Failing Ducts in Your Home Can Cost a Lot of Money

The ductwork that plays a vital role in your forced-air heating and cooling system doesn’t last forever. Yet, many homeowners are surprised when their ductwork fails, even if it’s been there for many years. In many older homes, the ductwork that’s delivering conditioned air now is the same system of ducts that was installed when the home was first built. Over time, it will eventually fail, and it can be an expensive fix when it does. The failure generally happens gradually, with air leakage occurring bit by bit and getting worse over time.

Air leakage is the most common sign of deteriorating ductwork. This means that conditioned air that’s intended to heat or cool the rooms in your house is escaping via leaks in deteriorating and/or separated duct sections. When you have a leak, your thermostat will still call on the HVAC equipment to meet your designated temperature, leading to an overworked cooling and heating system that’s working all the harder to replace that lost air.

Old, failing ductwork also can have an adverse effect on indoor air quality. This can happen when, as a result of air pressure differentials, dirty air from unconditioned areas is sucked into leaky ducts and mixes with conditioned air before being delivered throughout the home. In extreme cases, even toxic carbon monoxide can “back-draft” into the home in this manner.

How Can You Tell If Your Ductwork is Failing?

One way to know if your ductwork might be failing is by finding out  its age. If possible, review the paperwork that you received when you purchased your house. The age of your ductwork may have been included in these documents. If such records are not available (and they may not be), an experienced HVAC contractor in Cincinnati can inspect the old ducts and tell you whether they came with the house. If you determine that the ductwork in your home is older than 20 years, you should seriously consider scheduling a comprehensive inspection by a trained professional, who may very well recommend replacement of the duct system.

Otherwise, you can perform your own inspection of visible ductwork. Keep an eye out for problems such as separated or loose sections, duct tape that’s hanging, or signs of corrosion or rust — these are obvious red flags. If you can see those issues on visible ducts, there’s a very good chance that hidden ductwork — the sections you can’t see — is plagued by the same problems.

Another possible sign of failing ducts is unusually high heating and cooling bills. If a substantial amount of air is being lost due to duct leaks, the energy that your furnace, AC or heat pump consumes to make up for that lost air will be reflected in higher electric and/or gas bills.

If airflow doesn’t seem consistent from room to room, this could also suggest issues with the ductwork serving the room(s) that don’t appear to be getting the right amount of air. A detached duct section, for example, could be allowing conditioned air to rush out in areas where it’s not wanted or needed.

Not Sure If You Have Defective Ductwork? Call a Professional.

If you think that your home might have defective ductwork, you’ll want to schedule a careful professional inspection of the ducts with a Cincinnati HVAC company that has a stellar record of service and integrity. Be cautious of hiring a company that will recommend duct replacement no matter what. Instead, try to look for an HVAC brand that’s known for reliable, trustworthy consultations that have their customers’ best interests in mind.

Jansen Heating & Cooling can perform diagnostic tests on your ductwork to determine the integrity of the air-distribution system. If we confirm that your ducts need to be repaired or replaced, we will recommend a course of action to fix your system. We may find that your ductwork is fine, or that it just needs a good cleaning to get back into shape.