Independent guide · we don’t clean ducts

Air Duct Cleaning: Costs, Answers and Independent Homeowner Advice

What this site is

DuctCleaning.ws is an independent guide to residential air duct cleaning. We do not clean ducts, we are not a contractor, and we are not paid by the companies we write about. We read the primary sources — federal guidance, state enforcement records, and the published cost data — and tell you what they actually say. Often what they say is that you do not need this service.

Start with the question you actually have

  • Estimate a cost

    A planning range built from your vent count, home size, systems, and access. No email required, and the model is published in full.

  • Do I even need this?

    Seven questions, no sales step. It will tell you to skip the service when that is the honest answer.

  • What it really costs

    Why one source says $389 and another says $1,000 for what sounds like the same job — and why most published cost data traces back to only three original sources.

  • Is it worth paying for?

    A decision table covering twelve situations, including the ones where the answer is no.

  • Avoiding the scams

    Built on the actual enforcement record, and careful to separate documented fraud from aggressive selling and from simply bad advertising.

  • What certification means

    What a NADCA credential does and does not guarantee, and why it is not a license.

  • Mold and moisture

    Cleaning removes what grew. It does not remove the water that let it grow. Why that ordering decides everything.

  • How the work is done

    The full sequence, the equipment, how long it genuinely takes, and which components cheap offers leave out.

  • Before you hire anyone

    Nine questions, each with what a good answer sounds like and what a bad one sounds like.

The short version, if you only read one thing

Why an independent source is worth having here

Almost every website about duct cleaning is published by a company that sells duct cleaning. That is not a conspiracy, it is just an incentive: a contractor’s site has no reason to tell you the service is unnecessary. The result is a category where the most visible advice and the most reliable advice point in different directions.

The public record in this industry is unusually well documented, and unusually unflattering. State attorneys general in Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Colorado, and Michigan have all brought or warned about duct cleaning cases. In the Washington case the state documented more than thirteen million robocalls to over a million residents, and in August 2020 a judge ordered a ten million dollar penalty — on the robocalling, which is the count the state won on, not on the quality of anyone’s duct work. Verified fact A Better Business Bureau study reported in February 2013 looked at sixty-two companies and asked twenty-one of them to change their advertising. Verified fact Meanwhile the federal agency with the most authority on indoor air — the EPA — has said since 1997 that routine cleaning is not recommended. Verified fact

None of that means duct cleaning is a fraud. Legitimate companies do careful work, and there are real situations where the service is the right call. It does mean a homeowner deserves somewhere to check the claim before agreeing to it.

How we work

We prefer federal and state government sources, then recognized standards bodies, then industry associations, then commercial publications — in that order, and we say which one a claim came from. Every number on this site carries a label telling you whether it is a verified fact, a sourced typical range, or our own editorial estimate, because those are not the same thing and readers should not have to guess.

We also publish what we could not verify. Several claims that circulate widely about this industry — the “$99 whole-house” scam figure, planted debris, cash-only demands — we could not trace to any regulator, investigation, or court record, so we do not repeat them as fact. Our fact-checking process explains how that determination gets made, and our facts page lists what survived it.

What we are not

DuctCleaning.ws does not provide duct-cleaning services, does not dispatch or recommend individual contractors, and cannot diagnose a problem in your home. Those things need someone physically looking at your system. We are a publisher. More about the site.

Everything else on the site

  • Costs

    The flagship cost guide, the calculator, and the published methodology behind it.

  • Do I need it?

    Whether it is worth paying for, how often ducts genuinely need attention, and whether cleaning reduces dust.

  • Problems

    Dust, odors, smoke, pests, mold — and whether duct cleaning is actually the right response to each.

  • How it works

    The process, the equipment, and what a complete job includes.

  • Hiring a professional

    Certification, scam red flags, the questions to ask, and how to read a quote.

  • Tools and calculators

    The calculator, the decision tool, and the checklists in one place, each with a plain account of what it cannot tell you.

  • Checklists

    Six printable checklists for before, during, and after a visit.

  • Glossary

    Plenum, negative pressure, air whip, return duct — defined once and used consistently everywhere.

  • Facts and figures

    The sourced reference table, including what we could not verify.

Those are the sections. If you would rather see the whole list at once, every page we publish sits on one index, grouped by the question it answers rather than by date.

What to do next

Sources & references