A Gimmick??????

Im no expert but can you really do a good at duct cleaning with the brushes? It's 800.00 bones,

Nope.

If the ducts are insulated, those brushes rip them up and they can often be asbestos. Then there is all the flex ducting in use today, you tear that up and all the air just gets dumped into a blind cavity to become mold.

My advice is to stay away from duct cleaning. There is short term money in it, but long term headaches....not even the Feds support the act of duct cleaning as studies can't prove that it makes any difference on the air quality of a home.

No kidding I didn't know that fed study. I guess it is a rip

It is a quick cash service based on bad science.

It seems if the ducts are really dirty then it would improve air quality but how often are ducts super dirty?

the hvac companies most all do duct cleaning


but I dont see how if the ducts are dirty and its removing all the dust and debris that its bad science,   it actually improves efficiency in the heating system big time if the ducts are really dirty



The video above is the hydro force,   its just like the ram air    both use air blasting to clean the ducts..   the roto brush system is one that uses spinning brushes which Ive also heard can damage a lot of duct work.


if they are replacing their intake filter regularly then the ducts really have no where to collect dust from which im guess is why the feds dont support it.. but a lot of people dont keep up on their filters

If the ducts really are that dirty, then I can see how it could help efficiency of the hvac system, but not improve air quality....the filter does that.

The important thing is that the air flowing into a room is filtered, so the dust bunnies on the other side of the filter never return to the living space. No amount of duct cleaning will change that fact.

The only time I would consider a real duct cleaning would be due to it being inundated with drywall dust. That will clog a filter in minutes and burn out a system pretty fast. In those cases, I would support it, but not from a carpet cleaner.

The rotobrush is used mainly for the vent lines and the one's that I've worked on have had a soft brush to clean with. But they do make a stiffer brush for metal ducting.
As for the air filters catching all the dust and dirt, have you ever heard how many drier vent fire's there are. Even if you clean the lint screen everytime it still gets through, ac filters are no different.
The trunk line it self because of the size you have to air, but you have to have a negative air flow to remove the debris because the air jet is banging around inside the duct to knock the dust and debri loose.as for air quality if there's mold inside if properly cleaned and treated it will improve air quality. But you have to know how and what to do just like cleaning carpets. There are classes that you can take on how.
As we've talked about before there's money to be made even if you just had a air compressor with the air jet and your tm and cleaned drier vents there's a need, and money to be made.

There is definitely money being made in cleaning and in selling the equipment to carpet cleaners...no disagreement there, but is it really honest?

As a mold contractor, I would never clean ducts that were contaminated in that fashion, you replace it. There is simply no solid science to support the claims that are being made about the value of duct cleaning in regards to air quality and I have yet to find a plugged up metal duct that would impede air flow with the exception of drywall dust which can plug up a filter very fast.

It is just like Radon or any other scientific claim that gets made, if you believe it, then sell the service and reap the rewards. If you don't accept the science, making money off of it is dishonest in my view.

Tell them to buy good filters and change them often....it will do more for them in my opinion.

As for dryers....yes, I agree with that service all the way. There are enough documented fires due to clogged lint screens to prove it's value.

http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/airduct.html


Covers the topic pretty well.

I will tell you this...its a good paying business BUT you better know what your doing AND I would never pay a sole to do an AC system for me unless they had dedicated HEPA equipment and a license for HVAC....you are peeing in the wind if you clean everything and miss the A coil....around these parts with humidity ...it all needs pulled and cleaned properly. There are several tricks when cleaning them......Need to protect yourself too. lots can go wrong....after you train you will learn its one hell of an investment to do them properly.

I think dryer vent cleaning is a good way to go, pretty simple add on service and easy work.

whats nice is if you have a cfm meter like we use for testing our vac power, you can show the customer the before and after air flow reading from their duct cleaning

also if its been a while since its been cleaned you get pretty dramatic results

We did do tons of Dryer vent cleaning. It was good to us but I would certainly get trained for it and not buy equipment like above unless its a dryer vent type thing only.....you could even do a light sruface duct cleaning but I wouldnt touch it myself.