Aeroseal Duct Sealing: Stop Losing Cooled Air Before October

If your air conditioner is still working overtime in late September, you're not imagining it. Colorado Springs used to reliably cool down by the third week of August. Over the past three decades, the average date of the season's last 90-degree day has drifted from mid-August to right around Labor Day, which means your cooling system, and your ductwork, is still on duty well past when most homeowners assume the season is over.

At Big Cat Plumbing, Heating & Cooling, we field calls every September from homeowners whose energy bills don't match how much they think they're actually running the AC. Most of the time, the real problem is hiding in the ductwork itself, not the thermostat setting.

Why Leaky Ducts Are Still Costing You in September

Every duct system leaks some air, and that's just physics. Sheet metal joints, flex duct connections, and register boots all have seams, and those seams shift as your house settles and temperatures swing through the year. National research on this is consistent: typical residential duct systems lose somewhere between 25 and 40 percent of the heated or cooled air moving through them before it ever reaches a vent. Even ductwork installed within the last year can leak 10 to 30 percent.

Colorado Springs makes this worse than most places. September here regularly swings from highs in the 90s to overnight lows near freezing within the same week, so your HVAC system is cycling hard in both directions, and every leaked percentage point of conditioned air gets multiplied by how often the system runs.

Signs your ducts are leaking more than they should:

• Rooms that never quite hit the temperature on the thermostat
• Strong airflow from some vents, weak or none from others
• Energy bills climbing even though your schedule hasn't changed
• More dust than usual collecting near vents and registers
• Whistling, rattling, or hissing sounds near ductwork when the system runs

What Is Aeroseal Duct Sealing?

Aeroseal isn't some new gimmick. It was developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the early 1990s with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, and Carrier now owns the technology, which lines up with Big Cat being both a Carrier authorized dealer and an Aeroseal authorized installer.

Our Aeroseal duct sealing process is straightforward:

1. We seal off your vents and registers, pressurize the duct system, and measure exactly how much air is escaping and where.
2. We inject a nontoxic polymer aerosol directly into the pressurized ducts. The particles ride the escaping air toward each leak and build up at the edges until the gap closes, sealing holes up to a quarter inch wide from the inside.
3. We retest the system and show you the before-and-after numbers, so you can see the actual improvement instead of taking our word for it.

The job typically takes about half a day, and it doesn't require tearing into drywall, ceilings, or crawling through your attic yourself. Most homeowners see duct leakage drop by up to 90 percent, and the seal is guaranteed to hold for ten years.

Duct Sealing vs. Duct Cleaning vs. Duct Replacement

Sealing isn't the only ductwork service out there, and it's worth knowing the difference so you don't pay for the wrong one.

• Duct sealing closes physical leaks in the ductwork itself, the gaps letting conditioned air escape before it reaches your rooms.
• Duct cleaning removes dust, debris, and buildup inside the ducts. It helps air quality more than energy bills.
• Duct replacement is for ductwork that's physically damaged: crushed sections, collapsed flex duct, or systems over 30 years old that are falling apart at the seams.

If your ducts are structurally sound but leaking air, sealing solves the problem without the cost or mess of tearing anything out. If they're already damaged, sealing won't hold, and we'll tell you honestly if replacement is the better call.

Why Fall Is the Right Time to Get This Done

Waiting until winter doesn't buy you anything. The same gaps leaking your cooled air right now will leak heated air the moment you switch the system over, and Colorado Springs' first hard freeze usually isn't far behind that last 90-degree day. Getting this done in September means:

• You stop losing conditioned air for whatever's left of cooling season
• Your system runs efficiently the moment you switch over to heat
• You beat the rush before furnace and heating calls pick up for the season

If you're running a smart thermostat, sealed ducts make it work harder for you. A thermostat can only manage the temperature it reads at the wall. It has no way to account for air disappearing into your attic before it ever reaches the room.

If You're Considering a Heat Pump, Seal First

If you're weighing a switch to a heat pump for next year, get your ducts sealed first. Heat pumps move air at a lower temperature differential than a gas furnace or a straight AC unit, so duct leaks eat a bigger share of their output relative to a conventional system. A heat pump paired with leaky ductwork will underperform no matter how high its efficiency rating looks on paper. Sealing the ducts first means you actually get the performance you're paying for.

Schedule Your Duct Sealing With Big Cat

Colorado Springs' cooling season isn't finished, and neither is the money leaking out of your ductwork every day it stays unsealed. Big Cat Plumbing, Heating & Cooling is a Colorado Springs HVAC company serving homeowners throughout southern Colorado, including Pueblo, Fountain, Cañon City, Florence, and Penrose, with certified Aeroseal duct sealing.

Contact us to schedule an inspection and find out exactly how much air, and money, your ductwork is losing before the weather turns.