How to Clean Ventilation Ducts
Cleaning your air ducts is important. It helps maintain your heating and air conditioning unit. Over time, dust can accumulate within your duct work and can cause a clog. It can cause your unit to work much harder than it usually would, which can lead to higher energy bills. In addition, the dust blows all around your house, and you can experience some allergy related reactions to the excess dust. Under other circumstances--like a rodent or bug infestation--it is recommended that you consult a professional duct cleaning service. However, for simple dust removal, you can perform this task on your own. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Turn off the heat and air unit by switching the thermostat control to the off position. This will ensure that no dust or debris blows out while you are cleaning.
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Put on the face mask. This will help you from breathing in any dust from the ducts.
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3
Remove the vent covers in the rooms where you want to clean the ducts using the screwdrivers. It is recommended that you clean each duct in all the rooms to avoid a mess from dust build up that you break loose. Under most vent cover will be the vent hole, some will have built-in filters. If you have the filters, you must be careful not to damage them while cleaning. Pry the filter out with a flat headed screwdriver and gently brush any built-up dust off of it. Replace each filter after vacuuming each vent.
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4
Plug in the duct vacuum and attach all the hoses. The hose lengths can reach 10 to 20 feet. Attaching all the hose lengths together is your best bet as you can feed in as much hose as the vent will take.
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Turn on the duct vacuum and slowly insert the hose down the duct.
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Repeat the vacuuming for all of the ducts in every room. This is necessary to ensure that you are getting the maximum amount of removal for the entire length of your duct work.
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Reattach your vent covers (filters first if there were any) and thoroughly vacuum the areas around the vent covers to make sure you didn't track any dust out while you were working.
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