Duct Cleaning in St. Paul, MN
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Eight months of heating pushes a lot of air through your ducts
Your furnace runs October through May here, eight months of the year. On winter nights averaging 10°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch, and every cycle pushes air through the same ductwork. Dust, pet hair, and whatever else is in the house gets carried along and some of it settles inside the duct walls instead of coming out the vents.
Ramsey County has also seen 31 winter storms and 42 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Storms like that knock out power, and when a furnace shuts down and restarts, it draws in whatever settled in the ductwork during the outage. Over years of heating seasons, that buildup narrows the air path and gives the furnace more to push against.
- 8 months
- October through May, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 3 months
- June through August, your air conditioner does the same
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- Most homes don't need it on a strict schedule. Watch for dust building up around the vents, a musty smell when the system kicks on, or the system pushing out more dust than it used to. Pets, a recent renovation, or someone in the house with allergies are all reasons to have them looked at sooner. A contractor can inspect the ducts and tell you whether they actually need cleaning or can wait.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It depends on what is actually in your ducts. If there is visible dust, debris, pest activity, or mold, cleaning them helps the air moving through your home and takes some strain off your furnace and air conditioner. If the ducts are clean and the system runs fine, cleaning them will not fix anything, because there is nothing to fix. Have a contractor look inside before you decide either way.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor uses a high-powered vacuum along with brushes or air whips to loosen dust and debris from inside the ductwork and pull it out of the system. This covers the supply and return ducts and the grilles and registers, and the coils and blower if they can be reached. The furnace filter gets checked or replaced too, since a dirty filter puts debris right back into the air the cleaning just removed.