Duct Cleaning in Cape Girardeau, MO
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Seven months of heating moves the same air through your ducts
Your furnace runs October through April here, close to seven months a year. On winter nights that average 27°F, it is cycling on and off most of the day, and every cycle pushes air through the same ductwork. Whatever is sitting in those ducts moves with it, out into the rooms you're sitting in.
Cape Girardeau County has seen 120 damaging wind events and 10 winter storms over the last ten years. Storms like that can knock out power, and 19% of Missouri households lost power for 24 hours or more in 2024. When a system shuts down and starts back up around weather like this, dust that has settled in the ducts gets stirred up again before it settles back down.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 5 months
- May through September, your air conditioner does the same
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- There is no fixed schedule that fits every house. If anyone in the house has allergies, or you have pets shedding into the return vents, cleaning them more often makes sense. Homes that just went through a renovation should have the ducts cleaned once the dust settles, since drywall dust travels through the whole system. A contractor can look at what is actually built up in there and tell you when it is worth doing again.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It depends on what is actually in the ducts. If you can see dust blowing out of the vents, or there is visible buildup when you pull a vent cover off, cleaning them will help the air in the house and take some load off the furnace and coil. If the ducts look clean and nobody in the house has breathing trouble, you may not get much benefit from it right now. A contractor can look at the actual ductwork and tell you what is there before you decide.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor connects a vacuum system to the ductwork and uses brushes or air tools to knock loose dust and debris, then pulls it out through the vacuum before it can resettle. Every supply and return vent gets cleaned, along with the main trunk lines. The furnace and coil often get cleaned at the same time, since they sit in the same airstream as the ducts.