Car Vents Cleaning Made Easy: Enhancing Air Quality and Eliminating Odors

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Updated on:

June 23, 2023

Car Vents Cleaning: The Ultimate Guide to Improve Air Quality and Eliminate Odors

Your car's exterior will need extra care, but its inside shouldn't suffer as a result. You'll spend a lot of time in your automobile, sitting still and inhaling the air that comes out of the vents.

Cleaning of the air conditioner as well as ac vents and air filter is very crucial in order to keep the car's air healthy for you and you loved ones. Frequent cleaning will prevent future mold growth, keep impurities like debris from getting inside the vehicle, and eliminate bad smell. Clean air vents will ensure that your car is working properly and the air quality is at its best.

In this article, we will describe a couple of ways on how to clean car air vents with different supplies and methods.

Key Takeaways:

  • Clean car air vents for higher air quality, efficient airflow, and odor prevention.
  • Use a cleaning solution and brush to clean vents.
  • Use a sanitizing enzymatic cleaner for car AC vents.
  • Steam cleaning with a professional auto steamer for heavily soiled vents.
  • Regularly change cabin air filter and use compressed air or a fan blower for deep cleaning.

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perfectly clean car airr vents

Why It Is Important To Clean Car's Air Vents

Every air duct system has a number of screens and filters built in to prevent dirt, leaves, debris, and other irritants from getting inside. The final of these filters are the air vents in your car. When doing their jobs, screens and filters quickly begin to build up debris. Air vents can be cleaned to maximize their performance, just like any other type of filter.

Higher Air Quality

The air you and your passengers breathe will be of higher quality once you clean your air vents. Your lungs can be greatly affected by the quality of the air, which can also lead to new health problems or exacerbate existing ones. Although they are intended to help your car breathe cleaner air, if they aren't cleaned regularly they can accumulate dust, grime, mold, pollen, or other impurities.

It is not healthy for anyone to continuously breathe air that has been contaminated or deteriorated as a result of these environmental dangers. Anyone who is allergic to these toxins or who suffers from respiratory conditions like asthma, sinus problems, or chronic bronchitis may experience considerably worse symptoms.

Efficient Air Flow

Your duct system's airflow can be made more efficient with the help of clean air vents. This can result in warmer heat and cooler air conditioning while also easing the pressure on your duct system. Any time dirt, grime, or other physical remnants accumulate in a vent system, it might reduce how well ventilation operates. These obstructions will clog the vents, similar to congested blood arteries, and stop airflow through them.

Ventilation systems are intended to operate without any obstructions, therefore even little buildups can reduce their effectiveness. It may be because of a physical buildup of pollutants in your vents if you always need to crank up your heating or cooling to the highest settings to feel a difference.

Prevent Odors

Although the air in your car is initially introduced from the outside, your air duct system constantly recycles and repurposes it. If impurities in your vents, such as mold, spores, or bacteria, are deteriorating the air, it will only get worse with each reuse. This contaminated air may eventually begin to smell strongly and visibly.

Even if you use a high-quality air freshener or odor remover to help reduce the scent in your car, the mold and dust that caused it will still be there and continue to become worse.

cleaning vents with brush and cleaning solution

How To Clean Car Vents With A Cleaning Solution

You'll need a cleaning solution and brush for this technique. A commercial disinfectant spray cleaner is available, but you can also make a homemade cleaning solution using vinegar and warm water. Use the lemon-scented vinegar if you don't like the smell of white vinegar.

Step 1 - Cleaning vents

Clean the vent slats by dipping the brush into the disinfectant cleaner. Put the brush deep inside and make sure you cover all the nooks and crannies.

Step 2 - Drying vents

Grab a microfiber towel and dry the vents.

ozium air sanitizer

How To Clean Car AC Vents Using A Sanitizing Enzymatic Cleaner

Step 1 - Prepping car for cleaning air vents system

Before starting the cleaning, close all the car doors and windows of the vehicle. Then, turn off the air conditioner and car engine.

Step 2 - Gather all tools

Connect the straw that was included with the item. Spray after inserting the straw into the air vents. Use it on the dashboard, other air vents, and driver's and passenger's side AC vents of the car. Use your owner's manual if you are unable to locate the air vents.

Step 3 - Starting process

Turn on the air conditioning system and set it to maximum to circulate the air.

Step 4 - Filling system with enzyms

Spray the enzymatic cleaner into the intake duct located beneath the glove compartment. After that, switch the air conditioner to the fresh air intake setting and exit the vehicle.

Step 5 - Post ventilation

Spray inside the exterior air intake vents. Then, turn off the AC and open car doors and windows for ventilation.

cleaning air vents with steam

How To Clean Vents Using a Steam Cleaner

When dirt has started to adhere to the vent slats, cleaning agents and brushes just won't always be sufficient to remove it, especially on vehicles with severely neglected vents. It might be preferable to engage a professional auto steamer for difficult projects like these. The amazing thing about steamers for professional vehicle detailing is that in addition to being able to remove stubborn body oil and stuck-on filth, they can also disinfect surfaces, eliminating the need for potentially toxic chemical disinfectant sprays.

air vents steam cleaning

You can begin by gently running the steamer's nozzle over each individual vent slat, and you'll soon start to see how much dirt has truly been eliminated. The vents should be cleaned and dried after you've done steaming them. If any water gets behind the vents, don't worry; just put the fan on high to dry them out.

You can use the Fortador Volt Mini to perform the best car AC vents cleaning. This is a portable steamer that is powerful and simple to use. It comes with many attachments that can aid you in cleaning AC vents and other interior and exterior parts of your vehicle.

Tips for Air Vents Cleaning

  1. Use compressed air to get rid of the deeply embedded dust you might have stuck in both the air conditioner and the vents.
  2. Frequently change the car's cabin air filter. In order to maintain the air quality and air flow of your vehicle, you should change the old filter every six months.
  3. Use a fan blower to clean the AC vents regularly, and do it once a week or once every two weeks.
  4. You can find most of the supplies like a handheld brush, foam paintbrush, and a cleaning solution at a dollar store. There is no need to spend a lot of money on supplies that you won't be using very often.

These step by step guides will ensure that your air conditioning system will be at its best when using your car. A dirty paint job that requires a little additional care is rather obvious. It's considerably more difficult to determine whether the air you're inhaling is unclean, though. It's possible to smell something coming from the vents, but it usually takes a lot of breathing in contaminated air before your nose alerts you to a problem.

If you still smell odor, learn more about using ozone generator for car.

It will help to keep the air in your car fresh and increase the effectiveness of your heating and air conditioning if you clean your air vents properly and frequently.

About the Authors

Kristina Tretyakova
Distinguished as a South Florida Top-10 student in 2021. Studying Marketing and Business Administration at FIU. Proficient in daily operations and skilled in cleaning, auto detailing and copywriting.
Koren Zitser
Vip Air, Panama: 20+ years in global AC excellence. Partners with industry leaders, offers split to large-scale systems, specializing in VRF, Multi V, maintenance, and innovation.

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