The whole system, not a vacuum at a few vents. Agitation, negative pressure, and the air handler cleaned too.
Serving Phoenix, AZ
# ROC 102297
Rated by BBB
Air duct cleaning removes the dust, debris and buildup that accumulates inside a duct system, so the air moving through it stops carrying that material back into your rooms.
Whether it is worth doing depends entirely on the condition of your ducts, and this page is going to be straight with you about that. In a Phoenix home over [15] years old that has never had it done, it is usually worth doing. As an annual routine on a clean system, it is not. Anybody selling it as something every house needs every year is selling frequency the system does not need.
CMI-AIR is a licensed HVAC contractor rather than a cleaning company. On this job that matters, because a duct inspection frequently turns up something that needs repairing rather than vacuuming, and at that point you want somebody who can actually fix it.
If you can see dust come out of a register at the start of a cycle, there is loose material sitting in the ductwork. This is the clearest single indicator that cleaning will do something, because you are watching the ducts deliver their contents into the room.
Dust returning almost immediately means it is being resupplied. Either the ducts hold it, the return side leaks and pulls unfiltered attic air in, or the filtration is not fine enough for Valley dust. Cleaning addresses the first. The other two need finding, or the ducts refill and you are back where you started.
A smell that appears with airflow and fades when the system stops is coming from inside the system. Usually that is dust plus moisture in the drain pan or on the evaporator coil, sometimes it is biological growth on the coil, occasionally it is something in a duct run. All three are found by looking.
Allergens accumulate in ductwork and get recirculated in a house that is sealed up with the AC running five months a year. Cleaning removes what is in there. Pairing it with proper filtration is what stops it coming back.
Droppings near vents, a smell you cannot place, or a known rodent problem in the attic. This one is not really about dust. Contamination of this kind needs the system cleaned and any entry points found, and sometimes it needs a duct run replaced rather than cleaned.
Drywall dust is fine, abundant and it gets everywhere, including into every open duct in the house. If work was done with the system running, or with registers uncovered, the ducts collected a lot of it. This is one of the few situations where cleaning is straightforwardly the right call.
Common in a house you bought from someone else. An inspection answers it without committing you to anything, and if the ducts are clean we will tell you so.
We walk the house, count every supply and return, identify how many separate systems there are, and check duct condition and accessibility. This is also where we find problems cleaning will not solve, like a disconnected run or crushed flex duct. The quote comes after this, not before it.
Registers are covered and the equipment is set up so debris leaves the house rather than redistributing inside it. [Truck-mounted or portable negative-pressure equipment, per the client’s actual equipment.]
Each run is agitated with [brushes and air whips] to release material off the duct walls while the system is held under negative pressure, so everything that comes loose gets pulled out. This is the step that separates real cleaning from theatre. Vacuuming without agitation collects the loose surface dust and leaves the rest bonded to the duct wall.
Cleaning ducts and skipping the equipment leaves the dirtiest part of the system untouched. We clean the [plenum, the blower compartment and blower wheel, and the evaporator coil where it is accessible]. A blower wheel packed with Phoenix dust is also costing you real airflow, so this part improves how the system runs as well as what it circulates.
Vent covers removed, cleaned and reinstalled rather than wiped in place.
[Before and after photographs of the inside of the ducts.] Airflow confirmed at the registers. A written note of anything we found that needs repair, with no obligation to have us do it.
Four things, and they are worth knowing before you book anyone, us included.
Agitation. If nobody puts a brush or an air whip into the duct, the material bonded to the duct wall stays there. A hose at the register moves the loose dust and nothing else.
Negative pressure on the system. The ducts have to be under suction while they are agitated, or the material that comes loose gets pushed further into the system and into your rooms. This is why a proper job needs real equipment rather than a shop vacuum.
The equipment gets cleaned. The blower wheel, the plenum and the coil hold more of the problem than the duct runs do. A quote that covers only the vents is a partial job.
Photographs. Duct interiors are not visible to you. Before and after photos are the only way to know what was in there and what came out. Ask any company for them, and be careful about one that will not.
Bait pricing is common in duct cleaning. A crew quotes a whole-house clean for less than the job could possibly cost, arrives with a shop vacuum, does a few vents, then finds reasons the real work costs several times the quote.
Two questions sort it out. Exactly how many vents does that price cover? And what equipment do you use? A company running truck-mounted or negative-pressure gear will answer both without hesitating.
Three situations where we will tell you not to do it.
The ducts are already clean. Some are, particularly in newer houses with good filtration. If we look and they are fine, that is the answer.
The flex duct liner is deteriorating. Old flex duct with a brittle inner liner can be damaged by aggressive agitation. If that is what we find, cleaning is the wrong job and replacement is the conversation.
The system is leaking badly. Cleaning a leaky duct system means the leaks pull dust straight back in. Seal first, then clean, and the result lasts. Doing it in the other order wastes the cleaning.
A dryer vent is separate from your HVAC ducts and it carries a genuine fire risk when lint builds up. Signs it needs attention: clothes taking two cycles to dry, the dryer or laundry room getting unusually hot, or a burning smell when the dryer runs.
[Confirm whether CMI-AIR offers dryer vent cleaning. If yes it belongs here as an add-on to a duct cleaning visit. If no, this section comes out.]
Call (602) 437-0066 or use the form. Have your approximate square footage and vent count handy if you can, and we can give you a closer answer on the phone.
It is worth it when the ducts are genuinely dirty, and in Phoenix homes over [15] years old that have never had it done, they usually are. It is not worth doing annually on a clean system, and it is not a substitute for fixing duct leaks or correcting the filtration, because both of those refill the ducts. If your goal is lower bills rather than cleaner air, sealing is the better job.
Every three to five years for most homes, and toward the shorter end here because of the dust. Sooner with multiple pets, significant allergies, recent construction work, or any evidence of pests.
[Two to four] hours for a typical single-system Phoenix home. Longer for larger houses and multiple systems. You do not have to be there the whole time, but we do need access to every register.
A little, if buildup was restricting airflow, and cleaning a dust-loaded blower wheel does recover real airflow. The larger saving in Phoenix comes from sealing duct leaks, because air escaping into a 150-degree attic wastes far more of your cooling than duct dust does.
It helps when allergens have built up inside the duct system, and it works considerably better paired with filtration that stops the ducts refilling. If allergies are the main reason you are calling, the conversation should cover filtration and return-side leakage as well as cleaning.
[Yes. Confirm with the client.] It is the only way for you to see what was actually in there, and you should expect it from any duct cleaning company.
It depends on condition, which is why the inspection happens first. Brittle old flex duct can be damaged by agitation, and in that case we will tell you it needs replacing rather than cleaning it anyway and hoping.
Yes, and it matters. The blower wheel, plenum and evaporator coil hold a large share of the buildup in most systems. A duct cleaning that stops at the vents leaves the dirtiest part of the system exactly as it was.
CMI-AIR is the residential division of Consolidated Mechanical, a local, family-owned commercial air conditioning company with more than 30 years of experience.
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