Duct Cleaning
 

Has anyone had their fiberglass ductwork cleaned? I have heard pro's and con's regarding how and the best way to do it.

We feel that with the large amount of dust in the house [yes we have the house cleaned regularly :icon_wink:] and collecting on the vent covers, we think we want to have this done.

Our house was built in 1998, and we are the 2nd owners and do not think they have ever been cleaned.

Any suggestions as to a company that does this and does a good job?

If you have flexible fiberglass ducts, I would never clean them. It will not be effective because the ducts have too many nooks and crannies where dust will be trapped. Also, the cleaning equipment can puncture the flexible duct causing a major issue in your attic. Just my opinion.

I had this type of duct work back up North, and the AC guy told me to NOT try cleaning these.

Take out the filter, crank up the A/C, and spray a can of Lysol into the air intake.

Ok, I have some indoor air quality background and employees with various companies I have worked for over the years have expressed concerns about the dirt on the supply and returns of the office vents claiming dirty building, dirty duct work and I am sick because of this syndrome. The dirt you see is not from the duct work it’s from the wet condensation (sweating) on the grating caused by the AC’s cold air hitting the hot air in the house. Any dirt floating around in the air (even small amounts like when you dust the home) is collected on this moisture and if never cleaned looks like a “dirty house”. Simply clean the grating (annually) using a wet cloth and you will save a few hundred dollars from the duct cleaning people claiming it’s the dirty ducts. If you’re changing your air filter on schedule you should never have dirt in your ducts. Your dryer vent is a dirty duct needing cleaned often not your HVAC duct work (screen vs. filter).

Excellent info, thank you.

Please stop spreading the truth. The Villages is not a place where truth will prevail over the outrageous alarmism, perpetuated by local contractors trying to save their "family business".

Where did this “trade” even come from?

Aside from Stanley Steamer offering duct cleaning, the only ads I see for it are by shady folks on FB and other social media.

I rank hvac duct cleaning right up there with fortune telling and ghost hunting.

You're 100% right.

As far as I know, it started to become more common about 10 years ago. I had a residential tenant complaining about their "asthma" and blaming it on the "dirty duct work" in a Condo I was renting to them.

I laughed and couldn't even find anyone who did such a thing as "duct cleaning". I finally found a guy and had him clean the ducts, just to shut the tenant up.

Over the last few years, I've had a number of commercial tenant's giving me the same balogna, because one of their employees was complaining about "bad air". Now it's "a thing". I have the commercial ductwork cleaned, every time I get a complaint, just to shut the tenants up.

It's a joke. As someone posted earlier, it's very unusual to have anything significant in your HVAC ducts. I suppose it could happen ... just like your house could burn down, because you didn't have your clothes dryer vent cleaned every year.

Last year, as many people died from drinking contaminated ice cream frappes (3), as died because of excessive lint in their dryer.

Thanks for the information. I have vac the ducts a couple of times since owning the house but never with a wet towel, and never yearly. Better idea. I guess I will do that with the vents and the fans.
I do change the filters 2x a year, maybe change to 3-4 times a year would help also.

You do not have to use a wet cloth and a vacuum works to. In the business, it should be a HEPA vac because you don’t want your dirty vac to be blowing even more dirt out the exhaust and into your home.

I am just guessing, but I think the guys who clean ducts add a nice smelling scent that permeates the house for awhile and gives the homeowner a feeling that cleaning the ducts was a good idea. Although, the nice smell has nothing to do with removing dust and dirt from the ducts. Even if you remove some dust from the ducts, unless the dust was restricting airflow, you really haven't improved the air quality in your house.

I have a friend who owns a HVAC company and he told me that there are two main reasons for a dusty house. The first being an improperly balanced cold air return where too much air is being pulled out of one area of the house and not another. The second is the house has a negative pressure in the HVAC system. This will pull outside air into your house which will be dirtier than your inside air. Your house should have a neutral or slightly positive pressure.

I used Stanley Steamers, the price was reasonable, they were efficient, and very informative in every step they did. They even showed me how they did it. Very Happy with their work, I even use them to clean the couches (super reasonable pricing)

dryer duct
 

In a courtyard villa and a patio villa the dryer duct goes straight up to the roof. That duct will certainly become full of lint. Once it does, the dryer doesn't work properly, and it is also a fire risk.