We hate to break it to you, but your house is still dirty, and in the worst place possible. You can’t see this dirt and grime, but it’s there, circulating every time your air conditioning is on. And when it issues forth from your vents, it’s undoing all the hard work you’ve put into making your home spotless.
“A lot of homes around here are getting to be 15-20 years old, and the insulation around ducts tends to crack,” Chris Donelson, owner of Air Duct SouthEast said. “At that point you get a lot of growth inside the duct, from the humidity and the high dew point, not to mention the storms we’ve had the last few years.”
Donelson, a natural entrepreneur who also helps put up Christmas lights each year including the lights at Shelter Cove Towne Centre, founded Air Duct SouthEast on a simple premise: helping Lowcountry homes and their occupants breathe better.
“I moved here from San Diego where we never used the air conditioning. After I moved here, I started coughing and sneezing and I didn’t know why,” he said. A visit to an ENT later, he discovered that the Lowcountry’s allergens were wreaking havoc on his system. And like every horror movie ever made, the allergens were coming from inside the house.
“If you don’t clean your ducts out once every five years or so, then that dirt and dust build-up just sits there,” he said. “Once the A/C kicks in, it blows that dirt and pet dander all over.”
His system goes far beyond the brush cleaning you’ll typically find utilized by HVAC companies. In fact, he does quite a bit of duct repair for customers whose ducts have been scraped up by the harsh bristles. Instead, Air Duct SouthEast cleverly uses your system’s own current to help deliver a deep clean.
“My friend David Harter invented it,” Donelson said. “There’s so much pressure from the A/C, he thought let’s use that. The pressure from the compressor, the airflow from the system and the suction from the vacuum all work as one.”
Beyond dirt and moisture growth, Donelson has pulled all sorts of entertaining things from vents all over the Lowcountry, including crayons, socks, underwear (“I don’t ask,” he commented with a laugh) and even, on one memorable occasion, a tape measure that had been left there during construction. It all comes out in the cleaning, dropping into collection boxes the team at Air Duct SouthEast places on the vents.
“Customers get to see all of that flying out of there into the box,” he said. “It’s a good show.”
Beyond the entertainment factor, it’s a reminder that your house is never really clean until it’s clean inside and out. And helping you get that inside and out clean is what Air Duct SouthEast is all about.
To learn more, call (843) 645-3828 or visit airductse.com.
