Whole-system duct and dryer vent check with before-and-after photos - you see exactly what came out of your vents
That "$99 whole-house special" is a bait ad - the real number appears once they are in your hallway, or the "clean" is a shop-vac at the register. We photograph the inside of your ducts before and after instead.
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AfterFast, Reliable HVAC Cleaning Across East Palo Alto
HVAC cleaning in East Palo Alto costs $385-$720 for a full system clean covering ducts, evaporator coil, blower, and air handler. Most jobs take four to six hours on the same visit, and every run is photographed before and after so you can see exactly what came out. CleanRun has worked the neighborhoods between Highway 101 and the Bay since 2013, and we’ve cleaned enough 1950s-era ductwork here to know what hides inside it. Call (806) 606-6902 for a written price before any work starts.
Why CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Is East Palo Alto’s Preferred HVAC Cleaning Company
East Palo Alto homes are different from Palo Alto homes. They were built in a different decade, under different rules, and most of them still carry the original galvanized sheet metal or uninsulated flex duct installed between 1948 and 1975. That matters when you’re paying for a cleaning, because cleaning old ductwork well takes more than a vacuum wand. Our techs have documented disconnected runs, collapsed flex, and decades of marine-layer residue inside homes along Pulgas Avenue, Weeks Street, and the Gardens neighborhood. We know what a 1960s plenum looks like when the camera goes in.
Every East Palo Alto job gets a written price before work begins, not a phone estimate with fine print. Every job ends with a Documented Photo Record of every duct run, inside, before and after. We are independently owned and operated under the Haven Standard, and our crews are background-checked, uniformed, and identified by name before they arrive. Tomas Reyes leads our Bay Area team and reviews every photo record personally. The 365-Day Done Right Promise is put in writing on every invoice, which is why we don’t need to chase you for a review: the documentation does the talking.
Our HVAC Cleaning Services in East Palo Alto
A proper HVAC Cleaning is not a duct-only job. East Palo Alto’s bay-side humidity means moisture builds inside the air handler and coil cabinet as much as it does inside the duct runs. We clean the whole air path, not just the visible parts. Here are the four services we perform most often in East Palo Alto homes:
Evaporator Coil Cleaning
In East Palo Alto, the evaporator coil is the wettest component in your system. It sits inside the air handler, condensing moisture out of the air every summer afternoon. When a coil is coated with the fine dust that blows in from the salt flats and Highway 101, that moisture clings to it and turns to sludge. We clean coils with a source-removal approach: physical brushing and approved coil cleaners, then a rinse and a photo of the clean fins. A fogging spray does not remove coil sludge, and we say so plainly. Evaporator coil cleaning in East Palo Alto runs $150-$280 as part of a full system clean.
Blower Cleaning
The blower wheel moves every cubic foot of air your system pushes. When its blades are caked with a decade of dust, the system has to work harder to move less air. In older East Palo Alto tract homes with original single-speed blowers, the buildup is often heavier than in newer systems. We remove the blower housing, clean the wheel and motor, and photograph the wheel before and after. Blower cleaning in East Palo Alto adds $120-$220 to a full system job.
Condenser Cleaning
The outdoor condenser unit is the part of your system that fights the hottest air. In East Palo Alto, that air carries salt and sand from the Bay shoreline. We see condenser coils fouled with a film that is equal parts dust, pollen, and airborne salt. A coil that cannot shed heat makes your compressor work harder and fail sooner. We flush the condenser coil, straighten bent fins, and clear the drain ports. Condenser cleaning in East Palo Alto runs $110-$190.
Air Handler Cleaning
The air handler cabinet is where the evaporator coil, blower, and drain pan all live. In East Palo Alto’s older homes, that cabinet often has rust from decades of condensation, stagnant water in the pan, and microbial growth on the interior surfaces. We clean the complete air handler interior: the cabinet walls, the drain pan, the coil, and the blower assembly. Air handler cleaning in East Palo Alto runs $190-$340, and it is the single highest-value part of the job because it removes the reservoir that re-contaminates cleaned ducts. If you only clean the ducts and skip the air handler, you’ll likely be back where you started within a season.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
BeforeAfterTrusted Brands We Service in East Palo Alto
We service every major residential system found in East Palo Alto, including Carrier, Goodman, Rheem, Lennox, and Trane. Our equipment roster includes Rotobrush and Nikro negative-pressure extraction machines, plus Guardsman sanitizing products when a source-removal clean reveals microbial growth that needs treatment. We stock common coil cleaners and drain pan treatments locally for East Palo Alto jobs, which means we don’t have to order parts mid-job and come back. If your system is a 1990s Goodman or a 2010s Carrier, we’ve cleaned the same air handler you have.
Common HVAC Cleaning Problems We See in East Palo Alto Homes
- Marine-layer moisture inside uninsulated ductwork. East Palo Alto sits near sea level, directly beside the Bay and its tidal marshes. Overnight marine fog rolls in more intensely here than a mile inland in Palo Alto or Menlo Park. That moisture condenses inside older, uninsulated galvanized duct runs and creates exactly the conditions mold and mildew need. We see it on camera in the supply runs of almost every pre-1975 home we open.
