When you own a home, it’s important to make sure you’re keeping everything clean and in working order. Your HVAC system is one of the most important things to keep clean since it’s constantly circulating air throughout your St Paul, MN, home. However, most people have trouble keeping their HVAC system clean because they simply don’t know what they’re supposed to do. Fortunately, scheduling regular maintenance can help you take better care of your HVAC system. If you haven’t had an HVAC technician come out for duct cleaning service or seasonal maintenance in a while, here’s what you need to know about keeping your HVAC system clean.
Air Filter
As important as it is to hire a duct cleaning service to keep the ductwork in your home clean, you also need to make sure you have a clean air filter. All the air that passes through your HVAC system goes through both the ducts and the air filter, so keeping those two parts clean is essential.
For most homeowners, replacing an air filter every 3 to 6 months is just fine. However, how often you should replace your air filter depends largely on the circumstances in your home, so some people may need to replace theirs more often. If you’ve got a large family or live in a home with a lot of pets, your air filter may need to be changed as often as once per month for optimal air quality. This should be done in addition to regular duct cleaning services.
Aside from simply keeping the air in your home clean, keeping a fresh air filter on your HVAC system prevents major problems. While a duct cleaning service gets a lot of the grime off the insides of your ducts, it doesn’t do much to promote airflow. Changing your air filter regularly is the only way to ensure you’re getting proper airflow that keeps your HVAC system running efficiently.
Ducts
When it comes to keeping the air in your home clean, it’s important to focus on the areas where the air runs through. The air that runs through your HVAC system does so via ducts, which run throughout your home to deliver warm or cool air to various rooms. Over time, these ducts pick up a lot of dust on the inside, which is why it’s important to hire a duct cleaning service.
The truth of the matter is, it’s hard to know when your ducts are dirty and need to be cleaned. You probably won’t notice any physical changes in air quality or any odd symptoms from your HVAC system. Because of this, you should have your ducts cleaned on a regular basis when you have maintenance done.
At the very least, most experts recommend hiring a duct cleaning service every three to five years. As is the case with your air filter, however, that may change depending on how many people live in your home, whether you have pets or not and more. If you want to be particularly thorough when it comes to keeping your HVAC system clean, you can have your ducts cleaned about once a year when you’re having your seasonal maintenance done.
Keeping Your Units Clean
Aside from hiring a duct cleaning service to keep the inside of your HVAC system clean, you also need to make sure you’re keeping your furnace and air conditioning unit clean. When too much dirt and debris builds up around the unit itself, airflow is restricted and your heating and cooling systems become less efficient.
Every time you have an HVAC technician do seasonal maintenance at your St Paul, MN, home, you should make sure they’re cleaning your heating and cooling systems. For the air conditioning unit, this includes cleaning the coils and combing and cleaning the fins to promote proper airflow.
Registers
While it doesn’t have nearly the impact that hiring a duct cleaning service does, it’s also important to clean your registers every once in a while. All the dust that builds up in your ducts tends to move its way to the vent registers in your home, blocking them up and leading to poor indoor air quality.
The good news about keeping the registers in your home clean is that you can easily do it yourself. Wherever you see a register that’s caked in dust, simply wipe it clean and you’re good to go. If you want to be even more thorough, you can unscrew the register to clean the inside of it as well.
The Importance of Seasonal Maintenance
There will always come a point when you need to hire a duct cleaning service to help you get your HVAC system cleaned up, but you shouldn’t need to do that too often. The best way to prevent problems with your HVAC system and keep your ducts clean for longer is to have seasonal maintenance done twice a year.
Most professionals recommend having seasonal maintenance done during the spring and fall, as these are the least demanding seasons in terms of heating and cooling. More importantly, these seasons precede the two most demanding seasons when it comes to heating and cooling, so it’s important to make sure your HVAC system is prepared for those times.
The Easy Route
As important as it is to keep your HVAC system clean, it’s also a lot of work. You can take some of the work out of this process by cleaning your registers and the area around your furnace and AC every once in a while. However, the best thing you can do is have an expert do seasonal maintenance and clean your ducts every once in a while.
If you’re looking for help taking care of the HVAC system in your St Paul, MN, home, Blue Ox Heating & Air can help. From duct cleaning services to seasonal maintenance and installation, we do it all. Call us today at (612) 389-8385 to schedule an appointment.
