How to Select an Air Duct and Furnace Cleaning Contractor

There are all kinds of different companies offering furnace and air duct cleaning services these days. The gas company (centerpoint energy), the retail store (Sears), the plumber, the carpet cleaner, and probably your local handyman. If you try to find one on the internet, you’ll probably come across what I like to call lead aggregators, like “Service Magic” or “1800Contractor”. Companies like these only sell leads to third party companies that are usually very hard to work with or new to the business. You’ll probably also come across a company that has several different domain names and website addresses, but the sure giveaway is the same phone number for each.

Simply Google the phone number and you will see all other domain names appear in the search. Then there are the companies that do pay per click advertising. Rarely will you find these companies appearing in organic search results for a given relevant keyword phrase, such as “mn furnace cleaning” or “mpls air duct cleaning.” Again, these are probably your overnight companies that are either new to the business or have a very bad reputation and therefore may not rank organically on the web. My advice on that would be to pick the top 3 organic search results for your given search term and make sure you get 3 different phone numbers and no 1-800 numbers (unless you really enjoy a tour).

Now that you’ve found your 3 companies, the first question you’re likely to ask these companies is, “How much do they charge?” This is where the real confusion sets in. Some companies proudly promote their $99 duct cleaning special (just read the fine print or find out exactly what’s included). Usually companies like these are scams. He’s using the same old tactic we’ve all heard before, “bait and switch.” You see, they will forget to tell you “for the first 5 rooms, each additional room is $20” or “additional furnace cleaning” or “air conditioning coil cleaning $79” and my favorite “air exchanger compartment only $55 with duct cleaning.

The air conditioning coils, the air exchanger compartment, and the furnace itself are a must when cleaning the air ducts, and the cleaner only needs an extra minute or two to clean. My advice here would be to go with a company that includes the air conditioning coils, air exchanger compartment and furnace for a flat fee (this usually only applies to houses with one furnace, additional furnaces usually mean who has a fairly large house, or the crew has to set up the equipment twice).

Ok, so you found a good local company at a good price, right? Wrong. Did you ask what kind of cleaning method they use? Well, I have heard of at least 4 cleaning methods, but I will only mention the 2 most popular ones. The first is your “basic” or “air sweep” method. This is where the cleaner goes to each register in the home with what is called an air wand, and blows compressed air down the branch lines into the main trunk lines. It then uses what is called an “air snake” which has a reverse nozzle that draws all the dust and debris back into the oven where the vacuum hose is installed.

The other method is the “roto-brush” method. This is where they remove all the logs in the house and send a brush that is powered by air and spins in circles, removing debris from the air ducts. In my opinion, the basic method is fine if you clean your oven regularly. Prices typically range from $175 to $225 for this type of cleaning. If you just bought an old house and it looks like it hasn’t been done in a long time, you may want to use the rotary brush method. Keep in mind that the brush roll method is time consuming and typically costs 3-5 times more than basic cleaning.