- Disconnected and collapsed flex runs from unpermitted 1960s and 1970s additions. During East Palo Alto’s unincorporated decades, building inspection was sparse. Homeowners and handymen extended original furnace plenums with mismatched flex duct, often without permits, and the joints eventually failed. These disconnected runs pull unconditioned crawlspace air directly into the living space. Cleaning without a camera misses them completely.
- Deteriorated original galvanized duct seams. The original sheet-metal ductwork in 1950s and 1960s East Palo Alto tract homes was never insulated, and the seam seals have long since broken down. Air leaks out, crawlspace air leaks in. The duct work needs to be inspected, not just cleaned, and the photo record shows you exactly what condition the seams are in.
- Wet evaporator coils acting as mold reservoirs. When the coil inside your air handler stays wet overnight, it grows mold on the coil fins and inside the drain pan. That’s the source of the musty smell that comes out of the registers when the system first kicks on. Cleaning just the ducts while leaving the wet coil untouched is like washing your car’s doors and not the windshield.
Pricing for HVAC Cleaning in East Palo Alto, CA
A full HVAC cleaning in East Palo Alto runs $385-$720 for a typical single-family home. That range covers the complete air path: all supply and return ducts, the evaporator coil, the blower, and the air handler. The size of the system, the number of returns, and the condition of the runs all affect the final number, but the price is written before any panel comes off. Haven Standard Clause 1 means exactly that: a written price before work starts, every time, no exceptions. Smaller jobs like condenser-only or coil-only cleaning run $110-$340. We do not do per-vent coupon pricing, and we never will. It encourages bait-and-switch and we’d rather write you one honest number. Call (806) 606-6902 and tell us the square footage and number of returns; we’ll give you a written range by email before you ever book a visit.
We Also Serve Cities Near East Palo Alto
CleanRun serves HVAC Cleaning in East Palo Alto and nearby communities throughout the Bay Area and beyond: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. If you’re just over the Dumbarton Bridge or across the county line, we’ll likely have a crew scheduled in your area within a week. East Palo Alto calls are answered by a live person, day or night.
Serving East Palo Alto, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the East Palo Alto area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - HVAC Cleaning in East Palo Alto
East Palo Alto’s housing stock was built decades earlier than the surrounding cities, and most of it has never been renovated. The original galvanized ductwork from the 1950s through 1970s has been accumulating dust, moisture, and in many cases mold for fifty to seventy years. Palo Alto and Menlo Park homes are more likely to have had systems replaced or upgraded in the last twenty years. Older, uninsulated, bay-side ductwork is a fundamentally different cleaning challenge. Add in the historical industrial activity near University Avenue and the Superfund-adjacent sites, and indoor air quality here has a documented environmental-justice dimension that does not exist a mile west. If you live in East Palo Alto, the air in your ducts is more likely to contain particles you genuinely don’t want to be breathing. Call (806) 606-6902 for a free estimate and a camera inspection of what’s in yours.
No. A fogging spray can kill some airborne microbes temporarily, but East Palo Alto’s persistent bay-side humidity means microbial growth roots itself inside coil fins and on the damp interior surfaces of uninsulated ducts. Fogging does not remove the debris, the source colony, or the moisture that feeds it. Within weeks, the same conditions return. A real cleaning removes the source material physically, using negative-pressure extraction and HEPA filtration, then applies a treatment like Guardsman only if the camera shows microbial growth that needs it. The photo record shows the difference between fogging noise and source removal. Call (806) 606-6902 to see what a legitimate cleaning actually removes.
They look rough. In the Weeks neighborhood, our techs opened a supply register on a 1960s tract home and found an original sheet-metal plenum extended with mismatched, unpermitted flex that had separated at a joint, pulling in crawlspace air. We performed camera inspection, reconnected the run to NADCA standards, and used negative pressure with HEPA filtration to remove years of accumulated marine-layer debris, restoring airflow and cutting the particulate load the family had been breathing. That’s not an isolated case. We regularly see 3-inch debris build-up at the first elbow, collapsed flex, and rusted seams in East Palo Alto homes. Each run gets photographed before and after, and the photo record is yours to keep. Call (806) 606-6902 for a camera inspection of your own ducts.
East Palo Alto has documented contamination from industrial sites including the former Romic Environmental Technologies facility near University Avenue. While a duct cleaning cannot address soil or groundwater contamination, it can reduce the airborne particulate load that has settled inside your ducts over decades. Dust from outside, construction debris, and industrial particulate all find their way into return registers and get distributed through the home. A legitimate source-removal cleaning removes that accumulated particulate instead of recirculating it. The photo record we provide shows you the before and after inside every run, so you can see what was actually removed from your system. That documentation is part of every CleanRun job, including in East Palo Alto. Get your free estimate at (806) 606-6902.
Yes, and here’s why. The air handler houses the evaporator coil and the drain pan, both of which stay wet for hours every day in East Palo Alto’s humid air. If that coil is growing mold and you only clean the ducts, the first warm, damp morning re-contaminates those freshly cleaned supply and return ducts. Cleaning ducts without cleaning the air handler is a half-measure. We’ll tell you that before you spend a dollar, and the air handler cleaning is always included in our full-system price. You don’t have to pay extra for what should be part of the job. Call (806) 606-6902 for a written full-system price.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning, serving East Palo Alto since 2013.