To Clean… or Not to Clean… Your Air Ducts
Have you been eyeballing those household air ducts and wondering what’s going on inside of them? Thinking maybe your spring-cleaning should have included getting someone inside of those ducts to give them a serious, professional scrubbing?
Your air ducts could be accumulating all kinds of dirt, mold, mildew, spider webs, pollen, pet hair and bacteria that can make you and members of your family ill. The clutter can also hinder the operation of the HVAC equipment. That can lead to an increase in your utility bills and even early breakdowns in the machinery if the foreign matter in the ducts is not properly removed.
It’s actually rather simple to tell if your air ducts need to be cleaned, and the experts on all things clean-air conscious – the United States Environmental Protection Agency — offer easy guidelines to tell if it’s time to go to the cleaners.
Check around the ducts and peek inside any exhausts to look for any visible mold growth. A substantial amount of the moldy residue likely means a need for a cleansing, but mold is not always readily identifiable and might need a professional assessment to make a positive identification. And if there is mold inside you‘ll need to eliminate the cause of the problem, most likely moisture inside the ducts. If those ducts are insulated and the insulation gets wet and moldy, the material should be replaced because it will never adequately dry on its own and will become a breeding ground for even more mold.
If mold isn’t bad enough, dirty ducts can also become the home for unwanted visitors like rodents and insects. Once again, if these are found call the cleaner.
One of the most obvious ways to tell if there are foreign particles in the air ducts is to check the exhausts and registers. If you see dust and debris coming from them, the ducts are filling up with clutter.
The EPA says the proper cleaning of the air ducts will have no detrimental effect on any of the equipment. And, once they are clean the best way to keep them that way is to prevent water and dirt from entering them.
For professional and expert duct cleaning services in the Albany area, call Family Danz at .