If you’re like most Americans, you’ve probably been spending a lot of time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and because of that, you might have paid more attention than usual to your home’s air ducts.
It’s a reasonable thing to wonder, given that even in the best of times, you’re spending roughly 87 percent of your time inside. When you throw in that the EPA has said that indoor air is anywhere from two to five times more toxic than outside air, it’s usually more than enough for you to consider finding a quality air duct cleaning service in Minneapolis, MN and keeping their number handy.
But even when the virus scare comes to an end, it’s important to keep your air ducts clean because dirty air ducts can cause a host of illnesses at any point of the year. If you’re not using a quality air duct cleaning service, you’re opening yourself up to several issues, including these problems!
Asthma
Asthma isn’t caused by failing to clean out your air ducts, but if you don’t make sure that you have clean air coming into your home, you can either trigger asthma symptoms or make them worse if anyone in your family has the disorder.
If anyone in your home has been diagnosed as asthmatic, you need to make sure that you have a trustworthy air duct cleaning service come to your home on a regular basis. If you allow dust and other outside particles to build up inside your HVAC and your air ducts, you’re likely to see shortness of breath, chest pain and other common symptoms of an asthma flare-up. These problems are all completely avoidable as long as you’re regularly cleaning out your filter and your air ducts.
Allergies
Seasonal allergies don’t just happen outside. When you don’t use a reputable air duct cleaning service at your home, you risk having your filters get overwhelmed by dust, pollen and other particles. Your air filter is designed to catch larger particles and keep them from getting into the air you’re breathing, but if you aren’t changing it regularly, it’s impossible for your filter to keep pathogens and irritants out of your air.
Should that happen, you’re probably going to notice the same symptoms of sneezing and itchy, watery eyes that come with a high pollen count. Before you get to that point, make sure that you have an air duct cleaning service take a look at your home’s ducts and eliminate unwanted dust particles.
Here’s another great reason for you to clean out your air ducts: studies have shown that when people with pulmonary problems are able to live in a home with clean air ducts, their breathing problems tend to lessen. Breathing free and easy in your Minneapolis, MN home is an outstanding feeling, and getting rid of pollutants in your home’s air ducts can help make it happen!
Common Cold
Did you know the average adult will get two to three colds per year going through their everyday life? Here’s another thing that you might not know colds have nothing to do with the time of year it is. Colds are more common in the winter because there’s less natural sunlight, which means the body makes less Vitamin D and isn’t as well-prepared to fight off infections.
Unfortunately, if you’ve been staying inside during the spring and summer, your body might not be anywhere near as well-equipped as it usually is to fight off a cold — and that means it’s more important than ever to call an air duct cleaning service to ensure the air is as clean as possible. When bacteria and viruses are able to enter through your HVAC, there’s little you can do to avoid catching an illness, and an illness at any time of the year is something everyone would like to avoid.
Mold Growth
Have you suddenly developed breathing problems out of nowhere, with no history of allergies, asthma or other respiratory issues? The problem might be related to mold growth in your house, and the culprit could be your HVAC or your air ducts.
Over time, the air duct can become the perfect incubator for mold as your HVAC attempts to cool down the air from the outside and pull the moisture out of it. When water vapor comes out of the outside air, it creates a moist environment that’s perfect for mold growth to take place. If you don’t have an air duct cleaning service take a look on a regular basis, you’re likely to put your home at risk of coughing, sneezing and other breathing problems.
The good news about mold growth is that it’s rather easy to tell if it’s already happening in your ducts. If you notice any kind of musty odor coming from your HVAC, there’s a good chance that you’ve got mold growing somewhere in your air ducts.
Because of that, if anything smells weird in your home, it’s important to contact an air duct cleaning service and make sure to get your ducts checked out as soon as possible. Best-case, you’ll discover that the smell has some other explanation and get peace of mind that you don’t have mold growing in your air ducts. Worst-case, you’ll discover a problem and get it taken care of before mold has a chance to infect your household.
Itchy Skin
When you’ve got mold and other irritants in your home’s HVAC system, respiratory problems aren’t the only thing that you have to worry about. Just like with your lungs, your skin can have a negative reaction to mold in your air, and in many cases, it can happen in the form of rashes, hives and overall itchiness.
