Air Duct Cleaning Step by Step (by the Professionals)

PORTLAND, OR – When the family handyman blog wrote about 51 Things Most Homeowners aren’t doing but need to, cleaning the dryer vent was number one!  Having your dryer vent and air ducts cleaned routinely is an important part of being a homeowner, but it’s surprisingly overlooked more often than not. The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” may belong here, or maybe it’s something else? Either way, as professional air duct cleaners in Portland, we want to share our knowledge and process in hopes that you come away knowing how best to take care of your home, particularly when it comes to the HVAC systems.

But first, why should I have my air ducts cleaned?

When it comes to professional air duct cleaning, we know you may be skeptical. Why spend money on ducting and vents that seem to be working just fine? We’ve written another article on this subject that goes into much more detail, but in short, air duct cleaning is beneficial for your wallet, your indoor air quality, and your allergies. By maintaining your ducts, you are less likely to need to replace certain elements prematurely, and the decrease in blockages helps your furnace to keep the air flowing without working extra hard, saving you money on your end-of-the-month bills. A professional air duct cleaning will reduce allergens, particularly in homes with pets or lots of plants. If all that isn’t enough, the NADCA  recommends having your air ducts cleaned every 3-5 years.

Why can’t I clean my air ducts myself?

We know that we live in a world of DIY, but some things are better off left to the professionals. Air duct cleaning, for example, requires professional equipment, expertise, and experience. Without those things, you could potentially cause more harm than good. You don’t want to end up damaging your HVAC system in an effort to save yourself money—that would be somewhat of an ironic twist. At best, you might not damage your ductwork, but you won’t do as good of a job. A professional air duct cleaner knows how to clean ducts both efficiently and safely.

How does a professional air duct cleaning work?

There are multiple methods that different professionals use when it comes to air duct cleaning. For A+ Carpet Cleaning, we use a state of the air, forced air system called RAM Air.

We don’t use chemicals or abrasive brushes in your ducts. Instead, we have two hoses; an air hose and a vacuum hose. We also have our own vent cover that has two holes for each hose.  You can see the set up below: our air hose is on the right, and the vacuum hose is on the left. During the process, both hoses are set into their holes in our plastic vent cover. The cover is there to prevent debris from entering your home as we push it back towards us during the air duct cleaning process. At its end, the air hose has a small sphere with many small holes poked into it. This hoses, when on, expulses air at a high rate of speed.

Preparing for your Air Duct Cleaning Appointment

Vents

Did you know that there might be two very different things going on behind the vent covers of your home? Primarily, the vents are serving as registers, which are output vents that are expelling either cold or hot air, depending on the time of year.  However, a few of the vents are returns. These are typically larger, occasionally more square, and are what takes the air in for your furnace. If you aren’t sure which vents are what, we have a handy chart that can help us determine a rough number of ducts depending on the square footage of your home. You can also do a brief walkthrough of your home and count the number of vents prior to calling or while you’re on the phone with us.

We don’t just need to know vents in general. For us to provide our best estimate for you, we ask for the number of registers on the floor, the number of registers on the wall, and the number of registers on the ceiling. Then we’ll ask for you to count the return ducts. Typically in homes less than 2,000 square feet.

The other thing we need to know about the vents is how high they are if you have any on the ceiling or wall. If we can’t access the vents with our typical five foot ladder, we have to bring a larger one, so make sure to note that before calling.

Dryer Vent

Your dryer vent needs cleaned more often than your HVAC, so it might be the right time to get them both cleaned at the same time. If that’s the case for you, we just ask that you know where the dryer vent outputs (on ground floor level and easily accessible, or does it go through the roof?). When we ask if all vents are accessible with a 5-ft ladder, this includes your dryer vent.

