My adventures in Mobile Home duct cleaning!

[ponch37300]

Our ducts have never been cleaned and are pretty bad, almost embarrassed to post these pictures on here! We have 3 kids and a dog running around so things have been collecting in the ducts, one of those out of site out of mind type things I guess. We have those wonderful fiberglass mobile home ducts so can't really clean them with anything too aggressive or you will destroy them. Most duct cleaning companies won't touch MH ducts due to this. So I set out to clean my own ducts. One way or another they will get cleaned. I've been collecting some things over the last few weeks and did a trial run today to see what works and what doesn't. I figured I would jot down my adventures in order to help others that may be in the same boat as me.

I had bought a homemade sewer camera off ebay years ago and it really isn't that good but does help with things like this. Was able to watch what I was doing with the vac inside the duct on the TV while working. I don't think it cost me too much and it's just a 3/8" pex tubing with the wires ran through it with a camera on the end. So I taped a "fish stick" to the camera head and stuck it down one register and pulled it down to the next one. The fish stick is just a 6' fiberglass rod used to fish electrical wires I bought from HD. This worked but was a little too "floppy". So I'm going to pick up some 1/2" or 3/4" PVC sticks to do the rest of the ducts. They bend pretty good to get in the ducts but also are a little more rigid.

I'm also going to order one of these for my shop vac, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AJK0B96/ref ... 09Y122PUVB. I used my house vac with it's similar attachment and it was working really good. But I don't want to suck up a ton of crud with the wife's good vacuum or I'll be n some hot water! I have a couple shop vacs so should have plenty of hose to get from register to register. I'm thinking I'm going to make a little "cart" for this to rid on to give more control. Hard to explain but it would be hard to push this brush attachment down the duct and keep it at the right angle so the brushes are making good contact with the duct. So I'm going to make something to help support the brush head and keep it so the brushes are making good contact.

The other thing I bought was a linteater dryer vent cleaner from lowes for about 40 bucks. http://www.lowes.com/pd_37653-59625-RLE ... facetInfo= This came with 12 feet of flexible rods and a couple ends with hard bristles on it. I used this to get most of the crud out of the corners and then used the vacuum to suck the crud up. Worked pretty good.

I also have a softer bristle duster like this one, http://www.homedepot.com/p/Unger-StarDu ... tCLKp5dXT8 that is about 7-8" in diameter. I'm going to try and find a way to attach it to a stick of PVC in order to get some more of the dust out of the duct after I get all the bigger crud out. Will have to wait to see if this works or not.

Overall I'm pretty please with the few feet I did. I'm going to get the rest of the things I need to finish and go from there. Here are some pictures of the before crud and the after. I'll update this thread as I do more. Hopefully this will help others who might want to clean their fiberglass ducts.

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[Greg]

Don't get too upset with the photos Ponch. It's almost like the early horror movies with closeup trick photography, everything looks bigger than it really is.

Greg

[Greg S]

If you use the fish to pull a small rope from point to point (register to register) through the system it will be far easier to pull the vacuum through the ducts rather than push it.

[Steve S.]

Nice work Ponch...those fiberboard ducts are a real pain to keep clean. I managed to get most of the debris out of mine with just a simple vacuum hose of ample length and a round brush attachment. I wish I could find an attachment that covers the entire width(15") of the duct so you only have to pull it through once, but I like the brush attachment that doesn't disturb the fiberglass surface too much. I check my cleaning progress with the simple flashlight and mirror technique...nothing fancy. I also recently sealed the ends of my ducts between the last register and the end of the ductwork...don't know if I did any good, it's been so darned cold this winter that I'm using a record amount of heating oil
Steve

[ponch37300]

Don't get too upset with the photos Ponch. It's almost like the early horror movies with closeup trick photography, everything looks bigger than it really is.

Greg

Greg trust me there isn't much trick photography here, just a ton of crud in there! The pictures came out really big when I uploaded them to the site. Guess I should have uploaded them to photobucket and then embedded them here so you can see the whole picture.

