Sears air duct cleaning scam

[Anonymous]

I had the most bizarre experience with Sears Home Services Air Duct cleaning crew. I made an appointment for air duct cleaning and dryer vent cleaning. The crew of two guys came out and while one person was counting the number of vents to clean the other one was fiddling with my HVAC. Then they called me to show me “mold” in the system. They opened the humidifier and showed me some white powder which was clearly sediment and said it was mold. As such they cannot do duct cleaning until I remediate the mold for $2480 plus install UV lights for $1200. When I pointed out that this was mineral sediment from evaporated water in the humidifier and AC creates condensation which naturally attracts mold and mold is killed once heat comes in, they persisted that we need to do a full system cleaning. Eventually, the price came down significantly, but I asked them to leave. Apparently, this is a common scam with Sears. Here is a report about them scamming multiple homeowners. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fox5dc.com/news/more-homeowners-say-air-duct-cleaning-crew-scammed-them-following-fox-5-report.amp. I am just shocked that a reputable company operates through extortion. Be ware.

[Anonymous]

here is the correct link https://www.fox5dc.com/news/more-homeowners-say-air-duct-cleaning-crew-scammed-them-following-fox-5-report

[Anonymous]

Your first mistake was calling a company for air duct cleaning. You’d already told them you could be scammed. From there it was just a question of how far they could take you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your first mistake was calling a company for air duct cleaning. You’d already told them you could be scammed. From there it was just a question of how far they could take you.

Sometimes duct cleaning is necessary, such as after construction/renovation in the house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your first mistake was calling a company for air duct cleaning. You’d already told them you could be scammed. From there it was just a question of how far they could take you.

Sometimes duct cleaning is necessary, such as after construction/renovation in the house.

Debatable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your first mistake was calling a company for air duct cleaning. You’d already told them you could be scammed. From there it was just a question of how far they could take you.

Sometimes duct cleaning is necessary, such as after construction/renovation in the house.

Debatable

Not in my case, I saw the ducts, they were gross. It depends on the amount of dust generated and how well the crew contains it.

[Anonymous]

This is OP. I know all about air duct cleaning having very unclear and questionable benefits. We had a recent major renovation and just in case I wanted the ducts cleaned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your first mistake was calling a company for air duct cleaning. You’d already told them you could be scammed. From there it was just a question of how far they could take you.

Sometimes duct cleaning is necessary, such as after construction/renovation in the house.

Debatable

We had air ducts cleaned prior to moving into our 1965-built, current house. DC with allergies and asthma, prior owners had two cats. This was before we moved in and just after all carpet was removed and now- exposed hardwoods were refinished and resealed. There was lots to do to make our house healthy and liveable for DC. I'd do it again prior to moving in to any house.

[Anonymous]

Ok verdict? Air duct cleaning never needed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok verdict? Air duct cleaning never needed?

The verdict is that despite 20 years of research, more studies are needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ok verdict? Air duct cleaning never needed?

Without doing research, I would guess no unless something very unusual is going on. While dust etc can collect on the interior walls of a duct, it will remain there. Air velocity at the wall of a duct is low (almost zero since it's a boundary), so interior duct walls are always "dusty." You need turbulent flow to scour the walls and for rigid duct systems that's uncommon IMHO. For mold growth in there to release spores, you need damp. In winter, with low humidity and high temperature air, that doesn't happen. In summer, the cool air has already dumped the moisture at the evaporator.

Cleaning the interior coils is something you should do periodically. It gets damp, collects dust (because filters aren't perfect) and will sit there wet after the blower shuts down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok verdict? Air duct cleaning never needed?

Without doing research, I would guess no unless something very unusual is going on. While dust etc can collect on the interior walls of a duct, it will remain there. Air velocity at the wall of a duct is low (almost zero since it's a boundary), so interior duct walls are always "dusty." You need turbulent flow to scour the walls and for rigid duct systems that's uncommon IMHO. For mold growth in there to release spores, you need damp. In winter, with low humidity and high temperature air, that doesn't happen. In summer, the cool air has already dumped the moisture at the evaporator.

