Allergy Season: Don’t overlook your air ducts while spring cleaning

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - Ready for some spring cleaning? Don’t overlook your air ducts.

Bruce Michaels, the owner of Enviro-Air Duct cleaning, cleans air ducts all year. However, the spring and fall seasons keep them the busiest. Warning signs of bad ducts include odd smells, large amounts of dust after cleaning, high utility bills, and always having to crank up the thermostat.

Michaels explains the importance of air duct maintenance.

“It’ll cut their bills down pretty much every time, because it flows better, we’ll clean the unit so it cools faster in the summer, it doesn’t take as long to bring your house to temperature,” said Michaels. “So your bills go down and it helps extend the life of your furnace equipment.”

Michaels said to never clean your air ducts yourself because you could damage them or yourself and set you back thousands of dollars. Michaels said dust can ruin your unit.

“Out of sight out of mind,” said Michaels. “But if it over time, it builds up and it’s hard to run the unit.”

Michaels said he has seen some horror stories from build-up.

“90% of the time, we can clean ductwork, but sometimes it’s so bad, you need to replace it,” said Michaels.

Michaels said not watching over your ducts or trying to clean them yourself could cost you.

“If they knocked the duck loose and falls open in the crawlspace, it’s blowing the air in the crawlspace instead of in the room that it’s supposed to heat or cool,” said Michaels. “So you’re just wasting all that energy.”

Michaels said depending on if you have respiratory issues or are sensitive to dust you should have your ducts cleaned every other year, but on average they should be cleaned every few years.

“Keep your utility bill lower and help extend the life of the furnace,” said Michaels. “So there’s a big maintenance payback.”

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