Duct Cleaning in Rio Rancho, NM
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Eight months of heating pushes dust through your ducts
Your furnace runs October through May here, eight months out of the year. Every time it kicks on, air moves through the ducts, and whatever is sitting in them, dust, dander, the fine grit that gets tracked in, moves with it and settles back out along the way. On nights averaging 19°F, that furnace is cycling often to keep up, so more air is moving through those ducts than most of the year lets on.
Sandoval County has seen 134 winter storms and 121 damaging wind events over the past ten years. Wind like that works dust and debris into a house through every gap it can find, and ductwork pulls it in and spreads it room to room. Ducts that carry that much buildup make a furnace work harder to push air through them, and the air coming out of your vents carries more of it than it should.
- 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?
- There is no fixed number of years that fits every home. Clean them sooner if anyone in the house has allergies, if you have had rodents, a leak, or a remodel that left drywall dust in the ducts. Absent any of that, a contractor can look inside with a camera and tell you honestly whether they need attention yet.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It depends on what is going on in your ducts right now. If there is visible dust coming out of the vents, a musty smell when the system runs, or you can see debris when you look into a vent, cleaning them makes a real difference in the air moving through the house. If none of that is happening, cleaning on a schedule alone will not fix a problem that is not there. A contractor can look inside the ducts and tell you honestly whether it is needed.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor connects a vacuum system to the ductwork and uses brushes or air tools to knock loose dust and debris along the way, pulling it out through the vacuum rather than pushing it further into the ducts. Every supply and return vent gets cleaned, along with the main trunk lines. The furnace or air handler itself, including the blower and coil, is often cleaned at the same time since it is part of the same airflow.