Polluted indoor air has been found linked to number of diseases in the recent times. It can be the root cause of various types of allergies, respiratory problems, pneumonia, fatigue and many more. One of the sources of indoor pollution is dirty duct of the houses. Professional cleaning of ducts is recommended once or twice in every three to five years.

 The ducts should be cleaned in certain situations. In case you have remodeled or renovated your house, which included asbestos abatement, lead paint removal then you should get your ducts cleaned. You can be sure that lots of dirt and debris along with harmful chemicals have made their way into the ducts during the process. If you see that the ducts are being used as routes by rodents and vermin to get an entry into your house, get them cleaned before long. The ducts of the house get infested with their dropping and urine which can lead to number of harmful diseases. Leaky ducts which allow entry to moisture invite active mold growth. Such ducts are to be treated with biocides after cleaning to terminate molds. If you see the presence of feces, dander, and other contaminants in the room air, then these are signals enough to schedule a call with a duct cleaning service.

 Ducts are cleaned with a variety of modern tools

Today there are lots of mechanical tools available that enable impeccable cleaning of the ducts. Some cleaner would come with truck-mounted equipment to clean your ducts. They will connect them to the house duct with a hose to pull out the debris that has accumulated there over the years. Others may come with portable vacuums. If used properly, both types of equipment are efficient for the job.Let’s take a look at the tools that are used commonly by duct cleaning contractors to clean up the ducts:

 Tools to get an access to the duct

These tools are used by the contractors to gain an entry inside your duct way. The accesses are made for two reasons – to inspect the ducts and to start cleaning. The size of the access holes can vary. They can be pretty small just for the sake of getting an optical image of the duct. They can also be big to allow entry to cleaning professional and bulky equipment. An example of such a tool is drill or hole cutter. After the cleaning the holes are sealed to restore the duct way to its original condition.There are advanced drills today which generate fewer metal shavings and have a magnetic basket to collect the metal shavings. This enables mess-free cutting.

 Tools to get an access to the duct

These tools are used by the contractors to gain an entry inside your duct way. The accesses are made for two reasons – to inspect the ducts and to start cleaning. The size of the access holes can vary. They can be pretty small just for the sake of getting an optical image of the duct. They can also be big to allow entry to cleaning professional and bulky equipment. An example of such a tool is drill or hole cutter. After the cleaning the holes are sealed to restore the duct way to its original condition.There are advanced drills today which generate fewer metal shavings and have a magnetic basket to collect the metal shavings. This enables mess-free cutting.

Tools for inspecting the ducts

These tools are used by cleaners to examine the level of build-up inside the ducts. It is also used to monitor the cleaning process and evaluate the success of cleaning. Some commonly used inspection tools are hand held mirror, direct view "periscope", closed circuit television,and camera.

 Hand-held tools

These tools are held in hands to clean the inside surface of the ducts. These usually include brushes and pneumatic agitation device that loosen the matted layer of dust sitting in the ducts. Power brushes are used to slacken the tightly settled layer. These days you get devices that are called ducts balls. These are used with air whiskers to clean the inside the ducts with powered air. Handheld air guns are used to clean blowers. Other pneumatic gadgets such as blowguns, air skippers and air whips, sidewinders are required to drive the agitated debris to collection devices. If you have ducts lined with fiberglass or ducts made of fiberglass boards than be wary of over aggressive removal techniques. There are separate procedures to clean them. Ensure that your cleaner knows them.

 Tools for collecting the debris

It is challenging job to get the loosened dust particles in the ducts disposed outside the house. A little negligence will get the whole house air infested with these. There are two main types of vacuum collection devices: mounted on trucks and portable units. The former has the equipment mounted on a truck. It is connected to the house duct with a hose. It is more powerful than portable vacuum in sucking in the debris. But portable vacuum cleaners have an advantage too. These can be brought close to the unit. They offer more flexibility in cleaning therefore.

Compressed Air Sources

Many tools that that are used in cleaning the ducts are pneumatic. These use powered air to enable efficient cleaning. Air compressors play an important in role in air duct cleaning. The air compressor is connected to the pneumatic device to supply powered air.

Hand Held HEPA Vacuums and Wet Vacuums

Hand vacuums are used quite commonly by HVAC cleaning contractors. These can trap very small particles. It can arrest all particles from a size range of 0.3 microns or larger at an efficiency level of 99.97%. Wet vacuums are needed in duct cleaning as they can extract watery mess unlike standard vacuums which are only meant for dry dust.