As a homeowner, cleaning your HVAC air ducts has undeniable benefits like reducing and eliminating air pollutants and allergen irritants, improving the efficient flow of air, and eradicating hazardous musty smells. However, to efficiently clean your ducts, a rigorous knowledge about air duct cleaning is paramount.
What Is Air Duct Cleaning?
Air duct cleaning is a comprehensive cleaning process that focuses on every part of your HVAC system. This includes some of our list of services that focus on cleaning your HVAC unit’s intake, return and supply vents. These steps are vital, especially with the help of dependable and advanced air duct cleaning techniques and equipment. Likewise, the process comprises chores like cleaning your fans, registers, grills, and furnaces.
How to Effectively Clean Your Air Ducts
Professionally, your air duct cleaning process is a three-way process consisting of pre-inspection, the cleaning process itself, and a walk-through complete cleaning inspection as follows:
Once you’ve noticed air duct obstructive elements or reasons for cleaning, such as clogging, broken parts, or increasing utility bills, the first step is either implementing your DIY or finding professional pre-inspection services. Pre –inspecting helps you locate and identify the severity of your air duct problems hence help you decide on the suitable method of cleaning and preventing future issues. Once you or your air duct cleaning technician locates the problem, the next thing is accessing the malfunction points. You can access issues by looking inside and out and putting off and on your system to inspect for noises and any noticeable breakdowns.
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- Debris and pressure cleaning
Once you’ve inspected and identified the major issues, the cleaning process follows, where you mainly focus on negative pressure and debris removal. Usually, start by arranging the HVAC unit vacuum to create negative pressure in the ducts, primarily to prevent the spreading of dust, debris, and dirt around the house’s inside interior parts. When setting up the negative pressure, start agitating your HVAC unit duct walls by taking out agents like pollen and others, including microorganisms.
Effective Air Duct Cleaning Techniques
Once issues are identified, and the cleaning is in progress, dependable cleaning methods you can implement include:
- Source Removal & Agitation
This is the most common and highly dependable air duct cleaning technique. Source removal devotes cleaning your system more mechanically by removing debris and dirt accumulating over a long time. Usually, condensed particles cling and stick in the interiors of the ducts, demanding the application of two source removal processes, extraction, and mechanical agitation. Agitation is where you clean your air ducts by loosening dust particles and other elements from the duct walls. Contrary, extraction consists of the safe removal of condensed particles without necessarily reducing them.
- Air duct steam cleaning
Steam cleaning is the method where your air ducts are cleaned using a tool called a wand that you use to release high pressure and temperature steam into your HVAC system. The steam works by agitating and loosening dirt and dust particles stuck in the ducts’ walls and other parts. However, suppose your HVAC unit is the new model. In that case, steam cleaning isn’t a suitable cleaning method for you considering it uses a significant amount of moisture which can and will adversely affect your HVAC system since new models are designed with moisture-repellent materials.
- Truck-mounted vacuum method
This air duct cleaning method uses a vacuum mostly attached to a truck and trunk lines connected to your HVAC system vents. The vacuum works by drawing air in volumes starting from 10,000 to 15 0000 feet per minute. Likewise, you’ll use a rotary brush to insert inside the air vents, thus loosening dust and debris particles. However, while the truck-mounted vacuum cleaning method is effective, it makes your HVAC unit prone to contaminations, therefore, not highly recommended.
- Point of contact cleaning method
Whether your HVAC unit is a new or old model, you’ll probably like implementing the safest and most effective cleaning technique, which is a point of contact. The process implements the use of a portable vacuum designed or attached with a higher efficiency particulate air {HEPA} filtering device and an agitating device that works together to clean the ducts comprehensively. The high-pressure device improves the cleaning by preventing contamination through advanced technology designed to avoid contaminating elements from getting back inside the ducts.
Final inspection
Based on the air duct cleaning method of your choice, the next step for a comprehensive cleaning process is taking a final inspection for stuck particles, condensed vapor, and other elements left behind.
Air ducts are prone to malfunctions resulting from condensed vapor, stuck particles, and broken parts. Typically, the recommended regular inspection is thirty to sixty days, based on the model of your HVAC unit. However, dependable air duct cleaning methods like pre-inspection, negative pressure, and debris removal are the best cleaning options to implement.