Duct Cleaning in Portales, NM
Tell us about your home, and a licensed contractor who covers Roosevelt County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Roosevelt County dust, seven months of duct work
Portales sits on the plains, and the wind here does not let up. Fifty-three damaging wind events in the last ten years means dust gets driven into every gap around vents and returns, and it settles in the ductwork long before anyone notices it in the air.
Your furnace runs October through April, seven months of the year, pulling air through those same ducts night after night on nights that average 26°F. Dust and grit moving through the system that whole time build up along the duct walls, and a furnace working that many months with restricted airflow has to work harder to keep the house warm.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner does the same
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- There's no fixed schedule that fits every home. Homes with pets, a smoker, or someone with allergies tend to need it sooner, since more gets pulled into the return air. If you've had work done that opened up the ductwork, like a furnace replacement, that's also a good time to have them cleaned out. A contractor who looks inside the ducts can tell you what's built up and whether it's worth doing now.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It depends on what's going on in the ducts. If you can see dust blowing out of the vents, or there's a musty smell when the furnace or air conditioner kicks on, cleaning solves a real problem. If the ducts look fine and nobody in the house has breathing trouble, you're less likely to notice a difference. A contractor can look inside the ducts with a camera and tell you what's actually built up before you decide.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor hooks up a vacuum system to the ductwork and uses brushes or air tools to knock dust and debris loose, then pulls it out through the vacuum so it doesn't just settle back down the line. Each supply and return vent gets cleaned, along with the main trunk lines. The furnace or air handler often gets a look too, since dust collects around the blower and coil.