I have seen this in so many homes I have serviced.  I have serviced some fairly dirty homes and I can tell you what to look for.  What am I talking about?  I am talking about knowing if you have “dirty ducts.”  You would not believe some of the houses or businesses I have serviced.  They were gruesome.  They should have called an air duct cleaning service years ago!   But many, or should I say most, people do not even know when they need it done.  Read on and I am going to tell you how you can know if you have “dirty ducts” as we call them.

Every home is different.  But here are some things to look for….

If you are any of your family members are having unexplained or usually symptoms or allergies that could be related to your home environment.   This could mean that that there are large deposits and dust or mold and having your air ducts cleaned could be very necessary.

This will depend on where you live but ducts can get infested with rodents and insects.  This is a really bad problem to have.  Those vermin make their homes in your ducts and when they die it can really cause air quality problems.

There are a lot of duct cleaning companies out there competing for business, and they all vary in prices and their techniques. However beware of scams. There are some companies out there that don’t actually do any duct cleaning at all but they advertise ridiculously low prices.

Their techniques of duct cleaning consist of sticking a “glorified shop vac hose” down the vent a couple of feet and then cleaning the registers. But if you were to look in the vent a little ways with a mirror or small camera, you would still see dust lining the walls and probably some cobwebs or construction debris only 3 or 4 feet down in.

These type of companies don’t clean out the plenum at the furnace or the trunk lines either. They say that they are going to use top of the line equipment with big technical names, and all they do is clean the areas that are plainly visible when you lift up the register.

These type of companies will advertise something like, “We will clean any house for $100.00!” But people who buy it are just getting what they payed for. They just Blow and Go, advertising that they are a lot quicker than any other company. Remember the pricing depends on the size of the house, the location of the furnace, and whether or not there’s a crawl space. So anyone saying that they will do any house for the same ridiculously low price is probably going to do a horrible job.

Also if you look at the fine print on those advertisements there’s usually a catch. So the customer will be expecting that low price when its all done but the bill turns out to be a lot more than they had quoted the customer at first. They say that there were more vents than the usual house, or they had to use special chemicals, or something along those lines so its going to cost more than the average house.

Remember to ask each company you call about their procedure, and what exactly they clean. Some companies have small cameras that they feed down the vent to show you what’s in there and when they are finished they will show you what the vent looks like. That way you can see a before and after, then you know for sure that you haven’t been scammed and they did a good job.

So make sure that you do your research before hiring a company to clean your ducts. You can get good deals out there but also if you go cheap usually you get what you payed for, so look out for the scams.

Air Ducts Before

Air Ducts After

Clean air is essential to life. Often times we breath contaminated air without even knowing it. And one of the most least suspecting places you would think of having to worry about is your very own house. In houses that haven’t had their ducts cleaned there is dust, dust mites, chunks of drywall, wood shavings, other construction materials, bugs, hair, fur, and sometimes rodents and mildew. Look for yourself, just pull up a floor register, or a return vent from the wall and shine a flashlight inside. You will be surprised at what you find! This is what you’re breathing every day! This isn’t something that a lot of people worry about though because its unseen. Out of sight, out of mind.

Do you find yourself constantly dusting? It seems like you can dust over and over again and it just comes right back. Have you considered cleaning the ducts? Often times it comes from the forced air system in your house! It just circulates the air around the house and the haunting dust comes back. There are many reasons to have your ducts cleaned. Better air quality, especially important for anyone with asthma, reduce allergens, and it keeps the dust levels down.

Get those dirty ducts cleaned! Most of the duct cleaning services are very thorough. They do cost a pretty penny but its worth it. Usually around a couple hundred bucks. Although it is expensive, it is very thorough and better for your health and furnace.

The procedure: Most companies hook a (technical term) big vacuum to the supply and return side of the ductwork at your furnace, and then block off all the vents for maximum suction. It kind of makes a central vac throughout the house. There will be suction to each vent/ Then they go from vent to vent one at a time and feed a line through it to the trunk line. The trunk line is the big duct either in the crawl space or ceiling that all the vents branch off of. The line that they feed down is just an air compressed line but at the end is a whip that blows out air and whips around violently inside, knocking everything and anything off of the duct walls, leaving it spic and span. Usually they will go into the crawl space if you have one to clean out the trunk line also. Everything gets sucked back to the vacuum at the furnace.

Before

After

When you’re calling around to the different companies some things you might want to look for is how thorough their process is. Ask if they clean out the trunk lines, and air wash the furnace and motor. Some companies use what they call a roto-vac. I personally don’t like that process because it doesn’t seem all that thorough. It’s pretty much a glorified shopvac. It is a vacuum with a long hose and at the end is a spinning brush. However try to shove a shop vac hose down your vents and see how far you can get it in. see what I’m getting at? Also ask them how long it will take them. Depending on the size of the house and how gruesome the ducts are it should only take a few hours. Anywhere from 2-4 hours for the average house.

So 3 Major things to look for when you’re going to have your ducts cleaned would be:

Ask what their process is for cleaning your ducts

Ask how long it will take

Ask if they clean the trunk line out

Overall it’s a very smart investment. Its for the health of your family, and cleanliness of the air in the house. It keeps the dust levels down, and it also helps with the health of your furnace. Changing the filters regularly helps a lot too.

Often times duct cleaning companies offer more than just cleaning your ducts. Some companies that have certified technicians can service your furnace if need be also. A lot of companies will clean the dryer exhaust line, or the chimney. So if you’re looking into having the ducts cleaned it might be a good idea to look for a package deal, possibly getting everything done, or at least the things that actually need it. It could possibly end up saving you a lot of money, instead of having separate companies do each of those.

Dryer Vents

Dryer Vent After Cleaning

Dryer Vent Before Cleaning

I would highly recommend having the dryer vent cleaned out. This is one of the biggest dangers in your home! The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued an alert due to the fact that there are 15,500 fires, 10 deaths, and 310 injuries from dryer exhaust fires annually!  Lint from dryers is a great fire starter if you’re looking for one. However most people aren’t looking to start a fire in the dryer vent behind their wall. Letting the dryer exhaust go unnoticed is extremely dangerous, so overall if you don’t clean it out you are putting your family and home at risk. Don’t let that happen and have it cleaned annually.

Advanced warning signs

• Clothing (especially towels) take a very long time to dry
• The flapper on the vent hood doesn’t open when the dryer is turned on
• Clothes are hotter than usual at the end of a cycle
• Dryer shuts off before the end of the timed drying cycle

So if you see any of these signs it would be a very good idea to have the dryer line cleaned out. Often times people think that it’s the dryer that is having problems so they will go out and buy a new one, and they still have the problems. They just don’t realize that its the dryer vent itself.

Benefits of cleaning the dryer exhaust annually

The first and foremost is reducing the risk of fire in your home, that’s obvious. However also having a clean line makes it easier on your dryer because it doesn’t have to try so hard to push out the exhaust, thus it helps the health of your dryer. Also it can help reduce the electric bill, or gas bill depending on the type of dryer you have because then you don’t have to continually restart the cycle on your dryer just to dry one load of clothes.

So overall getting your dryer vent cleaned out is a very good idea whether you’re going to have your ducts cleaned or not. It reduces the risk of fires, helps out the dryer itself, and can save you money. So don’t be afraid to take the time to look into it. Then again its one of those things that’s out of sight, out of mind. Some dryer vent lines are very long and have angles so you will need someone with the proper equipment and tools to clean it out properly. It’s definitely worth the time of looking into it a bit.