The first cold night of fall, you turn the heat on. A few minutes later the house smells like something is burning. By the weekend there is dust on the coffee table again. We hear about this every October.
“I Clean Every Day and Still See Dust”
Customers in San Jose, Cupertino and Milpitas tell us the same thing. They wipe the furniture every day, and the next day the dust is back. Many of them keep a clean house. They ask us what they are doing wrong.
Where the Dust Comes From
Fine dust you can’t see settles in your ducts all year. It happens in clean homes too, and in homes that keep the windows open. Over the summer the furnace sits off, and that dust stays in the ducts.
When the furnace starts, the return pulls air from your rooms through the system. That air picks up the dust that settled in the ducts and blows it back into the house. That is the dust you keep wiping off the furniture.
That Burning Smell When the Heat Comes On
That first-heat smell is mostly dust burning off inside the furnace. A clean system has far less dust to burn off.
One safety note: if the smell lasts more than a few hours, have an HVAC technician check the furnace.
How We Clean Your Air Ducts
We remove every vent cover in the house and clean it. Then we clean the ducts with rotary brush agitation and portable HEPA extraction. The brush knocks the dust loose, and the HEPA vacuum pulls it out of the system. We do both on every job.
Ceiling vents get the same treatment as floor vents. In the kitchen, we run the hose straight to the ceiling vent.
Here is the inside of a round duct after cleaning, from a job in Palo Alto.
How Often Should You Clean Your Air Ducts?
Cal Duct Cleaning has been doing this since 2015, over 10 years now. We do dozens of air duct cleanings every week. Many customers call us back. Some call every year, usually because of dust problems or a big house. Others call every 2 or 3 years. There is no fixed schedule.
We clean air ducts every week from San Rafael down to Santa Cruz, including San Jose, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Milpitas, Fremont and Los Gatos.
UV Light at the Coil
Some customers add a UV light installation for $349. We install it at the coil, and it runs 24/7 to help keep mold and bacteria from growing there. The EPA notes that UV lights in the air handler can help limit that growth on cooling coils.
What Air Duct Cleaning Costs
Our air duct cleaning price is fixed: $399 for up to 10 vents, and $24.99 for each extra vent. We count the vents with you before any work starts.
You can add two services to the same visit:
- Bathroom fan cleaning: $49 per fan when added to air duct cleaning
- Water heater exhaust vent cleaning: $99 when added to air duct cleaning
Want it done before you turn the heat on? Call us at (408) 655-0609 or book online.