Should you clean the ducts in a house you just bought?
Not automatically. But this is the one moment when looking is genuinely worth it, because you are the only person in the chain who has no idea what the last twenty years put in there.
Guides
What I know.Written down.
Including the parts that talk you out of hiring me.
How often do air ducts actually need cleaning?
The EPA does not recommend cleaning air ducts on a schedule. Here is what genuinely makes a system worth cleaning, and why your dryer vent is a different question with a different answer.
How to tell if your dryer vent is clogged
Six signs, roughly in the order you notice them. Most people read the first few as the dryer getting old, and one of them means stop using it until the vent is cleared.
Cleaning your mini-split filter is not cleaning your mini-split
The filter is the part you can reach in thirty seconds. The coil and the blower wheel are the parts that actually get dirty, and rinsing a filter in the sink does not touch either one.
Mold in ducts: what is normal here and what is not
Most of the dark stuff people photograph inside a duct is dust. Real growth needs water, so the useful question is never whether there is mold, it is where the water is coming from.
Rather just ask?
Call or text. You will get the same answer you would get here, about your house instead of a general one.