Does someone in your house smoke cigarettes? Or have you recently moved into a home that a smoker previously occupied? Chances are you may have smoke caught in the vents. But cigarette smoke isn’t the only type of smoke that may get into your air ducts. Soot from candle smoke can get into your vents. Over time, various types of smoke entering your HVAC system can minimize its effectiveness.
Blowing out the candles or extinguishing your cigarette doesn’t mean you are clear of impurities; in fact your air ducts tell a different story.
Read on to learn more about how smoke gets into your air ducts and how you will need to get it out.
Candle Smoke in Air Ducts
Candles are a great way to freshen up your home or add to its ambiance. However, there are some hidden dangers in using candles in your home. As candles burn, they give off black soot that gets released into your home’s air.
Besides soot, candles made of paraffin wax can also release toxins such as benzene and toluene into the air. If you have very little ventilation in your home, this can increase the amount of soot.
Eventually, the soot and the toxins travel through your air ducts and collect on your filters as oily residue. This will cause you to have to get your filters changed more frequently. It will also leave residue in the vents that could damage the HVAC system over time. And since paraffin wax is made of petroleum, as it burns, it releases carcinogens into the air, which are as toxic as second-hand smoke. This reduces your overall air quality.
On a brighter note, not all candles are bad. If you still love the smell and ambiance of candles, you can choose safer alternatives like beeswax or soy-based candles. And if you have to burn toxic candles, make sure that is plenty of ventilation in the room where you burn them so that the smoke and toxins dissipate.
Cigarette Smoke in Vents
As with candle soot, cigarette smoke can also travel through your air ducts, creating problems for your HVAC system. But not only does smoke travel to your ducts from cigarettes, but so can ash, which makes dust build up in your vents.
Prolonged use of cigarette smoke can also start to travel through your ducts and change the color of your white walls and curtains to have a yellowish or brown hue. And if you live in a townhome or an apartment and don’t smoke, but your neighbors do, this can also affect your vents.
How Professionals Get Smoke Out of Your Air Ducts
The buildup on HVAC filters from cigarette smoke and candle soot will cause you to replace the filters much more often than the recommended 90 days. Instead, you may find yourself replacing filters every month. If you’re wondering how to get the cigarette smell out of vents in your house built up for years, you will have to have a professional ductwork cleaning.
A technician will replace your filters and use tools to clean the debris, ash, soot, and dust that has settled within the ducts of your system. Technicians may also clean the registers, grills, fans, and dust around your HVAC and furnace.
They may even add some freshener or sanitizer to your ducts to help remove the odors and allow fresh smelling air to travel throughout your home. This will drastically improve the air quality of your home and help minimize allergies.
Are you tired of the strange odors in the air of your home caused by a smoke build-up in the vents? If you need to improve the air quality for your family, or you need sell your house and want to eliminate smokey odors from your home, call a duct cleaning service us to schedule a consultation and estimate.
716 Duct Clean in Livonia uses the most advanced air duct cleaning system available so that you are breathing clean air in your home instantly. Smoking and burning candles are just a few of the impurities found in your duct work.
Naturally, dust, allergens, viruses and bacteria inhabit your air ducts and begin to invade the air quality in your home over time. Scheduling annual air duct cleaning services as well as dryer vent cleaning will make a difference. We are duct cleaning experts backed by 25 years of customer satisfaction. Call us for a Free Estimate and see why!