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.
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterFast, Reliable HVAC Cleaning Across Van Nuys
HVAC cleaning in Van Nuys costs between $290 and $680 for a complete system cleaning in 2026, with most single-family homes landing between $340 and $490 depending on system size and how much buildup the camera reveals. The work typically takes 3 to 5 hours and includes the full supply and return ducts, the air handler, the evaporator coil, and the blower. That’s the honest range. If you live in the blocks near Van Nuys Airport or in a 1950s to 1970s home with attic flex duct, the work matters more here than almost anywhere else in Los Angeles because of what actually collects inside the ducts. Call (806) 606-6902 and we’ll give you a written price before any panel comes off.
Why CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Is Van Nuys’s Preferred HVAC Cleaning Company
We’re not a franchise and we don’t run $79 coupon specials that turn into a much larger invoice once a crew is standing in your hallway. CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning has worked Van Nuys since 2013, and our technicians know the difference between a home off Sepulveda with a 1960s furnace closet setup and a 1970s condo stack off Vanowen with shared risers. That local knowledge changes how we scope the job, how we access the system, and what we expect to find before we open the first panel.
Tomas Reyes, who runs our crews, has seen the same pattern hundreds of times across this Valley floor: attic flex duct baked brittle by 140°F attic heat, a fine carbon film on the evaporator coil from airport air, and blowers caked with dust that has cycled through the system for years. A lot of companies can run a vacuum through a register. Fewer can tell you why the returns in a Van Nuys duplex pull air from a neighbor’s unit, or why the dust near Van Nuys Airport has a gray-black tint that never shows up in Sherman Oaks. That’s the difference.
We answer the phone with a live person, we show up in uniform with identification, and every single job ends with a Documented Photo Record of the inside of every duct run, before and after. Not a verbal summary. Photographs. If you’re reading this because you want HVAC Cleaning done once and done verifiably, you’re in the right place.
Our HVAC Cleaning Services in Van Nuys
The systems in Van Nuys run harder than systems almost anywhere else in LA County. That’s not marketing. It’s math: 105°F summer days, a long cooling season, and air conditioners that cycle continuously from May through October. When a system moves that much air through ducts, everything inside it accumulates faster. Here is what we actually clean:
Evaporator Coil Cleaning
The evaporator coil sits inside the air handler and is the cold surface that pulls heat and humidity from your air. In Van Nuys, the coil does double duty because it’s also the first thing the blower pushes air past after the air travels through the return ducts. If the coil is coated in the fine carbon dust that settles out of the air around Van Nuys Airport, your system loses cooling capacity and the compressor cycles longer. We open the air handler, photograph the coil, clean it with professional coil cleaner matched to the coil type, and show you the after photo. A dirty evaporator coil on a Van Nuys system can reduce airflow into the home even when the filter looks clean.
Blower Cleaning
The blower wheel is the fan that moves air across the coil and through the supply ducts. When the blower wheel blades are caked with dust, the system moves less air and the motor draws more current. In Van Nuys homes where attic flex duct has degraded and pulled insulation fibers into the airstream, the blower wheel is often the first place that debris lands. We remove the blower assembly where accessible, clean each blade, check the motor housing, and document the condition before and after. This is one of the most overlooked parts of any HVAC cleaning, and one of the most important for systems that run 6 to 8 months a year.
Condenser Cleaning
The condenser is the outdoor unit, usually sitting on a pad next to the house or on the roof in some Van Nuys apartment buildings. It pulls outside air across the condenser coil to release heat. In Van Nuys, that outside air carries dust from the 405 corridor, pollen from Valley landscaping, and whatever the wind pushes off the surrounding hills. A condenser coil that’s packed with dust can’t reject heat efficiently, which raises head pressure and shortens compressor life. We wash the condenser coil with the proper cleaning solution, straighten bent fins where needed, and check the clearance around the unit. If your condenser sits under a tree or near a dusty alley, this matters more.
Air Handler Cleaning
The air handler is the indoor cabinet that houses the blower, the evaporator coil, and often the filter. In Van Nuys multi-family buildings, air handlers are frequently in closets, crawl spaces, or on the roof, and they’ve been collecting dust for years. We clean the full interior of the air handler cabinet, the drain pan, and the accessible components. This is where you’ll see the biggest difference in the photo record when we’re done, because air handler cabinets here are rarely opened by homeowners and rarely cleaned by anyone before we arrive.
What happens when you call
- 1
A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
- 2
You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
- 3
A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
- 4
You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
BeforeAfterTrusted Brands We Service in Van Nuys
We work on systems from every major manufacturer that shows up in Van Nuys homes: Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Rheem, Goodman, and York all appear regularly in this housing stock. We use professional-grade cleaning equipment from Rotobrush, Nikro, and Guardsman, and we carry Honeywell filter and air quality components when the job calls for them. We know which units tend to run in the 1970s multi-family buildings off Vanowen and which condenser units sit behind the single-family homes along the streets north of Victory Boulevard. That means we show up with the right approach and the right tools on the first visit, not a generic checklist.
Common HVAC Cleaning Problems We See in Van Nuys Homes
Every neighborhood has its own failure patterns. Here is what we find again and again on HVAC cleaning jobs across Van Nuys:
- Sun-baked attic flex duct. Van Nuys attic temperatures regularly pass 140°F in summer. Flex duct liners crack, collapse, and separate at the seams. The result is supply air leaking into the attic while unconditioned attic air, dust, and insulation fibers get pulled into the return. We find this on a significant share of 1950s and 1960s homes where the ductwork was retrofitted decades ago and never touched since. The camera inspection shows it clearly.
