What are the disadvantages of duct sealing?

The main one is that it can be difficult to achieve full coverage. It may look like you've painted a crack, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily sealed.

What are the disadvantages of duct sealing?

The main one is that it can be difficult to achieve full coverage. It may look like you've painted a crack, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily sealed. It can also be difficult to apply the material to tight cracks and crevices, and you may have to move the ducts to reach difficult areas. The ducts through which air flows to and from the central heating, ventilation and air conditioning system are notoriously inefficient.

Even perfectly sealed and insulated ducts lose some heating and cooling, especially if they are located in unconditioned areas of the house, such as attics and mezzanines. Aeroseal is essentially a duct sealing solution that aims to make heating and cooling equipment more efficient. It is composed of polymers, which are long molecules that adhere to each other and seal holes, misalignments or leaks in ducts. Aeroseal spray expels a mist of specialized material that adheres to and seals air duct holes and leaks.

Ultimately, this creates an efficient and airtight seal in the ducts. The machine then starts blowing an atomized polymer into the duct network. The sealing particles reach the vanishing points (voids, joints, joints) of the duct network, are fixed to the edge of the opening and begin to form a seal. Here you can watch this fantastic video from This Old House that demonstrates how it works.

You can also visit the company's website here, where they have some great videos, a blog, and an FAQ section that delves into how the system works in more detail. In this section, we'll explore the advantages and disadvantages of using Aeroseal for duct sealing. Once you have a clear idea of its advantages and disadvantages, you can make an informed decision about whether it works for you or not. The potential benefits of using Aeroseal to seal ducts include improved indoor air quality.

Ultimately, this can lead to a more comfortable, healthier, and cleaner home. According to the U.S. Department of Energy. In the US, air duct repair is one of the most important and beneficial ways to improve energy consumption.

In addition, the American Council for an Efficient Energy Economy ranked pipelines as one of the top fifteen energy saving technologies. An indicator that you could have duct leaks is if your home or work space doesn't cool or heat evenly. For example, you may feel that some rooms or floors are warmer or cooler than others. Or you may feel that in certain spaces there is a lot of air flow, while in others there seems to be no air circulation.

In some cases, the irregularity in air flow and temperature can be quite extreme. And this can be quite frustrating for your family members, tenants, or staff. With Aeroseal commercial duct sealing, the temperature in your building or house can be more consistent and uniform. In addition, cooling and heating airflow can also be improved.

In addition, sometimes old, cracked ducts can cause a musty smell. Sealing commercial ducts with Aeroseal can eliminate that odor and prevent it from flowing through your space. Aeroseal commercial duct sealant manufacturers also claim that their solution enables healthier indoor air quality and generally improves indoor air quality. When air ducts have cracks, dirt, dander, dust, allergens, moisture, pollen, and contaminants can enter the air.

In addition, ventilation duct leaks can also reduce the efficiency of exhaust fans. This can cause problems related to mold or mildew, which can lead to further deterioration of indoor air quality. For people with allergies, this could aggravate symptoms, such as sneezing and itching and the tearing in the eyes. Air pollution is a major health risk, and the presence of mold spores in the air can also seriously damage the building structure.

Sealing air ducts with Aeroseal prevents these contaminants from entering the circulating air. This improved air quality means that everyone who lives in space will experience fewer allergy symptoms. In general, everyone will be healthier and able to breathe more easily. Another way that Aeroseal commercial duct sealants can make your space healthier is by allowing for more effective migration of radon gas to create better airflow and pressure.

Aeroseal is made from a UL-certified material that is commonly used in hairspray and chewing gum. In addition, Aeroseal is used in hospitals such as Nemours Children's Hospital and Mayo Clinic, which emphasizes its safety. Inefficiency can negatively affect your HVAC system in the long term. If the ducts leak, the HVAC system will have to work harder to maintain the required configuration, reducing its efficiency by 20 to 45 percent.

