If air duct cleaning is a scam, is air duct replacement an even bigger scam?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - do you have rigid metal ductwork, or flexible insulated ductwork? The rigid metal ducts last decades. The flexible ducts - well, I'm not sure, but that type seems like it might need replacing periodically. I'd post on the hvac subreddit.

Thank you! It's flexible ductwork. I appreciate all the responses as I am still skeptical. We independently sought out an estimate (not a valpak ad/door to door/black friday type deal) to upgrade a thermostat because of an electrician's error who never properly fixed it and a few utility bills were ridiculously high partially due to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - do you have rigid metal ductwork, or flexible insulated ductwork? The rigid metal ducts last decades. The flexible ducts - well, I'm not sure, but that type seems like it might need replacing periodically. I'd post on the hvac subreddit.

Thank you! It's flexible ductwork. I appreciate all the responses as I am still skeptical. We independently sought out an estimate (not a valpak ad/door to door/black friday type deal) to upgrade a thermostat because of an electrician's error who never properly fixed it and a few utility bills were ridiculously high partially due to that.

I don’t think an electrician can make a thermostat error and it wouldn’t affect your utility bills unless your house was very warm or cold.

[Anonymous]

We're replacing a few ducts here and there only because some of the runs don't make sense and in other areas they were damaged during asbestos abatement.

We have some newer flexible ductwork in parts of the house and it does seem prone to damage and need attention, but I mean 1-2 checks and repairs in 25 years. Not full replacement in the entire house.