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Had our ducts cleaned, may have got scammed?

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PottedMeat said:
'more maintainable speed'??? aren't most A/C unit blowers all on or all off?

2 guys for 2 hours 50miles away? it sounds like they may have lost money giving you those deals lol.
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some of the older ducted systems have either 1 speed or 3 speeds.

A lot of newer gear has up to 4 speeds and some even have variable speed drives.
 
lxskllr said:
I never heard of that. All the fans I've seen are single speed; it's either on or off. Keeping them on can be good for air flow, but you'll use more electricity running it all the time. I'd set the thermostat to Heat in the winter, and Cool in the summer. Auto triggers the wrong thing on occasion, and wastes money. I don't want the A/C to come on in the winter if I'm running a stove all day or something. I'll wait it out until it naturally cools down.
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This is correct.

I advize clients to not use the auto setting on their air conditioning equipment. It is much more efficient to have it set for "cool only" or "heat only" for the exact reason you describe above.

Another reason is if there is a sudden weather change. If you have it set to auto and you have a hot day and cool nights it will change from cool to heat, which is a bit of a waste.

Sea Moose HVAC
 
Born2bwire said:
I have been told to keep my fan on all the time to save energy too. But the reason I have been told, and I agree from personal experience to some extent, was that running the fan would make you more comfortable and would use the climate control less. It keeps the heat/cool air more evenly distributed in the house and the moving air makes you feel cooler in the summers. I think the effects would be more apparent if your thermostats are in a bad hot/cool spot. My grandmother's is across from the patio door and gets a full blast of sunshine for the better part of the day. So it reads much hotter than the rest of the house.
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Best place for the temp sensor is either in the return air duct or on the wall right underneath the return air grille.
 
Now that you have had your duct clean, have you cleaned the air filters? The biggest thing with hvac at home guys is to keep cleaning the air filters and replacing them once every two years at most.
 
Joemonkey said:
I'm more interested in their suggestion to leave my fan on 24/7
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If it hasn't already been said, its a load of crap. Leaving the fan turned On all time wastes energy and causes the condenser to ice up, damaging your AC unit.

Edit - I should also clarify that my thermostat has 'auto' modes for both Heat and Cool. Setting Auto Heat kicks the heat on when its needed, and vice versa.
 
Bateluer said:
If it hasn't already been said, its a load of crap. Leaving the fan turned On all time wastes energy and causes the condenser to ice up, damaging your AC unit.

Edit - I should also clarify that my thermostat has 'auto' modes for both Heat and Cool. Setting Auto Heat kicks the heat on when its needed, and vice versa.
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I agree leaving the fan on all the time is a waste of power. But why would your condenser ice up? What is your ambient temp and how do you run the ac?
 
lxskllr said:
I never heard of that. All the fans I've seen are single speed; it's either on or off. Keeping them on can be good for air flow, but you'll use more electricity running it all the time. I'd set the thermostat to Heat in the winter, and Cool in the summer. Auto triggers the wrong thing on occasion, and wastes money. I don't want the A/C to come on in the winter if I'm running a stove all day or something. I'll wait it out until it naturally cools down.
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Mine has an auto and on setting. It has no off setting.
 
Sea Moose said:
Now that you have had your duct clean, have you cleaned the air filters? The biggest thing with hvac at home guys is to keep cleaning the air filters and replacing them once every two years at most.
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We don't have air filters, our unit is a commercial one with what is supposed to be a self cleaning internal filter. I've still thought about cutting some filters to the size of the intakes and taping or wedging them in there since we have cats and a fireplace.
 
Down south with our split heat/cool units. Setting the fan to on turns the fan to high speed, or the same speed that is used for cooling. Heat uses a lower speed.

On our 5 Ton inside unit with only the fan on, it used 1100 watts.
 
The cost to clean them seems reasonable. I would not trust them on what they say about the mold. If in doubt call a company that does mold removal for a real test and see if comes back bad. If it does, you should do something about it.
 
When I replaced my furnace and ac last summer I got a free duct cleaning thrown in. I was amazed with the shit they pulled out of my ducts. The last family that lived in my house must have lost a LOT of playing cards, toys, and pencils.
 
If your unit can tolerate the increased pressure pleated media such as FARR 30/30 or even a Space Guard is recommended. Disposable filters are about as effective as strainers! Also lots of so called "filter holders/trays" are about as effective as fireproof cigarettes.

If you have CAC /heat pump look up with an inspection mirror and check the coil. If your filter is working your coil will look clean even after years of use.

Too bad in practice the coil itself becomes the filter. When it gets real bad the unit freezes up due to insufficient airflow. Call it job security for Sea Moose! :hmm:
 
Joemonkey said:
We don't have air filters, our unit is a commercial one with what is supposed to be a self cleaning internal filter. I've still thought about cutting some filters to the size of the intakes and taping or wedging them in there since we have cats and a fireplace.
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Um what... the dust/dirt has to get clogged up somewhere doesn't it?
 
Rubycon said:
If your unit can tolerate the increased pressure pleated media such as FARR 30/30 or even a Space Guard is recommended. Disposable filters are about as effective as strainers! Also lots of so called "filter holders/trays" are about as effective as fireproof cigarettes.

If you have CAC /heat pump look up with an inspection mirror and check the coil. If your filter is working your coil will look clean even after years of use.

Too bad in practice the coil itself becomes the filter. When it gets real bad the unit freezes up due to insufficient airflow. Call it job security for Sea Moose! :hmm:
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Trust me, id rather replace peoples air filters.... cleaning coils is a messy dirty expensive job.
 
Sea Moose said:
Trust me, id rather replace peoples air filters.... cleaning coils is a messy dirty expensive job.
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Evap coils because they are enclosed. Condenser coils aren't too bad. The foaming acid cleaner does all the work. (unless they banned it where you work)
 
CPA said:
Mine has an auto and on setting. It has no off setting.
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I meant the fan itself. It's either running full speed, or stopped. Apparently there's newer models with multispeed fans. Mine's like yours, auto(sometimes stopped), or on(always on)
 
Joemonkey said:
We don't have air filters, our unit is a commercial one with what is supposed to be a self cleaning internal filter. I've still thought about cutting some filters to the size of the intakes and taping or wedging them in there since we have cats and a fireplace.
Click to expand...

not a good idea. Furnaces are built with certain pressures in mind. Added filters will cause problems with shutdown, etc.
 
Rubycon said:
Evap coils because they are enclosed. Condenser coils aren't too bad. The foaming acid cleaner does all the work. (unless they banned it where you work)
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THat foaming stuff displaces air. It has knocked me out once. Its not banned, but your not .... supposed to use it on evap coils. On extremely dirty coils its the only option and a hose
 
I've had ours cleaned. It cost around $150 IIRC and they also cleaned the vent for the dryer. The guy also cleaned our furnace blower which was filthy.

Clean or replace your filter regularly, this will go a long way to improving the quality of air coming out of your vents.
 
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