What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 21:55:54 GMT, "Jag Man"
wrote:

What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed

Many, Many different ways and techniques to do it. Many different
price ranges too. Generally the $99ish stuff is a waste of your time
and money. Several hundred dollars is more likely but it depends on
who does it and how they do it.
Basically, if you can get to every area of your ductwork and can see
it as you clean it and have a good shop vac, you can do a fair job.
Duct cleaning is very controversial. It depends on how dirty your duct
work is and what exactly you are trying to have accomplished.
Bubba

"Jag Man" wrote in message
. ..
What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed

Also depends on what the ducts are made of. The newer homes with the plastic
spiral wrapped duct may not be able to be cleaned. The use a truck mounted
vacuum and a rotary brush. At least the ones I have seen.

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 16:10:13 -0700, "SQLit"
wrote:


"Jag Man" wrote in message
...
What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed

Also depends on what the ducts are made of. The newer homes with the plastic
spiral wrapped duct may not be able to be cleaned. The use a truck mounted
vacuum and a rotary brush. At least the ones I have seen.



When I cleaned ducts, it was an air brush. Imagine a thing plactic
tub running to a hard ball of plastic. the ball of plastic has ports
facing the tube, so when you run compressed air through it, it wants
to move away from you(the tube holder). It will self snake down the
duct and then you pull it out with the air on full blast. With that
pressured air and a large hepa filtered vacum sucking, you really get
a lot of junk out.

Use air since brushes can damage fiberglass and plastic ducts, and you
can dial up and down air pressure depending on what the duct material
is made of.

hth,

tom @ www.FindMeShelter.com

"Jag Man" wrote in message
. ..
What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed


I, too was considering this. Then I looked inside the ducts. I couldn't
see anything that needed cleaning.

STeve

I had my ducts cleaned, regular round and suuare return units. The
machine they used they said cost 15000, HEPA,,, but the 100 yr old dust
they disturbed left me sick for 2 weeks. Duck cleaning can be bad.

"m Ransley" wrote in message
...
I had my ducts cleaned, regular round and suuare return units. The
machine they used they said cost 15000, HEPA,,, but the 100 yr old dust
they disturbed left me sick for 2 weeks. Duck cleaning can be bad.


This is Turtle.

If you do something like this again buy you a bottle of Bio-Fresh and spray it
in the return air grill while the blower is running and run the blower for 1
hour afterwards. This will sterilize any germs / virus / or bacteria that will
make you sick in any way. it also kills oders for you have to have bacteria
growing to make 90% of all oders in a house. this stuff does not kill the germs
but only makes them Sterile and stops them from any growth for the life of that
bacteria. If a Germ, Bacteria, or Virus can not grow it can not make you sick
for growth is how it will make you sick. This same process is done with the flue
shot you get every year. It is a sterilized Virus that is injected into you and
your body fights it off but it can not grow because it is a sterilized Virus ,
so your body can kill it off real fast.

TURTLE

"TURTLE" wrote

This same process is done with the flue
shot you get every year. It is a sterilized Virus that is injected into
you and your body fights it off but it can not grow because it is a
sterilized Virus , so your body can kill it off real fast.

TURTLE

Well, not really. The injection contains dead flu virus, not live sterilized
virus.

"Ed" wrote in message
...

"TURTLE" wrote

This same process is done with the flue
shot you get every year. It is a sterilized Virus that is injected into you
and your body fights it off but it can not grow because it is a sterilized
Virus , so your body can kill it off real fast.

TURTLE

Well, not really. The injection contains dead flu virus, not live sterilized
virus.

This is Turtle.

If the virus was dead the body would not know it was there or not react to the
virus. the Virus has to be alive but sterilized so the body can kill it off
easily or react to it. here lately when they had trouble getting the flue shots.
It was that the virus was still alive but '' not sterilized '' and could grow
and give you the flue from the shot.

Doctor will tell you that it is a Dead virus because people would not take the
shot if you told them that it was still alive. I have cousin that is a baby
doctor and he was tring to talk me into giving me one of them flue shots.

TURTLE

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 18:01:10 -0600, (m Ransley)
wrote:

I had my ducts cleaned, regular round and suuare return units. The
machine they used they said cost 15000, HEPA,,, but the 100 yr old dust
they disturbed left me sick for 2 weeks. Duck cleaning can be bad.