When you are speaking with the office, please mention if you are having any trouble with your dryer vent. This could include loads needing multiple cycles to dry, potential clogging, and error codes. If you are dealing with any of those complications (or others), make sure to  let us know so that we know how best to help you when we arrive. We have removed animals from dryer ducts before, as well as significant amounts of lint and dryer debris. It’s important to have your dryer vent cleaned once a year in order to keep your dryer at maximum efficiency as well as to prevent any kind of fire hazard.

Preparation

When you are scheduled for an air duct cleaning, the preparation is fairly simple. Much like all other services we perform, we do ask that you have  parking space 50 feet from the entrance of your home and a working water spigot 50 feet from the parking space. We also ask that you move any fragile items away from the register before the technician arrives. Finally, if you acquire new furnace filters prior to his arrival, we’d be glad to swap those filters out for you at the end of the job so you are starting completely fresh. Please note that in order for us to change the furnace filters, the furnace needs to be easily accessible.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do we clean dryer vents? We clean dryer vents by inserting an air compressor hose that goes up the vent and blasts any existing lint towards the output as we retrieve the hose. The debris is brought back to our truck mounted machine.
• Do we do rodent removal? Yes, we can.
• Do we deodorize/sanitize? Yes, we can.
• Can we clean dryer vents that go out to the roof? Yes, we are willing to clean those kinds of vents if the dryer is easily removable because we can only clean them from the inside.
• Can you clean air ducts in an older home? We have cleaned air ducts in homes that are over 100 years old! Don’t let the year your home was built hold you back from giving us a call. We’ll ask you what year your home was built in as part of the process. If there are any concerns, we’ll ask follow up questions to make sure we’re being transparent if there are any out-of-the-normal variables affecting your home’s air duct cleaning.

When to Clean Air Ducts

You can have your air ducts cleaned any time of the year. All you have to do is call 503-314-7453, and we’ll take care of you.

Air Duct Cleaning Process

When we are talking about air duct cleaning with our clients, many people are curious about the process itself. Carpet cleaning is easier to visualize for most, and that could be because it’s more known of a service. We’re not sure, but either way, we’d love to take you through, step-by-step, what cleaning one typical register looks like! Is your spigot leaky? Here’s a handy tip from Mike on an easy way to get rid of that pesky drip.

Step One: Vent Cover

In order to use our equipment properly, our technician will carefully remove your vent cover and vacuum it to the best of his ability.

Step Two: Hoses in Place

The technician will then place our vent cover over the vent and attach the vacuum hose. He will then push the air hose down the duct as far as it will go. The air hose will be off during this time until it is in place.

Step Three: Air Hose Position, On!

Once the air hose is in place, the technician will turn it on, beginning the process of the clean. Air hits the insides of your ducts at such a high rate of speed that any debris is blasted off. Our vacuum hose is on as well, drawing the newly detached debris back towards our vacuum hose to be sucked into the van. Some debris will fall back towards the furnace, which is why replace the furnace filter for you at the end of the job.

Step Four: Finishing Up

The technician will continue using the air hose and vacuum hose in combination until he is sure the debris is properly expunged. After that, he will turn the air hose off and remove our vent cover. He will then use the vacuum hose to vacuum around the vent and the vent cover itself again before replacing the vent cover and moving onto the next one.

The Big Picture

Air duct cleaning is a lengthy and precise process, even for professionals. When we are cleaning a ceiling vent, he still does that same process; you can imagine the expertise it takes to hold up a vent cover and work two hoses while being on a ladder. When owner Mike was researching the best way to clean air ducts, he discovered this was the most efficient and it had the least impact on the ductwork itself. Some professionals will use abrasive brushes or chemicals; we just use air. And it works!

A+ Carpet Cleaning is a family owned, Portland air duct cleaning company. We have thousands of positive reviews online because our customers can tell that we care about them and their homes. If you aren’t sure if you need an air duct cleaning, feel free to give us a call and we can walk you through what home maintenance might look like for you. Our phone number is 503-314-7453.

A+ Carpet Cleaning – Portland
2885 NW 111th Ct, Portland, OR 97229
(503) 314-7453
https://www.carpetcleanerportland.com/