Air ducts play an important role in a home’s or a building’s air conditioning and ventilation systems. The main heating and cooling source in a home is connected to air ducts. When the cooling or heating sources produces heat energy, it’s pushed up through the air ducts, and is carried throughout the home or building because of the pressure.

Because of the positioning of the air ducts in the walls or along the ceiling, they aren’t always accessible which makes it difficult to perform proper and regular maintenance on them. Air ducts and heating and cooling components are subject to dust, dust, pollen, pet dander, insects, insect and rodent feces accumulations Mold or mildew build up occurs regularly because of moisture from air conditioner condensation or from a leaky roof or pipe.

Properly cleaned air ducts and filters reduce the amount of pollutants that you breathe inside your home. Buildings that pose a risk to our health because they contain high levels of pollution suffer from what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency call "Sick Building Syndrome." Building occupants complain of symptoms associated with acute discomfort, e.g., headache; eye, nose, or throat irritation; dry cough; dry or itchy skin; dizziness and nausea and experience difficulty concentrating; they feel fatigued; and they are very sensitive to odors. In most cases, sufferers don’t know what causes the symptoms and most sufferers feel better relief after they leave the building. Statistics indicate that on average a person spends 90% of his or her time indoors where the air may be 5 to 100 times more polluted than outside air!

The EPA recommends that home and building owners take specific steps to solve the problem including removing the source of the pollutant, regular maintenance of HVAC systems, cleaning or replacing filters regularly; venting contaminant source emissions to the outdoors; storing paints, adhesives, solvents, and pesticides in well ventilated areas, etc… Air duct cleaning reduces dust and other airborne debris and decreases symptoms of asthma, allergies and other respiratory health issues. A clean heating and cooling system also greatly enhances its efficiency and increases its equipment life.

American Fireplace believes in helping families and commercial property owners in the Greater Houston Area breathe easier by providing air duct and dryer vent cleaning services. Air duct cleaning improves your home’s energy efficiency, reduces your energy costs and increases your quality of life. We also provide dryer vent cleaning which, according to the U.S. Consumer Protection Agency, caused over 15,600 fires and 20 deaths and 370 injuries in 1998.

When we enter a home or building we’ll seal off the air ducts and use a special vacuum to put the entire heating and cooling system under negative pressure. In most cases we’ll loosen the debris inside the duct work with motorized brushes and other equipment. Then we’ll vacuum the debris without contaminating the rest of the home. We’ve recently purchased a Turbo Jet Max2, a negative air machine for our air duct cleaning services to our residential and light commercial customers.

It’s very important to clean your entire air conditioning and heating system at the same time you have your air ducts cleaned. If not, you run the risk of having a component that wasn’t cleaned can re-contaminate an area of the air duct that has already been cleaned. We take great care to clean the entire length of the duct work, not just the portion near the air vents. We also make sure that we clean both the supply side ducts and the return side ducts. Finally, we clean all of the mechanical parts of your system, including the fans, housing, coils, drain tubes and drain pans so that they don’t force your units to work harder. Moisture can accumulate leading mold and mildew if the drain tubes and drain pans become clogged.