Air duct cleaning

[altiain]

The wife and I both suffer from allergies, and we've got a pair of dogs that seem capable of shedding their own weight in fur every few days.

We've thought about paying someone to clean the ducts in our house to see if it might improve our allergy symptoms a bit. The house was built in '91, and the ducts have never been cleaned to my knowledge.

Anyone here had this done? Would you recommend it, or was it a waste of money? If you'd recommend it, who did you use?

[POS Racing]

Have you pulled a vent and looked to see what is in your ducts? May not be as bad as you think.

[sammm]

Have you cleaned/changed your furnace/air handler filter lately?

[altiain]

Have you pulled a vent and looked to see what is in your ducts? May not be as bad as you think.

It certainly doesn't look pristine in there.

Have you cleaned/changed your furnace/air handler filter lately?

Yeah, I change the filter every three months, and it always looks nasty when I replace it.

[POS Racing]

I replace my pleated 3 month filters every 30 days, I'm an asthmatic so tend to be a bit more dust conscious. I've been considering adding one of these units to my furnace to help combat more of the dust.

I know people who have had the ducts cleaned it's also a great way to loose weight since they will take quite a few $$$$ out of your wallet.

[POS Racing]

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

[altiain]

Thanks for the link, Mick.

[sammm]

I replace my pleated 3 month filters every 30 days, I'm an asthmatic so tend to be a bit more dust conscious.

[channelmaniac]

Couple of tips first...

1. Make sure the AC drainline is clear... if it ever clogged up, then you may want to clean out the pan inside the AC unit to make sure you don't have any funk growing in it...

2. If your AC system has ever 'frozen up' then you may want to have the inside coil inspected to make sure that they are OK. When we had our central heat/air system replace about 2 1/2 years ago we saw that the inside coil was full of slime mold. These coils can be cleaned by a professional.

Raymond