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Without a doubt, home repairs and maintenance can be a daunting task. We think about the cost, choice of right company/contractor, avoiding unnecessary inconvenience, etc. A lot of people also worry about whether this undertaking is even worth it.
We’ve heard numerous horror stories regarding home repairs that took forever and spun out of control. Conversely, home repairs delayed for far too long can lead to catastrophic consequences. At Ace Air Duct, we strive to ensure your necessary heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system cleaning is inconvenience-free. As a result, we have received some queries from our numerous customers. Read on to see some of the frequently asked questions about air duct cleaning asked by our customers and our answers.
The most straightforward answer to this query is at least once every 4-5 years for residential buildings and 3-4 years for commercial buildings. Over time, your air ducts accumulate dust, dirt, allergens, and debris. The air ducts can accumulate several inches or more of the above elements. This accumulation will trap more bacteria and allergens and possibly lead to mold growth. However, based on the lifestyles and health challenges of family members or activities of the occupants of your commercial building, it might become necessary to clean your air ducts more frequently than the standard recommended period. Some of the factors to be considered include:
If the answer to all of the above questions is “yes,” then you may need to consider cleaning your air ducts a bit more often.
As stated above, your air ducts (residential or commercial) are bound to collect contaminants like bacteria, fungi, and mold. Eliminating these contaminants from your HVAC system is crucial for improving your indoor air quality and your health.
Although you might not notice an instant drop-off in monthly energy expenses, the long-term financial advantages of frequent cleaning of your HVAC system are quite real. Air duct cleaning ensures the HVAC system in your building or household is running efficiently. A cleaner, more efficient HVAC system is less likely to malfunction and more likely to have a longer life span. This ensures that you get the most out of your system with fewer headaches, cost, and inconvenience.
The most popular methods for cleaning an HVAC system are vacuuming, rotary brushing, and air sweeping. Doing this will most likely involve two professional technicians/ technical teams working for a few hours in your building.
Using specialized tools and a negative airflow system (basically, a huge vacuum), the technicians scrape the dust, dirt, and debris from your ducts. The tools separate the particles from the sides of the ducts where they’ve accumulated, and the vacuum prevents them from escaping into your building.
Cleaning should include your home’s furnace (for residences), air conditioner components, and, if the technician thinks it’s required, applying mold-inhibiting agents. Before any of this takes place, a good HVAC system cleaner will walk you through all the steps to understand how the job will get done.
Our goal at Ace Air Duct is to prevent dryer fires and increase dryer efficiency by providing the highest-quality dryer vent cleaning services. We also work to reach that goal by providing valuable and practical information about dryer vent cleaning and safety to the public. As a source of this specialized knowledge, we have been asked many questions about dryer vents, safety techniques, and our services. Here, you can find our customers’ most frequently asked questions along with our answers.
Sometimes the problem is your dryer. However, if your dryer is still heating up, but the clothes aren’t getting dry in a reasonable amount of time (about 45 minutes for a standard load), it is a good sign that you are overdue for a dryer vent cleaning.
A clogged dryer vent does not allow the hot air and moisture to escape from the dryer, preventing the clothes from drying. We receive many referrals from dryer servicemen who have responded to calls about broken dryers only to discover there is an issue with the dryer vent. Even worse is when we receive a call from someone who went out and purchased a new dryer thinking their old dryer was worn out, only to discover that the new dryer doesn’t work either because of a faulty or clogged dryer vent.
Major appliance manufacturers recommend having a professional inspect and clean your dryer vent at least once every year. However, cleaning intervals vary depending on numerous factors. An honest recommendation is every 1-3 years, depending on:
According to the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Incident Reporting System, there are approximately 15,500 dryer fires every year, resulting in as many as 34 deaths, 430 injuries, and $209 million in property damages. To protect your property from a dryer fire, we recommend having your vents cleaned and inspected at least once a year. If you notice any warning signs, call our experienced professionals today.
Yes, in some cases, you can. If the dryer vent is short (4 feet or less), you may be able to clean it yourself. There are also kits sold at some home improvement stores for DIY cleaning. We have received mixed reviews on those kits. Sometimes people have good luck with them; other times, people have spent hours trying to get it to work only to have the kit break while trying to clean their vent. Then they call us, and we have to remove the broken kit from the system and complete the cleaning.