Can mold grow in a duct system, and what problems can it cause? 

Mold spores require a stable temperature, a food source and moisture to live and reproduce. HVAC systems provide all of these things. Any dust or dirt that passes through your air filter provide a good food source.

The furnace or air conditioner is designed to maintain a comfortable temperature, and moisture is available from several of the components in an HVAC system. Ductwork provides humid conditions, the humidifier in the furnace is wet and often holds standing water, and cooling coils are ideal areas for mold growth.

Live molds can release spores that can trigger allergic or asthmatic reactions, sometimes severe, in about 10 percent of the population.

Mold, both living and dead, can produce toxins that may cause short-term allergic reactions.

We have dealt with mold conditions inside ductwork and HVAC systems numerous times. We give the ductwork and HVAC system a very thorough cleaning, and then use encapsulation as well as a biocide application. We also recommend that the system be inspected and re-treated again after 6-8 months.

Electronic air cleaners are very common in the Toronto area. These units produce up to 15,000 volts of electicity to “zap” any dust particles that pass through the cells, and it is quite common to hear an arcing sound for a second or two any time the air cleaner “zaps” another dust particle.

These units normally come in sets of two cells, and have two prefilters as well. Electronic air cleaners need to be cleaned on a regular basis, and the frequency of cleaning is slightly different for each house. The rule of thumb is that you should remove and clean both the cells and prefilters at least once every three months, and more often if you are seeing that your cells are getting dirty more quickly. The air cleaner cells when new, look shiny and silver, but over time the collector plates in the cells become black. That happens because every time the air cleaner zaps a dust particle, that particle is turned into carbon, which collects on the plates of the cell. So over time, the cells get black even when the air filter has been properly cleaned and maintained.

As the cells collect more and more carbon, the cells lose efficiency. The only way to bring the condition of your air cleaner cells to brand new again and get it back to its ultimate efficiency is to have the cells acid-bathed from time to time.

The manufacturer recommends that your electronic air cleaner cells be acid-bathed at least every three years, and it seems like very few people are aware of this fact.

At City Duct Cleaning, we provide an air cleaner maintenance plan where we will visit your home, remove the cells (they are cleaned off-site), and then deliver them back to your home when they are ready. And when they do come back, they have been cleaned so thoroughly that they look like brand new again. When we remove the cells from your furnace, we also install a temporary air filter that stays there until we return, usually in about 10 days.

When we clean any air duct system, we always clean whatever air filter is there, and this also applies to electronic air cleaners. With our duct cleaning equipment on site, we use compressed air to clean all four items and this does a very nice job of removing all the dust.

There are a few ways that air cleaner cells can be cleaned by the homeowner. The easiest way is to take them outside, spray them with some type of cleaner such as Mr. Clean, etc., and then rinse them off thoroughly with a garden hose. Do both the cells and both the prefilters.

Some people place the cells into their dishwasher, and this also cleans the cells quite thoroughly too. Even with regular cleaning, air cleaner cells still do require a periodic acid bath.

If you have not yet had your air cleaner cells cleaned in this manner, then call us for a free estimate.

Here’s a shot of our most recent duct cleaning award. This is the Consumers’ Choice Award for Best Toronto Duct Cleaner for 2010.

This is our sixth consecutive Consumers’ Choice Award.

Thank you Toronto for voting us as the GTA’s best duct cleaner for 2010.

There are several reasons why someone would want to have the insulation in their attic removed. The most common reasons are due to renovations, the homeowner finding out they are allergic to the existing material, or after rodents (usually squirrels or racoons) have found a way into the attic space.

Besides air duct cleaning and a host of related home heating services, City Duct also does attic insulation removal, and we have been providing this service since our inception in 1987.

Here are some photos of a recent attic insulation removal job that we completed recently. This home was undergoing a renovation, and the contractor had us in to remove the attic insulation because they were planning to install 148 potlights in this home.

When it comes to having new insulation re-installed, we recommend that you use a company called Matrix Insulation. We work in conjunction with Matrix, and can often arrange to have them in to reinstall new installation just after we have taken your old stuff out.

Some people really appreciate that same day service, especially when this procedure is done during colder months. Matrix compliments us well, because they do excellent work and are extremely knowledgeable in their field. If you’re wondering if you can qualify for any government rebates, just ask Jim, and he will explain all your options completely.

There is so much you could know about attic insulation, and there are several types of material that you could chose from too. Who’d have thought?

If you have any questions about your attic insulation at all, then these are the guys to call. I personally am still always very impressed every time that I talk to Jim about insulation or ventilation problems in our customer’s attics.

Related Info:

• Attic Insulation Removal
• Insulation Removal Photo Gallery

Do your part… help reduce emissions and stop global warming.

Here are some easy tips on what you can do and how much carbon dioxide you can actually save.

Recycle – Recycling just ½ of normal household waste can save 2400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Plant a tree – Believe it or not, over 1 ton of carbon dioxide will be absorbed by a single tree over its lifetime.

