The air you breathe is not as clean as you think. There are particles of dust in air, as well as other impurities, and dirty air ducts can make it worse. Assuming it is done thoroughly and correctly, cleaning air ducts has several benefits for your health and the function of your air conditioner or furnace.
Why Duct Cleaning Is Necessary
When air moves through your home or business, it does not travel alone. It brings with it fine particles of dust. Some of these particles are left behind in the ducts in your air handling system. If your vents are in the floor, you also have dust and dirt settling and falling into them on occasion. In fact, the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA) estimates that a six room house may gather as much as 40 pounds of material in its ducts each year.
Dust itself may not sound like much of a problem, but it carries more problems with it. There can be as many as 40,000 dust mites in just a single ounce of dust. There can also be mold, bacteria, viruses, pet dander and other allergens. All of these things in your vents could theoretically break free and go into the air flow.
Benefits of Cleaning Your Ducts
Removing 40 pounds of dust, bacteria and allergens from your home every year is a healthy choice. There may be further health benefits for residents with allergies, asthma or other respiratory ailments, in particular, in having the ducts in their homes cleaned.
If a cleaning is really thorough and includes cleaning the intake register, the fan and other mechanical parts of the furnace or air conditioner, there may even be a mechanical benefit to the procedure. Removing dust from the moving parts in an air handling system will reduce resistance and wear and allow it to run more efficiently and last longer.
How Ducts are Cleaned
If working with a quality air vent cleaning company, no part of your air handling system is left untouched, and all dust and grime is agitated, sucked out and collected back into the appropriate equipment for disposal. The machine used not only collects contaminates, but more importantly keeps them from coming out of your ducts and into your home during the cleaning process.
Duct cleaning will remove some of the dust and allergens from your home if done right by professionals, like those at Steamatic of the Twin Cities. Residents of Maple Grove MN can visit www.twincities.steamatic.com to learn about their services.
