The Trouble with Duct Cleaning in Lake Forest

Fraud, fraud and more fraud. The Lake Forest duct cleaning industry is a fairly new one. We only been doing duct cleaning for about 20 years. 20 years ago I had to make my duct cleaning machines as no portable units were manufactured at that time that were any good at all. Still today, most of the duct cleaning machines are little more than glorified vacuum cleaners that do little to no good for your Lake Forest air ducts. The single most popular one, most widely purchased, cannot even move as much air as a 2 Ton air conditioner. Don’t expect it to clean much in the main duct runs of your system. The newest fad is to use van mounted carpet cleaners with vacuum powered brushes to scrub the inside of the ducting in Lake Forest. It is sold as an easily add on “up sell” for carpet and upholstery cleaners. You know, the ones that advertise they can clean any room in your Lake Forest home for only $19. Sounds like a really good idea until you actually do the math and find out that these van mounted cleaning systems pull a great vacuum, but don’t pull more than about 1 Ton of air and that much air isn’t going to do even a decent rudimentary job on duct cleaning in the smaller ducts, much less the larger ducts..

The smallest air duct cleaning machine I carry is moves just under 3,000 cubic feet of air per minute. That is 7.5 Tons of air and this is pulled through 2 to 5 Ton systems of ducting which will take care of just about every Lake Forest home. That kind of volume is required to actually remove the contaminates in the system. You need velocity. The first system I made pulled 4500 cfm through air ducting. It worked wonderful, but today’s portable systems are much easier to use and less labor intensive. Hooking them up to the furnace ducts or the heater directly is much simpler now than it use to be.

Some of the brands that work on are: Heil, Kenmore, Armstrong, Rheem, Goodman, Sears, Janitrol, Nordyne, Amana, RUUD, WeatherKing, Ameristar, York, Coleman, Carrier, Day & Night, Payne, Lennox, Fedders, Trane, Consolidated Industries, Mitsubishi, Armstrong, Ducane, Bryant, American Standard, Premier, Intertherm, Bard, Samsung, Trane, Comfortmaker, Tempstar, and much more.

Don't hesitate. Call now, we having helping people just like you, in homes just like yours in Lake Forest for the last 20 years, we are here to help.

The average repair invoice for furnace repairs, duct repairs and A/C repairs that we have performed in Lake Forest is less than $100 and has been less than $100 for the last 20 years. The majority of the repairs that we perform are more mild than wild. Giving us a call now, means that we can rid you of your Lake Forest problem even faster. We are here to help.

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 The service after your home investment you receive from us is just part of the guarantees that we give you in Lake Forest. There is no way you can make a mistake having us help you in repairing your furnace, repairing your air conditioner or cleaning ducts. We will do it right or we'll give you back all your money or redo the job for free.

I called 5 Duct Cleaning Companies that advertise in Lake Forest today and this is what I got.

Of the 5 duct cleaning companies I called, all off the internet, every single one of them advertised duct cleaning for under $100. After questioning them, I received various quotes to clean my heating and air conditioning system, a single 4 Ton heating and cooling system in Lake Forest, between $425 and $650. This is from the very people that are advertising $37 to $89 for a single system ductwork cleaning with unlimited duct vents.

Here are the questions I asked these duct cleaners?

1. How much does it cost to perform duct cleaning on a 4 Ton system?

Two of the five duct cleaners didn’t know what a Ton was.

What is a Ton of air?
Duct cleaning school for Lake Forest contractors must next door to the clown college and these duct cleaning prodigies must have lost their way a few of nights they were attending duct cleaning school. A Ton in heating and air conditioning terms is an airflow measurement most commonly incorrectly referred to as 400 cfm. It is anywhere between 350 and 450 cfm. The cubic feet of air per minute is raised or lowered according to the humidity levels to maximize comfort levels in the home. This is learned in air conditioning 101. More air is needed for drier climates and less air is required in wetter climates. My Lake Forest 4 Ton system has a main trunk line of 18” and this moves about 1600 cfm of air during normal operation.

2. Do you sanitize the ducting?

All 5 air duct cleaning companies increased the cost for sanitizing.

Sanitation of ducting.
If you don’t sanitize your Lake Forest ducting, then why bother cleaning it? Would you wash you cooking pots and pans without any soap? It would be safer than having a contaminated air ducting system. The air you breathe in your Lake Forest home follows a direct path to the smallest cells in your lungs where only the thinnest of membranes separates contaminated air from your bloodstream. Dirty food gets filtered in the acids in your stomach. It seems that sanitizing is treated the same way pre-spotter is treated by carpet cleaning aficionadas. An easy add on sale for Lake Forest homeowners.

