The ducts of furnaces have to be cleaned regularly, especially if people who work or live around them are susceptible to allergies. This is because the dust and dirt that build up in furnace ducts facilitate the breeding of mold and mildew, which lessen the quality of the air. Also, cleaning out your furnace ducts regularly can improve the efficiency of your furnace. When you clean the furnace ducts, you also have to be sure to clean the rest of the furnace system, including the blower, heat exchangers and cooling coils.
This is the method usually used by commercial furnace duct-cleaning companies and you cannot use this method if you are cleaning out the furnace ducts by yourself. The furnace ducts are usually cleaned out using a very large vacuum unit that is situated in a truck that sits outside your home.
A long hose runs from the machinery in the truck to the furnace area where it attaches to the furnace ducts. Mechanical brushes and air jet brushes help to pull the dust loose from the ducts.
You can clean out your furnace ducts on your own by simply using the hose attachment on your vacuum and the brush attachment. Just push the hose into your furnace ducts and vacuum them, being sure to vacuum the corners thoroughly.
If your hose and other vacuum parts don’t fit together securely, you may want to duct tape the hose sections together for extra security. This ensures that there’s no way that the vacuum will come apart in the furnace ducts, giving you an extra problem to worry about. After you have finished vacuuming the inside of the ducts, you can then sponge the inside of the ducts to get rid of excess dust using a normal sponge or cloth and regular household cleaner.
Changing the filter in your furnace ducts can help reduce further dust buildup inside your furnace ducts. Even though a high-quality filter may be a little more pricey, it is well worth the money because it reduces the frequency with which you need to clean your furnace ducts as well as the efficiency of the furnace itself.
There are many different styles and levels of quality you can choose from when choosing your filter. You can get anything from a basic one-layer fiberglass filter to a filter incorporating multiple layers of different screens and filters designed to remove different sorts of impurities. When going to buy your new filter, make sure you bring along the dimensions of your old filter so you can be sure that the new filter fits well in your ducts.