I have made many more tools to help me clean ductwork since this video was posted 3 years ago, and I would like to share those designs with you. Links to videos showing how I designed and built these very effective duct cleaning tools are now listed at the bottom of this videos description.
This is amazing, you're amazing. good planning with your camera capture, well edited, very utilitarian. This.. opens up a world of opportunity for me - i've learned so much from this. Thank you, sincerely.
This is great information! I needed to do something like this in my old house, but I had to settle for vacuuming what I could reach. We were on a shoestring budget, so hiring a pro was never an option. Thanks for showing an alternative to spending money that doesn’t exist.
Very interesting. I hadn't previously considered cleaning the ducts myself, assumed the HVAC companies offered the service as a snake oil. After seeing what your ducts looked like, I may have to look mine over.
We own a cleaning & restoration company and one of our largest services is air duct cleaning & sanitizing. Your opinion about companies offering this service like snake isn’t to far off and the reason why I say this is because there are a lot of businesses that offer this service and don’t clean them correctly or are straight up con artist that don’t have a clue. These businesses give the industry a bad name. But like us there are many companies out there that truly care and don’t just go through the motions of cleaning the ducts but actually clean them and correctly as well. When cleaned, fogged, and sealed correctly it truly is one of the healthiest things you can have done in your home. I always say the air ducts are the lungs of your home, and what’s in those air ducts will eventually end up in your lungs.
After I cleaned mine with a Duct Whip borrowed from work, I checked for Snag points, and Pulled / Pushed old cut up Dry and Damp Towels through the Ducts.
Good video. A simple improvement to the whip could be some heat shrink around the lines for at least a bit to tame them a hair. Thanks for filming all this.
Thank you for your time and detail of video. I need to do mine. My thought process is quite different. I will not video it. Just in case if fails, I rent, I can't get the landlord to do anything but raise my rent. 😂
It could easily damage foil flex ducting, but the plastic flex duct we have wasn't damaged by it, although it did concern me. I made a different whip for foil flex ducting, a link to a video about it is in the description below. I also made a special whip for the large plastic flex duct. A video about that whip is also linked in the description.
I actually tried to use a 6 horsepower shop vacuum to clean the air ducts, but it didn't work at all. I think it could work with the right attachments, but I haven't found, or made, them yet. The spiders and and other creatures would have had a chance then.
to be honest, i dont think the spiders really care all that much, weather they die or not, its just life, i find it werid tho cause like what if they come out of the vent at night...@@BudgetPhil
I considered them just organic robots most of my life, but they've proven to be much more. I've seen them very clearly demonstrate fear as well as ambition and it changed my mind about them. They've never bitten me, but have had countless opportunities to do so. I still take em outside when I see them though. Because I still don't want to share a home with Brown Recluses. Organizing my stuff better and getting rid of clutter really helped reduce their numbers. And now that the ductwork is clean, they don't seem to hang out as much in there anymore.
curious question? I inherited my double-wide mobile home from an elderly relative who was going blind and a hoarder to boot, HVAC vents had bug infestation from when HVAC didn't work for a while worst than what you showed because he would just live in the living room by the window ac unit when got hot outside, Can you use a DRYER VENT cleaning DRILL BRUSH kit with shop vac adapter WORK for also cleaning the HVAC AIR DUCTS or will the air ducts be damaged by the brush or will the brush be too weak to get all the crud out, plus next door neighbor is a heavy smoker and wood fire burner addict, inside my house, smells like inside sooty chimney and I have moderate to severe COPD DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH AND HOW OFTEN THE HEAVY SMOKER BURNS, NO FURNACE FILTER OR AIR PURIFIER WORKS WITH THAT, IT CLEANS THE AIR FOR LIKE 5 SECONDS THEN STINKS AGAIN! I'M DOING GOOD TO GET MERV 8 OR 9 FROM THE LOCAL HOME DEPOT GETS DIRTY WITHIN A WEEK OR TWO 20.00 A ITEM OR MORE I CAN'T AFFORD MORE THAN ONCE A MONTH, I WAS GIFTED A BETTER METAL WASHABLE FRAME ONE IF I WOULD JUST CLEAN IT OUT! BUT TOLD BY LEADING FURNACE FILTER CO NOTHING WORKS FOR WOOD SMOKE EXCEPT MERV 14 only commercial businesses can get that OTHERWISE FOR INDIVIDUAL ITS $50-75 PER FILTER THAT'S TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD ON SS CHK TO PAY EVERY MONTH! THE ONLY TIME AIR DUCTS WERE CLEANED WAS WHEN NEW ONES WERE INSTALLED OVER 10 YEARS AGO WHEN THE LEAKY HVAC WAS REPLACED AND DAMAGED WALLS WERE REPLACED AND NEW HVAC WAS PUT IN THE KITCHEN PANTRY INSTEAD OF THE CRAWL SPACE IN THE MASTER BEDROOM CLOSET!
Yes, a dryer vent cleaning brush kit can work. Here is a link to part 5 of my DIY air duct cleaning tools series where I experiment with one of those kits. I don't know about using the shop vac but I suppose it could work if the duct is small enough, or if the vac is large enough. ruclips.net/video/gcUj_hyhHI0/видео.html
I prefer having the Pros do it for me. I had the furnace,ducts,vents done today at a very good price. The video is cool though but at the end of the day one has to buy materials put it together and then do the cleaning all equals what the Professional duct cleaning company would charge. I choose the Professionals.
