How To Clean Your Vents And Ducts

Tired of hot summers? Discover the best types of air conditioners to install in pool houses. Click here for more information.

How To Clean Your Vents And Ducts

12 August 2015
 Categories: , Blog


Cleaning the vents and ducts in your home is a simple yet effective way to make your heating and air conditioning units more efficient. The energy efficiency of your home can be greatly hampered by dirty, clogged events. You might be running your heating and air conditioning units at unnecessarily high levels to keep your home comfortable. By cleaning your vents and ducts, you can do your part to make your system more functional.

Remove the Vents from the Wall

The first step is to remove the vents from the wall. Most vents are attached to the wall with two small screws. Simply unscrew them with a power drill, but make sure you save the screws. Those little screws are small, but they are on the shape and difficult to replace. 

Clean the Vents Thoroughly

The most thorough way to clean your vents is to soak them in hot water and scrub them with a sponge. However, you do not want to completely soak your vents if they are wooden or metal. Just wipe them down with a moist rag. However, if you have vinyl, fiberglass or plastic vents, feel free to give them a good soak and scrub. Be particularly careful to clean off any black spots that look like mold. Having mold in your vents is very dangerous because your air conditioner can blow the moldy air throughout your house.

Clean the Ducts

Since the vents are already removed from the walls, it would be foolish to not also check and clean the ducts. You will definitely need a flashlight for this. If you notice that your ducks look dusty deep inside, you will need some way to reach in. Most people just use a broom to clean in as far as possible. However, there's a good chance that there might be dust that you cannot reach within normal broom. You can either create your own contraption, using along stick like a telescoping painter's pole, or you can invest in a professional duct cleaning. A duct cleaning will be very affordable if you have already removed the vents from your wall. It will probably only take an hour or two and is the best way to ensure that your ducts are thoroughly cleaned.

Once your vents and ducts are clean, you can reattach your vents to the wall and enjoy fresher air with a stronger current. Contact a company like Clean Air Systems Inc for more information.