<p>Lived in this house for 22 years, and never had the ducts cleaned. This year I’ve developed winter allergies that are so far not well relieved by either Zyrtec or Flonase or both in combination. (I have had seasonal allergies before in the late spring/early summer.)</p>
<p>So…one person I know suggested air duct cleaning. Some other stuff I’ve seen suggests that it doesn’t do much on the allergen front. We have a big furnace with a bunch of ducts, so it will be pricey. (We do regularly change the filters, and don’t have a/c so it is not running May-September.)</p>
<p>Most of our floors are hardwood, no pets any more. Decently dusted.</p>
<p>We had it done twice after home renovations. I was really surprised to see the amount of dust that was pulled out of the ducts. There is a part of me that wonders if some of that dirt was already in the machine because I found it hard to believe that with that much dust my house wasn’t killing us. I of course had no way of knowing so after the second messy renovation we had it done again. It was expensive but probably worth it.</p>
<p>I just wanted to add that two times a year we remove the duct vent covers and I place the vacume as far down as it will go…you might want to try this first and see what comes out.</p>
<p>I’ve seriously considered it because of the amount of dust that was generated in our house last year during a major renovation but I have also heard it is a scam and unnecessary. I am also curious to see what others experiences have been.</p>
<p>Regardless of what you do with the ducts, have you though about using a HEPA filter screen on the furnace and maybe a HEPA air filter in the bedroom - like one from Honeywell?</p>
<p>Something to think about - if the ducts are dusty/dirty, then that dust/dirt isn’t blowing around the room so does it really matter that there’s a little dust/dirt in the ducts? If mold was growing in there it’d be an issue but I’m not sure the dust/dirt is an issue since it’s there and not blowing into the room - if it did then the ducts would be self-cleaning.</p>
<p>When we had ours cleaned, besides plenty of dust and dirt, they found black mold. I saw it and it was gross. The cleaning company immediately left our house and we had to call in “guys in white suits”. They ended up replacing a section of the duct work and repositioning the furnace drip pan.</p>
<p>The HEPA filter is a great idea, but we can’t. Any filter that impedes the airflow more than a medium weight filter blows the (very expensive) fuse, and at least 3 different furnace repair guys have told us that. (The first few years we lived here we were blowing fuses several times a heating season, and so had lots and lots of visits by repair folk.)</p>
<p>Hmmm - maybe you need a more powerful blower motor. </p>
<p>Outside of that - how about a HEPA filter in the bedroom or a more whole house HEPA filter to clean the air if you live in an area where it’s cold/hot enough to keep the house closed up for parts of the year?</p>
<p>I developed allergies later in life that became increasingly worse – I’m early 50s. I was told this would subside.</p>
<p>IN any event, I did not clean the ducts – told it was a scam-- but hearing some of the posts here about mold that gives me the shivers.</p>
<p>I am using these reusable (rinse) and easy to install register covers and they are working well for me.
There’s also a deposable model in their catalog. I first use those start of season, and dispose when dirty, then put in the reusable ones.
Of course you can vacuum out your ducts and wipe with a damp cloth regularly.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the info. I just got a quote on air quality testing - $350! And, all it tests for is mold.</p>
<p>I think I’m going to start with one of those air cleaners (thanks, GladGradDad) and see if that helps, and then move on to other interventions from there. I’m also going to try the register covers, since we have only two in our bedroom/master bath area. </p>
<p>Very annoying…I had no allergies until my forties, then seasonal spring/fall, and now this. I should buy stock in Kimberly-Clark.</p>
<p>$350? Wow, I had no idea it is that expensive.</p>
<p>I know the home improvement stores sell test kits for $8 or so, which are mostly just a Petri disk that you leave out to see what grows. There are other ones for $50 or so where you mail in a sample to a lab to identify the mold types.</p>
<p>Maybe try an $8 one just to see if you have a lot of mold, then move to more expensive tests if necessary.</p>