Both duct cleaning and vent cleaning can make a major difference in how well your heating and air conditioning perform and also help to improve the air quality in your home or business. Although they are done for similar reasons, duct and vent cleaning are technically two separate things.
Vent cleaning is something you can easily do yourself, while duct cleaning is something you’ll need to hire a professional for. In this article, we’ll explain how each process works and what benefits it can provide.
Ducts vs. Vents
Both ducts and vents are essential components of a central HVAC system since they are how the cooled and heated air gets circulated around the building and into each room. A ductwork system has two sides — the supply side and the return air side. The supply ducts are what carry the conditioned air produced by the heating and cooling before it finally flows out of the supply vent or vents in each room.
You then have one or more return air ducts located somewhere in the central part of the building that are connected to the return air ductwork. The return air side is where warmer or cooler air gets drawn into the HVAC system so that it can be cooled or heated to lower or raise the building’s temperature.
Benefits of Cleaning Your Home’s Supply Vents
The supply vents in your home or commercial building are something you can easily clean yourself since all of them are easily accessible. All you need to do is take the grille or cover off each vent and then use a vacuum to suck out all of the dust and debris within the vent. You also want to make sure to clean the grille since it can easily end up getting clogged with dust. Cleaning the return air vents generally won’t do much, but cleaning your supply vents can definitely help prevent them from clogging up.
You always want to make sure to clean the grille on the return air vents any time you see pet hair or debris stuck to it. This can happen quite frequently since air is constantly being pulled into these vents when your HVAC system runs, which can also result in any nearby debris getting sucked up against the vent cover. The cover on supply vents normally gets clogged on the inside, so you can’t see it. That’s why it’s a good idea to remove the cover at least once every few months so that you can check if it is clogged and clean it whenever necessary.
The issue when the cover on any of your return air vents is clogged is that it reduces the amount of air that can get drawn into your HVAC system, which can lead to reduced performance and decreased energy efficiency. There’s also an increased chance of your furnace overheating or your air conditioning freezing up if not enough air is getting drawn in through the return ductwork.
If the supply vent in any room is clogged, it will obviously result in that room not receiving as much hot or cold air and potentially making the room colder or hotter than you want. If multiple supply vents in your house are clogged or obstructed by furniture or other items, it can also have an impact on how well your HVAC system performs.
The issue when supply vents are clogged, obstructed, or closed is that it causes the air flowing through the supply vents to start backing up. This then leads to the pressure in the ducts increasing, which makes it much harder for the HVAC blower to move air through the ducts and into every part of the house. This issue can also lead to your furnace overheating since all of the hot air just builds up instead of continually flowing out through the ducts.
How HVAC Technicians Clean Air Ducts
While you can easily clean all of your vents yourself, there is no way you can effectively clean the supply and return air ducts themselves since most of them are hidden and inaccessible. HVAC technicians overcome this issue by fully sealing off all of the vents and then attaching an industrial-strength vacuum to some part of the ductwork system.
Sometimes the technician will just attach the vacuum to supply vents in different rooms and clean each of the duct branches one by one. In other cases, they’ll just attach the vacuum to the main supply and main return duct by cutting a hole in each one. Either option generally works just as well since the vacuum is powerful enough and creates so much pressure that it can easily suck all of the debris out of the entire supply and return duct system.
Sealing off the vents enables the vacuum to create a high amount of negative pressure within the entire ductwork system so that all of the dust and debris easily gets sucked out. Sealing the vents also ensures that all of the debris remains trapped so that nothing ends up blowing out of any of the vents.
In some cases, the technician may first use a special duct cleaning machine that has a rotating brush connected to a long, flexible handle. The purpose of this is to loosen up all of the debris just to ensure everything gets sucked out and the ducts get fully cleaned. During the process, all of the debris gets sucked directly into a large vacuum bag so that the process creates no mess and there’s nothing to clean up afterward.
Benefits of Professional Duct Cleaning
Duct cleaning is something most HVAC experts recommend doing every few years — no less than once every five years. One reason is that it helps to improve the air quality in your home and prevent your house from being as dusty. Dust, pet hair and dander, pollen, dead dust mites, and other allergens always end up accumulating within your ducts over time. Whenever your HVAC system runs, some of this stuff gets stirred up so that it then gets blown out of the supply vents. That means you end up with dust and allergens circulating in the air and settling on all of your surfaces.
The main reason why duct cleaning is beneficial is that it helps to improve the performance and energy efficiency of your HVAC system. The reason has to do with something known as static pressure, which is how much airflow resistance there is inside a ductwork system.
What happens when there is a large amount of debris inside air ducts is that it starts to block the airflow. That means the HVAC blower has more difficulty circulating air through the ducts, resulting in reduced airflow and decreased performance. This in turn causes the HVAC system to use more energy since the reduced airflow means the system cools and heats more slowly than it normally would. When all of your ducts are clean, air flows more easily so that your HVAC system works as effectively as it should.
For nearly 40 years, Specialty Heating & Cooling LLC has been the company homeowners and business owners in Tigard and the surrounding areas have trusted for all of their HVAC, indoor air quality, and water heater needs. We offer professional duct cleaning services and are also ready to help if you need any other assistance with your heating or air conditioning. To schedule an appointment to have your ducts cleaned or for any other service relating to indoor air quality, contact us today.
