Why You Should Get Your Air Ducts In Your Home Cleaned

Image of man professionally cleaning a duct

Most homeowners have no idea what goes on inside their home’s air vents. The fact is they can be littered with years of accumulated dirt, debris and allergens like pollen, dust, pet dander and even mold. Chances are you’ve never had your vents cleaned – it’s just one of those things that’s out of sight and out of mind. With how dusty New Mexico can be it’s no wonder our ducts and vents get so fifthly. Professional duct cleaning is not only beneficial for your home’s indoor air quality, but also helps your heating and cooling system run more efficiently.

Why Duct Cleaning is Important

When you run your heater, swamp cooler or air conditioner, air is traveling over all of the debris that’s been accumulating in your vents, which then enters into your home. Indoor air pollution is a growing concern that has the potential to create a health hazard within your home and has been connected to many illnesses including asthma, sinusitis and more. Duct cleaning is an important service because it thoroughly cleans your vents to help eliminate the debris that’s been sitting in your vents for years and helps reduce undesirable impacts on everything from respiratory health to the health of your home’s heating and cooling system.

Things that could be in your vents:

  • Pollen
  • Viruses
  • Mold
  • Bacteria
  • Pet dander
  • Droppings and body parts from cockroaches
  • Dead mice or rodents (unfortunately our techs have encountered this before)
  • Protein in urine from rats and mice as a potential allergen (can become airborne after it dries)
  • Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a large group of odorless, carbon-based chemicals that easily evaporate at room temperature. Common symptoms of exposure to VOCs include eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, nausea, and worsening asthma symptoms.

Things you should know

  • A study done by The National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) found that occupants in buildings where ducts have not been cleaned are 60% more likely to develop respiratory problems.
  • The average six room house collects up to 40 lbs. of dust per year
  • A buildup of .18” of dirt on a heating/cooling coil can decrease efficiency by up to 21%
  • Only 1” of dust build up on the inside of your ducts can reduce air flow by 30%

How Duct Cleaning Works

Our technicians are trained to provide you with the best service and they make sure your ducts are fully cleaned. We use Ram Air’s equipment and duct cleaning system to ensure your vents are spotless. The process is the same for both floor ducts and roof vents.

  1. Our technician starts by turning on your heating/cooling system, this pulls contaminates that may be airborne to the vents as they are being cleaned.
  2. We then begin cleaning the return vent and it’s grill (the vent that sucks air into your home to be circulated) with a powerful vacuum.
  3. Our technician will then begin cleaning each register individually and will start with the vent that is the furthest from the return vent so they collect as many particles as possible. We cover the other vents in your house with plastic so dirt won’t blow out while cleaning the other vents. We take off each register and both clean and inspect each one to ensure it’s functioning correctly.
  4. We service one register at a time. Our technician will use a clear plastic boot that will seal around the edges of your vent (if you’d like you can actually watch the process to see everything that is coming out of your vents!).
  5. Once properly sealed, we use a ball crawler that will push the dirt back towards the plastic boot to capture the dirt within your vents. Negative pressure inside the duct system cause the dirt to come back toward the plastic boot.
  6. If you choose, our technician can use a hypoallergenic sanitizer to further sanitize your vents. We use Microban as our sanitizing agent, which has the lowest EPA rating and has a lemon or mint smell so your family can be in the house while the service is being done. It is antimicrobial and provides odor control to prevent bacteria from growing.

Vents Before And After Graphic 300x226

Other Things To Be Aware Of

  • We clean around the area after each vent cleaning, but know that a fine dust could still cover other places in your home. You’ll want to do a thorough cleaning after having your ducts cleaned.
  • The process is noisy, so schedule around your pets or kids if you think it will be bothersome to them.
  • You will still need to replace your furnace and ac filters regularly.
  • We recommend that depending on the number of people in your home and whether or not you have children and/or animals that you have your ducts cleaned every 1-3 years.

Types of Duct Cleaning

How Much Does It Cost and How Long Does for Air Duct Cleaning Service?

  • Cost: $25/register (aka vent) with a $250 minimum
  • Time: Depending on how many registers you have in your home it usually takes about 3 hours from start to finish (or about 15 minutes per register).

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Indoor air quality is often not addressed, but it’s important to maintain the integrity of the air you’re breathing in your home – out of sight shouldn’t be out of mind. There are other things you can do to improve your home’s indoor air quality to help eliminate airborne contaminants. We hope that homeowners begin to prioritize the air in their homes, which starts with just a little awareness!