A residential attic with exposed wooden rafters, a flexible silver HVAC duct running along the floor, and an air handler unit lit by a beam of light from a small window.

Duct Cleaning in Madison, WI

Tell us about your home, and a licensed contractor who covers Dane County will get in touch.

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Step 1 of 3: Equipment

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A metal HVAC air handler with attached flexible and rigid ductwork installed in an unfinished attic with exposed wooden rafters and fiberglass insulation.

Your ducts work eight months of the year here

Madison needs heat from October through May. That is eight months of the furnace pushing air through the same ducts, night after night, with winter lows averaging 14 degrees. Dust and pet hair get pulled into the system on every one of those runs, and over that many months it packs into the duct walls.

Dane County also sees its share of winter storms, 22 of them over the last ten years, along with 128 damaging wind events. Each time the power drops and the furnace shuts down and restarts, the air moving through the ducts again can carry loose debris back into the rooms you're heating.

8 months: October through May, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
3 months: June through August, your air conditioner does the same

Isometric cutaway illustration of a single-story house showing interior rooms, furniture, and a network of gray ductwork connected to an air handling unit.

Your ducts carry heat October through May and cooled air June through August.

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NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals

How often should air ducts be cleaned?: There's no fixed schedule that fits every home. If anyone in the house has allergies, or you've had a remodel or new insulation put in that left dust behind, it's worth cleaning sooner rather than later. Homes with pets or a smoker should also lean toward doing it more often. Outside of that, it comes down to what's actually collecting in there, and a contractor can tell you by looking.
Is air duct cleaning worth it?: It depends on what's going on in your ducts right now. If you can see dust blowing out of the vents, or there's a musty smell when the furnace or AC kicks on, cleaning solves a real problem. If nothing like that is happening, it's not something you need to do on a schedule just to be safe. A contractor can look at the return and supply vents and tell you what they find before anything is opened up.
What does air duct cleaning involve?: A contractor connects a vacuum system to the ductwork and uses brushes or air tools to knock loose dust and debris from inside the supply and return runs, then pulls it out through the vacuum. The registers and grilles get cleaned too, along with the coil area near the furnace or air handler where dust tends to build up. Once it's done, the ducts get sealed back up at each access point.

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