Duct cleaning, any ideas?

tralertrash wrote:
Thanks for the pic Larry, that's what I wasn't sure about, how this is potentially fashioned. I think the surface vac will do and just leave it alone.

One thing I didn't mention is that the pic was after I redid the underbelly of my trailer and I secured all the ducting up against the floor of the trailer. Before from the factory all the ducting was just laying against the Coroplast sheeting that enclosed the under side of the frame of my trailer. In fact in that pic I straightened it out some since before it looked like a snake and was not secured anywhere to the floor of the trailer except where it was attached to the metal floor register ducting.

Larry

Thanks for the pic Larry, that's what I wasn't sure about, how this is potentially fashioned. I think the surface vac will do and just leave it alone.

I've seen ducting like pictured above... or even worse, just a hole through the foam insulation.

I just take the floor vents off, vacuum the obvious dirt below and call it done. Even then, just barely tapping on the foil underneath can scratch/crease it.

Boy!, would I be careful doing this! Even one season with our TT with floor vents and I can see specks of gravel that tracked in and even the occasional dog hair, but Foxy doesn't know where those came from..... Since it appears to fit up close to the floor of the TT, my plan is to just remove the vent covers and ever so easily use the attachment to my vacuum just to clean that area. Home ducting is a whole different thing and we have that professionally done. The TT ducting surely can't be dirty further down...at least that's my thought.

I use a vacuum with a feather duster at the end of the hose. As I pull or push it thru I rotate it. Works for me.

tralertrash wrote:
The above possibilities have been my concern, tearing or separating. The duct appears to be flat though. When I look in the register, I see the bottom of the sheet metal,only about 2" deep, the duct must be right up against the bottom of the floor. Might try a toilet brush end pulled through. Thanks for the input.

Below is a pic of one of the registers in my trailer and it's connection to the flexible duct so looking down from above you will only see metal and not any of the flimsy flexible ducting. Yours may or may not be like mine so this is just an example of one configuration. You can also see how crooked the duct runs are as they run towards the back of the trailer from the furnace in the foreground.




Larry

I clean in the area you can see in the floor registers a couple of times a year. They make a filter that fits under the register covers, but I would only use it when furnace is not in use. You have to take the register off to remove the filters, so why not just vacuum.

The above possibilities have been my concern, tearing or separating. The duct appears to be flat though. When I look in the register, I see the bottom of the sheet metal,only about 2" deep, the duct must be right up against the bottom of the floor. Might try a toilet brush end pulled through. Thanks for the input.

from what I have seen over the years is just take off the floor register and vacuum straight down to get the dirt that is visible. no need to shove a hose any farther then that.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Just be careful......

A lot of rv furnace duct work in trailers is just flexible spiral wound plastic or reinforced aluminum foil type material.
Similar to a dryer vent duct.
Held in place with spring clips.

Easily torn or dislodged.

Yep and all those so quick to recommend stuffing stuff stiff enough to get from one register to another were IMO giving terrible advice.

It amazes me that people recommend some of this "off the wall" stuff w/o having the slighest appreciation of potential consequences.

To the OP ... I doubt there is any way to clean these ducts short of replacing them and for a typical RV should not be that expensive (under $200).

Larry