Over time, this inefficiency accelerates system wear and tear, manifested in costly and frequent repairs. What we described above is the list of standard Aeroseal benefits. However, it doesn't tell us to what extent each of these benefits will apply to your home. These are some of the disadvantages of using Aeroseal to seal ducts.

In certain cases, no change in dust may be observed because the dust comes from an air leak or a change in dust. In other cases, Aeroseal won't improve your comfort, as duct size is the root cause of comfort issues. Some homes may not experience any improvement in their energy bills but notice a significant reduction of the dust. The correct method to determine how this interaction works is to perform a comprehensive energy audit of your home.

Organizations that only use Aeroseal might make you think that Aeroseal offers a much better seal on leaking ducts. The reality is that, since Aeroseal seals the ducts from the inside, we don't need access to the ducts to seal them. Therefore, Aeroseal is more suitable for these types of homes. For homes with inaccessible ducts, Aeroseal is a better option compared to manual duct sealing.

However, it's still necessary to manually seal the ducts in those homes when possible. If the ducts are fully accessible, manually sealing the ducts with putty is a better and less expensive solution than sealing with an aerosol. This is because we can apply a thicker layer with a stiffer support in case of larger leaks. than the one applied by Aeroseal.

A thicker layer of putty is sure to last longer compared to a thin layer. In most townhouses, the ducts are fully accessible. Therefore, you can use manual sealing of the ducts for good results. When you use your air conditioner or furnace to produce cooling and heating, you think that all of the cold or heated air will reach the interior of your home. These air systems use a duct system to channel cold or heated air into living spaces throughout the house.

However, leaks are a major problem in many duct systems, as they prevent all of the air conditioning produced by the HVAC system from reaching your living spaces. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a normal home loses 20 to 30 percent of its air conditioning through duct leaks. Some of the air conditioning escapes the duct system, while the rest reaches the bedrooms, kitchen, living room and other parts of the house. Aeroseal's durability has also been tested for more than four decades.

It exceeded all UL durability standards. Therefore, the warranty covers the contractor for 10 years in terms of labor and parts in the event of a failure in the Aeroseal seal. However, the Aeroseal seal itself lasts for decades. The ideal is to clean dirty ducts before using Aeroseal.

Otherwise, the only preparation you should do is to cover all the electronic items in the area where the sealant can be applied. Your local HVAC or home service contractor can better guide you in determining if it's important to clean your ducts before sealing them. The costs of the Aeroseal duct solution depend of various details. This is a list of factors that affect the cost of sealing ducts.

Your HVAC contractor can provide you with a customized approximate cost for the entire procedure. Keep in mind that Aeroseal is not an encapsulant and should not work as an encapsulant or as a water barrier. Nor is it intended to be a repair of faulty ducts found inside a slab. Although relatively new to the market, Aeroseal is making a big dent in the industry, where it has traditionally used adhesive tape, putty and maybe a couple of other shapes to try to seal air ducts and make them more efficient.

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According to the EPA, “about 20 to 30 percent of the air that passes through the duct system is lost due to leaks, orifices, and poorly connected ducts. Some homeowners choose to seal ductwork as a weekend project on their own, sealing air leaks with putty sealant or metal tape and insulating attic ducts, mezzanines, basement, and garage. Ducts that send hot and cold air to living areas and ducts that carry air back to the HVAC system are susceptible to losing air. Metal ducts must be held together with sheet metal screws; flexible duct connections must be secured with metal or plastic bands.

While minor pipeline repairs can be done on your own, for more complicated projects and inspections, see a professional. Professional duct sealing companies use special technology to seal all duct connections from the inside. This can be a problem if your duct system has larger leaks, since aerosol sealing is more expensive than manually sealing the ducts, but it doesn't get to the root of the problem of leaks in the ducts. Strangely enough, these two ingredients are generally ignored when it comes to duct tightness and leak tests.

Candice Fedak
Candice Fedak

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