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 Windsor
HVAC cleaning in Windsor, CA typically costs $450 – $850 for a complete system clean, which includes the evaporator coil, blower motor, supply and return ducts. Most Windsor homes built in the 1980s and 1990s need this work every 3 – 5 years, not annually. At Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning, our HVAC Cleaning team gives you a written flat price per system before we touch anything, then shows you before-and-after photos of your own ducts when we finish.
We know Windsor’s housing stock. We know the flex duct runs under attics off Foothill Drive, the aging air handlers in Vintage Green, and the dust patterns that show up in homes near Windsor Creek. Call us at (737) 727-2314 and you’ll get a live person on the line, a straight answer on pricing, and a booked window you can track from your phone.
Why Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning Is Windsor’s Preferred HVAC Cleaning Company
Windsor homeowners call us because we don’t run the bait-and-switch playbook that gives duct cleaning a bad name. No $49 coupon that becomes an $800 invoice once the van pulls up. No per-vent pricing that penalizes you for having a well-designed system with more registers. Just one honest price per system, written down before work starts, and a 365-Day Done Right Promise behind every job. If the work isn’t right within a full year, we return and correct it at no charge.
Every technician who arrives at your Windsor home is background-checked and in uniform. You’ll know their name before they open the door. They run professional-grade equipment: Abatement Technologies containment units for negative-pressure cleaning, Nikro HEPA-rated vacuums that capture what gets loosened, and Rotobrush rotary brush systems for aggressive source removal on supply lines. This isn’t a truck-mounted shop vac and a scare tactic. It’s the same process commercial buildings use, sized for your house.
Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning operates as part of the Relay Home Co. family, founded in 2005, and every Windsor booking runs on The Relay Standard: a live trackable arrival time, before-and-after photo proof, and a digital invoice you can pay from a link. Dispatch and scheduling are coordinated from our San Francisco Bay Area office, with crews serving Windsor locally.
Evaporator Coil Cleaning in Windsor
Evaporator coil cleaning in Windsor is the single highest-impact piece of HVAC maintenance we do, especially in homes built between 1985 and 1995 where the coil has been sharing attic air with insulation and construction dust for decades. The evaporator coil is the part of your system that gets cold and pulls humidity out of the air. When it’s coated in debris, your AC works harder, your energy bill creeps up, and the air blowing into your living room has been passing over a dirty surface for months. A coil cleaning in Windsor runs $180 – $340 as a standalone service, and it’s included in our full-system clean.
What a coil clean actually involves
We pull the access panel, inspect the coil with a camera, then clean it using a two-step process: a coil-specific cleaner that breaks down the film, followed by a rinse that carries the debris down the condensate line. No dry brushing that pushes dirt deeper into the fins. No “spray and walk away” work. We show you the before-and-after.
When Windsor homeowners need it
If you’ve noticed weak airflow, a frozen coil, or the AC running longer cycles than it used to, the coil is the first place we look. Homes near Old Redwood Highway and Shiloh Road deal with more agricultural dust and pollen, which shortens the interval between cleanings. We recommend checking coil condition every two years.
AC Duct Cleaning in Windsor
AC duct cleaning in Windsor is a full source-removal job, not a light surface wipe. We clean the supply ducts, the return ducts, the air handler, the blower motor assembly, and the evaporator coil as one connected system. The reason: if you clean ducts but skip the air handler, the blower just blows air across the same debris pile and re-contaminates everything within a week. A complete AC duct cleaning for a typical Windsor home runs $450 – $850, depending on system size and configuration. You get that number in writing before work begins.
Source removal, not just brushing
We run a Rotobrush rotary brush system through your duct runs to loosen debris, while an Abatement Technologies negative-pressure unit keeps the entire system under vacuum. That’s what “negative pressure” means: the loosened debris goes straight into the HEPA-filtered vacuum, not back into your living room. After cleaning, we run a camera through the supply and return lines so you see the result with your own eyes.
Why aging flex duct changes the job
Much of Windsor’s housing stock was built during the 1980s and 1990s, so many of the original flexible duct runs are now 25 – 35 years old and use duct board that has often settled or partially detached at the collar. That means a meaningful share of “dirty duct” calls here are actually air-sealing and re-hanging calls before any cleaning is worthwhile. We inspect first, tell you honestly what we found, and clean what needs cleaning rather than selling you a service your system doesn’t need.
