RamAir Duct Cleaning System

[KOOSER55]

Im thinking about buying this system to do air ducts with does anyone use this now or have any information about it?

 

[Walt]

I have the system. And it does work well considering the initial investment. You would be surprised the amount of dust and junk that comes out of the duct work. When calculating the cost remember that you will need a very good air compressor. Additionally there will be vents that you wont be able to do with the provided cover and will have to make your own or figure out a work around. Actually that is pretty easy - cardboard, towels - whatever will do the job.

When I do the work I normally make well over a hundred an hour. We find that it is an easy add on service for move ins. Normally the scheduler of the job just mentions that we do it after they have booked the carpet cleaning and that since we are already there we can wave the set up fee.

Here's the rub - I have allergies and cleaning out the ducts puts me down for the count for the rest of the day. So personally I don't care to do it, so I have considered selling it - just haven't gotten around to it. Perhaps I'll through it up on ebay with the compressor in the next couple of weeks.

 

[randy]

To properly clean a ventilation system you need a reverse air machine. Ram air will work on the returns (if hooked up to a decent vacuum source) but you can NOT clean the main trunk lines this way. The majority of the contaiminents will be in the main trunk line, and you will not be able to remove them with this gimmicky thing. Once you turn the AC/ heating system back on contaminants will just continue to migrate to the returns, thus you have accomplished nothing and ripped off the customer. When they have an AC/ heating professional out to check their system you will be exposed as a scammer just as many others have been. To properly clean air ducts you need around 10K in equipment. Nikkro & Abatement make the best stuff by far, avoid Aircare's junk AND ALL SMALL ENTRY LEVEL REVERSE AIR UNITS. They just will not do a decent job.

Most carpet cleaners would be better served by using that 10 grand to grow their core enterprise.

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

Get anything less than a truck mounted duct cleaning machine with 12000 or more cfms and
a huge 140 psi 20 gallon Quincy compressor and you to can become a hack!

There is no faster way to loose life a long carpet cleaning customer when you offer them a
500-1000 dollar service and do it wrong.

It shouldn't even be a business related to carpet cleaning.

Its kinda like someone calling themselves a professional carpet cleaner and using a rug doctor.

To do it right you need to be serious about it and get a set up like ours even stanley steemer has them

http://www.caddyvac.com/acv3.htm

 

[KOOSER55]

Hey Kev I saw that website those trucks look pretty costly, how much do they run do you know? I want to do air ducts the proper way and I look forward to being trained before I advertise, SO you have any of your advertiments that you could send me so i can get idea of what to put on mine and also how you price the cleaning

 

[Walt]

I think you would be surprised on how well it actually works. Unless you've tried it, I would be too quick to knock it. It performs way better than the other small units I tried.

To begin with, it doesn't work the same way as the units. The house air handler is used to boost the vacuum to the truck - it is running while you clean. This provides some serious air movement if you have the other vents blocked off. You can clean the main trunks on a normal sized home - assuming you can get the hoses down the air ducts- you just need lots of hoes and a really big air compressor. I have gas powered honda. I would say that it is the minimum that I would want to use. I tried my 20 gallon 220 volt shop air compressor and it just didn't have the beans to keep up with the operation.

Agreed that you can easily loose a customer if you do it wrong. That is the case with any service that your provide as a tack on to your normal cleaning. I think the weakest link in the system is the training. Most of us don't know how a home ventilation system is laid out or how it functions. This can be embarrassing and cause the home owner to lose faith in the operation. The supplied manual is a meager in instruction. I brought my father in law who is a home contractor on several jobs to get me going. That helped a lot.

I think it would be interesting is for a well trained professional to follow a well trained RamAir cleaner with some cable cameras and let us know the truth of the matter. Otherwise, everything is just speculation (including what I wrote above).

 

[Kevin. McCreary]

Tell me how that ram air deal will remove a pop can, a dead mouse
a cabbage patch kid, a racoon or any thing bigger than a dime out of ducts?
Have you ever seen the hopper of a "real" Air Duct truck. The stuff
I see in it cant go through a 2 inch hose. How do you clean the return trunk line
in a ranch that is 120 feet long. How do you clean a return "the dirtiest part"
that is 40 feet in the air in a cathedral ceiling family room? We do it from the
basement. I just don't think you have any creditability if you don't use some
kind of negative air machine that sucks stuff out of the dwelling.
Here is an inexpensive way to get into air duct cleaning for around 8k
with out having to buy a 100k truck:
http://www.nikro.com/products/moreinfo2.asp?i=307

 

[John Buxton]

I've had portables, Roto-junk, and a truck mount. I'd have to agree with McCreary on this. The small machines are good for small jobs, and can be used with a truck on larger jobs to do 2 things at once like clean the supply runs while the truck is cleaning the returns.

I bought a $60K truck for $27K that was repo-ed. But that was before everybody and their brother got into it. It would be tough now for a start up unless you already had HVAC, mold, or fire contactors that will refer you.