This type of DIY project is not always a cost effective solution. It was for me, big time. But each situation must be assessed separately. It sounds like you made the right choice.
It's a cost/benefits analysis for everyone. I could make a Pros and Cons list, but that leads to the first issue: Many of the Pro(fessional)s are Con(-artist)s. I'm very much a DIY guy because I can be sure that I'm doing the work that needs to be done to the extent it requires. Many scammers will tell you your ducts are in terrible shape when they are fine. Others will do less-than-thorough job cleaning and only show you a few spots where they've put in any effort. Plus, they'll over-charge anyone they feel they can gouge. (If you're an able-bodied male, you're probably okay, but I was talking to my elderly neighbor today, and multiple pros have tried to con him on basic plumbing repairs because he seems like he has money and couldn't pull off a DIY.) If you're handy, you probably already have many of these tools and materials. (Btw, everyone should own at least a small compressor for cleaning things). If you have multiple houses (e.g., own rental properties), then it becomes increasingly cost-effective. Additionally, you don't have to turn your life upside-down and do the entire house in a single day if you are doing this for yourself. I've done huge renovation jobs on my house where I spread it out into phases and aligned it with the right season where it had minimal impact on my life (e.g., HVAC stuff in the fall or spring; working in the attic during cooler months while the Xmas decorations are out of the way so I can install radiant barrier or insulation). For ductwork, that might mean doing a few downstairs during the week and all of upstairs one day on the weekend.
That really does look like a dead mouse in the video, but there were no dead rodents. There were quite a few dead bugs though. And some living bugs also.
I tried that. I used a 6hp shop vacuum and it didn't do much. I believe I can make an attachment for the end of the hose to help it sweep up dust but I can't imagine it being more effective than the upgraded air whips or the rotary brushes I built later in this series. Links to those DIY duct cleaning tools are in the description below.
I used a 20 gallon portable electric air compressor. It has a pump rate of about 6.5 CFM at 90 PSI and it was barely large enough to do the job. Had to take some 10 minute breaks once in a while to let it cool off. I recommend a larger air compressor but I'm not sure what's available. The 20 gallon air compressor did work though, and I intend to use it again.
Yep. Lint build up inside of dryer vents has caused many house fires. But I would only clean HVAC ductwork once every couple years or so, depending on how quickly it gets dirty
It depends on how fast they get dirty. I expect to clean the ducts about once every 3 to 4 years at least. But it's kinda dusty where I live so may need to do it more often.
@@BudgetPhil o okey. I dont have any AC but my fan collect lot of dust so I clean it every week. That's why I was wondering for those units. My be last long because they also have filter.
I don't know. We live near a dusty road and the dust gets in the house sometimes. I bought an air purifier a while ago and it helped. Might need to seal the windows and doors a little more. Some of the weather stripping on them may be leaking.
I had my ducts professionally cleaned recently but they didnt do one section (my dad noticed). They have been a pain in the butt to come back out and finish the job. If i get the 50 ft dryer vent cleaning tools on amazon can i finish myself? Sorry if u already mentioned this, i just started looking at DIY options today
You might need to make some homemade duct cleaning tools like I show in other videos on my channel in order to clean that segment yourself. Those videos should be linked in the description below. Remember that whatever you use to sweep the duct, a negative air machine (duct vacuum) needs to be used to suck out the dust and debris. The DIY leaf blower vacuum I used in this video worked okay, but was kinda weak for how large the duct was.
We are searching for a solution to our in slab duct repair issue. There appears to be areas which are deteriorating and the spray encapsulation, like Duct Armor, seems like a good solution. Anyone have experience or feedback on this method? Replacing what's in the slab does not appear to be an option, neither is installing split units or overhead duct work.
I had Duct Armor installed due to transite asbestos in the concrete ductwork that goes under my homes slab. Has worked great. Been about 2 years and had no issues.
I downloaded a 3D model of a 1/4" NPT threaded cap, from Thingiverse I believe. Then I modified the file with Meshmixer to add the holes for the whip tubes.
Well Tony you can always just pull apart every single duct and clean it. 🤣🤣🤣 Or HIRE SOMEONE! Why wouldn't you want to know how to do it correctly? Everything easy isn't always rewarding sir. There are reasons it's detailed. One being you can't SEE anything. Second you have to be very careful not to damage any duct work or pull screws out. Its not easy... It's why we are all here. Goodness gracious sir
Any advice for getting a cheapskate landlord of an apartment to clean out air vents? I live in an apartment and after cleaning all surfaces of dust, within just a few days a thick layer of dust is formed back on top of everything. It's bothering my allergies and I just hate how much dust collects in this apartment!
@@BudgetPhil welp... tried it and it didn't work... landlord even came to look at the vent and admitted it was dirty but just said "he doesn't see how that would make a difference but I could clean the outside of it if I wanted to." I don't think he's ever gotten the vent cleaned ever, not even when he bought the property.
I believe residential duct cleaning is a relatively unknown concept, but that's changing. I had never even heard of it, until one shocking day. It sounds to me like your best option is to begin looking for a new apartment with better air quality. In the meantime though, there is an air conditioner window unit filter material that is commonly available in hardware stores that I assume one could potentially cut and place over vents to help filter air entering an apartment. I've never used it for that, but I think it could work. These custom cut "vent filters" would need to be replaced once in a while, as they get plugged with dust. If the dust is coming from the vents, then the landlord needs to get a better filtration system.