Trusted Brands We Service in Windsor
Our Windsor crews work on residential systems from every major manufacturer: Trane, Carrier, Lennox, Rheem, Goodman, Bryant, and York. We stock common filters and replacement parts locally so we’re not waiting on a warehouse two time zones away when your system needs a Guardsman or Honeywell media filter. If you’re running an Aprilaire filtration setup or a Honeywell whole-house air cleaner, we service those too, and we’ll tell you honestly whether your current filter is the right one for Windsor’s dusty summers and wildfire smoke days.
Common HVAC Cleaning Problems We See in Windsor Homes
- Detached flex duct at the collar. On a call off Brooks Road in the Vintage Green neighborhood, our tech found the return duct had separated from the air handler collar, so the blower motor was pulling attic air straight into the system. We reconnected and sealed the collar, ran a camera inspection the length of the supply and return ducts, then did a full source removal clean. The before-and-after photos showed ducts going from gray-brown to bare metal.
- Torn inner liners from aggressive brushing. Running a rotary brush through aging flex duct without a camera inspection first is a guaranteed way to tear the inner liner. Once that liner tears, the duct pulls in attic air and insulation, and the only real fix is replacement. We never run a brush blind.
- Per-vent pricing games. Quoting by the register or vent in Windsor’s older tract homes pushes homeowners to skip the return side and the air handler, which are exactly the two places that matter most. Our flat per-system price removes that incentive.
- Coil and blower debris left behind. Skipping source removal at the evaporator coil and blower motor means the system sits there with the same debris load it had before the visit. We clean the whole path, not just the ducts you can see.
Pricing for HVAC Cleaning in Windsor, CA
Here’s the straight answer on Windsor pricing. A full HVAC cleaning, including supply ducts, return ducts, air handler, blower motor, and evaporator coil, runs $450 – $850 for a typical single-system Windsor home. A standalone evaporator coil cleaning runs $180 – $340. Blower motor cleaning alone runs $120 – $220. Coil treatment runs $80 – $150. The final number depends on system size, number of stories, and whether the ducts have ever been cleaned before. What it doesn’t depend on: how many vents you have. One flat price per system, agreed in writing before any work starts. Call (737) 727-2314 for a free estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near Windsor
Our Windsor crews also cover nearby Sonoma County communities. If you’re in Windsor, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, or Guerneville, you’ll get the same flat pricing, the same 365-Day Done Right Promise, and the same before-and-after photos of your ducts. We schedule calls across the region six days a week.
Serving Windsor, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Windsor 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 About HVAC Cleaning in Windsor
It depends on what’s actually in the ducts, not the age of the home. Many Windsor homes from that era have never had their ducts cleaned, and the return-side runs near the air handler are often pulling attic air through detached collars, which brings in insulation particles and construction dust that are not “just dust.” We inspect with a camera before we recommend anything, and if the ducts are clean, we’ll tell you that and leave without billing you for a cleaning. Call (737) 727-2314 to schedule an inspection.
We price per system. That means one flat number for the entire HVAC system: supply ducts, return ducts, air handler, blower motor, and evaporator coil. It’s written down before any work starts, and it doesn’t change at the door. Per-vent pricing creates an incentive for a technician to rush through a job or push you to skip the air handler and return side, which are the most important parts. We don’t play that game. Our full-system cleaning for Windsor homes runs $450 – $850.
Every 3 – 5 years for most Windsor homes. If you have pets, if you’re near agricultural activity around Shiloh Road or Old Redwood Highway, or if you’ve done recent remodeling, you may need it more often. If your home has been kept clean, has good filtration, and nobody smokes indoors, you might stretch it to six or seven years. We won’t sell you an annual duct cleaning you don’t need. Call (737) 727-2314 for an honest assessment.
No, and we wouldn’t trust anyone who does. A proper HVAC cleaning in Windsor is a scheduled job that takes three to six hours for a typical home. Anyone rushing through it in ninety minutes is cutting corners. We’ll give you a confirmed arrival window you can track from your phone, and we’ll show up when we say we will. That’s The Relay Standard, and it’s how every Windsor job runs.
MERV 11 or MERV 13 for most Windsor homes, provided your system can handle the airflow restriction. MERV 13 catches wildfire smoke particles, which matter during Sonoma County fire season. MERV 8 is too low for real filtration, and MERV 16 is overkill for most residential systems. We’ll check your blower’s airflow tolerance and recommend the right Honeywell or Aprilaire filter for your setup. Call (737) 727-2314 and we’ll take a look.
Written by Omar Haddad, Owner at Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning, serving Windsor since day one.