Duct work. It’s something you probably don’t think about often. However, it could be the nastiest thing you see today. I thought there was an animal growing in ours the day I took one of the vent covers off.
Since this home was new to us I knew right away, no matter what, we were going to have the air ducts cleaned. The previous owners had cats and the house was in an awfully filthy state when we moved in, so who knew what was flying around in the air ducts, and I really didn’t want it blowing at us the first time we turned the heat on.
Going forward, we’ll probably have ours cleaned every 2-3 years. Every year is not necessary unless you have a lot of pets, very hairy pets or family members with severe allergies. If ever we get to any of those we’ll likely have them cleaned yearly.
Here are a few reasons why you should stay on top of keeping those air ducts cleaned:
1. Household Air Quality
Dust, allergens and toxins are often found in air ducts. If not cleaned properly all of these particles are being blown into your home and circulating in your space. Exposure to these particles can cause severe illness over time.
2. Allergy Concerns
If you already suffer from allergies, having filthy air ducts isn’t helping you. Cleaning the air ducts can reduce the amount of allergens in your home, eliminating flare ups for allergy sufferers.
3. Overall Cost Savings
Your system will last longer and operate properly with clean air ducts. If the duct work is filled with build up the system is working harder to push air over all those “bumps” and reduced airflow reduces the efficiency of the entire system, increasing costs.
4. Reduced Household Cleaning
The intent of your system is to blow air into your living space. If that air contains dust and dirt it’s making your entire house dirty, meaning you’re cleaning more often just to keep up. Reducing dust in the ducts results in less cleaning efforts overall (my dream come true).
5. Odors & Nastiness
Think about all the things going on in your home. Pets, children, potentially remodeling projects, there are bugs, possibly rodents. All of those things are filtering through your air ducts. And that’s just nasty! Cleaning your air ducts can remove unknown odors, insects, rodents and a whole lot of other things floating around in that system.
As I said, this being a new home to us, it was a no brainer. I really didn’t want other people’s filth blowing into my living environment. But, the other factor too is that air duct cleaning is fairly reasonable at anywhere from $10-15 per vent (at least in our area). Ours cost a total of $130, we booked while they had a promotion going on, so it was a great price.
To save a little more, Al removed all the vent covers prior to the company showing up. They charged an extra fee for ” hard to remove vents” and all of ours were/are hard to remove because the previous owners painted over all of them. In the end, it’s a lot more cost-effective to maintain your system each year than to be slammed with a huge repair bill because they hadn’t been maintained.
So, who’s going to take a peek in their vents and get an air duct cleaning company on the phone?!
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