Duct cleaning worth it?

[Thegoblinchief]

We have a 1948 house with forced air heat and central air. The ducts are filthy and my wife is sick of how dusty the house gets all the time. Having a better furnace filter and some air purifiers hasn’t helped a whole lot. Will duct cleaning help?

Companies advertising often seem kinda scammy but a reputable HVAC company I’ve had good experience with in the past now offers the service so I’d probably go with them.

[brute]

posting to follow. This is a question I have myself.

[Car Jack]

I have looked into the ductwork or our house.  Forced hot air with AC.  My wife reads all these stupid mailers with ducts that look like they were first filled with peanut butter to encourage mice, rats and birds to build nests in them.  Using a simple mirror and flashlight, I could see that the majority of dust and dirt was right at the registers.

So to calm my wife down, I talked with a friend of mine who is an engineer who designs HVAC systems for a living.  He laughed and said that all these cleaning companies are solutions to problems nobody has.  They're high priced scams.  Following his instructions, I removed each register and vacuumed the register and then inside of the duct work.  According to him, most of this dirt comes from the house....and falls INTO the register.....it doesn't come from the register.  Then simply make sure the filter is in place.  A dirty filter will actually let through less particles than a new one but of course air volume is reduced.

In short, these cleaning companies are big scams.

[El_Viajero]

There are duct cleaning scams out there for sure. If you decide to do it, be sure the company actually uses specialized vacuums and sends them all through your ducts to get the gunk out. Some companies just dust the grilles off and wipe out the boots and charge you big money.

A lot of people think they need duct cleaning when they don't. Most of the dust inside your ducts isn't getting into your home. I think the EPA has some literature on this, so you might want to look it up. That said, this house was built in the 40s and maybe had central AC installed when? The 60s or 70s? Regardless, you don't know who has lived there, how often they smoked inside, or whether they had pets. So, yeah. I'd get the ducts cleaned in your case.

We had ours cleaned. They brought out the giant vacuums and everything. My place had been a rental before we bought it, and I'm pretty sure the tenants weren't changing the air filters on a regular basis or even using them at all. The return duct was revolting. I also had it on good authority that previous tenants had dogs, so there's that. Animals will really nasty up your air.

[Thegoblinchief]

I had to open up one of the ducts when a kitten climbed in and wouldn’t come out. They’re pretty nasty the whole length of the house, not just at the return.

The website of this company suggests they have special equipment, and like I said I’ve had very positive experience with them before, the tech was very knowledgeable and definitely only fixed what was necessary.

[Tom Bri]

I had a new furnace installed recently. I asked the guy about it, and he said they stopped doing it. Not worth the effort and more likely to cause problems than solve them.

[Jouer]

I recently got mine done and it made a pretty decent difference in the amount of dust in here.

[civil4life]

In my area Groupon usually offers discounts for service.  So if you decide to do so check them out.

[shelbyautumn]

In my area Groupon usually offers discounts for service.  So if you decide to do so check them out.

Just be careful with Groupon. I once tried this...they came out, didn't even try cleaning them, and then said they couldn't do anything until THEIR COMPANY replaced all of my ducts. We researched the necessity of duct cleaning after this and the general consensus was that it's never needed. My husband ended up vacuuming out all of the registers and vents instead.

[AMandM]

Here are two more articles saying duct cleaning is unnecessary:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/02/AR2005110200676.html

https://www.checkbook.org/washington-area/air-duct-cleaners/

In brief, duct cleaning hasn't been shown to improve health, and may even increase the amount of dust. I do vacuum my registers, for aesthetics as much as for dust.

[GuitarStv]

NO!

It's a gigantic waste of money and a scam.

[Thegoblinchief]

Here are two more articles saying duct cleaning is unnecessary:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/02/AR2005110200676.html

https://www.checkbook.org/washington-area/air-duct-cleaners/

In brief, duct cleaning hasn't been shown to improve health, and may even increase the amount of dust. I do vacuum my registers, for aesthetics as much as for dust.

That first link was very helpful, thanks :)

[Sibley]

I understand why everyone says no. I also know what came out of my ductwork AFTER cleaning the registers and what my vacuum could reach. That said, it did make things more dusty for a bit. So, maybe every 20-30 years?

[Koogie]

We bought a house three years ago where the previous owners were some sort of dust fetishists with multiple cats.  The house is also 52 years old with original ductwork and I doubt anyone ever gave a shit before us.   

DW had the ducts cleaned by our regular HVAC company.  It was fucking disgusting what came out.  Enough cat hair to make a stuffed lion and enough multi coloured dust to celebrate Holi with.

For the people saying     NO!     try breathing that shit for a few years...   

Money well spent.