty. Dust always ends up collecting inside air ducts, and some of it then gets blown out of the vents and into your living spaces when your heating and cooling systems run. Other allergens and contaminants also build up inside ducts. They include things like pollen, carpet and fabric fibers, lint, and fungal spores.
Dust mites are an especially concerning issue. The mites themselves usually don’t live in ducts and instead are found on mattresses, chairs and sofas, curtains, old clothing, stuffed animals, and other soft materials and fabrics. The issue is the allergens the dust mites leave behind, such as the waste they produce and dead body parts. These allergens continually get stirred up when you move around. This results in some of the allergens getting drawn into your air ducts, which then contribute to the rest of the dust and debris in the ducts. Duct cleaning removes all of the allergens and contaminants associated with dust mites, making the air your HVAC system circulates much cleaner.
Another major benefit of duct cleaning is that it helps to improve HVAC performance and energy efficiency. When your ducts are clean, the air your HVAC system circulates flows through them smoothly. As dust and debris start to build up inside the ducts, it creates resistance that makes it more difficult for the HVAC system to circulate air around your house. This means the system has to work harder, which can lead to it using more energy.
The third benefit of having your duct system cleaned by a professional is that it allows them to identify any issues with your ductwork. During the service, they will identify gaps, leaks, and collapsed sections in your ducts. They can often perform minor repairs during their visit. Alternatively, they will provide recommendations to solve any major issues. It benefits homeowners to follow the technician’s advice because you could be losing up to 20% of your conditioned air due to faulty ductwork.
Contact the Pros
At Summit Heating, A/C, Plumbing & Electrical, we have been serving the residents of Littleton, CO and the surrounding areas since 1998. We install, maintain, and repair heating and cooling systems. In addition, we provide duct cleaning and duct sealing services. Contact us today to schedule an appointment with one of our experienced and knowledgeable team members.