Cleaning the interior coils is something you should do periodically. It gets damp, collects dust (because filters aren't perfect) and will sit there wet after the blower shuts down.

Any dust stuck to the walls of your ducts will stay here. Unless you bang on the ducts while air is going through it. Duct cleaning is a huge scam. You would need to send a tiny little creature in there with a brush to crawl through the entire length of your ducts and scrub it off and collect it. UV lights in a duct DO NOT DO ANYTHING! You can kill mold and bacteria with UV light but it's not going to do anything to the air passing through. White stuff in a humidifier is lime deposits from the minerals in your water. Use a water softener and you won't have that (but you will have salt deposits). Most mold remediation is also a big scam. There are certain types of mold that are deadly out of the 100s of molds out there. It's highly unlikely you have that kind of mold. Mold needs a moist organic surface to grow. Get rid of the moisture and mold goes dormant. Or, pay someone to kill it and it will just return again if you don't address the moisture problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok verdict? Air duct cleaning never needed?

Without doing research, I would guess no unless something very unusual is going on. While dust etc can collect on the interior walls of a duct, it will remain there. Air velocity at the wall of a duct is low (almost zero since it's a boundary), so interior duct walls are always "dusty." You need turbulent flow to scour the walls and for rigid duct systems that's uncommon IMHO. For mold growth in there to release spores, you need damp. In winter, with low humidity and high temperature air, that doesn't happen. In summer, the cool air has already dumped the moisture at the evaporator.

Cleaning the interior coils is something you should do periodically. It gets damp, collects dust (because filters aren't perfect) and will sit there wet after the blower shuts down.

Any dust stuck to the walls of your ducts will stay here. Unless you bang on the ducts while air is going through it. Duct cleaning is a huge scam. You would need to send a tiny little creature in there with a brush to crawl through the entire length of your ducts and scrub it off and collect it. UV lights in a duct DO NOT DO ANYTHING! You can kill mold and bacteria with UV light but it's not going to do anything to the air passing through. White stuff in a humidifier is lime deposits from the minerals in your water. Use a water softener and you won't have that (but you will have salt deposits). Most mold remediation is also a big scam. There are certain types of mold that are deadly out of the 100s of molds out there. It's highly unlikely you have that kind of mold. Mold needs a moist organic surface to grow. Get rid of the moisture and mold goes dormant. Or, pay someone to kill it and it will just return again if you don't address the moisture problem.

I believe UV lights can be effective if they shine on your evaporator coil. That's where the moisture is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ok verdict? Air duct cleaning never needed?

Without doing research, I would guess no unless something very unusual is going on. While dust etc can collect on the interior walls of a duct, it will remain there. Air velocity at the wall of a duct is low (almost zero since it's a boundary), so interior duct walls are always "dusty." You need turbulent flow to scour the walls and for rigid duct systems that's uncommon IMHO. For mold growth in there to release spores, you need damp. In winter, with low humidity and high temperature air, that doesn't happen. In summer, the cool air has already dumped the moisture at the evaporator.

Cleaning the interior coils is something you should do periodically. It gets damp, collects dust (because filters aren't perfect) and will sit there wet after the blower shuts down.

Any dust stuck to the walls of your ducts will stay here. Unless you bang on the ducts while air is going through it. Duct cleaning is a huge scam. You would need to send a tiny little creature in there with a brush to crawl through the entire length of your ducts and scrub it off and collect it. UV lights in a duct DO NOT DO ANYTHING! You can kill mold and bacteria with UV light but it's not going to do anything to the air passing through. White stuff in a humidifier is lime deposits from the minerals in your water. Use a water softener and you won't have that (but you will have salt deposits). Most mold remediation is also a big scam. There are certain types of mold that are deadly out of the 100s of molds out there. It's highly unlikely you have that kind of mold. Mold needs a moist organic surface to grow. Get rid of the moisture and mold goes dormant. Or, pay someone to kill it and it will just return again if you don't address the moisture problem.

I believe UV lights can be effective if they shine on your evaporator coil. That's where the moisture is.

That is not how they install them.

[Anonymous]

You just need to replace your filter on a regular basis.