How to Clean Air Ducts Yourself

HVAC Duct Cleaning Tips for Easy DIY

With spring upon us and summer gaining on us, it may be a expert thought to clean the air vents and ducts that the household air you breathe is traveling through. There is an army of dust, dander, dirt, hair, and bug fragments that are all too comfortable hanging out in your air vents and ducts which can pollute the air you breathe.

If you lot start thinking about all that dust and debris that discover their style into your air ducts, it but makes sense you lot should probably clean those vents every now and then. After all, who wants dirty, dusty air circulating in their home?

Truth is, cleaning your air ducts is crucial when information technology comes to improving your domicile's air quality. If you or someone in your household suffers from allergies, and so all the more reason to pay attention to this!

Did you know that the boilerplate family generates near twoscore pounds worth of grit annually? This doesn't even take into account the pet hair, mold, and dust that blows in through your open windows. Non cleaning your air ducts means that near of this dirt doesn't escape your home and lingers in constant circulation throughout information technology, proving particularly hellish to someone in your family who suffers from allergies.

Moreover, clay and dust spread quicker in a dwelling house with dirty ducts. No matter how diligent you may dust and make clean your home, fine particulate contaminants, including unsafe allergens, flow quickly from room to room to encompass tables, smartphones, and kids' toys.

What's the EPA say? The Ecology Protection Agency (EPA) ranks indoor air pollution inquire ane of the top five risks to public health and the millions of particles of debris and other allergens living in your air ducts are no aid.

Are at that place diverse duct systems? At that place are many different designs of duct systems, such as cranium systems and underground systems, just the theory of cleaning these systems is the same. You may non exist able to access all parts of these systems (for example, undercover ducts), merely you can make a difference in your air quality past cleaning the parts of the system yous can attain.

Why practice it yourself?

Most homeowners have never been given whatever sort of preparation on how to care for their homes and, as such, they spend a lot of time and money learning things the difficult manner.

But home air duct cleaning doesn't demand to exist one of those things y'all pay someone else to practice or you spend a lot of time and energy learning how to exercise it.

Y'all probably don't own a loftier-powered, truck-mounted vacuum arrangement with 150-foot hoses. But we're going to tell you how yous can clean the air ducts yourself. No, yous won't go as deeply into your duct system as a commercial company will. That'south fine. Most of the debris in your ducts gathers toward the registers anyway and you can reach those spots on your ain.

Cleaning Air Ducts with a Vacuum

Things you'll need to make clean your air ducts

Here are the air duct cleaning tools that you need to complete the task:

  • Furnace filter. You'll definitely need a new furnace filter at the stop of the job. Make sure you lot choose the correct filter option for your furnace.
  • Gloves. Heavy-duty gloves and a dust mask or goggles to wear while cleaning.
  • Vacuum. Y'all'll need a vacuum to suck upwards the dust and dirt from your air registers. A standard household vacuum probably isn't powerful enough. Brand sure the vacuum yous rent has a long hose to reach into the ducts.
  • Brush. Something that resembles a toilet brush will work well, only if yous don't accept 1 of these handy, a stiff-bristled paintbrush will do the play a trick on.
  • Power drill. Using a power drill to remove screws from the vents can exist handy, but you can also use a screwdriver. Make sure the screwdriver is uniform with the screws on the various types of registers in your dwelling house.
  • Cleaning cloth. A microfiber fabric works best.
  • Paper towels. You probably don't want to do more cleaning when you're finished. To brand the most of your time, make certain you have an aplenty supply of paper towels handy – they'll be quite useful.

Which vents are which?

If you're a new homeowner, you might non know or understand that your home has diverse types of vents going into the ductwork of your home. An easy way to identify each type is with a tissue test. If you identify a tissue on the vent and it sticks, it'south a return duct, significant the vent is there to bring air back to the HVAC system from the house. If the tissue doesn't stick to the vent, it'due south a supply vent, which blows out warm or cool air from the HVAC system, depending whether your furnace or air conditioner is operating.

Don't be confused if there are vents on the outside of your habitation. These vents permit air to flow into and out of your attic and are non part of your HVAC system and don't need to be cleaned for air duct purposes.

