Question for Ted, On Time Air’s head HVAC Expert Technician: Which home air filters will keep my family and friends the healthiest and safest from all of the bad stuff floating through the air in my home?
Answer: This is a very important question for anyone who cares about the health and safety of their loved ones. My standard approach is to replace the filters every 30 days, and I go with the basic, standard, pleated air filter. You can buy a three-pack at Home Depot for $9, or you can call us to order a case of filters and have them shipped to your home. They have filters that go from $0.50 to all the way up to $20. They have the cheap $0.50 blue fiberglass filters that’ll remove hair, big debris, stuff like that, but they won’t get any fine particulates out of your air, and if something can make it past the air filter, it’s going to go into your duct system and plug up your duct system. You will be breathing all that bad stuff. This will also plug up the coils that are inside your unit, which means now somebody’s has to come out, an HVAC company, and cut out the panels and put chemical treatment in there, and clean those coils, which, by the way, will cost hundreds of dollars. It’s just not worth it.
You can generally tell how well a filter does by the old salt check.
You can take your filter and put it over your kitchen sink. Then pour some salt on top of it, and look underneath and see what falls into the sink. If you can do that and a bunch of salt falls into your sink, you can imagine what you’re breathing. So I recommend the standard 1” pleated filters. If you go anymore than that with $20 filters that are super hypoallergenic and all that fancy stuff, those are going to really restrict the air stream to the air conditioning unit, which will starve it for air, and the air filter is going to plug up really fast. If the filter plugs up the air stream to the unit, then your motor will in result work harder. Less air in means less air out. So you’re not blowing as much air back into the house. This means that your unit is going to run longer to cool down your home. So it’s costing you more money to operate. Again, I just use the $3 pleated filters.
The standard pleat filter is actually a 30-day filter. A lot of folks mistakenly think these are three-month filters because that’s your super high restrictive air filter, and to me it doesn’t make sense because if it removes more particulates, it will also plug up faster.
So every 30 days is your new time limit for air filters. If you’re catching germs and debris, and whatever else is in the air, you want to toss it in the trash and start fresh. You don’t want to have your family and friends sit there and breathe in all that bad stuff, right? So do you and your loved ones a favor and change your filters our every 30 days.
What about lifetime filters?
The lifetime filters are made out of metal, sometimes stainless steel. Different manufacturers will recommend cleaning these different ways. You can put it in a dishwasher if you want, but the bottom line is, unless you have something on there to kill the germs, the germs are going to stay alive and you’re going to keep ingesting these bad things into your system.
A lot of people that move to the desert from different states have never had air conditioning before, so a lot of times, these desert newbies remove a filter that’s dirty, and sometimes they forget to replace it. If you forget to replace your air filter, then the whole system gets gunked up, and the duct work and everything, and all kinds of bad stuff happens. This can be really dangerous for the health of the family, and a dirty coil on your unit will cost you more money to operate, and it’ll also damage your system. So it just makes sense to keep things clean, clean, clean.
What are some of the bad things that can actually affect in people’s health if you don’t take care of this one simple thing?
Well, there’s allergens, allergies, mold, mildew; There’s all types of micro-organisms in the air that affect us as we breathe. So all of a sudden you get bronchitis which means you have to go see a doctor now. Absolutely the best filtration production on the market out there is our Trane Clean Effects system.
Remember, I, the HVAC expert, use the standard $3 pleated air filter, because I don’t want to pay a lot of money at the doctor’s office for health issues, we also have the Trane Clean Effects air filtration unit. It’s the only one that I endorse, and it removes 99.9% of all particulates and 0.1 microns. We look at things in the customer’s home as far as health and what’s going on, and breathing problems and dust, or whatever they need, and we try to get those issues addressed. The Trane Clean Effects system is a great solution, it’s been on the market now for about four years. It’s absolutely a winner. I have it in my house.
So, either go with the $3 pleated filters or go with a real deal Trane Clean Effects air filtration unit for a home. Your loved one’s health is worth it, wouldn’t you say?
If you’re looking to clean up your air quality, clear out the pet hair, remove the odor, or kill bacteria and dust mites to create a healthier home environment for you and your family, then you’re in need of a professional air duct cleaning. Now, if you’re more like Tim The Tool Man Taylor (hilarious 90’s sitcom) and you’re always into the top of the line and want to remove 99.9% of all particulates from the air, well then you’ll need something more powerful like the Trane Clean Effects air filtration unit.