Use less hot water – You can do this by installing a low-flow shower head in the bath and a water-saver flush kit in your toilet. Doing this will save thousands of litres of water per year. Also you can tell your teenage kids that 30 minutes in the shower will get them no cleaner that a 10 minute shower!

Change a light – To save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year switch from the regular incondescent bulb to the compact flourescent bulb.

Adjust your thermostat – Moving your thermostat up and down 2 degrees in the summer and winter will save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Better yet, have us install a programmable thermostat for you.

Being part of the solution will make anyone feel good. If everyone could be on the same page, doing these simple tasks would go a long way towards making our planet a better place to live. Remember, it’s the only planet we have. Or is it?

Improving Your Indoor Air Quality

Have your air ducts professionally cleaned every two to three years. A thorough air duct cleaning in your home will help you and your family breathe easier.

Keep the air filters in your furnace and cooling system clean. This is crucial for the system’s optimimum performance. Clean air filters allow your HVAC system to operate much more efficiently, which in turn, saves you energy.

Consider installing additional clean air devices such as UV Lights or a central HEPA air filtration system.

Years ago, the HVAC industry addressed a huge problem concerning mold growth that was due to the very common drum-type humidifiers that most people already had installed on their furnaces. With water constantly sitting in the water tray, it provided a very high source of mold growth. The answer brought about the introduction of the flow-through type humidifier, which uses only enough water to humidify your home, and any water not used by the process is drained away. These types of humidifiers are now very common.The replacement of drum-type humidifiers with a flow-through model is crucial to improving indoor air quality, however, when considering mold in your system, the humidifier is only part of the problem.

Studies have shown that air conditioning coils are the primary source of mold growth in HVAC systems.

There is a very effective solution to that problem, and that’s where UVC Lights come into play.

The best way to eliminate mold from your HVAC and air duct system is with the use of Ultraviolet C-band (UVC) lights. These are used in many HVAC systems for IAQ (indoor air quality) and infectious disease control, are are now becoming fairly popular.

Fresh inoculation coming off the coil typically migrates downstream and some of it settles in the ductwork. But when you destroy mold and microbial growth at the coil, you eliminate the food source. By doing so, the contamination that has already built up on the duct surfaces will eventually decay away.

The common solution then, is to install UVC lights at the source (downstream of and facing the coil, or in the return air duct if installing it downstream is too difficult). Coil surfaces are continuously bathed in germicidal light, designed to kill microorganisms that grow and multiply there. Not only on the visible part of the fins, but also on surfaces within the coil, where the greatest amount of mold activity occurs.

When you install UVC to keep coils and ductwork clean, it’s essentially a permanent fix. There’s little to do except change the bulbs about once a year.

The coil is the source of the trouble in most cases. And when you eradicate mold growth at the source, the related odors quickly disappear. Occupants report a fresher smelling environment and the abatement of many allergy and discomfort problems.

For our customers who require the absolute cleanest air possible, we recommend a thorough air duct cleaning, the installation of a quality air filter of course, and the installation of at least one UV Light. These three items combined will greatly improve the indoor air quality in your home.

Studies have shown that indoor air can be from two to five times more polluted than outside air. Most disposable filters remove about 10 percent of these pollutants, allowing 90 percent to enter the air system, and this happens even during the construction of a new home.

The pollutants contain dust, pollen, mold spores, animal dander and much more. These materials collect in the furnace, air conditioner and duct surfaces, just as they do visibly on the furniture and floor surfaces. The furniture and floor in your home are cleaned regularly but the duct surfaces are hidden from view and can only be reached by specialized duct cleaning equipment. These pollutants can migrate out into the room again, or become a food source for mold and bacteria, which can thrive in that dark, comfortable environment from high humidity or moisture from the air conditioner or humidifiers.

Biological growth can release mold spores or toxins into the air system.

Aside from health issues, there are also several additional compelling reasons why it makes very good sense to clean your air duct systems, but since the health of you and your family are your very top priority, we will only address some of those health concerns in this post.

The solution is to choose the most qualified duct cleaning company that you can, and of course, it must be someone who you can trust to do the best job possible every time.

At City Duct Cleaning Inc. we have won multiple awards for duct cleaning excellence, and as always, all our work is completely guaranteed. Call City Duct Cleaning Inc. today for the best possible service.

We clean air duct systems in homes, condos and offices, and also clean dryer exhaust and washroom exhaust systems as well.

Is cleaning your own gas furnace worth the risk? Every gas-burning appliance should be cleaned and inspected by a licensed gas technician at least once per year.

With newer high-efficiency gas furnaces, it seems to have become common practice for many homeowners to stretch their yearly furnace inspection to once every two years now, and that is mostly due to two reasons.

Newer gas furnaces burn much cleaner and efficiently these days, especially as compared to the standard conventional gas furnaces that were common in the 70′s and 80′s. The second-most common reason for putting off regular maintenance is due to economic reasons.

There are still some homeowners who insist on cleaning their own furnaces, and we strongly advise against this practice for obvious reasons. A cleaning and inspection includes the gas technician checking certain safety controls and looking for safety issues.

