Is Duct Cleaning Worth It?

A question that homeowners ask me frequently after being told they need to have duct cleaning done is, “Is Duct Cleaning Worth It?”

I understand why people are a bit confused about if duct cleaning is necessary and how they get dirty in the first place. The ducts in your home are out-of-sight and out-of-mind since they’re hidden behind walls and in the attic. And that means it’s easy to forget about the dust and other contaminants that have been building up in them since who knows when!

However, the truth is straightforward: all ductwork will get dusty and dirty over time, no matter how clean the rest of the house is. And to properly clean ducts, for starters, it takes a professional duct cleaning company that knows how ductwork is constructed, connected and installed. But, their knowledge needs to go even deeper than that…

To arrange for an inspection of your ductwork or services such as air duct cleaning in Phoenix, AZ and surrounding areas, call our friendly customer service representatives today!

Ways That Ducts Get Dirty

No matter how dust-free you try to keep your home, there’s going to be dust and other airborne particles floating around in it. In the average six-room home, around 40 pounds of dust is created each year. Try to imagine a heap of 40 pounds of dust! This dust is simply the result of day to day life in your home and doesn’t even take into consideration other extremes that can add to that heap. For example, those of us who live in Arizona are intimately familiar with the giant brown walls of dust known as “haboobs”, aka dust-storms and come during our monsoon season. It’s hard to miss a mile-high wall of dirt coming your way!

Although some of this dust settles on your floors and furniture (the dust you sweep and wipe up each time you clean), a larger percentage of it remains suspended in the air. The return air ducts of your HVAC system draw this dust into the duct system, and the supply ducts circulate it throughout your home time and time again.

You already know that some of the dust tends to settle in your house, so imagine what happens to the dust moving through the HVAC system. That’s right…some of it will naturally settle along the duct walls. It only takes about a year for a thin layer of dust to coat the inside of the ductwork in places that don’t experience dust storms, so it can happen even faster in say Tempe or Mesa, AZ.

Dust isn’t the only airborne particle that can dirty up your ducts: there’s also pollen, dander, carpet and furniture fibers, mold spores, and other harmful pollutants and contaminants.

Dust From Your Attic May Be Circulating Inside Your Home

One of the biggest contributors of dust inside your home may be coming from your attic! When air conditioning and heating ducts are not properly sealed (which is more common than not), they can actually suck in dust from your attic. As we talked about above, that dust then gets recirculated over and over through your air ducts, your home, and unfortunately your lungs.

For that reason, it’s a good idea to have your central air ducts tested for leaks. Leaky ducts should then be properly sealed and retested to make sure they are as tight as possible. Duct leak testing should be performed by a BPI Certified Building Analyst (certified energy auditor), like those at Magic Touch Mechanical. If you live in the Phoenix, Scottsdale, or Tempe area, you can call us for duct leakage testing and duct sealing and ask us if you qualify for utility rebates of up to $400 per duct system if you are an APS or SRP customer.

As you can see, it is wise to have us perform air duct cleaning services after we test for duct leaks and properly seal them. When we’ve sealed your ducts, the seal will last the lifetime of the duct system.

If you’re worried about how airborne contaminants may affect your health, ask us about our air filtration systems in Tempe, AZ.

Choosing A Nearby Duct Cleaning Company

We recommend that homes have duct cleaning done every few years after duct sealing has been completed, or after assuring duct sealing isn’t needed via a duct leakage test. However, it must be handled by skilled professionals with the right equipment, certifications, knowledge, and experience. You can’t do it yourself with a vacuum and a long hose (and by you, I’m really trying to make you think about why you don’t want to use a carpet cleaning company)! Nor should you trust it to companies that advertise suspiciously low offers to do the job. You and your family members only get one set of lungs! Take it from someone with lung disease caused by a thirty year occupation breathing in attic and crawlspace dust, this is a very worthwhile thing to do but only when it’s done correctly.

If you are not in our service area, remember; for proper cleaning that removes all the dust and other contaminants, you have to contact real experts, this is not the job to hire “the cheap guy” on. If you do live in Maricopa County or portions of Pinal County like Apache Junction, Queen Creek or Gold Canyon…just call Magic Touch!

Magic Touch Mechanical offers exceptional indoor air quality services to Mesa, AZ and the surrounding areas. Call us today to experience our award-winning customer service first-hand. We look forward to exceeding your expectations!