Stride-by-Footstep duct cleaning

  1. Remove the screws from air duct covers and return-air grill plates.
  2. Encompass up your supply vents (those vents that supply heat or air to the rooms) with paper towels. Encompass the vents not beingness cleaned at the time to keep the dust and clay from blowing in and out while you're cleaning other areas. Simply lift the supply vents and place a newspaper towel between the vent cover and the wall or flooring. The vent should hold in place without having to put all the screws back in since you'll exist returning to remove the paper towels and cleaning each air vent.
  3. Prepare your thermostat to the "fan on" position. The fan will help move the dust that you lot loosen while cleaning. make sure the estrus and cool mode is off. If you have an older thermostat that doesn't have a "fan-merely" setting, run the heat.
  4. Loosen dust in ducts. Knock loose whatsoever buildup of dust in the ductwork. A light tapping will loosen clumps of dust sticking to the inside of the ducts. Simply take the handle of your brush and begin borer on any attainable ductwork you have in the basement. This will aid break upwardly any deposits of dampened grit that may have stuck to the insides of the duct.
  5. Clean supply registers. Now you can brainstorm sweeping out the dust in your supply annals. With the vacuum running and the end of the hose most the register, elevator the register. Use the hose to catch any grit that's existence pushed out by the fan and proceed to sweep as far into the register's piping as the hose tin reach. Employ your brush to scuff loose any built-up dust in the register. At present, using a damp microfiber fabric, reach downwards into the duct equally far as you tin can and wipe the interior clean. Y'all'll want to rinse the cloth repeatedly because chances are, y'all'll find a lot of dust and gunk up at that place the first time you do this. As you go through the house sweeping out the supply registers, you lot can remove and dispose of the paper towels you've put in place.
  6. Clean the return registers. Sweep out your return air registers. Over again, brush and sweep as far back into the register cavity equally possible.
  7. Close off fan and furnace. Close the fan off at the thermostat and the power off to the furnace via the service switch or breaker panel. Practice non just shut off the thermostat because that doesn't plough off the unit's power.
  8. Clean out blower compartment and return air kicking. With the power off, you tin remove the panels on the front end of the furnace and access the blower compartment and the return air boot. Use your vacuum to sweep upwardly the dust built upward in the blower compartment and return air boot. This is where the great bulk of y'all dust will be. Since you're in here, yous should clean the furnace fan too.
  9. Replace the furnace filter. Yous won't get the complete do good of clean ducts if you have HVAC filters clogged with the dust and contaminants they are designed to catch. Purchasing a better filter will certainly cut down on the dust in your domicile merely the better the filter, the more oftentimes y'all should change it. A dirty filter limits the airflow to the fan resulting in the blower motor running hotter and reducing its lifespan. Savvy homeowners know that to reduce dust in their homes, they should clean or modify furnace filters at least in one case a month.

Replacing Dirty Air Filter

Hither's an important slice of information about air filters, 2nd-manus smoke and your health.

The filters in your ducts role similarly to your lungs. It'southward common knowledge that animate in 2nd-paw smoke is harmful to your trunk. Well, consider that your lungs never properly lose all of the impurities that gather in them when y'all smoke, and remember that the filters in your air ducts piece of work in much the aforementioned way. Without knowing it, you could exist inhaling second-mitt tobacco fume for weeks later on the actual offending cigarette has been snuffed out because the balance fume that's defenseless in your air ducts remains in that location for a long, long time.

What if you lot find mold during your DIY duct cleaning?

If you think you've found mold, accept it tested to verify. Telephone call in a professional if you accept a mold problem. HVAC duct cleaning services have the expertise to remove unsafe mold. They also take the equipment to become to hard-to-reach areas that your house vacuum cannot.

How often should you clean your air ducts?

I to ii times a yr, the nigh common times are the first of bound and fall.

Woman breathing clean air after she cleaned her home's air ducts herself.

Preventing duct contamination

Whether or not yous decide to clean your air ducts, committing to a expert preventive maintenance plan is of import in minimizing duct contagion.

To help prevent dirt from entering the system:

  • Apply the highest efficiency air filter recommended past the manufacturer or your HVAC system.
  • Change filters routinely. If they become clogged, change them even more frequently.
  • When having your HVAC system maintained or checked for other reasons, be sure to ask the service provider to clean cooling coils and drain pains.
  • seal off supply and return registers and don't operate the heating and cooling system until after cleaning up whatever dust.
  • Vacuum your home regularly. If possible, use a high efficiency (HEPA) cleaner or the highest efficiency filter bags your vacuum cleaner tin can take.
  • If your system includes in-duct humidification equipment, make certain to operate and maintain the humidifier strictly as recommended past the manufacturer.
  • Make certain air ducts are properly sealed and insulated in all non-air-conditioned spaces (attics and crawl spaces). This will help prevent wet due to condensation from entering the organisation.
  • Fix any water leaks and remove any standing water.
  • Steam cleaning and other methods involving moisture should not exist used on whatsoever kid of duct work.

We promise we've been helpful in providing these tips for cleaning your air vents.

Should you lot have any questions about your HVAC needs, please don't hesitate to contact the HVAC professionals at J&A Southward Park.