Whole-home duct cleaning
Dryer vent cleaning
Camera inspection
Sanitizing & deodorizingWhole-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.
Aprilaire Air Duct Cleaning in Austin: What to Know First
Aprilaire air duct cleaning in Austin typically costs between $450 and $850 for a full system on a standard single-family home, and most jobs are completed in a single visit lasting three to five hours. We’re an independent Aprilaire air duct cleaning provider – meaning we service Aprilaire filtration and whole-home air systems every week in Austin, but we’re not affiliated with or authorized by Aprilaire the manufacturer. If you own an Aprilaire media filter cabinet, an Aprilaire whole-home dehumidifier, or an AprilAire vent system and your ducts haven’t been cleaned in years, this page covers what actually happens on the job, what it costs, and why Aprilaire systems have their own quirks. Call (940) 283-6595 and a live person answers, 24/7.
How Aprilaire Products Fail – and How We Fix Them
Aprilaire builds good filtration. But the ductwork and the filtration housing have failure modes we see over and over in Austin, especially in homes built during the big suburban expansion through the 2000s and 2010s. Here’s what we find, specifically on Aprilaire-equipped systems.
- Aprilaire 5000 Electronic Air Cleaner – collection cell caked with Central Texas dust. The Aprilaire 5000 uses an electronically charged collection cell. Austin’s fine limestone dust and oak pollen load it up fast. When the cell saturates, the system recirculates the debris that gets past it into the supply ducts. What we pull out of homes in Circle C and Steiner Ranch with a 5000 is a baked-on gray paste in the first ten feet of supply duct. We clean the duct system down to the inner liner and flag the cell for a deep clean or replacement, so the fix isn’t just cosmetic.
- Aprilaire 2210/1210 media filter – oversized filters stuffed in backwards. The 2210 media cabinet takes a four-inch MERV 13 filter. A lot of Austin homeowners buy a one-inch filter at the hardware store, shove it in, and leave a gap around the edges. Unfiltered air bypasses the filter entirely and furs up the blower and the return plenum. On a Aprilaire duct cleaning job, we always open the media cabinet and check the filter fit and orientation before we start pulling debris out. If the filter’s wrong, cleaning the ducts without fixing it means the ducts refill in six months.
- Aprilaire Model 1850 Whole-Home Dehumidifier – drain line clogging in humid months. The 1850 has a drain line that carries condensed water out. In Austin’s sticky May-through-September stretch, that line grows a biofilm that backs up into the supply ducts as damp air. Homeowners notice a musty smell that comes and goes, and they think it’s the ducts. Often it is the ducts, but only because the dehumidifier has been dumping moisture into them for weeks. We trace the source, clear the drain, and dry out the affected duct sections before cleaning.
- Aprilaire 8145 / 8144NC Fresh Air Ventilator – intake screen blocked by construction debris and clippings. The 8145 pulls outside air through an intake hood, usually on an exterior wall near the foundation. In Austin, we find intakes blocked by dried grass clippings, cedar pollen, and sheetrock dust from remodels. When the intake blocks, the ventilator runs and pulls air from wherever it can – often the attic or the garage – and dumps it into the duct system. That’s how attic insulation ends up in the supply vents over the kitchen island. We clear the intake as part of any full-system cleaning where a Aprilaire 8145 is present.
- Aprilaire 1410 / 2410 filter housings – flex duct collapse because of pressure loss. When a Aprilaire media filter gets loaded up and isn’t replaced for a year or more, it chokes airflow. The system starves, static pressure rises, and the flex ducts in the attic start to sweat and sag. We see this in older neighborhoods like Allandale and Crestview, where the attic flex runs are already marginal. On those jobs, we inspect the flex duct condition before we quote, because cleaning a collapsed duct is no better than cleaning a flattened straw.
Styles & brands we work with




Our Aprilaire Air Duct Cleaning Process
- 1
Call and schedule. A live person answers 24/7, and you’ll get a live trackable arrival window before the truck rolls. No four-hour wait windows.
- 2
We walk the system. Omar or one of our uniformed, background-checked techs inspects the Aprilaire filter housing, dehumidifier, fresh-air intake, and both supply and return duct runs before any cleaning starts. We look at the build first, because the Aprilaire component often tells us where the duct problem started.
- 3
Written price before any work starts. Not a range, not a teaser coupon that expands on the invoice. A dollar figure in writing, based on what we actually found during the walkthrough. The price does not change at the door.
- 4
Rotobrush contact-vacuum agitation and Nikro HEPA negative-air extraction. Rotobrush loosens the debris with rotary brushes, and Nikro negative-air machines pull it directly out of the system. Negative-pressure extraction means the loosened debris goes straight into the vacuum, not back into your living room. For Aprilaire systems with a dirty media cabinet, we clean the housing itself and verify the filter fits and seals.
