When Adrian and Courtney came out to do our duct cleaning last week (subject of a previous 5-Star review) Adrian talked to us about getting our duct system sealed. We set up an appointment to have an Amistee representative come out to assess our system and give us an estimate. We also did some preliminary research on our own. The duct sealing process Amistee offers is called Aeroseal. There are informative videos about Aeroseal on YouTube from ‘This Old House’ and other credible sources. Amistee’s website also has a good video on the subject.
As it turned out, the manager of Amistee’s duct sealing operation (Steve S) came out to look at our system and provide an estimate. Steve also provided additional information about the product, the process, and Amistee’s experiences installing the product in the region. He walked us through our condo and used an airflow meter to show us what we were getting out of the various ducts. The further we got from our furnace the weaker the airflow became. The furthest duct had almost 2/3 less airflow than the closest duct, making a good case that we would benefit from getting our ductwork sealed. We were pleased with the estimate that Steve provided, and scheduled the work for the very next day.
The team that came out to do our Aeroseal process, Preston and Nick, did a great job. There is quite a bit of prep work involved in this process, including removing duct covers which had been painted over years ago, sealing all of the ducts, and moving some hefty machinery into position to blow the sealant into the system. Present and Nick were thorough, meticulous and respectful of our home in their work.
Once all the setup and system prep work was done, the team covered our possessions in the vicinity of the injection area and started the process. The process is computer controlled, and a sensor placed in a nearby duct provided data to calculate airflow and leakage. The initial readings showed leakage of just over 300 CFM against a total system capacity of 800 CFM. As the sealant accumulated and began to set around the leaking areas in the system the computer readout showed the leakage rate start to drop. After about 25 minutes we were down to a leakage rate of just over 34 CFM; an improvement of almost 90%.
After the injection system was uncoupled and our system was ready to be restarted the temperature in our unit had fallen to about 60 degrees. With the ductwork sealed we got back to 70 degrees in about 30 minutes after turning the furnace back on. We were very impressed by that; after a power outage last winter a similar recovery had taken at least twice as long.
Amistee and their duct sealing team made sure everything was properly cleaned up before leaving, and did a great job with that, too.
A day later, we are in the middle of a winter storm situation. The temperature in our master bedroom within a degree of where the thermostat is set. Previously the temperature in this room would be at least 3 degrees colder than the thermostat setting during cold weather.
Our impressions from our experiences with Amistee are extremely positive. All of the people we’ve dealt with have been friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and professional.
When we contracted with Amistee we were looking to control the dust in our unit, improve the temperature consistency across the unit, and reduce our energy usage for both heating and air conditioning.The early signs are very encouraging. I’ll update the review in 6 months with some additional results!
– Bert R 02/22/2023