A good technician can take in so much information about your furnace in just a few quick minutes, and if a homeowner were watching the technician doing this service you wouldn’t even realize that he just checked over a dozen things just by looking at your furnace and its configuration. So the process of cleaning the furnace itself then looks fairly simple.

Here are some pictures of what happened to one homeowner in the Toronto Area recently who decided to clean his own furnace because he wanted to save the cost of hiring an experienced technician to do the job.

The furnace was so badly burned that no one was able to determine exactly what he did to cause this fire.

But the mess was very extensive. The plastic insulation on all the wires in the furnace burned, and the smoke was sucked into the fan compartment. The smoke was then promptly distributed throughout the entire house via the air duct system. This highly toxic black smoke caused over $100,000 damage to the home, and when his insurance company found out that the homeowner caused this fire himself, they refused to pay.

The lesson to be learned is that people should not mess with any gas appliance. Always read your furnace manual to understand what the user can and cannot do to maintain the system.

Furnace Maintenance Tips

There are, however, a few very simple things that you can do to help ensure the safe operation of your furnace. First and foremost, is forget about do-it-yourself furnace maintenance unless you are a licensed and highly trained gas technician.

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Q. Our home is 8 years old and we have never had the heating or cooling ducts cleaned. Should we have this done, and how much does it usually cost?

Air duct cleaning is a must for any home with a forced air system, whether it is newly built or not. A tremendous amount of dust and debris ends up in the heating vents even in a newly-built home, and these days cleaning the air duct system is one of the first things that new homeowners have done as soon as they take possession of their new home.

If your home was a resale, or if you have lived in the home for a number of years, the effects of an unclean air duct system are the same.

Mold, dust and other contaminants often build up in the ductwork. Some of the contaminants are delivered into the living area in the air stream and can cause special problems for people with allergies and respiratory disorders. Odors and excessive dust on furniture and other surfaces are additional effects of having dirty air ducts.

The best way to determine if your air duct systems need cleaning is to inspect them yourself. Remove some of the air vents in your home including some of the return air grills and inspect them with a mirror and a flashlight.

If you see a significant amount of debris, often including clumps of mold, the ducts should probably be cleaned. Duct cleaning contractors use a variety of tools and equipment to clean these systems, but the best method by far is a truck-mounted vacuum system and compressed air.

The use of compressed air is crucial to the quailty of the job that can be done. Having compressed air gives the contractor the ability to use various air tools including air snakes and whips that will quite easily loosen the debris so that it can be worked towards a very powerful vacuum hose.

The cost for this service depends on the size of your home and how many furnaces there are in your house. The length of time between your last duct cleaning is not a factor at all.

Some contractors will offer a misleading and very inexpensive (introductory) price but once in your home they will try to tell you that they need more money for the job because its been more than four years since you last had them cleaned.

There are several scam artists in this industry who work in the Toronto area, so be sure to do a bit of homework and find an air duct cleaning contractor who is extremely reputable. And don’t shop just by price. Ask for details about how the job is done, always find out what is and is not included in the price and what extra charges there are. Feel free to ask for references if you like as well.

If you’re looking for an honest and very reputable duct cleaning contractor and you want your ducts guaranteed clean, then call City Duct Cleaning Inc. today.

Related Information and Posts:

Frequently asked questions about air duct cleaning
Toronto’s Award-Winning Duct Cleaning Company
Money-saving coupon
Duct Cleaning Specials (this changes periodically)

How much lint actually collects inside your dryer exhaust duct? This is a common question that we are often asked when performing dryer exhaust duct maintenance or dryer vent cleaning, however, it is difficult to give a simple answer that applies to everyone.

The amount of lint that collects inside your clothes dryer vent will depend on several factors, which include how often the dryer is used, what type of clothing is being dried, and the overall length of the dryer exhaust vent.

This picture shows a flexible dryer vent that we removed from a fairly new home, in fact, this dryer vent was only eight months old. Rather than cleaning the flexible part of this exhaust system, the home owner chose to have us replace it with a fire-retardant, aluminum flex pipe. This one could have been easily cleaned with our equipment, but it was way too long for the required installation and we were going shorten it. Alot.

Often times, we see way more flex jammed in behind the dryer than what is actually needed. All you need there is a piece of flex that is long enough to allow you to pull out the dryer. Anything more than that amount just adds to unnecessary air restriction.

Flexible dryer exhaust vents can be easily cleaned by the home owner in most cases. Just remove it completely, then take it outside and shake it out. It can also be cleaned with a garden hose and then re-assembled once it is dry. This procedure alone can often save you from having to clean the entire portion of the dryer duct as often.

If you have a similar plastic vent like this one and notice that it is getting brittle, then it is time to replace it completely.

We recommend that your dryer exhaust duct system be thoroughly cleaned and inspected at least every two years in most homes. We provide this service on its own, but it is always more cost-effective to have this done in conjunction with a complete air duct cleaning in your home.