This video just showed up this morning. I work for a cleaning service. Have for the past 20 years. We clean quite a few air ducts in houses. Plus we have done several commercial businesses, even at several colleges. We have a rotobrush system. It vacuums plus brushes the vents at the same time. We have worked at a few apartment complexes, but have just done a few apartments. Even then other tenants were begging us to do there ducts. But we can't do it without approval cause we won't get paid. Its not a cheap job is why all apartments are not done. $18 to $25 dollars each vent. Plus the return vents are $45 to $50. We clean the unit and A-coil thoroughly $125. Lots of work is involved doing all this. Takes between 3 to 5 hours usually with a 2 man crew.
@@BudgetPhil Our state college extension office told me if people knew how many fiddlebacks were in their home, they would move up north. They can be nasty little things.
I see them almost every day but have yet to be bitten by any of them. A friend of mine was bitten by one and got a large bullseye shaped bruise on his shoulder. He thought that he maybe rolled over on top of it when he was sleeping. I've had them crawl out of my clothing several minutes after I put them on. Fortunately, they don't seem very aggressive
@@BudgetPhil from what I’ve read, they normally only bite when pressured, ie smashed, squeezed, pushed….but it sounds like you know this. Between scorpions and fiddlebacks in my work boots, I always shake-beat on my boots before dawning. Fiddlebacks and black widows are the only poisonous spiders we have to worry about. Yeah fiddlebacks leave a nasty crater. I’ve been bit on inner thigh but got lucky
If you can do it yourself that is the best way to save money considering how expensive it might be to get a cleaning service. I just moved into a town house and noticed the flow of a couple of vents on the second floor is not so great but I also have no idea what path those ducts are taking. I found a potato chip bag thankfully empty in one of the vents downstairs and other stuff much like he found in his. I had a feeling that stuff may be in there considering that home builders are trying to build as many as they can and the people who one day move into them don't always imagine these things happening. I would get a cheap bore camera and snake it down in and see what I find it may surprise me. The same camera can also go to places where you can't get to easily and help you look to make sure that there is nothing hidden there like dead mice that became trapped in there or something. I looked at my AC coils inside the house and it looks like I would be best to find a good technician to clean those because it looks like I may have to remove a lot of panels to get any kind of access the way these ones are. It wouldn't surprise me much if they just needed cleaned and that is why the air flow is so low on the second floor. I do have a feeling there is debris in the ducts contributing to the poor flow.
Wish I could post pictures what I just had to do. Went into the in lowest biggest part of intake cold and intake hot air. They are right next to each other. Did some research on paying for professionals. Decided to do a pass. Some say it's really not worth it. Any who.. I adjusted my camera to shoot pics with voice command. I put the camera down each hole with flash and said Shoot. Looked at the pictures and WOW! I'm wondering why I have dust.. Now I know. Any who... I get the shop vac.. 8 foot hose. Clean it out real good. Clean filter etc... Turn everything off, fan, heat, air. Look at the pictures and begin. Both sides. Luckily the hose was as long as the end of the lowest part of dust collection (return air /heat ) I used intake not expell air.. On the shop vac and put the hose down and started. I was very curious what was coming out before another picture to gauge my work... All I can say is wow! One look at the shop vac I felt very pleased. I had to be careful I didn't want to dislodge or harm my duct work. Took more pictures.. Located areas needing re done and went back in again. Repeat as needed. Fastforward... I am very proud. Looks 90 percent. You'll never get everything of course but wow. Oh I made sure all my vents were tightly closed. Even though I was pulling air not pushing.. It's best to do that. I also half way through.. Turned the fan on to push up anything perhaps setting that I couldn't get. Put the shop vac down again and done. Changed my air filter. Thanks for the video. I wish I knew how to do all that. I would of for sure. My house is very diffrent than that one.
Awesome! Removing 90% of the dust is a massive improvement. It sounds like your technique worked well for the type of ductwork in your home. Thank you for sharing that experience. In part 5 of my DIY Duct Cleaning series, I'm going to talk about some tools and brushes that might be helpful for removing that last 10%.
@@BudgetPhil hey Phil.. I've been looking into that. I'll absolutely watch out for that part. Hey real quick. Can't find this answer. So when I do this am I correct in just worrying about the lowest parts where heat exchange and return air are at their lowest, or... Should I be taking off every single vent and running the long hose down attached to the shop vac? Or is doing it how I did it, the correct way? I just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly. Thank you again, I'm going to subscribe now.
@@MG-cd9ek I would recommend pulling the vent covers off and looking for dust or debris in all of the ductwork that can be safely accessed. I believe the vacuum hose will help to clean most of the ductwork, but I would be very careful with the hose around any heat exchangers. The little thin metal fins on heat exchangers are often very easy to bend. Accidentally bending over these fins can block some air from passing through the heat exchanger, reducing its efficiency. But heat exchangers do need to be cleaned because dust also reduces their efficiency. A common brush attachment for the vacuum hose might help some, but I would secure it really well with lots of strong tape so that the brush attachment doesn't accidentally pop off the end of the hose and remain inside the ductwork.
I think that was a pile of fiberglass insulation covered with a lot of dust and hair. There were small toys, leaves, spiders, vitamins, and several other things. I didn't see any dead creatures larger than a spider though. It was quite a mess.
I understand. That method is not for everyone. Cleaning the ductwork has been quite a learning experience for me and I'm happy to share what was learned to help others decide whether or not to take on a project like this. In part 5 of my DIY duct cleaning series, I'll show an electric drill powered rotary brush which may be more practical to use than the air powered duct whip. And I'll show how it was easily modified to be more effective. Thank you for your input.
