Again, this blog post is far off the WFB beat.  Just something on my mind.

Ever thought about cleaning your Heating/AC ducts?  I'm certain my 80+ year old house has never had it done.  So I succumbed to the advertisements that tell of the horrors that are lurking in heating vents.

There are some fly-by-night companies out there, offering sub-$100 cleaning specials, then hit you with fees .. no thanks.  I found a duct cleaner from Angie's List called "Air Quality Controllers".  I was happy with their service, so I'm giving them a little plug here.  At the time, they had a flat rate of $287/house, no extra fees.

They bring in this gigantic box that houses a super-powerful vacuum, cut a hole in a duct in the basement, and attach the hose to your ductwork.  (Don't worry, they patch it up nicely afterwards).  This creates a super vacuum that sucks everything in vents down, into the box.  They then go around to each register, supply and return, with a compressed air hose that flutters and spins, knocking crap into the vent, down into their vacuum. -- That way, they don't create a mess around the house.

When it was all done, maybe 1-2 hours, the amount of crap they took out of my vents was absolutely disgusting.  They filled an entire garbage bag with lint and fluffy crap.  Not a small garbage bag, mind you, a giant outdoor garbage bag.  I was only angry at myself for not doing it sooner.

So .. as you're sitting in your 50+ year old home right now .. let's face it, if you haven't done it in the past 5 years, your house probably has NEVER had it done.  No one was performing duct-cleaning 5+ years ago.   -- Do a little test .. go to one of the return ducts in your house and unscrew the vent and reach in there.

The picture at the right is the crap that was in one of my 80+ year old vents.  Once it was cleaned out, you could actually "hear" the difference, as air flow was increased a ton without all that fluff in there.

 I know, it's gross.  Go check a few of your return vents.