If you’re noticing anything that’s unexplained on your skin, it’s important to eliminate all possibilities of what might have caused it, and that means calling for an air duct cleaning service to check for problems. Itchy skin can be caused by a wide range of possibilities, but if you haven’t been going out very often and you discover a rash on your skin, the culprit is probably a dirty duct that requires an air duct cleaning service to clear out.
Should I Worry About COVID-19 Coming Through My Ducts?
You might be wondering about the virus and its ability to come through your air ducts, especially if you haven’t had an air duct cleaning service come visit your Minneapolis, MN home in a while. The bad news is that the virus can actually survive in your air duct and make its way into your home if you haven’t had it cleaned properly.
The good news is that if you do get an air duct cleaning service to get rid of the dust and debris inside your air ducts, you can drastically drop your risk of catching the virus. After all, COVID-19 can’t survive for long without a host, and your risk of catching the virus is much lower outside than it is indoors. As long as you’re practicing social distancing, cleaning your hands regularly and following the recommendation of the CDC, you shouldn’t have to worry about catching the virus in your home as long as you’ve had a reputable air duct cleaning service clean out the ducts in your home.
HVAC Wear and Tear
Outside of your health, one of the best reasons to contact an air duct cleaning service is to protect the overall health of your HVAC. When you take care of your HVAC and conduct proper maintenance on it, you can expect it to last you roughly 15 to 25 years. That means regularly changing your air filter, cleaning out your air ducts and contacting professional help whenever you have a problem with your heating or cooling.
If you don’t take care of your HVAC and air ducts, however, you’re not going to get 15 years out of it. Truthfully, if you’re not taking care of your HVAC system, you’ll be lucky to get even a decade out of it without serious problems. That’s because everything in your HVAC is connected, and if you don’t have an air duct cleaning service clear debris out, you’re going to find that the air compressors and pumps that help cool down the air in your home burn out faster. In the summer, that’s the last thing that you want to have happen.
How Often Should You Clean Your Air Ducts?
When it comes to taking care of your HVAC and your air ducts, it’s important to adjust your maintenance and care to who lives in your home. Ideally, you should have your air ducts cleaned out every three to five years but depending on who lives at your home on an everyday basis, you might want to have your ducts checked out even earlier than that.
The reality is that young children are more sensitive to polluted air than adults are, so if you’ve got young children living in your home, you’ll want to call for a quality air duct cleaning service to visit your Minneapolis, MN home more often than if you’re living alone or with a spouse.
If you’ve got a pet at home, you’re also going to need to get your air ducts cleaned out more often. That’s because dogs and cats routinely shed their fur, and over time, that fur gets trapped in the air ducts and can cause your filter to fail. The general rule of thumb is that under normal situations, you should be changing your air filter roughly every six months, but if you’ve got a pet in the home, you need to cut that in half. If you don’t, you’ll be lucky if you’re able to go three years at your home without calling for an air duct cleaning service.
What Are the Signs of a Problem?
The important things to look for are anything out of the ordinary with your home and its air conditioning services. For instance, if you notice inconsistent air flow between rooms in your home, there’s a good chance that you’ve got a problem with your air ducts in at least one room.
Unless you’ve closed one of the air vents in your home, inconsistent air flow between rooms means that at least one of your air ducts is partially or totally blocked. That’s because your HVAC is meant to circulate air through all open vents evenly, and if you’ve got problems with air getting through an open vent, you’ve got an issue that requires the attention of an air duct cleaning service.
If you’ve got a large amount of dust around your vents, there’s also a good chance that you’ve got a real problem with your air ducts. During an average day, you’re going to lose about 150 skin flakes, many of which get turned into dust that scatters through your home.
However, dust isn’t supposed to be building up in your home, and it’s certainly not supposed to be building up around your home’s air ducts. If you’re seeing so much dust that it looks like you haven’t cleaned your home in weeks, you’ve probably got a problem with your air ducts that needs the attention of a professional.
At Blue Ox Heating & Air, we’ve got the experience to help with all kinds of problems with your air ducts, and we’ve got the knowledge to provide quality air duct cleaning services each and every time. If you’re having issues with your air quality in your Minneapolis, MN home, it’s time to give us a call. We’ll help clean out the air ducts so that you can breathe free and easily in comfort at home, the way that you should!
