Frequently Asked Questions for Duct Cleaning
Q. Why should I get my air ducts cleaned?
A. Ducts cleaning is an important part of any home or business maintenance. A dirty air duct can affect your health by lowering the quality of the air, encouraging the circulation of allergens and bacteria. One way to keep your indoors air free from unnecessary pollutants is to keep the air ducts of your heating and cooling systems clean. Moreover, dirty or blocked ducts can decrease the deficiency of your air conditioning system and increase energy costs.
Q. Do I need a specialized company to clean the ducts?
A. Since ducts cleaning involves special methods, it’s important to hire a professional and experienced company like Mighty clean ducts to do the job. Mighty clean ducts is equipped with truck mount machines that can thoroughly clean up your air ducts.
Q. How do ducts get dirty anyhow?
A. Air ducts are just like the respiratory system of a human body. Air circulates in your house or business through the hidden air ducts. The air conditioning system pumps up the hot air heated up in the furnace in winter time and the cold air generated by the cooling device in summer time, sending air to the vents around the house. When the air conditioning system is running, contaminants like dust, pollen, pet hair and animal dander are brought into the system through the return air vents. They get deposited in the air ducts. Vents on the floor level are inevitably laden with dirt and mud, brought in from the house doors or just from your indoor plants. These contaminants will eventually enter the air ducts in which they produce mildews and germs that can jeopardize your health. Since ordinary cleaning is not able to reach the very deep inside of the air ducts, only professionals with special machines can help you thoroughly clean up the air conditioning system.
Q. How often should I have my air ducts cleaned?
A. At least every 2 years. If you or one of your family members have respiratory problems such as asthma or allergy to pollens, or if you are living in relatively dusty neighborhood, you should clean your ducts more often.
Q. Should I have my air ducts cleaned before I move in to my new house?
A. Yes. As your house is newly built, it’s not unusual that quite a lot of the construction debris like sawdust, asbestos and concrete lumps remained in the air ducts. If you don’t clean them they will obstruct the airflow in the ducts causing problems from the start. It’s always a good suggestion to have your new house cleaned before you move in.
Q. How do you clean my air ducts?
A. We use our truck mount vacuum machine and high pressure air blow gun to clean up the whole air conditioning system. We will first open some holes on the air ducts to hook up an 8 -10 inch diameter hose to the air conditioning system and connect this hose to our powerful truck mount vacuum machine (air volume 20000 cubic feet per minute). When the vacuum machine is turned on, it generates huge negative pressure. Contaminants in your air conditioning system would be extracted through the hose to the vacuum machine outside. At the meantime, we use a high pressure air gun (air pressure 250 pounds per square inch) combined with the roller brush to clean up the air vents and floor/ceiling registers one by one and help draw the contaminants to the vacuum machine.
Q. Can you reach all the places within the ducts?
A. Yes we can. For the usually unreachable places inside of the air duct, we use a special equipment to do the job. This so-called “octopus” (some people call that spider) equipment is an air-blowing plastic whips mounted on the end of a very flexible long rod that can be inserted deeply into the air ducts. Next, we will open your furnace to clean its inside including the air filters. We also spray the disinfection sanitizer (optional) into the air ducts, eliminating the germs that have grown in there. Once we finish the cleaning process we seal up the opened holes.
Q. Do you charge “connection fee”, “hole opening fee”, “individual vent cleaning fee”?
A. No we don’t. Some companies do, but we don’t. Our air duct cleaning fees are based on the number of furnaces you have and the size of your house.
Q. What is the best time for Duct Cleaning?
A. The best time for ducts cleaning depends on several factors. Duct cleaning companies will tell you every year or two, but that is a rather vague answer. Based on our experience, here are some guidelines in determining when to have your air ducts cleaned.
- When a newborn baby joins the family or if a mother expects a child. Even if you have cleaned the air ducts 2 years ago, you shouldn’t take any chances. Infants’ lungs are so small and sensitive that any airborne contaminants can immediately affect them. But don’t stop at duct cleaning! Consider our carpet and upholstery cleaning as well, as a thorough top-to-bottom house cleaning before the new baby is born.
- Flooding or moisture problems. Duct cleaning could make sense if you have a problem with moisture in your ductwork. Moisture may result in mold growth in the air ducts. First it is important to solve the problem. Next, clean and disinfect the entire ductwork system where the mold has grown and have the rest of the ducting system cleaned as well. In some instances you should better replace the entire affected areas. It may also be more cost effective to replace the contaminated ducts.
- New construction project. If you are moving into a newly constructed or newly renovated house, duct cleaning should be high on your list. Drywall dust, fiberglass pieces, sawdust and other construction debris can restrict air flow and cause damage. Duct cleaning will also remove lunch wrappers, soda cans and other garbage which may have fallen or been swept into the air ducts. For similar reasons, duct cleaning is always advisable for older homes after renovations.
- If your house is cold or drafty. If you experience problems with the furnace airflow, duct cleaning could uncover significant blockages. You should have the ducts cleaned before you pursue additional expensive solutions like duct work replacement or air duct rerouting to solve an airflow problem. Furnace cleaning and air conditioning component cleaning (e.g. furnace fan blower, air conditioning coil, humidifier, furnace heat exchanger, etc.) have also proved to make a huge difference in air flow.
- Visible inspection of air ducts. Although the hidden components within your heating and cooling systems are often the dirtiest parts, if you see that your exposed vents are dirty, just imagine how dirty the rest of the ductwork system is. If you look into the cold air return registers and see an accumulation of dust and debris in the air ducts, you may want to have it removed. Research has shown that cold air return air ducts which are relatively big and have slow moving air, are generally much dirtier than the supply ducts.
- If you have household pets. Households with hairy pets may find it necessary to inspect their return air ducts more frequently. Pet hair and pet dander, toys, food items and even feces matter seem to all find their way into the air ducts. If you have pets or small children, you may want to plan on more frequent duct cleaning.
If any of the situations listed above have helped you determine whether you should clean your ducts now, please contact us and schedule a duct cleaning appointment at your convenience, using our online form.