If you know a cheaper, better way to do this then please tell us. There are many people like me with limited resources that could benefit from that information.
@@BudgetPhil The problem is that you broke a lot of particles loose, and your vacuum setup isn't strong enough to get all that out, so it blew out your vents later and exposed you to whatever was in there, which is not what you wanted. Had you left it alone, it would have stayed put. Even the Pros have problems with this, and the EPA backs this up, but the pros capture a ton more because their hose is sucking at the point of the agitating brush. If health is the concern then you definitely want the pros to do this.
Thank you for your concern Terry. You can rest assured that the small particles were vacuumed out with no problem using the leaf blower vac. However, the residue stuck on the sides of the ducting was much more difficult to remove. The debris in the ductwork that was under one of the bathrooms had started molding and was really effecting the air quality in that bathroom. After cleaning, that mold smell completely disappeared, as did all the other air quality problems we had in the house when the heater or a/c would come on. I wish I had done it a lot sooner. If the ducting was much larger, than I don't believe the leaf blower vac would have worked well, because it could only move about 400 cfm of air. The negative air machine I built during part 3 moves about 2500cfm of air and more than fixed that problem. And I was able to remove the residue from the duct walls using the drill powered brushes I made during parts 5 and 6. Even some the professional duct cleaning services may have trouble doing that. A couple of different professionals recommended spraying a coating over the residue, but that seemed completely unacceptable to me considering I didn't believe it would stick to the residue very well. Kind of like when paint doesn't stick well to a dirty surface. I couldn't find the help I was looking for when trying to resolve this problem, so I did it myself. And it worked. The loose particles were easy to remove, but that residue was a real pain. In part 7, I made an air whip with brushes that even gets down into the corners of the rectangle ducting. It's not as aggressive as the drill powered brushes, but it does work to remove residue.
I have made many more tools to help me clean ductwork since this video was posted 3 years ago, and I would like to share those designs with you. Links to videos showing how I designed and built these very effective duct cleaning tools are now listed at the bottom of this videos description.
This is amazing, you're amazing. good planning with your camera capture, well edited, very utilitarian. This.. opens up a world of opportunity for me - i've learned so much from this. Thank you, sincerely.
Thank you for the compliments.
Thank you. Where I live a lot of the HVAC companies refuse to clean manufactureded home vents so this will be a big help come spring.
You're welcome. More videos in my DIY Duct Cleaning series are on the way.
This is great information! I needed to do something like this in my old house, but I had to settle for vacuuming what I could reach. We were on a shoestring budget, so hiring a pro was never an option. Thanks for showing an alternative to spending money that doesn’t exist.
Thank you
This is flippin brilliant! Thanks for sharing. 🇨🇦😎
Thank you
Very interesting. I hadn't previously considered cleaning the ducts myself, assumed the HVAC companies offered the service as a snake oil. After seeing what your ducts looked like, I may have to look mine over.
Yeah, I was suprized to see so much debris. I would have hired professionals but I'm cheap and already had most of the tools to do it
We own a cleaning & restoration company and one of our largest services is air duct cleaning & sanitizing. Your opinion about companies offering this service like snake isn’t to far off and the reason why I say this is because there are a lot of businesses that offer this service and don’t clean them correctly or are straight up con artist that don’t have a clue. These businesses give the industry a bad name. But like us there are many companies out there that truly care and don’t just go through the motions of cleaning the ducts but actually clean them and correctly as well. When cleaned, fogged, and sealed correctly it truly is one of the healthiest things you can have done in your home. I always say the air ducts are the lungs of your home, and what’s in those air ducts will eventually end up in your lungs.
Bro this is best video regarding that issue ..thanks man
Thank you
I like this step-by-step demonstration
More to come. Thanks for stopping by.
Narration delivered with all the steely grit of a hard-boiled detective. Handyman Noir?
That's a great name for a channel. I do occasionally watch shows from that genre. Perhaps those shows have influenced me more than I thought.
Awesome vids Phil! Tons of help and good stuff in these. MUCH APPRECIATED
Thank you
After I cleaned mine with a Duct Whip borrowed from work, I checked for Snag points, and Pulled / Pushed old cut up Dry and Damp Towels through the Ducts.
Thank you for the tip
Well done, Budget Phil!
Thank you
Good video. A simple improvement to the whip could be some heat shrink around the lines for at least a bit to tame them a hair. Thanks for filming all this.
You're welcome. Thank you for the tip.
Great video. Good to see this, even if we hire pros. We will know the minimum of what to expect.
Thank you
Thank you for your time and detail of video. I need to do mine. My thought process is quite different. I will not video it. Just in case if fails, I rent, I can't get the landlord to do anything but raise my rent. 😂
You're welcome
Dude you are a pretty smart cookie!
Thank you
I SAID THE SAME THING! VERY SMART
and speaks so well.
Great vid we’ll explained as well!!
Thank you
Very informative video , thanks for posting !
You're welcome
Doesn't the duct whip snap holes in the flex ducting?
It could easily damage foil flex ducting, but the plastic flex duct we have wasn't damaged by it, although it did concern me. I made a different whip for foil flex ducting, a link to a video about it is in the description below. I also made a special whip for the large plastic flex duct. A video about that whip is also linked in the description.
