Generally it's considered totally unnecessary and a real profit maker for the company. And most companies specialize in the hard sell.

Tell your friend to save her money.

I have to disagree with sushipup. It really depends upon how old the house is. If you change your filters regularly, you will see how dirty they can get. That same dust and debris is coating the inside of your ductwork. Clean ductwork can lessen allergies, result in an overall cleaner house, reduce your dusting chores and reduce your heating/cooling bill.

That being said, be extra careful about who you have do it. Make sure they are bonded, have insurance to cover any damage that can occur, put everything in writing for you and have references. Call those references. You don't want a mess left behind either, so ensure they will leave your house as they find it. I hope this helps.

This is one of those questions.....ask 12 people it and it will 6 one way and a half dozen the other. We lived in out last house for 25 years and never cleaned them. I cut down on dust by using a 3 month's filter and replacing it at 2 months.

Oops, double post

This post was edited by EmmaR on Wed, Oct 29, 14 at 9:36

I think the time to have them cleaned is after new home construction. After all the dirt and debris from home-building finds it's way down the uncovered vents - sheetrock dust and chunks, carpet fibers, blades from carpet layers carpet knives, chunks of wood, nails, etc.

We had it done in an older home and the "stuff" that they found was mostly from our then young son's room (he was two-years old when we moved in and 10 when we had the job done) and they recovered small toy cars, litebrite "bulbs", some coins, a couple baseball cards....

But when we moved into a new townhouse and we changed the furnace filter the first time, the accumulation on the filter was horrible and we had the vents cleaned. It was amazing the construction "stuff" they removed.

We've since moved into another new home and the vents were already cleaned by the builder. We change our filter monthly, but we also run the fan on the furnace constantly so our air is continuously being filtered in the house.

-Grainlady