Duct Cleaning in Muskegon, MI
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Eight months of heating pushes a lot of air through your ducts
Your furnace runs October through May here, eight months out of the year. On winter nights averaging 20°F, it's cycling on and off for hours at a stretch, and every cycle pushes air through the same ductwork. That's a lot of air moving past whatever has settled on the inside of those duct walls.
Michigan sees its share of winter storms and wind, and outages come with them. When the power drops and the furnace stops, dust and debris that were moving through the system settle out in the ducts instead. Then the furnace kicks back on and stirs it up again. Over years, that buildup narrows the path air has to travel and gives the system more to push against.
- 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's no fixed schedule that fits every house, but a few signs point to it being time. Dust coming back out of the vents soon after you dust the house, a musty smell when the furnace kicks on, or anyone in the house developing new allergy symptoms are all reasons to have it looked at. Homes here run the furnace eight months a year, October through May, so more air moves through those ducts than in a milder climate, and buildup happens steadily rather than all at once. A contractor can open a vent and tell you whether it's due.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It's worth it when there's a real reason behind it, like visible dust at the vents, a musty smell, or debris you can see with a vent cover off. It won't cure an allergy by itself and it won't lower a heating bill. What it does is clear out buildup that would otherwise get pulled back into the air every time the furnace or air conditioner runs. If the vents look clean and the air smells fine, there's likely nothing to gain yet.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor connects a vacuum to the duct system, then uses brushes or air whips to loosen dust and debris inside each run before pulling it out. Every supply and return vent gets opened and cleaned, along with the main trunk lines. The blower compartment in the furnace or air handler usually gets cleaned at the same time, since dust collects there too. The filter should go in fresh right after, since putting the old one back in undoes a lot of the work.