It sounded like a railgun going off. Glad I had my speakers turned down haha
Yeah, it was too loud. I should have edited that part more to make it less noisy. Thank you for letting me know about that.
Nice vent job on metal moblie home duct cleaning.
Thank you
There was like 5 tarantulas chilling in the ducts! 🤢🤢🤢🤢
Yeah, it was fairly active. Brown recluses mostly I believe.
At 0:14 in the lower right corner, that dude was just waiting to strike!
Brown recluses actually.
That's why you not only clean your ducts but REPLACE YO HVAC AIR FILTERS AS WELL!!!!
@@BudgetPhil those were recluses. That don’t bother u?
Cool idea. So the idea of the dust whip is to simply stir up the dust and debris in order for the vacuum to draw it all out?
Yes, thats the idea. The leaf blower was a little weak but worked okay for these small ducts.
The pressurized whip nozzle looks like the creature on John Carpenters movie The Thing
Kool man!
Spider: sup bro just chilling, im having a bab-
(air turns on)
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( 0:11 right cornor)
Yeah, I felt bad for them. Wish I could have vacuumed them out before using the duct cleaning whip
Make sure once you put the camera in to check the footage on it to or just vacuum first.@@BudgetPhil
I actually tried to use a 6 horsepower shop vacuum to clean the air ducts, but it didn't work at all. I think it could work with the right attachments, but I haven't found, or made, them yet. The spiders and and other creatures would have had a chance then.
to be honest, i dont think the spiders really care all that much, weather they die or not, its just life, i find it werid tho cause like what if they come out of the vent at night...@@BudgetPhil
I considered them just organic robots most of my life, but they've proven to be much more. I've seen them very clearly demonstrate fear as well as ambition and it changed my mind about them. They've never bitten me, but have had countless opportunities to do so. I still take em outside when I see them though. Because I still don't want to share a home with Brown Recluses. Organizing my stuff better and getting rid of clutter really helped reduce their numbers. And now that the ductwork is clean, they don't seem to hang out as much in there anymore.
Dude you are clever.
Thank you
Great job👍
Thank you. More to come
That might have been an actual brown recluse spider at 0:12 to the lower right
Yep, it was
😳😳😳
Good Job Bro!!!!
Thank you
Best of Best 👍👍👍👍👍
Thank you
Thanks!! I have the stuff to do this!! And I will
Your welcome.
curious question? I inherited my double-wide mobile home from an elderly relative who was going blind and a hoarder to boot,
HVAC vents had bug infestation from when HVAC didn't work for a while worst than what you showed because he would just live in the living room by the window ac unit when got hot outside,
Can you use a DRYER VENT cleaning DRILL BRUSH kit
with shop vac adapter WORK for also cleaning the HVAC AIR DUCTS or will the air ducts be damaged by the brush or will the brush be too weak to get all the crud out,
plus next door neighbor is a heavy smoker and wood fire burner addict, inside my house, smells like inside sooty chimney and I have moderate to severe COPD DEPENDING ON HOW MUCH AND HOW OFTEN THE HEAVY SMOKER BURNS,
NO FURNACE FILTER OR AIR PURIFIER WORKS WITH THAT, IT CLEANS THE AIR FOR LIKE 5 SECONDS THEN STINKS AGAIN!
I'M DOING GOOD TO GET MERV 8 OR 9 FROM THE LOCAL HOME DEPOT GETS DIRTY WITHIN A WEEK OR TWO 20.00 A ITEM OR MORE I CAN'T AFFORD MORE THAN ONCE A MONTH,
I WAS GIFTED A BETTER METAL WASHABLE FRAME ONE IF I WOULD JUST CLEAN IT OUT!
BUT TOLD BY LEADING FURNACE FILTER CO NOTHING WORKS FOR WOOD SMOKE EXCEPT MERV 14 only commercial businesses can get that OTHERWISE FOR INDIVIDUAL ITS $50-75 PER FILTER THAT'S TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD ON SS CHK TO PAY EVERY MONTH!
THE ONLY TIME AIR DUCTS WERE CLEANED WAS WHEN NEW ONES WERE INSTALLED OVER 10 YEARS AGO WHEN THE LEAKY HVAC WAS REPLACED AND DAMAGED WALLS WERE REPLACED AND NEW HVAC WAS PUT IN THE KITCHEN PANTRY INSTEAD OF THE CRAWL SPACE IN THE MASTER BEDROOM CLOSET!
Yes, a dryer vent cleaning brush kit can work. Here is a link to part 5 of my DIY air duct cleaning tools series where I experiment with one of those kits. I don't know about using the shop vac but I suppose it could work if the duct is small enough, or if the vac is large enough. ruclips.net/video/gcUj_hyhHI0/видео.html
Also, maybe a pre-filter material of some kind could help extend the life of the furnace filters.
I prefer having the Pros do it for me. I had the furnace,ducts,vents done today at a very good price. The video is cool though but at the end of the day one has to buy materials put it together and then do the cleaning all equals what the Professional duct cleaning company would charge. I choose the Professionals.
This type of DIY project is not always a cost effective solution. It was for me, big time. But each situation must be assessed separately. It sounds like you made the right choice.
It's a cost/benefits analysis for everyone. I could make a Pros and Cons list, but that leads to the first issue: Many of the Pro(fessional)s are Con(-artist)s. I'm very much a DIY guy because I can be sure that I'm doing the work that needs to be done to the extent it requires. Many scammers will tell you your ducts are in terrible shape when they are fine. Others will do less-than-thorough job cleaning and only show you a few spots where they've put in any effort. Plus, they'll over-charge anyone they feel they can gouge. (If you're an able-bodied male, you're probably okay, but I was talking to my elderly neighbor today, and multiple pros have tried to con him on basic plumbing repairs because he seems like he has money and couldn't pull off a DIY.)
