Pacific & Santa Monica Air Duct

Don’t use Pacific Air Duct! I spoke with the owner the first couple of times by phone and he reviewed with me what be included in the price which is what they advertise: "cleaning of vent grates, removal of the vent grates with a thorough cleaning of the ducts with their top of the line cleaner, a disinfectant spray, replace filter, oh and they'll even clean the dryer vent and duct for me - all for $185." Someone other than the owner showed up with a large shop vac (nothing state of the art about it) and spent some time vacuuming around the furnace area. Some friends had showed up and kept me from focusing on his work, but why should I have worried - this was an Angie's List A+ performer? In less than an hour he says he's finished. Really - $185 an hour? I said, but you haven't even removed the vent grates. He says, oh most people don't want us to take those off because it ruins the paint. What? The main part of your service is to clean the ducts. He says well I was able to clean it through the furnace side. I helped him take the vents grates off and there was a bunch of dust remaining in the all the ducts. Then he tells me he couldn't replace the filter because they only have the standard size filter and mine was some special heppa filter, but he assured me that he vacuumed it to clean it and suggested I buy new one when I have the chance. I asked him to show me where he cleaned the dryer vent. He pointed to the vent tube and said he removed it and vacuumed it all the way up. He said the dryer vented up through the wall to the roof. After he left I was a little suspicious because it didn't look like the dryer was moved at all to unscrew the vent tube. So I turned on the dryer and went to see where it vented. It vented down below the house and I could see there was a bunch of dryer debris caked on the internal venting tube. When I went to replace the furnace filter two days later it was the most disgusting thing - covered with pet hair from the previous owner, and dirt and dust. There's no way he even looked at this thing. I have no idea how they achieved such a strong rating on Angie’s List. I felt robbed. If you're thinking about using this company I would suggest buying a shop vac with an extended hose and step ladder. It'll cost you about $80 and you get to keep the vac and ladder and you'll be able to do a more thorough job. I should have immediately followed up to get my money back, but I was so caught up with moving in and work that I haven’t even had the chance to give feedback until now. I can’t overstate how disappointing their lack of service was and would strongly suggest if you do use them you video it or document in some way so you can get your money back when they fail.

I originally started working with Charlie because of a concern about my drier vent. He cleaned out lost of debris, And then when I saw the condition of the air ducts as he worked on them, I decided to have him come annually to make sure there is good flow everywhere. Nothing better than clean air, and Charlie knows how to make sure you get it!! He is prompt, efficient, and delightful to have around while he's working. I highly recommend his company if you need your ducts and vents cleaned and maintained.

Pacific Air Duct Company was great. They gave me a 5% discount on the total bill. I think the price was reasonable. They were prompt. They were on time. They were very helpful. They were very cheerful. I would use them again in the future.

This was quite an interesting exercise. I had gotten the name of an air duct cleaner from our HVAC company. I called them and their quote was $1800! I thought (hoped) I could do better so I went on Angie's List and read reviews. Called one of the companies that received excellent reviews and they quoted $950. What a difference! I had left a message with Pacific, but hadn't heard back in a day or so and booked the $950. provider - heck, I was already ahead by $900! Pacific called me two more times and I finally answered. Their quote was $350!!! Really, this is all confusing for me. I gave each company the same answers as to how many vents, units and floors. How the prices could be that much different is incredible. Went with the lowest cost. Charlie arrived on time with his assistant. Spent about 4 hours here and, while I never saw what the vents looked like before (Charlie said they were very bad) and never saw them after the cleaning, I felt that Charlie was very honest and thorough. Would definitely use them again.

Quoted rate over the phone and was here two days later....would have come next day but we were busy. They were a little late (30 minutes) but we are a long drive and traffic happens. Besides they called and to say they were running late which is all I ever ask. They were in and out within about 2 1/2 hours. Terrific service at a reasonable rate. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Overall a good experience! I had sent the company an email via Angie's List. They called me back the very next morning and gave me a quote of $225 over the phone and reminded me that I could use the Angie's List 5% discount. They gave me a time for the next day. The appointment was scheduled for noon and they arrived a few minutes past the hour only because they had written the house number down incorrectly. Charles and his assistant Richard got right to work, removed the heater filter, cleaning in the furnace compartment and then vent by vent from one room to the next. They removed the grates from each vent, one vacuumed and cleaned the cover while the other used the hose and brushes to clean inside the vent itself. They also cleaned out my dryer vent to the outside, going the extra mile to make sure that the dryer hose was attached correctly, no easy feat in my tiny washer/dryer closet. The whole event took place in about an hour and a half. I checked in as they worked and they were quite thorough and each vent looked better after they had tackled it. They also replaced the old filter with a much nicer new one and gave me the specs for which filter to buy when it came time to replace this new one. After my Angie's List discount the total came to $213.75, not bad for a total of 6 vents, plus the dryer vent, and a quick but thorough job overall. Both Charles and Richard were friendly and did a decent job of cleaning up after each vent's debris.

