Duct Cleaning in Sterling, IL
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Step 1 of 3: Equipment
Your ductwork works eight months a year here
Heat runs October through May in Sterling, and that whole time your ducts are moving air through every room. Dust, pet hair, and whatever else is in that air settles along the way, and eight months of runtime gives it a lot of chances to build up.
Winter nights averaging 17°F mean the furnace is cycling hard to keep up, pushing air through those same ducts again and again. A duct system that is choked with buildup makes the furnace work harder to move the same amount of air, and it is what gets recirculated through the house every time the blower kicks on.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner does the same
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NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- There's no fixed number of years that fits every home. If anyone in the house has allergies, or you've had a renovation that kicked up dust and debris, it's worth cleaning sooner rather than later. Homes with pets or a recent water problem in the ductwork should also move up the schedule. A contractor can look at what's actually built up in there and tell you whether it's time.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It depends on what's going on in your ducts right now. If you can see dust building up around vents, or you're noticing more dust in the house than usual, cleaning will help. It won't lower your heating bills or fix an equipment problem, so if that's the goal, the issue is probably somewhere else. A contractor can look at your vents and tell you whether buildup is actually a problem worth addressing.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor uses specialized tools to loosen dust and debris built up inside the ducts, then vacuums it out with a powerful vacuum system connected to the ductwork. Vents and registers get cleaned too, since dust collects right at those openings. On some jobs, the technician also checks the coil and other parts of the system that sit in the airflow path, since dust from the ducts tends to settle there as well.