If you're handy, you probably already have many of these tools and materials. (Btw, everyone should own at least a small compressor for cleaning things). If you have multiple houses (e.g., own rental properties), then it becomes increasingly cost-effective. Additionally, you don't have to turn your life upside-down and do the entire house in a single day if you are doing this for yourself. I've done huge renovation jobs on my house where I spread it out into phases and aligned it with the right season where it had minimal impact on my life (e.g., HVAC stuff in the fall or spring; working in the attic during cooler months while the Xmas decorations are out of the way so I can install radiant barrier or insulation). For ductwork, that might mean doing a few downstairs during the week and all of upstairs one day on the weekend.
Phil Very Smart 👍🏽
Thank you
Excellent! thank you!
You're welcome. Thanks for the compliment.
thank you
You're welcome
Not the dead mouse at :31 I screamed
That really does look like a dead mouse in the video, but there were no dead rodents. There were quite a few dead bugs though. And some living bugs also.
@@BudgetPhil the dead mouse must have escaped at the last moment. kidding.
Why don't you use a long hose attached to the shop vac
I tried that. I used a 6hp shop vacuum and it didn't do much. I believe I can make an attachment for the end of the hose to help it sweep up dust but I can't imagine it being more effective than the upgraded air whips or the rotary brushes I built later in this series. Links to those DIY duct cleaning tools are in the description below.
What is the air compressor you used and what is the cfm and psi you used. Do you recommend model which I need to look in Home Depot or lowes
I used a 20 gallon portable electric air compressor. It has a pump rate of about 6.5 CFM at 90 PSI and it was barely large enough to do the job. Had to take some 10 minute breaks once in a while to let it cool off. I recommend a larger air compressor but I'm not sure what's available. The 20 gallon air compressor did work though, and I intend to use it again.
My compressor pumps up to 120 PSI, but I used the whips with 100 PSI or less.
You are a genius .
Thank you
Constant cleaning is the key to the prevention of fire hazards and safety.
Yep. Lint build up inside of dryer vents has caused many house fires. But I would only clean HVAC ductwork once every couple years or so, depending on how quickly it gets dirty
The amount of spiders!!! I’m getting my duct cleaning now😳
Genius, with you were in the California area
Thank you
How much times do you need to clean those ducts? 1 every month?
It depends on how fast they get dirty. I expect to clean the ducts about once every 3 to 4 years at least. But it's kinda dusty where I live so may need to do it more often.
@@BudgetPhil o okey. I dont have any AC but my fan collect lot of dust so I clean it every week. That's why I was wondering for those units. My be last long because they also have filter.
Yes the furnace filter is extremely important for keeping the ductwork clean. The ducts can get dirty quickly without one.
I clean my duct system just after I make coffee each morning.
This is why most people comment on how clean my ductwork is when visiting my home.
I am getting a lot of dust in general on my home. What could be the cause of this? I change my gvac filter every 3 months. Any insight?
I don't know. We live near a dusty road and the dust gets in the house sometimes. I bought an air purifier a while ago and it helped. Might need to seal the windows and doors a little more. Some of the weather stripping on them may be leaking.
I have the same issue. I have the worst dust problem.
Do your filters seal up good when in place? Some really don’t seal very well.
when will how making the dust whip
I hope to have it finished and posted in about three weeks.
straight outta trailer park boys
how old is the house being cleaned?
It was about forty years old at the time it was cleaned.
That my friend is a brown recluse.
Yep, they pretty much all are in that house.
I had my ducts professionally cleaned recently but they didnt do one section (my dad noticed). They have been a pain in the butt to come back out and finish the job. If i get the 50 ft dryer vent cleaning tools on amazon can i finish myself? Sorry if u already mentioned this, i just started looking at DIY options today
You might need to make some homemade duct cleaning tools like I show in other videos on my channel in order to clean that segment yourself. Those videos should be linked in the description below. Remember that whatever you use to sweep the duct, a negative air machine (duct vacuum) needs to be used to suck out the dust and debris. The DIY leaf blower vacuum I used in this video worked okay, but was kinda weak for how large the duct was.
We are searching for a solution to our in slab duct repair issue. There appears to be areas which are deteriorating and the spray encapsulation, like Duct Armor, seems like a good solution. Anyone have experience or feedback on this method? Replacing what's in the slab does not appear to be an option, neither is installing split units or overhead duct work.
I had Duct Armor installed due to transite asbestos in the concrete ductwork that goes under my homes slab. Has worked great. Been about 2 years and had no issues.
Aeroseal
12 seconds a live spider eeeewwwwwhhhh.
😳😳😳
They mostly keep to themselves. But I was not happy to see them in there.
One of my aunts is very afraid of spiders. It is understandable considering how bad some can be.
where did you get the 3d print for the air whip???
I downloaded a 3D model of a 1/4" NPT threaded cap, from Thingiverse I believe. Then I modified the file with Meshmixer to add the holes for the whip tubes.
I just want to clean my HVAC ducts not build a rocket to the moon
I know what you mean. I wish it was easier to clean them.
Tony: you sound like a complainer
Well Tony you can always just pull apart every single duct and clean it. 🤣🤣🤣
Or HIRE SOMEONE!
