Cleaning equipment and open floor register with text overlay that reads Clean your Home's Air Ducts

These simple steps explain how to clean your home's air ducts yourself. You'll remove grit, pet hair, mold, and other allergens in minutes.

Equipment for cleaning your own air ducts to remove dust and mold

Steps to Clean Your Home's Air Ducts and Vents

Before you lot get started cleaning your ducts, at that place are a few safety tips you should keep in mind. These tips are essential for your safety and as well to protect your heating and cooling organisation.

  • Always plow your home's thermostat off before y'all brainstorm to clean your air ducts.
  • Accept a helper nearby if you demand to climb a ladder or footstep-stool to attain high wall vents or ceiling registers.
  • You may also want to wear center protection to shield your eyes from falling dust or droppings when working with overhead air vents.

Step 1: Gather Your Equipment and Materials

You need a manual dryer vent brush plus warm soapy water, cleaning cloths, and a vacuum cleaner with a dust brush attachment to clean your air ducts. You will also demand a screwdriver to open wall or ceiling vents and a pace-stool to reach them.

STEP two: Remove and Clean Your Vent Covers

Floor registers are piece of cake to remove. Usually, you tin lift them. For wall registers, use a screwdriver. If your vent embrace is extremely dusty, apply your vacuum's dust attachment to clean the surface earlier removing it. Launder the vent embrace in a sink of warm, soapy water. Scrub as needed, simply take care not to damage the finish. If they're metal, you lot can save time by popping them into the acme rack of your dishwasher for a quick cycle.

Step three: Clean Inside Your Duct

Insert the vent brush into the duct as far equally you lot can. Rotate the brush and run it along the duct's walls. Employ a light touch in crinkly Mylar flex ducts, which are easily damaged. If you have exposed ductwork, like in a basement, tapping it a few times before tin can assistance loosen debris, besides. Finally, remove the castor and insert your vacuum cleaner's hose as far as you can to clean up the droppings. If you lot have a store vac, you tin can become further in your duct organization using an extension hose.

Stride 4: Wipe the Remainder

Later vacuuming, wipe the vent'southward interior clean with a damp microfiber cloth. Rinse and modify rags every bit needed. Spray an all-purpose cleaner on the material before wiping information technology to clean stubborn clay. Also, exist sure to clean the area around the duct, including the floor or wall.

Footstep 5: Finish Up

Put the make clean vent cover back on and turn on your thermostat. Run your organisation for 30 minutes to filter whatsoever subconscious dust loosened during cleaning. After thirty minutes are up, change your system's air filter to eliminate all the extra dust information technology collected for y'all.

Why Do This Yourself?

When forced air from your HVAC flows through ducts and vents filled with dust, dirt, and pet pilus, that debris spreads throughout your home. Clean those ducts, and you'll have cleaner indoor air — and that means you lot'll see less dust, as well. Depending on what'due south been hiding in your organization, you as well might find fewer odors and reduced allergy symptoms.

Practise You Need to Hire Professionals to Make clean Your Air Ducts?

Should yous phone call a duct-cleaning company to practice this chore? In short: no. Companies claim that you need a pro to clean your ducts because they apply specialized equipment. What they're referring to involves sending pressurized water through your duct system to flush out the gunk.

The problem is that air ducts develop gaps over time, which ways pressurized water gets into your walls. Once at that place, information technology causes mold and mildew. This is the exact situation the U.Due south. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns against when it says that "preventing water and dirt from entering the system is the most effective way to prevent contagion."

How Often Should You Clean Your Air Ducts?

Follow these steps to make clean your domicile's air ducts at least twice a year. If someone in your domicile has indoor allergies, or if you have a lot of pets, exercise it each season. You tin can use this method to make clean cold air returns, too. And e'er alter your filter after you've cleaned your ducts.