If you have been getting quotes, you have probably noticed that no two companies call this the same thing. One advertises air duct cleaning, the next AC duct cleaning, a third air vent cleaning, and a fourth ductwork cleaning. It is reasonable to assume these are different services with different prices.
They are not. With one important exception, they all describe the same job.
The short answer
AC duct cleaning, air duct cleaning, AC vent cleaning, air vent cleaning, ductwork cleaning and HVAC duct cleaning are all names for cleaning the supply and return ducts of your central air system. Same equipment, same work, same price range of $300 to $600 per system in Florida.
The exception is dryer vent cleaning, which is a genuinely different service on a genuinely different duct. If a quote covers that, it should be itemised separately.
Why Florida says “AC” and the north says “heating”
The vocabulary is regional, and it tells you where the person you are talking to learned the trade.
In Florida, the ducts in your house exist to move cold air. Almost no home here has a gas furnace, so the ductwork is thought of as belonging to the air conditioner, and “AC duct cleaning” or “AC vent cleaning” is the natural phrasing. In Ohio the identical ducts carry heat for six months of the year and get called heating ducts.
The industry’s own term, and the one used in the standards, is HVAC system cleaning, covering heating, ventilation and air conditioning together. It is accurate and nobody outside the trade says it.
Vent, duct, and the distinction that does matter
Loosely, these words get used interchangeably. Strictly, they describe different parts, and the difference is worth understanding because it is where a cheap quote hides.
- The vent, or register, is the grille you can see in the ceiling, wall or floor. It is the last six inches of the system.
- The duct is the run behind it, travelling through your attic, wall or crawl space back to the air handler. It is most of the system, and all of the part you cannot inspect.
- The plenum and trunk are the main sections leaving the air handler that everything else branches off.
A company advertising “vent cleaning” for $59 may be entirely truthful and still be selling you something close to worthless: pulling the registers, running a vacuum into the first arm’s length of each, and leaving. The registers look better. The system is unchanged.
This is why the right question is never “what do you call it”. It is “what specifically are you cleaning, and how far in do you get”.
What a real job covers, whatever it is called
Regardless of the name on the invoice, the work should include:
- The full supply and return runs, cleaned under negative pressure so debris is pulled out of the system rather than pushed further into it. This is what the NADCA source removal standard requires.
- The plenum and main trunk lines, which hold more debris than the branches.
- The registers and boots, cleaned rather than just wiped.
- The evaporator coil, blower and drain pan, or an explicit statement that they are not included and what they cost. In Florida this is not optional detail. The coil is wet for most of the year and it is where mold appears first, so cleaning ducts and leaving the coil is treating the symptom.
If a quote does not say which of these it covers, it is not a quote yet.
The one that is actually different
Dryer vent cleaning gets grouped in with the others in search results and it should not be. Different duct, different problem, different job.
Your dryer vents through its own dedicated duct to the outside, carrying hot, wet air full of lint. It has no connection to the air conditioning system at all. The risk it carries is fire rather than air quality: the US Fire Administration counts about 2,900 clothes dryer fires in residential buildings a year, with failure to clean the leading contributing factor.
It costs $100 to $200, takes 45 to 90 minutes, and should be done annually rather than every three to five years. If a company bundles it into a duct cleaning quote without itemising it, ask what the vent portion covers, because “we will do the dryer too” sometimes means running a brush into the first three feet.
What to ask, in five questions
The terminology stops mattering the moment you ask about the work instead:
- Are you cleaning the full runs or the registers and the first few feet?
- Do you use negative pressure on the whole system, and what equipment?
- Is the evaporator coil included? The blower? The drain pan?
- Is the dryer vent separate, and what does that cost on its own?
- What is the total, and what would change it once you are here?
A company that answers all five plainly is one you can compare against another. A company that answers by repeating the name of the service is not.
What we call it, and what it costs
We use “air duct cleaning” across this site because it is the most widely understood phrase, but everything above applies. Whether you searched for AC duct cleaning, air vent cleaning or ductwork cleaning, the service is the same one:
| Job | Florida price |
|---|---|
| Air duct, AC duct or ductwork cleaning, single system | $300 to $600* |
| Dryer vent cleaning | $100 to $200* |
| Evaporator coil and air handler cleaning | $200 to $450* |
| Air duct sanitizing, after cleaning | $75 to $200 add-on* |
* Starting points rather than flat rates. The figure moves with the size of the home, the number of systems and what we find. You get it before we book, not after.