Why wouldn't you want to know how to do it correctly?
Everything easy isn't always rewarding sir.
There are reasons it's detailed.
One being you can't SEE anything.
Second you have to be very careful not to damage any duct work or pull screws out.
Its not easy... It's why we are all here.
Goodness gracious sir
😂😂😂
Any advice for getting a cheapskate landlord of an apartment to clean out air vents? I live in an apartment and after cleaning all surfaces of dust, within just a few days a thick layer of dust is formed back on top of everything. It's bothering my allergies and I just hate how much dust collects in this apartment!
If you can safely get pictures of the dust inside of the ductwork, it might help convince them to call a professional duct cleaner.
@@BudgetPhilthat's a good idea, I will definitely do that
@@BudgetPhil welp... tried it and it didn't work... landlord even came to look at the vent and admitted it was dirty but just said "he doesn't see how that would make a difference but I could clean the outside of it if I wanted to." I don't think he's ever gotten the vent cleaned ever, not even when he bought the property.
I believe residential duct cleaning is a relatively unknown concept, but that's changing. I had never even heard of it, until one shocking day. It sounds to me like your best option is to begin looking for a new apartment with better air quality. In the meantime though, there is an air conditioner window unit filter material that is commonly available in hardware stores that I assume one could potentially cut and place over vents to help filter air entering an apartment. I've never used it for that, but I think it could work. These custom cut "vent filters" would need to be replaced once in a while, as they get plugged with dust. If the dust is coming from the vents, then the landlord needs to get a better filtration system.
This video just showed up this morning. I work for a cleaning service. Have for the past 20 years. We clean quite a few air ducts in houses. Plus we have done several commercial businesses, even at several colleges. We have a rotobrush system. It vacuums plus brushes the vents at the same time. We have worked at a few apartment complexes, but have just done a few apartments. Even then other tenants were begging us to do there ducts. But we can't do it without approval cause we won't get paid. Its not a cheap job is why all apartments are not done. $18 to $25 dollars each vent. Plus the return vents are $45 to $50. We clean the unit and A-coil thoroughly $125. Lots of work is involved doing all this. Takes between 3 to 5 hours usually with a 2 man crew.
Those are brown recluse
Yep
What state was this house? In the south somewhere? Looked like a fiddleback
It's in the Midwest. Yep, those were fiddleback spiders.
@@BudgetPhil Our state college extension office told me if people knew how many fiddlebacks were in their home, they would move up north. They can be nasty little things.
I see them almost every day but have yet to be bitten by any of them. A friend of mine was bitten by one and got a large bullseye shaped bruise on his shoulder. He thought that he maybe rolled over on top of it when he was sleeping. I've had them crawl out of my clothing several minutes after I put them on. Fortunately, they don't seem very aggressive
@@BudgetPhil from what I’ve read, they normally only bite when pressured, ie smashed, squeezed, pushed….but it sounds like you know this. Between scorpions and fiddlebacks in my work boots, I always shake-beat on my boots before dawning. Fiddlebacks and black widows are the only poisonous spiders we have to worry about. Yeah fiddlebacks leave a nasty crater. I’ve been bit on inner thigh but got lucky
@@BudgetPhil we have the glue traps EVERYWHERE
Part 2???
Yep, it should be finished in about a week and a half.
Ay ody else see the recluses
at 0:14 just chilling there..came to the comments to see if anyone else saw haha
@@GageDrums same lol
You can do it like this or drop 600 plus to someone else, I'll do it like this I have the stuff
If you can do it yourself that is the best way to save money considering how expensive it might be to get a cleaning service. I just moved into a town house and noticed the flow of a couple of vents on the second floor is not so great but I also have no idea what path those ducts are taking. I found a potato chip bag thankfully empty in one of the vents downstairs and other stuff much like he found in his. I had a feeling that stuff may be in there considering that home builders are trying to build as many as they can and the people who one day move into them don't always imagine these things happening. I would get a cheap bore camera and snake it down in and see what I find it may surprise me. The same camera can also go to places where you can't get to easily and help you look to make sure that there is nothing hidden there like dead mice that became trapped in there or something. I looked at my AC coils inside the house and it looks like I would be best to find a good technician to clean those because it looks like I may have to remove a lot of panels to get any kind of access the way these ones are. It wouldn't surprise me much if they just needed cleaned and that is why the air flow is so low on the second floor. I do have a feeling there is debris in the ducts contributing to the poor flow.
Wish I could post pictures what I just had to do.
Went into the in lowest biggest part of intake cold and intake hot air. They are right next to each other.
Did some research on paying for professionals. Decided to do a pass. Some say it's really not worth it.
Any who.. I adjusted my camera to shoot pics with voice command.
I put the camera down each hole with flash and said
Shoot.
Looked at the pictures and WOW! I'm wondering why I have dust.. Now I know.
Any who...
I get the shop vac.. 8 foot hose. Clean it out real good. Clean filter etc... Turn everything off, fan, heat, air.
Look at the pictures and begin.
Both sides. Luckily the hose was as long as the end of the lowest part of dust collection (return air /heat ) I used intake not expell air.. On the shop vac and put the hose down and started.
I was very curious what was coming out before another picture to gauge my work...
All I can say is wow! One look at the shop vac I felt very pleased.
I had to be careful I didn't want to dislodge or harm my duct work.
Took more pictures.. Located areas needing re done and went back in again.
Repeat as needed.
Fastforward...