Rick showed up with in a few minutes of the appointment time. The lady I made the appointment stated it would be approximately 2 hours to complete all work. Once I showed Rick where all of the ducts (including the hidden intake air ducts). He got to work immediately with what looked like an over sized shop vac with HEPA attachments. I did not sneeze the whole time that device was running, which attests to how well it was not throwing anything back into the air. Rick did an awesome job. He removed and cleaned each register (very thoroughly) and showing me where there had been ceiling popcorn sprayed into the vent (which he also removed). I don't think he even took a break!! All in all Rick spent around 6 hrs completing the job. I will definitely have them come out next year to touch up!!

Pacific Air Duct's owner, Charles Gigliotti, showed up personally with Rick, the technician. They were on time, friendly and knowledgable. They did a very comprehensive job, which indicated to me just how poorly his competition had done in the past. He corrected a problem with the air filter lock in the heater. He even went to the local hardware store and bought a high quality replacement filter...which he didn't even charge us for! The heater is working great, no dust, and we can breathe again. These folks are fantastic, and I wouldn't have found them but for Angie's List. As long as Charlie is in business he will have me as a customer. Thanks Angie's List!

The appointment was at noon. I was informed that it would be a little bit late. Ricky arrived at 12.35. He was very friendly and talkative. I followed wherever he went so I could observe. One of the biggest problem I found was that the cleaning hose and the attached brush did not go very far (at one duct which at lease 7 feet long, it went in about 3 feet) The answer from Ricky was that the dirt would not go the far either. He left around 3 pm, after he cleaned the floor and put back the furnitures.

We have been happy with the system until August 29, 2010 when our Lennox circulating fan stopped working. Our air conditioning expert told us that fan stop working when the filters are clogged. The filters are in an enclosed box that we were told wouldn't need to be checked for 3 years. Turns out that the filters were EXTREMELY clogged after a year and a half. They have to be ordered from a specialty company and they cost $400!!!! Charlie repaired our circulating fan and only charged $200. He told us the filters would be delivered to us and they would be free. We didn't receive them or hear from Charlie. I called on September 20, a month after our first problem. Charlie has the filters and agreed to come on Thursday before 3 to install them. No Charlie. No phone call. I have called him today, 9/24. He had excuses for not showing up and says he will be here today to install. I've had to work much too hard to have him show up and take care of a problem that we should not have had in the first place. The filters -- there are 5 of them(!!) were guaranteed to last 3 years! They lasted half of that time. I regret having put the system in. We had a permanent allergy filter previously and if we have to spend $400 every year and a half for filters, it's not what we expected or were promised by Charlie or the IQ company.

terrible; nothing is fixed; moving on to another company.

When I called to schedule the appointment, the man I spoke with quoted me a price and described a very thorough process of cleaniNg and sanitizing all air ducts, cleaning the AC filter and the dryer vent. I had read the other reviews and knew that this company might not be doing as thorough of a job as other companies but I went with them because theIr price is much lower and I didn't know if our ducts really needed cleaning at all (we have just moved in and just wanted the peace of mind). The guy who did the cleaning arrived with a shop vac as described by other reviewers. He didn't take off all the register covers and he was here for only about an hour. He did show me that there really wasn't any debris in our vents so the cleaning wasn't really necessary. In the end, I'm glad I went with them because it cost half as much as the other companies. If I knew for sure I had really dirty ducts, I would fInd another company.

When I was told my dryer vent needed to be cleaned out but the appliance repair person didn't do that job, I was desperate to get someone out asap since I'd twice had the dryer fixed in the preceding weeks and really was getting tired and inconvenienced. I went on Angie's List and was delighted to find a company that specialized in duct cleaning and was located close to my neighborhood. I called and they were really nice and responsive and came out the next day. I wasn't home, but my husband was super happy with the person who came out. He (I'm sorry my husband didn't get the person's name) was very knowledgeable and gracious, and did a great job cleaning out the dryer vent. At my husband's request, the same person came out the next day and gave us a quote to clean all of the ducts in the house. That work was completed shortly thereafter. The price for all of the work totaled $500k, and we were so pleased we insisted that they put us on a yearly schedule to have the work repeated once a year. We definitely and enthusiastically recommend them to others.

She recommeded another place, but I didn't call them. I was confused because they are listed as a dryer vent cleaning service, but they will only do that if they clean all the other air ducts in the house, which is much more expensive.

It was an "oh crap" moment and Pacific Air Ducts fixed the problem.