There was a ton of crap in there. 3 kids and a dog and the "out of site out of mind" theory really let it get full of crud. But with a little work I'll get them pretty clean and then have to do this every couple years so it doesn't get like this again. Thinking all that dust and junk and even saw some dead bug like things can't be good for health!

If you use the fish to pull a small rope from point to point (register to register) through the system it will be far easier to pull the vacuum through the ducts rather than push it.

That was my original plan but I need a way to keep the vacuum end at the right angle so it's actually sucking. If I just tie a rope to it and pull the vacuum will most likely not stay on the bottom. So won't suck much. Maybe it will work if I build some kind of "cart" like I'm thinking to hold the attachment. But just pulling the vacuum hose won't keep the attachment angled to the floor right to suck all the crud since there would be no way to "hold" the attacment.

Nice work Ponch...those fiberboard ducts are a real pain to keep clean. I managed to get most of the debris out of mine with just a simple vacuum hose of ample length and a round brush attachment. I wish I could find an attachment that covers the entire width(15") of the duct so you only have to pull it through once, but I like the brush attachment that doesn't disturb the fiberglass surface too much. I check my cleaning progress with the simple flashlight and mirror technique...nothing fancy. I also recently sealed the ends of my ducts between the last register and the end of the ductwork...don't know if I did any good, it's been so darned cold this winter that I'm using a record amount of heating oil
Steve

Thanks Steve. Ya it would be nice if there was something made specifically for these ducts to just run down and be done. I'd even pay 200 bucks for it and use it once or twice a year. I'm hoping I can come up with something to hold the vacuum attachment and just push or pull it down the duct. Kind of hard to explain but I'll post some pictures when I do it. It's just an idea in my head right now! I'd like it to hold the vacuum attachment at the right angle and also mount my camera on it so I can watch as I go. We'll see how that goes.

[jpingram5]

Be careful when cleaning these fiberglass ducts. Do not use a brush on them. If you got stuff that wont break loose leave it. There is a coating on the inside of the fiberglass duct that is designed to keep particles from breaking free. You degrade or loosen that layer you going to be pulling a lot of fiberglass particles through your central air. Fiber glass ducts really shouldn't be cleaned, they should be replaced. Cleaning them can really cause more harm and you won't even know it.

[calderhill]

I'm stunned I tell you, stunned. In this day of magic electronic stuff and you didn't get a robot vacuum? Just stick it in the ducts and let it run loose until the battery runs out. Recharge and repeat. My metal ducts just never seem to hold any dust or dirt so I'm happy. No animals or kids probably helps. And the big furnace filter too.

[ponch37300]

Be careful when cleaning these fiberglass ducts. Do not use a brush on them. If you got stuff that wont break loose leave it. There is a coating on the inside of the fiberglass duct that is designed to keep particles from breaking free. You degrade or loosen that layer you going to be pulling a lot of fiberglass particles through your central air. Fiber glass ducts really shouldn't be cleaned, they should be replaced. Cleaning them can really cause more harm and you won't even know it.

I'm not scrubbing real hard with any of the stuff I'm using. The vacuum attachment has a rotary bristle but it's powered by the vacuum suction so it's not real aggressive. I see what you're saying but I also think that I'm doing more good then harm. The dust that is in there is as bad as any fiberglass particles that may break free. Replacing all the ducts isn't an option with the cost and hassle to do that. The ducts them selves are in decent shape. It's just years of dust and crap in them. Also if they are supposed to be replaced and not cleaned then I really don't have much to lose by trying to clean them. Guess only time will tell. Thanks for the concerns and I will take them into consideration when doing the rest.

[opinion free]

I'm thinking of a different way to attack this problem.
Instead of trying to vacuum the debris out, I would blow it out.
A leaf blower might be too cumbersome to use, but my shop vac has an out port that I can attach the hose to and it acts as a blower. The hose is very narrow, flexible and long.
I'm not sure if the duct work runs in a loop or as a snake and ends at one spot. In either case, I'd fill up each register connection with towels and blow out each segment one at a time.
This is a version of how the ducts were cleaned when I had a stick built house.
In my mind this seems very easy, but in reality will most likely be much harder.
Good luck.