3. Do you replace the furnace air filter when you clean the ducts?

All 5 air duct cleaners increased the cost and all said they have a variety of filters to choose from.

What about Air Filtration?
What good would air duct cleaning be in Lake Forest without a clean air filter? After taking a shower do you immediately put on the same dirty clothes you took off before the shower? Even a cheap dime store filter, a dogs, cats and bowling balls filter, would be better than leaving the same old dirty filter in or no filter at all. I call these dime store throw away furnace filters “dogs, cats and bowling ball air filters” because that is about the only thing their design can stop. They don’t protect your air ducting and they don’t protect your lungs in Lake Forest. They are designed to keep large particles from building up on your Lake Forest blower motor and overheating it, and they do a pretty poor job of that.

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4. Do you clean the blower motor and blower wheel?

4 out of the 5 ducting cleaning companies increased the cost

 

Do you clean the Furnace Motor?
This is where the the dirt actually builds up more than anywhere else in your Lake Forest heater. Not including this mandatory task in the basic price is perpetrating a fraud on Lake Forest homeowners. It is like saying “we’ll clean your carpet under your furniture, but we won’t include where you actually walk” or washing the back side of your dinner plates and putting them away dirty. Do you really want a carpet cleaner tearing down your Lake Forest furnace? Disconnecting the electrical wires, removing the blower motor and then reassembling them? No training, no experience, no license, no liability and flat out no good. Would you have your gardener replace your roof? They are not qualified and there is a loop hole in the law that allows them to endanger you in Lake Forest.

5. My ducting is insulated with Asbestos. Can you clean still clean it?

2 said no, 3 said yes

Asbestos Ducting in Lake Forest

Do not clean asbestos ducting unless you want to contaminate your Lake Forest home. Do not clean asbestos insulated metal ducting. Asbestos fibers can get into the air and imbed themselves deep in your human filter, your lungs. A little common sense can go a long ways in duct cleaning and duct repair. Only properly licensed state contractors can replace asbestos ducting and a permit is required to replace the ducting.

6. Do you clean the evaporator coil?

3 increased the cost, 1 didn’t know what it was and 1 said no

Do you clean the Evaporator Coil
The evaporator coil is much like the lint trap in your Lake Forest dryer. During the summer months when you are operating your air conditioning it gets wet. Dirt that passes through or around your air filter sticks to the coil and it builds up. It must be removed, or a smelly unhealthy furnace in the winter results, airflow is decreased and equipment is stressed. Electric bills go up, gas bills go up and repairs bills start to happen. This is the second most important place to clean in your Lake Forest duct system. Leaving it off the basic price is fraud.

 

How much is it going to cost to perform duct cleaning? How much is it going to cost to fix ducting?

 

Pricing out repairs over the phone or over the Internet is fraud all by itself. Proper duct cleaning depends on the type of ducts you have, the type of furnace, heat pump or hydronic heater you have, the size of the system that you have and the degree of filth built up in and on your Lake Forest system. As a Lake Forest business owner or a Lake Forest homeowner do you really think a duct cleaning or a duct repair company can really quote you an accurate price or the phone without even looking at the duct cleaning job? Are all repairs the same? Are all homes the same? Do you think that you will be told an accurate duct repair price or ducting cleaning price or do you think it is a little more likely that the person on the other end of your Lake Forest phone is going to low ball you a number and hope that their slick salesperson can talk you into buying items from their bag of tricks?

Duct cleaning is really about duct and furnace maintenance and this why you should have your Lake Forest ducts inspected, along with your Lake Forest heater inspected, annually by a properly licensed heating and air conditioning contractor. Many duct-cleaning companies are only carpet cleaning companies pretending to actually lena your ducting in order to make a buck. Using a licensed contractor greatly increases your odds of getting a job well done as they are heavily regulated by the State of California. If you use a duct cleaning company other than a state licensed contractor you should still have your heating system checked out for safety by a HVAC contractor each and every year.

Don't be afraid. Call now, we are here to help.

The average repair invoice for furnace repair and air conditioning repair that we perform in Lake Forest is less than $100 and has been less than $100 for the last 2 decades. Most repairs are small little things. Give us a call now and we can help you out.

We work on: furnaces, heaters, heat pumps, wall furnaces, ducting, air conditioning, electric heater, spark ignition, gas valves, motors, fireboxes, heat exchangers, floor furnaces, gravity furnaces and more.

We specialize in indoor air purifying and high efficiency equipment. We can save you in your Lake Forest home or your Lake Forest business from those nasty utility overpayments that you have been paying every month. We can allow you and your family to breathe easier and be more comfortable.

Call now and find out what you've been missing.