LESLIE: Alright, now we’ve got Tobin (sp) who’s got a question about cleaning air ducts. Ah, this time of year, people knocking on your doors want to clean your air ducts, Tobin (sp)?
TOBIN (sp): Yeah. Actually, my question involves the routine maintenance of them.
TOM: OK.
TOBIN (sp): I clean – you know, I replace the filters at the intakes and everything.
TOM: Yep.
TOBIN (sp): But we get these inserts in the mailers every week saying, you know, “We’ll clean the air ducts with our high steam” and all that kind of stuff.
TOM: Yeah.
TOBIN (sp): Is that a necessary thing to do for the …?
TOM: Panic-peddlers. Panic-peddlers. Don’t buy it.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Mm-hmm. And the pictures, Tobin (sp), are alarming.
TOM: (overlapping voices) No, you don’t need to clean the ducts. Yeah, they’re very alarmist contractors. You don’t need to clean your ducts; only if you’ve maybe done some construction or something of that nature. There’s a lot of misinformation in the duct-cleaning business. In fact, the EPA has got a great website that talks about this problem and, in fact, a lot of the claims that are made about treating the ducts with different types of mildicides and things like that, they say, generally, that the products that they apply are not label-approved for this type of use.
And so, not a good idea, I think, in your situation. I would ignore those flyers. Just make sure that you are religious about changing your filters on that system. Do it regularly, whenever it’s recommended; if it’s a pleated filter, you know, once a month.
You might want to invest in something. I would get a whole-house air cleaner – one that’s installed into the HVAC system – because those are so efficient, they can take out virus-sized particles.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. They’ll truly scrub every bit of air as it circulates through the entire system.
TOBIN (sp): It sounds great. Well, I appreciate the information.
TOM: You’re welcome, Tobin (sp). Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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