furnace and duct cleaning equipment
website, the Better Business Bureau and the attorney general. At Alpine we have an A+ rating with the BBB and zero consumer complaints. We are licensed and certified through NADCA. There are a lot of shady air duct cleaning companies out there with too low to be true pricing. They are in trouble with the BBB, are NOT certified with NADCA and use bait and switch tactics. Go with a company that has long standing credibility. Air pollutants are 4 to 7 times higher INDOORS than outdoors! We spend 80-90% of our time inside, increasing the risk for allergies, asthma, breathing problems and lung damage, especially in the young and elderly. Indoor air quality didn’t become an issue until we decided we needed airtight, energy-efficient homes. We’ve lowered our energy bills, but we’ve trapped pollutants inside our homes and offices. What’s in your air ducts? Dust, pollen, animal dander, mouse droppings, dust mites, drywall dust, insulation, fungus and bacteria. Each time the fan turns on, it forces them into your living environment for you to breathe… morning, noon and night.
And, if your vent covers are located on the floor, you would be surprised what finds its way into your duct system. We’ve pulled out pop bottles, cans, drywall, insulation, toys, tools, paper, food… and tons of dirt, hair and lint! With all that debris plugging up your system, your furnace has to work harder than it should. In fact, 9 out of 10 maintenance calls are a direct result of dirt and dust plugging up the system! If you price air duct cleaning from several companies, you will notice a big price difference from one company to the next. For a typical 2,000-SF home, the price might range from $60 to $600. After learning more, you will find that PRICE has a direct correlation to the DEGREE of cleaning you get. At $39 will admit (after asking them several times) that they typically use an electric-powered shop vacuum to clean your ducts. You might wonder how a shop vacuum can remove possibly several pounds of grime?Common sense dictates that even an extra-long hose cannot physically reach the entire length of a 20-ft. air duct.
We utilize a high-powered vacuum system and a much larger vacuum hose that is 8 to 10 inches in diameter, pulling 12,000 cubic feet per minute.
best way to clean dryer vent hose This powerful vacuum picks up everything and anything inside your air ducts – from wood blocks, nails and drywall, to dust, germs, bugs, dead animals … you name it. NOTE: One of the advantages with truck-mounted air duct cleaning units is that all the debris is vacuumed directly outdoors and filtered outside. If you have allergies or asthma, you probably don’t need any allergens or contaminants entering your breathing space! With our truck, the debris that the vacuum pulls out of your air ducts falls into a trap outside , while the air is released into huge filter bags on top of the vacuum truck … outside!You've probably seen the ads in the newspaper or in your mailbox: a huge, frightening-looking dust mite accompanied by warnings that your health could suffer from dirty, moldy air ducts.
But have no fear: for a low price, like $49.95, you can have them cleaned — you might even get a 10 percent discount if you're a senior citizen.According to the Better Business Bureau, it's a scam called a "bait and switch," and the BBB says it's happening all across the country. In fact, the BBB claims that dozens of connected companies are involved in the airduct cleaning scam, systematically ripping off homeowners for more than a decade to the tune of millions of dollars.Over the years, hundreds of homeowners have logged complaints with the BBB, all sounding similar: Once inside a customer's home, technicians routinely mislead them into paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for additional work. Many were told they had dangerous mold. Others had their homes unnecessarily flooded with noxious chemicals. Some said they were afraid of the workmen. All said they were duped into paying hundreds more than the promised $49.99 advertised price.It sounded like a story for the Hansen Files, a new franchise from NBC's Dateline, so we began our own investigation.
We found senior citizen volunteers who allowed us to wire their homes with hidden cameras to see what would happen when we responded to one of the ads. Even we were stunned by what we saw. Not only did our cameras catch the technicians scamming nearly $500 from our volunteer, they actually left the house in worse condition than before they arrived.A few weeks later, we asked our volunteer to make another appointment, this time to have her furnace cleaned. And this time, Chris Hansen was there to let the technicians know our cameras had recorded their scam, and to see what they had to say.Early on, we learned reporting this story wouldn't be easy. We began by digging into one company, and then another, and then the histories of some of the people behind them. We found many of the businesses opened up shop only to disappear within a matter of months, but would then appear again under a different name. Sometimes, it was even hard to determine exactly who owned many of them. The paper trail left behind was limited and sometimes inaccurate.
One business was registered using the name of the real owner's dead stepbrother. Another was registered in the name of an owner's bodyguard. Several to convicted felons, one a killer.But our reporting led us to one revealing fact: dozens of the rogue businesses all across the country were run by a rotating list of the same individuals who kept popping up over and over again.As we began to connect the dots, we saw that some attorneys general and judges have ordered these companies to be shut down, forbidden their owners from doing business in their states, and ordered them to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. But most of the time, the scammers simply took off to set up shop in another state.Bottom line: If you think you need your air ducts cleaned, check with both the Better Business Bureau and the National Air Duct Cleaners Association before answering the cheap ad in the newspaper.Watch this Web-exclusive video of Chris Hansen confronting air duct cleaners: And here's a closer look at the dirty business of air duct cleaning scams, and how you can avoid them, with Michele Mason of the Better Business Bureau:To watch the full story on air ducts, follow this link.