Duct Cleaning in Fond du Lac, WI
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Nine months of heat means nine months of dust moving through your ducts
Your furnace runs September through May here, and every one of those months it's pulling air through the same ductwork, over and over. Dust, pet hair, and whatever else settles in the return air gets pushed through and some of it stays behind, coating the inside of the trunk lines.
With winter nights averaging 13°F, that furnace is working hard for a long stretch, and a duct system loaded with dust makes it push harder to move the same amount of air. Wisconsin homes also lose power sometimes, storms are common here, and a furnace that sits off for a while and then kicks back on can stir up whatever has settled in the ducts since the last cleaning.
- 9 months
- September through May, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner does the same
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- Most homes do fine having their ducts cleaned every few years, not every year. If anyone in the house has allergies, or you have pets shedding into the return vents, or you just finished a remodel that filled the ducts with drywall dust, do it sooner. Homes here run the furnace September through May, so the system moves a lot of air through those ducts during that stretch and picks up whatever settles inside them. A contractor can look at what has built up and tell you whether it is time.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It depends on what is actually in the ducts. If you can see dust kicking out of the vents, or there is a musty smell when the furnace kicks on, or someone in the house has allergy symptoms that ease up when they leave the house, cleaning solves a real problem. If the ducts are just doing their job quietly, cleaning them will not lower your heating bill or make the furnace run better, since a duct is just a path for air, not a filter. The filter is what actually cleans the air, and that gets changed on its own schedule.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor puts each supply and return duct under vacuum through a portable machine, then uses brushes or air whips to knock loose dust and debris off the inside walls so it pulls into the vacuum instead of blowing back into the room. The furnace coil and blower housing usually get cleaned at the same time, since they collect the same buildup. Registers and grilles come off to be cleaned separately. A contractor can walk the house and tell you what your ducts actually need before starting.