The homeowner told me they arrived on time and did a great job. As a concierge, I LOVE when people do what they promise, so this made me happy. Here is the letter I received from the homeowner after the cleaning: Hi Seana, Just wanted you to know that Pacific Air Duct did a very good job. The guy was professional and was also very conscious not to mess up my painted register grates. I would recommend them for sure. Thank you for scheduling it! Amanda

Charlie came to the house, inspected the ductwork. Much of it was improperly installed - his opinion was in line with that of a previous mold inspector that had come to the house. Charlie had an associate who custom fabricates and installs ductwork come that afternoon to give us a quote and he started the same day. Came back on a saturday to finish and Charlie was there on Tuesday morning. The crew were quick, efficient, and apparently pretty effective. Very happy with the experience.

In need to clean up air duct after living in the house for years, we found the contact info through this site. Before selecting the provider, we talked to several people in the area and each one claimed a big problem in the air duct. And thousands dollars would be needed to fix and clean the air duct. Charlie's price and service were more reasonable and inline with our expectation. Overall, we liked the service and would highly recommend him to our friends.

My dryer duct was packed with lint, the clothes would not dry even after several rounds in the dryer. Describing my problem to another company over the phone, they wanted to come out and replace the duct and quoted me ?over $400? to do it. I called Charles and he came out and told me I do not have to replace it, just give it a very through cleaning. Charles disconnected my dryer and went to work from both ends of the duct, and even made sure there was no lint in the dryer itself. Before he left, he told me how to do monthly maintenance so the problem would not reoccur.

I should have put more stock in the review from Nov. 1, 2009. It is accurate, except that that report was a "B" overall rating. The equipment used cannot effectively clean the ducts in my opinion. The vacuum is simply a shop vac which if working properly might be sufficient, but it was reported to me that it wasn't this day. They were constantly checking the suction because it wasn't picking up debris well. The brush they used was described as only about 3-1/2 to 4 inches in diameter and maybe 1/2 inch thick which attaches to a segmented rod attached to a drill motor. I guess they rely on the wobble of the brush to clean the walls of the ducts. The duct brushes that I am familiar with are more like bottle brushes with about 4 inches of brush in longitudinal length, and each brush is the diameter of the pipe to be cleaned. I believe the smallest of our ducts are 6 inches in diameter which is quite a bit bigger than their brush that they used for all of the ducts cleaned. I had my trusted hvac guy come in to install an Aprilaire filter the very next day, and he found probably a dustpan full of debris in the intake plenum that was supposedly cleaned by Charlie and his helper the night before. This may have been due to his vacuum not working well, but needless to say, they weren't very thorough. When I called Charlie initially, he stated that he needed a 24 hour notice to do the work requested. I called a week later to see if he could do it the same day. He said he could come at 3pm, but didn't get there until around 5:30pm. That was fine since he called to let me know that he was delayed. I was thrilled that he could come at all on such short notice. I believe that he did the job the best that he could with the equipment he has and did what he said he was going to do. That means a lot to me because so many do not. However, I don't feel that the work done was worth even the discounted price he charged ($40 off from his normal price of $275).

Charlie is very professional. He knew exactly what the problem was and he fixed it right the first time. He came out a second day to check that everything was working fine. He provided exceptional service and I highly recommend him. I was very impressed by him!

Called to set up appointment. Arranged to be available for an estimate at my house on the weekend-they did not show up. Called again assuming that perhaps they had lost my cell number. Informed they had indeed lost it. Made the same arrangements for the following weekend and had the same unprofessional results. I guess he's so busy due to his extremely high grades with Angie's list that he can afford to blow off customers whenever he chooses to.

This duct-cleaning was simply general vacuuming! Nothing more! Luckily not a large sum was involved so it was not too painful a lesson. Nevertheless it was disappointing. The process, the method, and the equipments were nothing like some of the better ones seen on YouTube, and nothing like what I had visualized from the description given over phone. The team brought in a metal ladder and equipments. No attempt was made to protect the flooring. The portable machine did not appear to be particularly special, just looked industrial and appeared larger & more powerful than household shop-vacs. The vacuum tube was not big with its diameter similar to a coffee mug?s. Each vent-register was opened, one person controlled the vacuum tube and another person controlled a small round brush on a medium-long cord (via an electric screwdriver to enable ?snaking? action). At best, the portion reached by the tube and the brush was cleaned. I am highly skeptical that the cleaning was complete; and I am still afraid to turn on the furnace. Other comment: The work team was friendly,hard working, and did the best possible with this methodology. The reception team was responsive and made timely follow-ups when I needed to re-arrange the schedule.

I called on a Monday morning and scheduled the work for the next day in the afternoon. Charlie called around 9:30am on the service day and said he could come earlier if that was okay. It was and he came within the hour. Very knowledgeable and friendly and knows what he is doing. Will definitely use him again.

Very professional. Our stacking washer drier combo is located in a tight closet and required a lot of tight space maneuvering to get to the duct. All done professionally and with dispatch. A pleasure to work with.