Duct Cleaning in Bethlehem, PA
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Eight months of heating means eight months of buildup
Your furnace runs October through May here, close to eight months of the year. Every one of those months it pulls air through the same ducts, and the dust and grit riding in that air settles along the way instead of getting a break. Most homes in Northampton County are single-family houses people own rather than rent, and a duct system that sits and collects dust year after year is a system nobody is likely to replace outright over it.
Winter nights averaging 22 degrees keep the furnace cycling on and off for hours at a stretch, and it has to pull that same air through the ducts every single time. Dust and pet hair built up along the way make the system work harder to move the same amount of air through the house.
- 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 house. Homes with pets, a recent renovation, or someone with allergies usually need it sooner than a house without those things. Since your furnace here runs from October through May, your ducts are moving air for most of the year, so it is worth having a contractor look at them rather than guessing at a schedule.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It depends on what is going on in your ducts, not on a fixed schedule. If you can see dust building up around your vents, if a room never seems to get the airflow the others do, or if someone in the house has allergy symptoms that ease up when they are away, cleaning is worth doing. If none of that is happening, you are probably fine waiting, and a contractor can look at your actual ducts and tell you what they find.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor connects a vacuum system to your ductwork and uses brushes or air tools to knock loose dust and debris from the inside of the duct walls, then pulls it all out through the vacuum. They will also clean the supply and return vents, and often the blower compartment on your furnace, since that is where air picks up whatever is sitting in the ducts. The whole system gets checked as they go, so any duct that is disconnected or damaged gets flagged.