If you are looking for the best solution to take care of your air ducts, you may want to start by reviewing the distinct differences between cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting these areas. Though cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfection may similar, there are slight differences.

Air duct cleaning services. It’s meant to manually remove solid matter from inside the ducts. This can include many allergens that can bother people with allergies, especially since some air ducts can be filled with dirt, clogs, mold, and bacteria that need to be removed.

Air duct cleaning and sanitizing. This goes a step beyond cleaning, with extra steps to reduce the amount of bacteria, germs, and other microorganisms in addition to removing dirt and debris.

Air duct cleaning and disinfecting. The primary objective in this type of treatment is to kill germs and viruses from these surfaces so that they do not cause health problems like allergies, asthma, and viruses like COVID-19. For example, a well-known disinfectant Sporicidal kills nearly 100 percent of bacteria, viruses and fungi on a surface in 10 minutes!

Our company uses the sporicidal fogging method. The disinfectant gets aerosolized into tiny droplets, ensuring a complete coating on every surface of ductwork. To sanitize and disinfect your air ducts, our techs use an EPA-registered disinfectant solution that’s called Sporicidal. This is fragrance-free, low-toxic treatment that’s presently used in hospitals, medical offices and other healthcare facility environments. Therefore, it is effective enough to be used against viruses like COVID-19.

Not necessary. Regular air duct cleaning is enough in most cases. You should sanitize air ducts only in special circumstances – see the possible issues listed below.

Customers need to sanitize and disinfect their air ducts if:

1. Somebody has health concerns (asthma allergies, tuberculosis, or other diseases that are transmitted by airborne droplets).
2. There is an unpleasant odor in your ductwork.
3. You have experienced water leaks / water damage in your air duct system.
4. You suspect mold, bacteria, viruses, and fungi presence in air ducts.

After you have had sanitizing and disinfecting solutions performed in your building, you may want to know how long these solutions last. HVAC sanitizing services are expected to last about 6 months. If the situation in your building has changed since the last disinfecting service, such as contagious illness in the building, you might consider treating your air ducts again. Therefore, if you are concerned about your staff and COVID-19 and keeping your air ducts virus-free, you may want to consider these commercial sanitizing solutions as an extra precautionary measure.

It depends on what is used in the air ducts and if it is applied correctly. Experienced techs know how to disinfect air ducts safely. In terms of what is used, we can tell you that Sporicidal, a disinfectant that we are familiar with, is safe. This disinfectant has EPA toxicity ratings of Category IV – Very Low acute oral, acute dermal, acute inhalation, and skin irritation. This is the lowest possible rating for antimicrobials.