- 5
Camera verification. We run a video inspection on both the supply and return sides, and you get before-and-after photos of your own ducts. You’ll see the actual work, not a stock photo of someone else’s job.
- 6
Written guarantee and invoice. Every repair carries a written guarantee, and if a repair fails we come back for a free second visit. The digital invoice lands as a link you can pay from your phone.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterWhat Aprilaire Air Duct Cleaning Costs in Austin
Here’s what moving the price up or down on a Aprilaire system in Austin.
- Standard full-system Aprilaire duct cleaning, typical 2,000 – 3,000 sq ft home: $450 – $850
- Homes with an Aprilaire 5000 electronic air cleaner or whole-home dehumidifier requiring housing cleanup: add $100 – $250
- Access-limited attics, multi-story runs, or ducts in finished ceilings (common in older Pemberton Heights or Hyde Park builds): add $150 – $300
- Video inspection and before-and-after photo documentation: included at no charge on every job
- Filter replacements, if your media cabinet needs a new four-inch Aprilaire filter: quoted separately at cost
What moves the price is access, system length, and whether the Aprilaire component itself needs cleaning, not spray-on upcharges for “sanitizing fog” or “anti-microbial treatment” you didn’t ask for. Call (940) 283-6595 and we’ll give you a written price before any duct is touched. Estimates are free.
Why Austin Homeowners Call Cardinal Air Duct Austin for Aprilaire Work
We’re the air duct specialist inside the Relay Home Co. family, founded in 2005. Every booking runs on one standard: total visibility from booking to invoice. That means a live trackable arrival time, before-and-after photo proof, and a written price before work begins. The 365-Day Done Right Promise backs every job. If the work isn’t right within 365 days, we return and correct it at no charge. It’s the longest-standing satisfaction window in the trade, and it covers every job we do – not a select few we hand-pick. Our techs run professional-grade equipment: Rotobrush contact-vacuum systems, Nikro negative-air machines, and Abatement Technologies containment units. And since we also service Lennox, Trane, and Carrier systems around Austin, an Aprilaire-filtered home with another brand’s furnace or coil isn’t a problem – we work upstream and downstream of the filter cabinet. Clean air isn’t a luxury – it’s just what your system was built to deliver.
FAQs
No. Duct cleaning performed by a licensed and insured contractor does not void your Aprilaire equipment warranty. Aprilaire’s warranty covers manufacturing defects in their filtration and ventilation products, not the cleanliness of the ductwork connected to them. We’re an independent Aprilaire service provider, not a manufacturer-authorized dealer, and our cleaning process is designed around preserving the seals, gaskets, and electrical connections on Aprilaire cabinets. Omar Haddad and the crew have handled enough Aprilaire 5000 and 2210 installations to know which housings can be brushed and which should be vacuumed only.
Most full-system Aprilaire air duct cleaning jobs in Austin run $450 to $850 for a standard 2,000 to 3,000-square-foot home. If your Aprilaire 5000 electronic air cleaner or Model 1850 dehumidifier housing needs cleaning as part of the job, expect $100 to $250 more. Every quote we give is a written price delivered before work starts, and it does not change at the door. Call (940) 283-6595 and we’ll give you a firm number in Austin – estimates are free.
Because they’re not cleaning the whole system. A $99 or $149 whole-home duct cleaning quote is usually a per-vent lead-in price that balloons once the tech arrives and “finds” access issues, extra vents, or a dirty blower. On an Aprilaire system, that bait-and-switch is worse, because a low-cost tech will skip the filter housing and dehumidifier entirely – the exact spots where the problem lives. We quote one system price, in writing, before work starts. What’s on the page is what you pay.
You get before-and-after photos of your own ducts and a video walkthrough of the post-cleaning supply and return runs, every time. The camera doesn’t lie. We document the housing, the first ten feet of supply duct, and the return plenum. And every job comes with a written guarantee – if something wasn’t done right within 365 days, we come back and correct it at no charge.
Most Austin homes with a Aprilaire filter or ventilation system should be cleaned every four to six years. If we’re being honest, Austin’s oak pollen, cedar fever season, and the fine caliche dust that settles on everything might mean every three to four years for homes near active construction or on unpaved county edges. Austin’s climate pushes more fine particulate through the system than a coastal market would, and Aprilaire filtration captures a lot of it – which is why duct cleaning matters more here, not less. Call (940) 283-6595 and we’ll tell you what we’d suggest for your specific house.
Written by Omar Haddad, Owner, Cardinal Air Duct Austin at Cardinal Air Duct Austin, serving Austin and nearby areas.