Admittedly probably one of the lamer threads I've started on here, but has anybody paid for this service? If so, can you share your experience(s)? It's one of those things I just feel like has to be a scam, but we'd probably benefit from it greatly if it wasn't. For almost $500 I'm very hesitant to just pick out a random "ad in the phone book". Any suggestions? Is this something I could/should be doing myself? Thanks!
For your house? Yes. Especially if you have pets. Like anything labor based, it really depends. Are your ducts easily accessible? How big is the house? Are you cool with spending the better half of a weekend getting collecting and hauling several garbage bags of dust? Realistically I should be doing this every few years (3 long hair cats and a dog that never stops shedding) since I change the filter twice a year and it's always filthy... it's... overdue for me. Probably going to pay to have it done this time around since it's been so long.
IF you are keeping up with filter changes the way you should I was told by several HVAC techs the only time you should have to clean your ducts is after a large remodel if you don't take care to keep dust out of your vents. Other wise if you are keeping up on your filter changes and what not you should never have to clean your ducts.
https://kmsclean.com/ Even keeping up with filter changes diligently won't necessarily prevent build up in your ducts. If you have pets or allergies, its also beneficial to do it every few years, honestly.
Yeah, for the house. It's not massive (I think 1800 ish SF or so). I do keep up on filter changes, generally every couple months even if not "needed" (funny note on that below...). We bought the house a little over a year ago, from the original owner. Guy was pretty meticulous about keeping everything super clean, but I don't think the HVAC system was one of them. But really, how many people think about that? Anywho, the house was built in 92 so not terribly old but still plenty dusty in the ducts. We notice it a lot in the kid's room (1.5 year old now) because there are some dark faux wood blinds in there and the heat register is right underneath them. Last winter we cleaned the blinds several times but noticed they'd get dusty almost immediately or at least very soon after. We currently don't have any pets nor have any plans to acquire any anytime soon. I don't know if I have dust specific allergies but I have developed some outside allergies in the last several years, so I can only assume the dust doesn't help that matter. I do have access to some of the ducting downstairs, basically the in and the out right at the furnace and about a radius of 10' around it. Otherwise the rest of the basement is finished. There is one main line that does the kitchen and dining area that runs in the crawl space that I could access. Lastly, my side note on the filters. One of the first things I did when we moved in was change the filter so I knew where we were as far as age of the filter. I put in a pleased one that visually matched what was in there. All seemed great until a little ways into winter when I noticed the furnace just seemed off. Wasn't blowing nearly as hard in certain areas and seemed like it was short cycling a lot. I ended up finding that the new filter I had put in was now restricting so much air that the furnace was getting too hot and tripping itself off. A little research told me that the filter isn't really intended to clean the air, but moreso protect the furnace from taking in "big chunks". So I got a box of the cheap ones and have enough to do a filter every month if I wanted to. Thoughts appreciated! Thanks!
Yea have to be careful what MERV rating filter you put in. To much filtering and you will do just that. If left uncorrected you can burn out your blower motor. *Edit* Looking into it when I got the filters I got for my furnance for the thin ones you want to stick around a MERV rating of 2-3
Ductz is an excellent company to use. They are also mold certified and will let you know if they see any suspect areas. I do every 5 yrs on the duct cleaning.
Thirty three years in same house. Never had them cleaned. I don't like the idea of some low paid tech dragging filthy hoses all through my house - you know those hoses have never been cleaned since they were new and they have been through driveways, garages and grass in the rain and snow...same with truck based carpet cleaners. No thanks.
Ended up going with these guys. Super helpful over the phone and seemed very willing to answer any questions we had about it. And on top of that the lady said it'd be right around $250 for our house size and said up front that they don't change the price after they show up. Includes cleaning anything and everything in regards to the whole system. Appointment has been set for a couple weeks out, so if anybody's curious I can report back then. Thanks yet again for the insight.
Yep, Kenny (the owner) runs a very open and honest business, I'm assuming you spoke with Lavone. Hope it goes well, glad you gave them a call!
I’m an hvac technician and had to clean ducts the first two years of my career, if the filter looks decent after a month of install your doing just fine. If your home is newer construction, chances are your ducts are full of sheet rock dust, an easy way to check this is the blower wheel, run your finger throu the blade on the squirrel cage. I’d recommend groen for duct cleaning anything viper system (air pressure set up) is better than rotary system. Also make sure they do every vent not just the trunks
KMS came out on Thursday and did the deed. I wasn't able to be home to witness it but the wife was. Sent me a few videos during the process as they were getting a bunch of crap out of our system (she said it was pretty impressive in person). They cut a couple big holes in the ductwork to hook their big vacuum hose to, then drilled several small ones to get the blow guns in. Apparently they shoot 295 psi... They also cleaned the entire furnace at the same time. Long story short, I feel like I noticed an immediate difference in the air when I came home from work that day. Also seems as if the furnace is working "better" overall, as if things are just flowing more smoothly or something and it's not working quite so hard. Even the burners seem to be performing better. And the air at the registers just smells cleaner, if that's a thing. Haha. All that said, I'd say it was worth the money (especially with KMS who was like half the price of some of the other ones) Just the peace of mind to know that everything (obviously not quite EVERYTHING) from the previous 25 years (most likely) is gone and we're starting relatively fresh.
