The Best Season for Air Duct Cleaning

It's important to keep your air ducts clean for a variety of reasons and most experts recommend you enlist a professional to perform air duct cleaning in your home once a year. But is there a "best" time of year to clean your air ducts, or will any day of any old month do just fine? That's the question we're here to answer. So pour yourself another cup of coffee and read on to find the answer.

Do Everyone's Air Ducts Get Equally Dirty?

No. The amount of dirt, dust, pollen, and other airborne contaminants that accumulate in your air ducts depends in large part on where your home is located. But it also depends on other factors including how many people live in the house, whether you live near or downwind from an industrial area, and what type and how many pets you have (if any).

Other factors that determine how much-unwanted material comes to rest in the air ducts include whether you have had any renovation work done on the house (if you have you should have the ducts cleaned immediately afterward, no buts) and whether there have been any extraordinary weather events that put huge amounts of dust and dirt into the air.

Is There a Best Time of Year for Air Vent Cleaning in Arvada?

Essentially, the argument for the "best" time of year for HVAC cleaning comes down to two seasons: Spring and Fall. Let's look at why that is.

The Case for Having Your Ducts Cleaned in the Spring

The consensus here at Steve's Air Duct Cleaning is that late Spring is the ideal time to have your air ducts cleaned and there are a lot of reasons for that. First is that it's best to vacate the house during the vent cleaning process and that's not easy to do during the depths of winter when it's cold enough to freeze your eyeballs shut, or during the dog days of summer when it's 100 degrees in the shade outside. Mild late springtime weather, however, is tailor-made for heading to the park with the kids. Here are a couple of other reasons why late springtime is the right time for air duct cleaning:

• To remove everything that accumulated during the winter: In the wintertime, we spend massive amounts of time indoors. So do the pets. That means more pet dander in the vents, more human and pet hair, more dead skin cells, and more airborne pollutants that entered the house but had no way to exit because the windows were all sealed shut.
• To remove pollen, mold spores, and other allergens from the system: This is the primary reason for waiting until late spring to have the ducts cleaned. If you clean them too soon after the snow melts all the pollen, ragweed, mold spores and other airborne allergens will settle into the nice clean ducts and make your summer miserable. But if you wait until just after the pollen season has waned, you can clear all the material out of the system for the rest of the year.

The Case for Having Your Ducts Cleaned in the Fall

As we said most of us here at Steve's adhere to the Springtime is the Right Time school of thought when it comes to duct cleaning. Most of us, not all of us. There are a few who think the Fall is the right time to engage in furnace cleaning and duct cleaning, and they make a pretty convincing case. Here are three reasons for having your air ducts cleaned in the Fall:

• To clear out warm weather waste: When winter weather does reach its peak each year, you and your loved ones are going to be spending countless hours hunkered down at home trying to stay warm. The last thing you need is to breathe air that's carrying all the dust and other airborne detritus that accumulated in the system during the spring and summer, especially pollen and other allergens. By cleaning the ducts in the Fall you'll ensure everyone has clean, fresh air to breathe all winter long.
• To make sure your ductwork is mold-free during the winter: It's bad enough being stuck inside without also having to live with a musty smell from your ductwork and breathe in mold spores all day and night. Mold can take hold of the smallest patch of moisture inside the ducts and once it does it starts releasing spores in an attempt to spread. Most of those airborne spores wind up in your lungs where they can cause significant respiratory problems. Unless that is, you have your ducts thoroughly cleaned during the Fall.
• To give your furnace a break: When the air ducts are clogged with dust, dirt, pollen, pet dander, and more your furnace has to work harder to circulate air. If not addressed the additional work the system has to do can increase your energy bills and potentially take years off the life of the furnace. Remember, the cold weather months are the only time you're going to use the furnace. The more efficient the system is during the wintertime the lower your energy bills will be.

The Verdict

Compelling arguments can be made for air vent cleaning in both the Spring and Fall. So it's really up to you.

One thing we should reiterate though: If you have engaged in any type of renovation work on the house you should have the ducts cleaned as soon as the construction company declares the job done. In this case, it doesn't matter what time of year it is. Nothing will clog up the ductwork like dust and dirt clouds thrown up by renovation work.

For Expert Air Duct Cleaning, Trust Steve's

Cleaning the air vents should be done once a year. Most experts suggest you schedule the cleaning in either the Spring or the Fall. You should also have a vent cleaner in after any construction work. If it's been more than a year since you had your air ducts cleaned contact the pros at Steves at 720-419-7792.