Furnace Blower & Coil Cleaning · Kitchener
Furnace Blower and Evaporator Coil Cleaning in Kitchener
The blower is the one part of the system every particle of air passes through. If it is caked, the ducts do not stay clean and the furnace works harder than it should.
Every cubic foot of air in a forced-air house goes through the blower wheel and, in summer, across the evaporator coil above it. Both collect what the filter misses, and in a Kitchener house where the filter has been changed on a loose schedule for a decade or two, both are usually coated. This page covers cleaning them, as part of a whole-home job or on their own.
What gets cleaned
- Blower compartment. The cabinet below the heat exchanger is vacuumed under HEPA and wiped down. This is where the return duct dumps everything it carries.
- Blower wheel. The squirrel-cage wheel is cleaned in place where access allows, or pulled and cleaned outside the furnace when it is heavily loaded. Dust packed into the cups of the wheel reduces airflow and unbalances the motor.
- Evaporator coil. The A-coil sits in the plenum above the furnace and is the central air conditioning's indoor half. Its accessible face is brushed and vacuumed, and where the fins are loaded a coil cleaner is applied and rinsed according to the product's directions.
- Plenums. The supply plenum above the furnace and the return drop beside it are cleaned along with the rest of the trunk.
- Filter rack and filter. The rack is cleaned and a new filter of the correct size goes in.
What is left alone, and why
The furnace is a gas appliance. The burners, the heat exchanger, the gas valve, the igniter and the venting are not touched by a duct cleaning crew. In Ontario that work is done by a technician registered with the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, and a duct cleaner who offers to 'service' the burners is stepping outside what they are qualified to do. If the crew sees rust, scorching, a cracked heat exchanger or a venting problem, they will tell you and recommend a gas technician. They will not fix it.
Why the blower matters more than people think
A clean set of ducts fed by a dirty blower gets dirty again fast, because the wheel sheds what is packed onto it every time it spins up. Airflow is the other issue. A blower wheel with the cups half full of felted dust moves less air, which means rooms at the end of the runs — the far bedroom in a Stanley Park two-storey, the addition on a Cedar Hill house — never get warm. A loaded coil does the same to cooling, and it is the usual reason an air conditioner ices up in a humid Kitchener July.
Houses this comes up in
Furnaces in the 1960s-80s subdivisions have often been replaced once or twice, but the replacement was dropped onto the same return drop with the same joist-bay returns, so the new blower started collecting on day one. In downtown century homes the return path is frequently a leaky wall cavity that pulls in plaster dust, and the blower shows it. In new builds the builder ran the furnace for construction heat through drywall sanding, sometimes with no filter, and the coil is coated with a fine white layer that a filter change will never remove.
What you will notice afterward
Airflow at the far registers comes back, the furnace cycles shorter, and the air conditioner stops icing on humid days. The blower also runs quieter once the wheel is balanced again. None of that fixes a furnace that is undersized for the house or a duct system that was never designed properly, and the crew will say so if that is what they see.
Blower and coil on their own
If the ducts were done recently but the furnace was skipped, or a heating contractor has just told you the coil is dirty and quoted a coil replacement, a blower and coil cleaning on its own is a reasonable job to book. It is quoted separately on the cost page. If the ducts have never been done, cleaning the blower alone is a short-term fix, and you will be told so.
Not included
Dryer exhaust vents are not part of the furnace system and are not offered on this site. Heat recovery ventilators and air exchangers have their own cores and filters; the crew can clean the connected ducting, but the unit's core follows the manufacturer's instructions.
Frequently asked questions
Can the coil be cleaned without removing it?
Usually the accessible face can, through the plenum access or by removing the coil cover. A coil that is loaded through its full depth may need a heating contractor to pull it, and you will be told that rather than sold a surface clean that will not fix the airflow.
Will cleaning the blower make my furnace quieter?
Often, yes. A wheel with dust packed unevenly into the cups runs out of balance and hums or rattles. Cleaning it does not fix a worn motor or bearing, which is a heating contractor's repair.
Do you service the gas burners?
No. Burners, heat exchanger, gas valve and venting are TSSA-registered gas technician work. The crew cleans the air-moving side of the furnace and reports anything they see on the gas side.
Serving Kitchener and surrounding areas. Contact us for a no-obligation quote specific to your property.