Yes, if they rush through it, they will disturb more than they clean.
Check with BBB for reliable businesses that do this work.

hth,

tom @ www.Love-Calculators.com

Jag Man wrote:
What exactly do air duct cleaning people do?

Most of the time they take your money by scaring you into thinking you
need your ducts cleaned when you don't.

Why do you think you need your ducts cleaned? What are they constructed
of (metal? any lining inside? flexible sections etc.?)

I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

The way they cleaned my ducts, for about 135, was as follows:

- attached a suction (giant hose) to the intake of my system, there is where
they create the vacumn pressure and collect all the debris.
- they go to each vent and spray high powered air to push any debris through
the ducts, and the vacumn pressure helps to send the debris to the vacumn.
- sterilizing the vents consists of spraying 'simple green' into your vents.
(not effective as you can imagine).

The main place where there is debris, which is built up and may be of
concern is the return duct. This is where
the big vent which takes in air and sends it to your system for heat or
cool. This is where the real debris is and where
you get the bang for your buck. When they clean here your gonna hear lots of
dirt and debris being sucked into
the vacumn. The other ducts, are normally rather clean since air is always
flowing through them and tends to keep
debris and dust down..

I thought it was worth it and the return duct was really filthy and thick
with buildup, afterwards it was all shiny.

one persons experience.



"Jag Man" wrote in message
. ..
What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed

If you contract with someone, be sure they specialize in Duct Cleaning.
I recommend a particular Duct Cleaning Company in my locale because ive
seen how they do the job : They use special brushes that whip around
inside the rectangular trunk ducts and round branch ducts about every
6-8 feet , while a huge Suction Machine on a trailer is sucking thru a
12" round flexible duct connected to the supply/return air ductwork.
(They drill 1" holes on the underside of the ducts and cover them with
flush-mounted plugs when done). They pull the blower assembly out of the
furnace and clean it/oil motor , as well as the blower compartment of
the furnace . They remove all supply air/return air registers/grilles
and wash them , and also use special brushes with Suction Machine down
each opening . They start out with an empty Suction Machine reseviour
that they show the customer before starting, and then after the process
is completed. They average : 14-18 lbs. of dust/dirt/debris from a duct
system. To be sure they did an adequate job, they put a remote
controlled camera inside the main ducts that rolls along giving a video
on a screen for the customer to see. Finally, if the customer has
severe allergies to mold..they inject a mold killing agent into the duct
system for an additional nominal fee. For a 2000 sq.ft home , they
typically charge about $400 and it takes 2 men 4 hours to complete.

Conversely, there are 'duct cleaners' who use Leaf Blowers shooting air
down each register for $99.95 .

Dave the HVAC hack will do it for free if you let your kids play glass
bottom boat with him

woops.. forgot one thing.. they may try and get you to pay for 'carbon
dioxide buildup' and they may
point to some orange stuff or similiar.. Dont do it, just trying to get a
few bucks out of you.



"Jag Man" wrote in message
. ..
What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 20:59:41 -0500, "Unknown"
wrote:

woops.. forgot one thing.. they may try and get you to pay for 'carbon
dioxide buildup' and they may

Ha, Ha, Ha. Sucker, I paid for the aligator repellant three years
ago, and my ducts are still aligator free!


point to some orange stuff or similiar.. Dont do it, just trying to get a
few bucks out of you.



"Jag Man" wrote in message
...
What exactly do air duct cleaning people do? I see ads in the
newspaper
for $99 to clean typical forced-air homes, and it strikes me that they
can't do much for that.

Can one do it himself?

TIA

Ed




later,

tom @ www.ChopURL.com

I had it done to my house a year or two after I moved in.

When the system was cleaned I didnt smell anything anymore when
the system was first turned on for the season.

They hooked up a suction line to the main return duct and the
main heat duct. The return was really the problem. So much crap
in there over 50 years worth of time. The guys busted their ass and
I filled up 3 or 4 bags worth of dust etc. I paid at that time about
300.00 for the service and have a total of 14 ducts in my home
(6 returns)

Tom

Instead of the duct cleaning, remove the carpeting and install vinyl
or wood floors--money well spent.