Is Furnace Air Duct Cleaning Necessary

[lizbud]

I've been thinking about pets & the wether it's really something I should
be doing to help with allergies for me and for them. I called for a price
estimate and nearly fainted when told it would cost $395.00 for my size
house. Does anyone else do this cleaning yearly or at least once every few
years? What are prices in your area? Do you think it's necessay if you have
pets?

[Freedom]

With all the cats here, this is what I did:

1. Removed the air intake registers, used the vacuum an dput the hose down as far as possible, moving it side to side

2. Put some filter material on the INSIDE of the register before replacing it. I used paper clips, binder clips, and duct tape to hold it in place.

That was soon after I bought the house, 6 years ago or so. Since then, I just vacuum the front grill on ALL the registers, in and output ones alike.

[Catty1]

A few years back, I worked for a heating company that did furnace and duct cleaning and all HVAC stuff.

Furnace cleaning for sure - the people doing it should at least know how to check your furnace's heat exchanger, etc, and replace parts BEFORE your furnace craps out in the middle of a deep freeze at midnight! :-)

Change the filter FOR SURE! You can get so-called permanent filters that you just rinse out every so often, and they can be good. You generally get what you pay for. Make sure there is a warranty!

Ducts - Generally, a hose with compressed air is used at the top of the duct to blow dust an debris down to the furnace, where it lands in an area and can be all vacuumed up.

Registers - I have used a width of cheesecloth, and just used the weight of the register to hold it in place.

Read these two articles carefully - it will help you make a decision:

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/gemare/gemare_011.cfm

http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/gemare/gemare_008.cfm

[Freedom]

Great response, Candace!

Yup, I change my furnace filter every 3 months, when I have to changed the whole house water filter.

And I get the furnace cleaned annually.

[Catty1]

Yeah, an annual furnace cleaning and checkup is good. Some companies JUST do cleaning, so it's an idea to have a furnace company itself clean the furnace.

If the ducts have never been done, do it once. Return air registers can really get dirty. Once it's done, on with the cheesecloth or whatever.

lizbud - even in US $ that sounds like a heck of a deal. If ALL they do is cleaning though, you might want to check your yellow pages for a full-service heating company that also does cleaning...and if they are BBB members, check 'em out! :)

[cyber-sibes]

I would say YES. Great idea. After I created a "minor fire" on my stovetop, (back in Arcadia) the ins. co sent in a restoration crew - part of what they did was clean out the ducts and it made a huge difference -- in fact, while they were cleaning them, it smelled like the whole house was on fire. I couldn't get over how much better the air quality was - smelled much fresher too. If we ever buy another house with air ducts, that will be one of the first things I have done.

[Cataholic]

@cybersibes- that was a requirment for the smell factor. Lizbud is just wondering about cleaning.

I think it is a big fat waste of money. I would just vacuum as well as you can, replace the filter every single month (I buy the disposable kind..super cheap), and have your furnace checked annually. They will do a light cleaning of the furnace then. I still vacuum mine. :)

[lizbud]

I always get the furnace cleaned & checked every year.Change filters
once a month. What I was talking about was cleaning all the duct work
from the furnace that extends throughout the house. With 5 indoor cats
& 2 hairy dogs, my dust bunnies have dust bunnies. No matter how much I run
the vacumn, the dust & hair collects. I've cleaned the grates & what can be
reached with a vacumn hose, but think a whole house cleaning would be
even better.

My quote was from the same company that does the checkups & the same
company where I bought the furnace.

[cyber-sibes]

@cybersibes- that was a requirment for the smell factor. Lizbud is just wondering about cleaning.

I think it is a big fat waste of money. I would just vacuum as well as you can, replace the filter every single month (I buy the disposable kind..super cheap), and have your furnace checked annually. They will do a light cleaning of the furnace then. I still vacuum mine. :)
I was referring to duct cleaning - maybe I didn't phrase it correctly -- my point was that our house smelled fine after the cleaning team finished, we couldn't even tell there had been a fire. But when another team came a couple weeks later and cleaned the ducts out, it surprised me how much odor stayed trapped in the ductwork. Think about how musty a house would get with all that dust, dirt, and microbes building up over the years. Very worthwhile, IMO. Especially if you have allergies, Liz.

[Catlady711]

In my case, nope, never had them cleaned, have no intention of ever having them cleaned.

My house is a nightmare anyways.

I rent an old house that's had who knows how much unlicensed work done by different homeowners over the years. Just in my lifetime the house has had 10 different owners, that I know of anyways, and several of those owners rented the house out to people who seemed determined to destroy it.

The furnace is fortunate to even be limping along working at all it's so old and rusted, at this point I have a laundry basket proping up the panel on the front of it so it will draw air through the filter instead of directly into the furnace.

