Duct Cleaning - how long should it take?

AS a qualified Duct Cleaning contractor with many years of experience I am often asked the question "how long should an average residential duct cleaning take". The short answer to that would be...as long as it takes to get the duct system completely cleaned. Having personally cleaned several thousand duct systems I can honestly say that the average length of time it takes me personally, is between 4 to 5 hours per home. The National air duct cleaners association has stated that duct cleaning should take between 4 and 8 hours to complete, anything short of that and you are probably not getting a thorough job. They also caution consumers to stay away from duct cleaning companies that claim to be able to clean your home's duct system for a very low price and in a short period of time. Duct cleaning companies that operate in that fashion are known as BLO-N-GO duct cleaners and are blatantly ripping off their customers. Such duct cleaning companies will typically be in and out of your home in about 2 hours. When you consider that it takes about 1/2 an hour to set up the duct cleaning equipment and another 1/2 an hour to take it down, it leaves them very little time to do the actual duct cleaning. Before hiring any duct cleaning company be sure to do your home work, a good place to start would be at www.nadca.com Good Luck!