The Folly of Duct Cleaning!

Should I get my ducts cleaned? Is duct cleaning worth it. In my opinion the answer is an emphatic no! Why not you ask?

• The dirt that is stuck in your air ducts that would be removed by duct cleaning is just that STUCK. It is not floating around in the air and therefore you are not breathing it in. Cleaning your ducts could actually loosen the dirt and make your indoor air quality worse. As we all know vacuuming never gets 100% of the dirt. So where does the now loosened dirt go after the vacuuming is done? Yes you are right it is blown into your indoor air for you to breath in. (Talk about some nasty air)
• Ducts are too dry to support mold and mildew growth. Especially in here in Colorado our air is already very dry and the forced air dries the ducts even more. Even if you have a humidifier the highest setting is 45% humidity which is at the low side of conformability. (45-65% is generally the accepted ideal comfort zone) As a side note I am not saying that your furnace with an AC coil attached does not have the ability to harbor mold and mildew when the AC is operating. However when you have your AC serviced each spring this can be address and you do not need to have a duct separate duct cleaning as the coil is accessed at the furnace.
• Will dust mites grow on the dust in my ducts? Probably yes but will having your ducts cleaned stop this? No it won't. Even if the vacuuming out the ducts removed 100% of the dust from your ducts (which we all know it can't) in a matter of days all of your ducts will have a film of dust on them large enough to support a healthy population of dust mites.
• Okay so after writing all of this I went to the "monster" site of duct vacuuming and tried to find there reasoning of why you should have your ducts cleaned. Guess what I found? (I purposely did not link to their site but just take monster and vac and you can find the site I refer to)

  Not one actual legitmate reason to have your ducts cleaned. All I found was bunch of reasons to use them over other con men err duct cleaners. They also have a bunch of stuff on Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and pollution, why it is bad but do not include anything about how duct cleaning helps this. (at least they didn't lie and make stuff up about how duct cleaning helps) To be fair though they did list one reason to have your ducts cleaned. Are you ready - They will wet clean your AC evaporator coil. What??? They only reason to have your ducts cleaned is to have your AC coil cleaned?

  Now I am not saying it isn't important to have your AC coil cleaned but your heating and cooling company should be taking care of that when you have your AC clean and inspect done at the beginning of each spring. You should definitely not need to pay for a duct cleaning just to get your Air Conditioning coil cleaned. Here at Hot 'n' Cold it is part of a standard Air conditioning clean and inspect to vacuum, air wash and use a pressurized spray foam to clean your AC evaporator coil. We also add an algae tab to your coil drain pan to prevent "stuff" from growing in there during the cooling season. If you have allergies or have an other need we can add a coil wash to your furnace clean and inspect in the fall also.

Could duct cleaning actually be bad? (other than lightening your wallet for no gain)

• I hinted at it above and that is you will never get 100% of the dust out of the ducts by any method. So what happens to the dust/pollution that is left in your ducts? That's right!! It is no longer stuck and your furnace/air handler can now blow it all over your house. Now you can breath it in. Great thing that the duct cleaners did for your air quality huh?
• Duct cleaning could actually damage your ducts. How you say?

  Well we have done a lot of remodel and renovation work including fix and flips. I can tell you from first hand experience not all ducts are the same. Some homes (especially older homes) do not have there ducts attached properly. I have found many duct systems where the individual duct pieces are attached with nothing but cloth duct tape. Not a sheet metal screw in sight. What does this have to do with duct cleaning? Well guess what happens when you ram a hose or brush into a duct run that isn't properly attached? Right again!!! It could separate and now (best case) you have more air leakage in your duct system or if it fully separated (worst case) then that run is no longer going to have any air coming out of is register.
  How do you fix it? Well if the duct cleaner even notices and bothers to tell you what happened then you probably will need to open up the wall or ceiling where the duct is located and reattach it properly. Then you will need to repair the hole that was just made.
  Will the duct company pay for this? I doubt it as the duct was faulty and it is was not really their fault. Expensive mistake? Well a lot more expensive than that duct cleaning was worth that is for sure.

Okay what have we learned about duct cleaning?

1. Will your ducts be clean? I guess that depends on your definition of clean. You would not want to eat off of them for sure (especially after a day or two) but if you use a reputable company and the person doing the work does their job then they will at least be "cleaner".
2. Did you receive any benefit from having them cleaned? In my opinion at the very best the benefit is minimal. (If the duct cleaning also included an AC/furnace servicing and it was done properly then you get at least that important benefit albeit at a much higher cost than if you had called Hot 'n' Cold to perform the clean and inspect.)
3. Duct cleaning could actually be bad!
4. Is there any thing that you can do to improve your indoor air quality? Okay you didn't learn that from the above but there are some things that you can do. Please before you spend money having your ducts cleaned go to our indoor air quality page to find much better things to spend that money on...

Is there ever a time that I should have my ducts cleaned? To be fair to the con men err duct cleaners. (oops I did it again) I will answer this. Maybe and I say maybe if your ducts have never been cleaned (and I mean never) then a cleaning may remove stuff dropped into the ducts by the builders such as chunks of drywall or other stuff that could be obstructing air flow. (or if you suspect something was dropped into a duct(s) that could be obstructing air flow.

P. S. Thanks for reading my rant on duct cleaning and do go to the IAQ page and learn what you can really do to improve that indoor air that you are breathing.