Duct Cleaning in Oak Ridge, TN
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Step 1 of 3: Equipment
Seven months of heating keeps pushing air through the same ducts
Your furnace runs October through April here, close to seven months of the year. Every time it kicks on, air moves through the same ductwork, and dust settles on the inside walls of the line a little more each pass.
Anderson County has also logged 42 damaging wind events and 6 winter storms over the past ten years. Wind like that can drive debris into vents and stir up what's sitting in the attic or crawlspace where ducts run, and that settles into the system along with everything else.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner does the same
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NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- There's no fixed schedule that fits every home, so most contractors go by what they find rather than a set number of years. Signs like dust coming back right after cleaning, a musty smell from the vents, or a recent renovation are reasons to have them checked. Homes here run the furnace from October through April, so whatever is sitting in the ducts gets blown through the house for seven months straight.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It's worth it when there's a real reason behind it, like dust coming out of the vents, a musty smell when the air kicks on, or work that was just done on the ductwork itself. It won't lower your heating bill or fix a system that's running poorly for other reasons. A contractor can look at your ducts and tell you whether cleaning will actually solve what you're noticing.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor connects a vacuum to the duct system to pull air through it while agitating the inside of the ducts with brushes or air tools to loosen dust and debris. Each supply and return vent gets cleaned along with the main trunk lines. The furnace or air handler and its blower compartment usually get cleaned too, since that's where a lot of buildup collects.