Cleaning the air ducts at your home can be challenging. But thinking of how important clean air is to your household’s health, it is a worthy cause after all. You can seek the services of professional cleaners like West valley Air Duct Cleaning that will handle all the hassles for you, but if you have never done this before, you may not know how much duct cleaning costs and you wouldn’t know if the deal is worth it.
Why DIY?
Many homeowners have never had training on how they can maintain their homes and they end up spending a lot of money and time on all the wrong things. Air duct cleaning does not have to leave you spending too much and taking a considerable amount of your money.
Cleaning your home ducts yourself helps you save money since hiring professional services can see you spending upwards of 120$ depending on how big your home is. You will end up spending a lot of money on duct cleaning services for all the years you will own a home.
How Frequently Should Air Ducts be cleaned?
Home air ducts should be cleaned once or twice every year with the most popular time being at the start of spring and fall. During the fall, most people spend more time indoors and if the windows were left all summer, there’s a possibility that dirt got into their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.
The spring season starts the time after most people spent a lot of time indoors in the winter and cleaning the HVAC system is ideal to get a fresh start. In case you have allergies or pets, you may want to clean your systems regularly. Cat and dog fur may build up in the vents and be blown into the HVAC system.
Equipment Needed
Power drill to remove screws but you can substitute with a screwdriver, nut driver for handling bolts on the vent covers, and accessing the furnace cover to clean the inner parts. A flex duct brush is attached to the drill and cleans the ducts when the drill is turned on.
Paper towels to wipe off visible waste from the air ducts, vacuum to suck out all the dirt from the ducts and furnace coil, a new air filter that needs to be done once in a while, and an optional protective mask in case you are allergic to dust and debris.
Procedure
After gathering all the equipment, switch off the thermostat but the fan stays on. Leave the old filter to catch the waste that is released then you will replace it after you are done cleaning. Cover the supply channels with paper towels to prevent dust from blowing into the ducts while cleaning other parts.
You can now clean the air ducts thoroughly using paper towels to wipe visible dirt. Use the vacuum to clean the air ducts and if it does not reach some vents, a flexible vent pipe can come in handy.
After every air duct is clean, you can now move to the furnace and clean it with the vacuum and paper towels to wipe visible dirt. When the furnace is clean, replace the filter and return the cover then turn the thermostat back on.
