Many people ask about the process of what we do when cleaning the air ducts in their home. They are spending a lot of money to get this done, so it is not uncommon to understand the process and what to expect.
The Process for Air Duct Cleaning In Your Home
When we come to your home, we want to inspect the furnace room to get an overview of the system and how we are going to hook up our vacuum lines and evaluate the trunk lines. We then go through the house and locate all the cold air return vents and supply vents in every room. Knowing where all the vents are, gives us an idea of our plan of attack and where to get started. We prefer that the homeowners have moved any furniture away from the vents so we have access for cleaning.
We then bring in all our equipment and place it near the furnace room. It takes about 30 minutes to do the initial home inspection and bring in all the equipment.
Vaccum Connection Setup Process
Preparing the Supply trunk line for Air Duct Cleaning process.
We cut an 8″ hole in supply trunk line, so we can hook up our vacuum hose. This trunk line connects to all the individual room supply vents. These are the smaller vents either in the floor or ceiling.
When we hook up the vaccum and whip all the debris out of the vents, we don’t want any of that debris getting into the furnace coils (1st image). Therefore, we always cover the coils with our plates and magnets (2nd image)
Preparing the Return trunk line for Air Duct Cleaning process.
For the return trunk line, we cut an 8″ hole, so we can hook up our vacuum hose. This trunk line connects to all the individual larger vents that are typically at the bottom of the walls in several areas of the house. The typical house has 3-6 of these return vents. These vents suck are in from the room into the furnace, to be either heated or cooled, then exited to the vents.
The last part of our air duct cleaning preparation process is that we use our light vacuum and go to each vent. We scrub and vacuum all the loose debris, dirt, and dust out, just to make sure we get all the loose debris.
Cold Air Return Cleaning Process
We start with cleaning the cold air return vents. The Hypervac vacuum is used for our residential jobs. By using the air compressor (producing 175 psi) and a whip system, we whip all the contaminants from the exit point down to the trunk lines, with the vacuum pulling everything down toward the furnace area. We then go down to the furnace area where we can access the trunk lines. We drill a 2″ hole and use our whip system to pull all the contaminants into the vacuum hose. We also open up the furnace covers and get everything cleaned between the trunk lines and furnace.
Supply Vents Cleaning Process
After cleaning the cold air return lines, we change over the vacuum to the supply trunk line. Using the air compressor and a forward air ball system, we insert the line through each vent and push all the contaminants into the supply trunk lines. We then go into the furnace area, drill a 2″ hole in the supply trunk lines and clean it out completely.
Clean Up and Seal All Trunk Lines
After the returns and supply lines are all clean, we do a thorough clean-up and seal all the trunk lines. To seal up the 8″ holes, we use a 9″ x 9″ piece of galvanized aluminum (same material as the trunk line itself), use aluminum tape to tape and seal it to the hole, and then use screws to tighten everything up. For the 2″ holes, we use a 2-inch hole plug. At this point, we turn back on the furnace and make sure the furnace is functioning.
Mountain Air Duct, located in Colorado Springs, specializes in residential air duct cleaning and dryer vent cleaning. To get more information our services see the Mountain Air Duct home Page. If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call at 719-629-7790 or contact us here.