Air Duct Cleaning

The air duct system pumps air throughout the house. Normally, there is a separate pump mechanism for every floor of the house, it is generally referred to as the Intake unit.  This Intake unit sucks air from inside your house into the duct system; this air is then either heated in the Winter or Cooled in the Summer; and then the duct system blows the hot or cold air is back into the house through the supply vents all throughout the house. This way, the same air is always circulated through the house. If you have a filter installed in your Intake unit then the air is somewhat filtered as it is sucked into the duct system, but this is a very small and short-lived barrier, and dirt and bacteria often have many other crevices through which they also enter the duct system.

Dirty air ducts lead to bad indoor air quality – the ducts carry and spread odors and airborne dirt throughout your home and you breathe it in. This is certainly bad for your health.

– Your HVAC cannot operate at its peak performance when the duct system is dirty.  The dirt that accumulates in the ducts blocks the air movement inside the duct system and lowers your HVAC system performance level. The system has to work harder to circulate air within the home, which in turn increases your energy bills. This also of course increases your carbon footprint and any associated fees or fines that may come with it.

Some of the most usual suspects that accumulate in the duct system over time are dust and dust mites, mildew and possible mold spores, human dander and/or pet dander, fungal spores, insects and remains of dead insects, at times there may be rodent feces or even dead rodents in the ducts, carcinogenic by-products of household chemicals and/or tobacco smoke, allergens from the outside environment, and other contaminants. Of course, there is a lot of bacteria that comes along with each of these contaminants, it all stays inside your air duct system and festers, and you breathe it in since your air duct system circulates it with the air around your house. Many health authorities report correlation between dirty air ducts and respiratory illnesses (asthma, wheezing, coughing, difficulty breathing), allergies (eczema, rashes, hives), headaches, tiredness, and depression. This dirt also forces your air duct system to work harder to push the air through, which increases your energy bills, lowers the air output throughout the house, and runs down your HVAC system.  So, dirty air ducts are bad for your health, raise your energy costs, and increase liability of system damage which in turn creates more costs…  

The short answer is Yes. Cleaning the air duct system will remove contaminants and outright dirt from your duct system, so it will definitely improve the indoor air quality of your home.  A clean HVAC system will operate easier and better which will heat or cool your home faster and that will also lower your energy costs.  

A note about smoke odors and other smells: Cigarette smoke has cancer-causing pollutants that spread through the air, they get sucked into the air duct system and get stuck to the internal sides of the ductwork.  This is also true of many types of plugins and scented air sprays or vaporized oils – they can all settle on the walls of the duct and then simply get recirculated throughout the home.  For this reason, we prefer using a professional machine with a brush and we also recommend a Sanitizing Disinfectant Treatment to clear up any smoke smells from the home.  We use the latest tech machine that has a duct-safe rotating brush so it safely scrubs all the internal sides of the ductwork clean all through the duct; and the air duct Sanitizer then disinfects the duct (much like hand sanitizer disinfects your hands) killing any remaining bacteria, allergens, beginning mold spores, and the like.

Scented plugins and home deodorizer sprays are not always safe, and they are largely just a cover up for any existing bad smells or odors.  Be careful and choose only natural deodorizers that do not carry carcinogenic substances, and remember these things do not actually clean your duct from the dirt that’s already accumulated in there.

If you’re trying to get rid of allergens or odors in the home, the best way is to schedule a Sanitizing Disinfectant Wash Treatment for the air ducts.  We use a sanitizer that is EPA approved, it sanitizes the inside of your ducts and deodorizes as well, so you get the value of having 2 services for 1 low flat rate fee.  Our sanitizer is applied to the inside of the ducts after we finish the deep cleaning service, it neutralizes any leftover allergens and odor-causing bacteria. 

The main reason to call a professional is to get someone who is knowledgeable about how the duct system works who also has the professional machine and equipment to do a safe and thorough air duct cleaning. Doing a DIY air duct cleaning can sometimes help, and it can sometimes cause more issues or even downright damage to your ducts.  If you’re careful, it can be a good thing to clean the opening of the ducts and the register grills once in a while with a vacuum cleaner or a wet cloth just for maintenance.  Please do this with caution to make sure no parts of the vacuum cleaner (or your cloth) are left behind or get stuck in the duct. Please do not use any rods or long sticks, and do not force any cleaning brushes or items into the ducts.

At ACD Team Solutions we use the latest technology 3-way HEPA filter machine – this means that as our machine cleans your ducts it also purifies the air in your home by putting out and circulating cleaner air than it sucks in.  Our machine is equipped with a duct-safe brush that rotates as we clean inside each duct and it scrubs all internal sides of your ductwork thoroughly clean. The opposite end of our rotating brush is equipped with a nozzle that has very powerful suction, so all the dirt that has been scrubbed off and all debris laying inside your ducts is sucked directly into the machine without any mess for you.  We open each register and go inside each duct one-by-one, all the way through to the end of the duct, and we make sure that the whole duct system is thoroughly cleaned, as well as the vent openings and the register grills. We lay out cloth tarps to cover our work area and make sure we leave your home cleaner than when we walked into it. 

The EPA and NADCA recommend doing a deep cleaning once every 3 – 4 years.  However, if you’re living in a very urbanized area near the main roads or in areas where a lot of smoke or other allergens enter your home on a regular basis then it is recommended to do a cleaning more often than that.  If you’ve recently had a major renovation or construction within your home, it is best to clean the air ducts before you settle back in within the house. Also, many people prefer to do a cleaning before a new baby arrives or before an elderly person comes to live in the house – this is a great idea as the elderly and toddlers have weaker immune systems and are more susceptible to airborne contaminants.  

If in doubt, you can always call us for an inspection. During the inspection service, our technician will use an inspection camera to examine inside your air ducts and advise you if a Deep Cleaning is needed or if a Sanitizing Disinfectant Treatment is recommended. Our technician comes fully equipped to do the work the same day, so if you’d like him to go ahead and clean your air ducts just let him know on the spot.  The $69 inspection fee is waived if you opt to do the cleaning work same day as the inspection. 

Cost is certainly an important factor, and we want our customers to be educated about the service they receive from us.

Cost is based on the way the duct system is cleaned, the time, materials, and labor that it takes to clean it. 

There are two main ways to clean your air ducts: A negative-pressure cleaning hooks up a machine to one central duct and sucks the dirt out from just that one duct opening. This method often leaves a lot of dust behind in the faraway sections and corners of the duct system, it requires cleaning those faraway sections manually and usually involves a separate additional charge. 

We employ a positive pressure cleaning, which means that by default we clean each duct one at a time manually with the help of the latest tech HEPA filter machine. This machine has a duct-safe rotating brush that dislodges all the dirt from all internal sides of the ductwork and brushes the inside of the duct clean while the nozzle of the brush sucks in the dirt directly into the machine, leaving no mess behind.  We clean each duct all the way through to the end and we clean the vent and the register grill as well.  The charge is a flat fee for supply ducts and a flat fee for intake ducts, so the overall cost is based on the number of ducts and type of ducts that are cleaned.  (Dryer ducts belong to a separate system, you can read more about them on our Dryer Pipe Cleaning service page.  Kitchen exhaust fans are a separate system as well, they require different equipment and materials to clean, we do not provide kitchen exhaust cleaning service at the moment).