How do you clean vents?

Joseph K said:
The steam lifts it off the surface and just blows it into the dash/plumbing.. Dust is gonna accumulate in un-touched areas no matter what, but not enough to hurt any components.
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I didn't expect it to hurt anything, but it seems that by cleaning it *out* (instead of blowing it back down in there with the steam) you're actually decreasing the amount of dirt in the HVAC ductwork. The only dirt you *can* easily clean out is what you can reach through the vents, so I like to remove as much of that as I can.



I'll admit I've used the steamer for this, but I had the nagging feeling I wasn't doing the job as best I could...Guess this is a case of whatever-works-for-you. I've been known to dissasemble ductwork and *really* clean it out on cars I keep for decades, but that's a huge PIA that I'll usually leave go until some servicing requires the ductwork to come apart anyhow.
 
KnuckleBuckett said:
Aww...c'mon somebody has to use one of those Tornader widgets. I think they look amazing. However I fear that they must not be all the add sets you up to believe. Anyone?
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Here is a thread with a short review that I did:



Tornador, my initial thoughts..... - DetailingForums.com



In post # 3 I have a link to a foreign site that has some pretty good pictures and videos.



If you already have an air compressor and do a lot of interiors this is a great tool to have......... and it's great for nooks and crannies. As for air vents I'd want to vacuum them first, because like a steamer, most of what you clean will go down into the vent.
 
i know this thread is kind of old but what if you turned the vents to high and then used steam? would that clean the vents without much of the dust ending up in the plumbing?



anyone see what im saying? i dont have a steamer but id be interested to find out if it works
 
Hit it with a foaming cleaner (I tend to use foaming glass cleaner like sprayway because it's readily available) then spray it out with a compressor. You shouldn't take more than 10 seconds to properly clean your vents out. I used to have detailers come in all the time and grab friggin qtips and MF towels and screwdriver and all sorts of other very bad idea's and try to look all professional doing it. To me you look like a moron wasting so much valuable time. If you're spending over a minute tops doing vents you're wasting time that could be used doing something way more productive.
 
Mine don't really need a cleaner so I have a modified leaf blower with an extremely short tube (maybe 4 or 5 inches) and I leave all of the doors open. I lightly mist a MF with whatever dash cleaner I'm using and I blow the dash, doors, console area and vents with the blower while I'm wiping. Both of my vehicles have black interiors and they come perfect (to my eyes) every time. I am just a weekend OCD warrior that cleans my own vehicles though.
 
I don't get this approach :confused: Not an :argue but rather a genuine inquiry...am I missing something here?



Doesn't using air just blow the dust/etc. around, spreading it out but still leaving it still inside the interior/vents....doesn't it just settle somewhere else (whence it might return to the original places anyhow)?



While I do use the steamer to blast [stuff] out of inaccessible areas, I do 99.9% of my interior work with cloths/swabs/etc. The dirt ends up on those cleaning media, so I know it's been literally removed from the vehicle...not just spread out or blown into places where I don't see it any more.



Whenever I clean out ductork and/or replace blower motors or other parts, things are usually pretty dirty in there...seems like blowing more dirt down into the ductwork/diverter valves, flappers, linkage/motors would make things worse; I want the dirt *out* of there.
 
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