Why Negative Air Machines are Outdated

First off, these are NADCA’s three acceptable ways to agitate and clean ducts:

» Air Blast

The age-old method of cleaning ducts incorporated a combination of rotating brushes and negative air machines.

The negative air machines are big, cumbersome air movers that pull air out of the ducts and into a large box or truck. There are two big problems with that archaic way of cleaning modern ducting.

Decades ago, when ducts were made of sheetmetal, cleaning the ducts with cable-driven, rotating brushes was fine; but now, nearly all ducting is made of a thin plastic membrane known as ‘flex ducts’. When rotating brushes are used in these modern flex ducts, the powerfully-driven brushes pick up razor blades, screws, nails, staples and other sharp objects that are present in the ducts- left over from the construction of the home. These rotating brushes whip them around and absolutely shred the thin plastic ducting.

Secondly, In order to remove the loosened debris from the duct system these other duct cleaning systems use what are called “negative air machines”. These negative air machines are expensive, large, cumbersome “machines in a box”, trailer or truck. Using these obsolete cleaning systems, the technician turns off the air handler (furnace) in the home, then cuts a sizeable hole in the main duct and hooks up their negative air machine to pull air from the duct system, while agitating the inside of the ducts to dislodge dust and debris which is then sucked into the negative air machine.

These negative air machines are superfluous and unnecessary. Every duct system has, in it’s ‘heart’, an air handler, which is itself, a massive air mover. With the RamAir system, rather than turning this powerful air mover off, the air handler’s fan is turned on, which generates thousands of CFM of air movement- just like those big, expensive negative air machines.

The ducts are then agitated with the RamAir whip and air blast tools, while the powerful fan in the air handler blows the dislodged dust and debris toward the opening of the duct. As the debris exits the ducts, it passes through RamAir’s clear, illuminated vacuum box, so the homeowner can see all the debris as it’s being removed- leading to the “wow factor” in the cleaning- a benefit not present in any other duct cleaning system.

This “wow factor” leads to guaranteed customer satisfaction in the work you’re providing them, which leads to rave reviews and referrals. And since there is nothing about the RamAir system that damages the ducts, your customer is left with a clean, undamaged duct system. Your customer is confident that the job was done to completion, as they saw the debris being removed with their own eyes.