I am very proud.
Looks 90 percent.
You'll never get everything of course but wow.
Oh I made sure all my vents were tightly closed. Even though I was pulling air not pushing.. It's best to do that. I also half way through.. Turned the fan on to push up anything perhaps setting that I couldn't get. Put the shop vac down again and done.
Changed my air filter.
Thanks for the video. I wish I knew how to do all that. I would of for sure. My house is very diffrent than that one.
Awesome! Removing 90% of the dust is a massive improvement. It sounds like your technique worked well for the type of ductwork in your home. Thank you for sharing that experience. In part 5 of my DIY Duct Cleaning series, I'm going to talk about some tools and brushes that might be helpful for removing that last 10%.
You go DIY pro! This video is super helpful. 👏 Have fun being awesome.
@@punchymuffin6402 Thank you
@@BudgetPhil hey Phil.. I've been looking into that. I'll absolutely watch out for that part.
Hey real quick. Can't find this answer.
So when I do this am I correct in just worrying about the lowest parts where heat exchange and return air are at their lowest, or... Should I be taking off every single vent and running the long hose down attached to the shop vac?
Or is doing it how I did it, the correct way?
I just want to make sure I'm doing this correctly.
Thank you again, I'm going to subscribe now.
@@MG-cd9ek I would recommend pulling the vent covers off and looking for dust or debris in all of the ductwork that can be safely accessed. I believe the vacuum hose will help to clean most of the ductwork, but I would be very careful with the hose around any heat exchangers. The little thin metal fins on heat exchangers are often very easy to bend. Accidentally bending over these fins can block some air from passing through the heat exchanger, reducing its efficiency. But heat exchangers do need to be cleaned because dust also reduces their efficiency. A common brush attachment for the vacuum hose might help some, but I would secure it really well with lots of strong tape so that the brush attachment doesn't accidentally pop off the end of the hose and remain inside the ductwork.
Are y’all fuckin with me right now ?????? Nobody see that in the very beginning??
I was surprised to see how much debris was down there.
@@BudgetPhil not the debris the skull looking thing lol
I think that was a pile of fiberglass insulation covered with a lot of dust and hair. There were small toys, leaves, spiders, vitamins, and several other things. I didn't see any dead creatures larger than a spider though. It was quite a mess.
@@BudgetPhil well then hopefully my eyes playing tricks lol 😂 regardless thank you for the video!
You're welcome.
That's a lot of effort spent on avoiding paying for a service.
I can appreciate the tutorial but, this is not practical.
I understand. That method is not for everyone. Cleaning the ductwork has been quite a learning experience for me and I'm happy to share what was learned to help others decide whether or not to take on a project like this. In part 5 of my DIY duct cleaning series, I'll show an electric drill powered rotary brush which may be more practical to use than the air powered duct whip. And I'll show how it was easily modified to be more effective. Thank you for your input.
If it’s like a ‘Zen’ thing, then it is the most practical way to kill 2 birds….. All in the eye of the beholder. Or the be-doer….😊
Amogus
I'm unfamiliar with this word.
Your are not cultured then
Too busy
@@Karlsverden It's a video game. In the game players hide in vents which is where the slang word sus came from. Don't ask me how I know
@@xe5vu amogus
I ❤️Love You 💯💯💯🤚Swear👌
Thank you
this duct is a trailer/mobile home. What a fake video.
There was nothing fake about that video to my knowledge.
For sure not the best way to do this😂😭
If you know a cheaper, better way to do this then please tell us. There are many people like me with limited resources that could benefit from that information.
@@BudgetPhil The problem is that you broke a lot of particles loose, and your vacuum setup isn't strong enough to get all that out, so it blew out your vents later and exposed you to whatever was in there, which is not what you wanted. Had you left it alone, it would have stayed put. Even the Pros have problems with this, and the EPA backs this up, but the pros capture a ton more because their hose is sucking at the point of the agitating brush. If health is the concern then you definitely want the pros to do this.
Thank you for your concern Terry. You can rest assured that the small particles were vacuumed out with no problem using the leaf blower vac. However, the residue stuck on the sides of the ducting was much more difficult to remove. The debris in the ductwork that was under one of the bathrooms had started molding and was really effecting the air quality in that bathroom. After cleaning, that mold smell completely disappeared, as did all the other air quality problems we had in the house when the heater or a/c would come on. I wish I had done it a lot sooner. If the ducting was much larger, than I don't believe the leaf blower vac would have worked well, because it could only move about 400 cfm of air. The negative air machine I built during part 3 moves about 2500cfm of air and more than fixed that problem. And I was able to remove the residue from the duct walls using the drill powered brushes I made during parts 5 and 6. Even some the professional duct cleaning services may have trouble doing that. A couple of different professionals recommended spraying a coating over the residue, but that seemed completely unacceptable to me considering I didn't believe it would stick to the residue very well. Kind of like when paint doesn't stick well to a dirty surface. I couldn't find the help I was looking for when trying to resolve this problem, so I did it myself. And it worked. The loose particles were easy to remove, but that residue was a real pain. In part 7, I made an air whip with brushes that even gets down into the corners of the rectangle ducting. It's not as aggressive as the drill powered brushes, but it does work to remove residue.
Pay a pro not this dude
Learn something dummy
Safety glasses everybody........
One should always wear safety glasses when using compressed air. I learned this lesson the hard way.
Also need Hearing Protection, as it is quite loud, even on my Fiberglass Exterior Wrapped Ducts.