It's located in my basement which has constant water leaks all the time and mold all over the place. Even getting a filter on the thing takes a pair of scissors and a lot of duct tape. You have to cut the filter down to size since it's non standard and tape it on the front of a badly sealed metal box mounted to the side of the furnace. That's assuming the basement doesn't flood high enough to reach the filter which is within an inch of the floor itself.

One duct runs through a cement block wall in the basement, under my front porch, and to a register there. Someone didn't cut the holes to line up right so it's got a huge air gap where the parts don't line up right and often blows just cold air so I have to shut the vent. To boot they cut the hole too big in the cement and to seal it up stuffed a pair of painters pants (yes you read that right) around the duct work to keep the air/dust out of the basement.

I vacuume out the registers as far as I can reach about twice a year just to keep it from throwing dust and stuff on my carpets.

If I had a real furnace, and a normal house though, I'd probably have the duct work cleaned every few years.

[Catty1]

lizbud - get the ductwork cleaned out this one time, and see if it makes a difference for you. Maybe the crew will be willing to show you what stuff was blown out of your ductwork.:)

[Twisterdog]

I've never had my ducts cleaned, and probably never will. I figure, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And I've never had problems.

I vacuum the ducts out with the hose every so often, as far as I can reach. I change the furnace filter every month or so in the winter. My husband oils and vacuums the furnace once a year.

Never had any issues, and my furnace is probably 40 years old.

[lizbud]

In my case, nope, never had them cleaned, have no intention of ever having them cleaned.

My house is a nightmare anyways.

I rent an old house that's had who knows how much unlicensed work done by different homeowners over the years. Just in my lifetime the house has had 10 different owners, that I know of anyways, and several of those owners rented the house out to people who seemed determined to destroy it.

The furnace is fortunate to even be limping along working at all it's so old and rusted, at this point I have a laundry basket proping up the panel on the front of it so it will draw air through the filter instead of directly into the furnace.

It's located in my basement which has constant water leaks all the time and mold all over the place. Even getting a filter on the thing takes a pair of scissors and a lot of duct tape. You have to cut the filter down to size since it's non standard and tape it on the front of a badly sealed metal box mounted to the side of the furnace. That's assuming the basement doesn't flood high enough to reach the filter which is within an inch of the floor itself.

One duct runs through a cement block wall in the basement, under my front porch, and to a register there. Someone didn't cut the holes to line up right so it's got a huge air gap where the parts don't line up right and often blows just cold air so I have to shut the vent. To boot they cut the hole too big in the cement and to seal it up stuffed a pair of painters pants (yes you read that right) around the duct work to keep the air/dust out of the basement.

I vacuume out the registers as far as I can reach about twice a year just to keep it from throwing dust and stuff on my carpets.

If I had a real furnace, and a normal house though, I'd probably have the duct work cleaned every few years.



This really bothers me that you live in unsafe conditions like the
ones you described here. I'm surprised that the owner can get by with
renting a house with a furnace in bad condition. Do you use smoke detectors?

[Medusa]

If you're looking for a reputable person/company to do the work, Angie's List is great. There will be lists and reviews for you to peruse and you may find a better price, too, b/c some offer coupons.

[Catlady711]

This really bothers me that you live in unsafe conditions like the
ones you described here. I'm surprised that the owner can get by with
renting a house with a furnace in bad condition. Do you use smoke detectors?

Yes, I always have had smoke detectors in my homes.

The particular town I live in is full of corrupt and lazy leaders. The inspector for this town is lazy and will sign off on just about anything. No one checks for permits. Heck they did a sewer/storm drain separation project last year. Each home is supposed to have been inspected and if they have any storm drainage into the sewer system it's supposed to be capped and separated. Given how much my basement leaks that should have been a fail immediately as we have a floor drain, no sump. When they inspected this house they said they'd have to dig for a drain around the house. The inspector admitted they'd never get around to doing it so I shouldn't concern myself with it as they'd just let it ride. :rolleyes: Tax dollars at work there.

Actually my bigger complaint is the basement itself. If it didn't leak so much many of the problems would dissapear.

However I shouldn't complain too much. My rent is rediculously cheap, and every year since I moved in here, in December he gives us a 'rent free' month as a Christmas present for taking good care of the house (his previous renters were awful). I'm allowed to treat the house as if I own it (can paint any color on anything, put in flower beds, garden, plant trees, change faucets, etc). Most of the time the landlord is pretty good about most things. If something big goes out (furnace, hot water heater etc) he drives down and is fixing it immediately or replacing it if he can't fix it. When my fridge and ceiling fan quit he told me to go pick out what I wanted, buy it and just take it off the rent.

The bad part is the stuff he can't do himself he relies on his unlicensed buddies who do stuff on the side to take care of it and half the time they take forever to show up and get it done.