Five reasons why you should absolutely clean your air ducts every year

Apr 4

Hey skimmers! Just for you, here are the answers:

1. Health problems due to dirty air ducts.
2. Clean air ducts will save money on your energy bill.
3. You don’t want pests living in your air ducts.
4. Dirty air ducts can cause your home to become dusty very quickly.
5. Your house will smell better.

For all the other readers, read along!

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We all know that movies aren’t 100% real. But when we think of the things that might not be an accurate representation of the real world, we think of things like:

“The actors are wearing make-up that makes them look prettier, or less old”

“This full time working, mom-of-six, Stepford wife is not real. This is not a standard I should hold myself to” (at least I hope you’re not)

But.

You know how in movies when people are trying to escape or hide from the bad guys, they crawl through the air ducts?

I bet you have never thought:

“No way those air ducts are that clean”

Right? That is because you’ve never had your air ducts cleaned!

Since I have had mine cleaned, I look at those movies and wonder how they crawl through air ducts without giving themselves away by coughing and sneezing.

And when they come out, they never seem to have the bloodshot eyes and snot dripping from their nose like I did when I was checking out our air duct.

It’s just not something that is on our minds. And that’s because you don’t know about the importance of having your air ducts cleaned every year.

Here’s why you should.

Health problems due to dirty air ducts

A lot of dust and debris can be hidden from the naked eye. You can’t see half the dust that it’s your HVAC system.

Even if you stick your head in the air return or climb in it to look around with a flashlight. That last one is a bad idea, by the way. Trust me on this.

Dust is an irritant. It can irritate your eyes, nose, throat, lungs, and even skin. It can also cause allergies and congestion.

Air duct cleaning (when done right) kills dust mites, mold spores, bacteria, and allergens. This will help with allergies and congestion and might even solve it completely as it did for my family.

Speaking of allergies, for people with a pet allergy, it’s always a good idea to have your air ducts cleaned out whenever you move into a home.

Pet hair and dander can get stuck inside the air ducts. Even if you don’t have pets yourself, the previous owner of your home (or office) might have, and it’s affecting your health.

Give yourself the gift of a healthy living environment and book your air duct cleaning service today!

Clean air ducts will save money on your energy bill

According to The Department of Energy, households waste about 25-40% of their energy through heating and cooling systems(1).

When your air ducts are full of dust and debris (and maybe even pests, yuk!), your HVAC system has to work way harder.

You can lower your energy bill by having nice, clean air ducts that air can breeze through.

You don’t want pests living in your air ducts

A pest is any organism that spreads disease, causes destruction, or is otherwise an inconvenience(2). Rodents, bed bugs, and roaches are examples of pests. They love to live in dark and dusty places.

Rodents can also build nests in the ducts. If the nesting material isn’t cleaned out, you’re breathing in the rodents' feces that they leave in and around their nests.

To top it all off, rodents will smell the leftover pheromones which will attract more rodents.

Even in the cleanest houses, food crumbs will end up on the floor and get knocked into floor vents. That’s why floor vents are a favorite place for pests like roaches.

If this paragraph leaves you all grossed out… call us and have us clean your air ducts!

By the way.. Bed bugs don’t live in air ducts, but they do on carpets. We can help you with that too. Check out our services.

Dirty air ducts can cause your home to become dusty very quickly

Your HVAC system pushes out air through the air vents. You can imagine that if the air ducts that the air is flowing through are dusty, part of that dust will just be pushed out through the vents.

Having your air ducts cleaned will have an effect on how often you need to vacuum or mop.

And who doesn’t want to spend less time on boring chores and more on doing things they like?!

Your house will smell better

Like I said before. If you don’t get your air ducts cleaned regularly, dust and debris will settle in there.

This dust will hold on to tiny particles in the air called odorants. Over time, your house can start to smell musky and gross.

Think about all the odorants that might live in your house; pets, smoke, food, dirty diapers, and smelly teenagers.

Cleaning your air ducts will remove all those odorants and leave your house smelling fresh like a spring morning.

What happens when you use professional air duct cleaning services?

And what are the different types of air duct cleaning?

To state the obvious: with air duct cleaning your HVAC system gets cleaned.

It’s not just your filters that are collecting dust, but also your air ducts and -returns. And they’re not just collecting dust, they might also have mold growing in them.

Lots of bacteria live there.

A good air duct cleaning service always ends with sanitizing and fogging the air return with a hospital-grade cleaning solution. Within seconds this kills mold spores, dust mites, and bacteria.

We have unscented fog for people that are sensitive to smells. If you do like to smell the cleanliness we have citrus and mint scents available. Just let us know your preference when you book us.

Always make sure that whatever air duct service you use, they sanitize and fog your air returns. This is especially important for people with allergies or respiratory problems.

Different types of air duct cleaning

There are two types of air duct cleaning, both using special air duct cleaning equipment. One uses a negative air machine, the other uses a so-called “Rotobrush”.

The negative air machine creates positive or negative air pressure and sucks out dust and debris from your air duct.

The Rotobrush looks like a special sort of robot hose with a brush and a vacuum attached to it. The brush breaks up dust and debris. The vacuum attached to the top part of the hose sucks that dust and debris up.

A big difference is that the negative air machine only sucks out dirt that is “floating” in your air ducts. It doesn’t break up the dust and debris that can be stuck to the walls of the air ducts.

You guessed it... We use the Rotobrush for our air duct cleaning equipment, and we always sanitize and fog the system to complete the air duct cleaning service.

Your health is extremely important to us and we want to make sure you’re over the moon happy with us!

So how often should I have my air ducts cleaned?

We recommend having your air ducts cleaned, by us :) , every year.

Imagine the amount of dust and dirt that floats through the air in a year. We don’t want all that to settle in your air ducts.

Especially if there’s someone with a compromised immune system (this can also mean allergies) in the building, or if there are smokers or pets present, it is extremely important to maintain healthy indoor air quality. Smoke particles, pet hair, and dander will stick to the walls of the air ducts.

We know most people don’t have air duct cleaning on their radar for staying healthy.

But,

It’s never too late to start!

Contact us today for an estimate and experience for yourself what a difference clean air can make.

(1) https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy05osti/30506.pdf

(2) https://www.fdacs.gov/content/download/2984/file/pesticide

Bente Riehn