- Avgas carbon dust near Van Nuys Airport. On jobs east and south of the airport runway, we consistently find a fine, dark, carbon-tinged dust coating the inside of return ducts, the blower wheel, and the evaporator coil. This is leaded aviation gasoline combustion settling out of the air. It smells faintly of oil and it doesn’t appear a mile or two outside the flight path. Standard household dust is gray-brown. This stuff is darker, finer, and it clings to metal surfaces.
- Shared duct contamination in duplexes and condos. Van Nuys has a large stock of multi-family buildings where ducts are shared or partially shared between units. One unit’s neglect shows up as dust, odors, and airflow problems in another unit. We see this often in condo stacks where a neighbor’s dryer vent shares a chase with your return duct. You can’t clean your unit in isolation when the pathways are connected.
- Blower motors caked with years of recirculated dust. During fire season, Valley residents run systems on recirculate to avoid pulling in smoke. That’s the right move for smoke, but it means whatever is already inside the ducts stays in the airstream. Add the continuous summer operation and you get a blower wheel with a quarter-inch of packed dust on every blade. That’s a lot of Van Nuys systems by August.
Pricing for HVAC Cleaning in Van Nuys, CA
A complete HVAC cleaning in Van Nuys typically runs $290 to $680. A 1,200 to 1,800 square foot single-family home with one air handler and 8 to 12 duct runs usually lands between $340 and $490. Larger homes, two-system setups, or systems with heavy buildup documented on our first camera pass will be at the upper end. Condo and apartment units with shorter duct runs can be less, though shared-duct situations sometimes cost more because the contamination isn’t confined to a single unit. The written price you receive before work starts is the price you pay. That’s Haven Standard Clause 1. We don’t do per-vent pricing, we don’t “discover” extra charges once the blower is pulled, and we’ll always put the number in writing before any panel comes off. If you have a written estimate from another company, bring it. We’ll put our price next to it, line by line, at no charge.
We Also Serve Cities Near Van Nuys
Our crews work throughout the San Fernando Valley. If you’re in Sherman Oaks, Studio City, North Hollywood, or North Hills, we provide the same HVAC Cleaning in Van Nuys standard: written pricing, documented photo records, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise on every job. Same crews, same equipment, same no-exceptions approach to showing you the work.
Serving Van Nuys, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Van Nuys 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 Van Nuys
Yes. Homes in the blocks immediately east and south of Van Nuys Airport pick up a fine, dark carbon-tinged dust from piston-engine aircraft exhaust that does not appear in ductwork a mile or two outside the flight path. Leaded aviation gasoline combustion produces particulate matter that settles out of the air and accumulates inside return ducts, on blower wheels, and on evaporator coils. We can tell the difference on a camera inspection. If you live in this pocket of Van Nuys and your system smells faintly of oil when the fan runs, call (806) 606-6902 and we’ll show you what’s inside.
Your unit receives air that passes through shared pathways. If a neighbor’s unit has been pulling dust, pet hair, or worse into a shared return duct, some of that air flows into your space whether or not you maintain your own system. In stacked Van Nuys condo buildings, one unit’s dryer exhaust sometimes runs through a shared chase adjacent to your return duct, and if that lint path is clogged, the burden and the fire risk fall on everyone above. We scope shared-duct jobs at the building level and clean the full pathway, not just the register in your living room.
Attic temperatures. Van Nuys sits in the interior San Fernando Valley, where summer attic heat regularly exceeds 140°F, while West LA attics run meaningfully cooler thanks to coastal influence. That sustained heat bakes flex duct liners until they crack, separate, and collapse. Once the duct fails, the system pulls unconditioned attic air, dust, and insulation fibers directly into the living space. This is a housing-stock issue as much as a climate issue: Van Nuys was heavily developed in the 1950s through 1970s, so a large portion of the ductwork is original or early-retrofit flex duct that has been cooking for decades. We find collapsed sections on camera inspections here far more often than anywhere west of the 405.
Van Nuys sits in an inversion zone where surrounding mountains trap smog and particulate pollution instead of letting coastal breezes flush it out. The Valley’s air quality data consistently ranks worse than coastal neighborhoods 15 miles west. That means your HVAC system pulls dirtier outdoor air through the ducts and filter, and during fire season, when residents run systems on recirculate to avoid smoke, whatever is already inside the ducts stays in the airstream. In practical terms: systems in Van Nuys should be cleaned more often than systems in Sherman Oaks or West LA, and if you smell exhaust or dust when the fan cycles on, the system is overdue. A reasonable interval for most Van Nuys homes is every 2 to 4 years, more often near the airport.
Look at the building’s exterior. If you see one vent hood serving multiple floors, or if your dryer vent exits through the roof rather than an exterior wall, you likely share a vertical chase with other units. In Van Nuys condo buildings from the 1960s and 1970s, this is common. The telltale sign inside the unit is a dryer that takes longer than 45 minutes to dry a normal load, combined with lint appearing around the dryer or a burning smell during operation. Shared stacks mean one unit’s lint burden falls on everyone in the chase, and the fire risk is collective. We inspect and clean these shared pathways on multi-family HVAC and dryer vent jobs across Van Nuys.
Get Your Van Nuys HVAC Cleaning Priced in Writing
We’ve been doing this work since 2013, and more than 52,000 homes have received a written price before work started and a documented photo record when the crew left. That’s not a promise in a brochure. It’s how we’ve operated since day one. If you live in Van Nuys, call (806) 606-6902 and we’ll walk through what your system needs, what it will cost, and what you’ll see in the before and after photos. No pressure, no same-day-only specials, no vague talk. Just a written price and a camera-backed record of the work.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning, serving Van Nuys since 2013.
HVAC Cleaning in Nearby Areas
