Air Filters for My Ac And Heating System, How Often Should We Change Them? Ask The Expert

"Make a precision decision with Precision Air. Trained professionals with integrity. Call 602FIXMYAC. Make a precision decision with Precision Air." Hello everybody. Erik Bryan here, owner of Precision Air & Heating. Since 1995, we have performed well over 250,000 service calls across the valley. We thought, what better way to share our experience and know-how than answering some common homeowner questions. Rick in Phoenix asks, "If I don't replace my A/C filter, will it hurt anything? When does it need to be changed?" That's a good question Rick. The single most important thing that a homeowner can do is change their air filter. Most customers forget to do this. It's out of sight, out of mind....I understand. But they forget about it. It can cause multiple problems with the air conditioning unit. A dirty air filter is going to restrict air to the unit. These systems are designed to pull air in and push air out. If we have something in the middle going on, blocking the ability for the unit to do that, it's going to create higher head pressures on the compressor. It's going to strain on your motors and run caps. The end result is that the entire system works harder than it needs to work. Now...there are many different answers and philosophies on how often you should change your air filter. Everybody has a different opinion on it. The bottom line is this....it really, truly depends on the quality of air filter that you're using. So many people try to go buy a very cheap filter. It doesn't cost a lot of money and they think that's going to filter the air better. I got a couple of examples for you here. This is your typical box filter that you can buy at your local hardware store. Unfortunately, you could probably see my image through this filter. Remember that dirt and dust in a lot of cases is microscopic. If you can see me through this filter, you can be convinced that it's not going to filter much air. Too many people spend their money on these types of filters and they get a bad result. Let me show you an example of that. This is a filter that used to look like this one. This is a filter we pulled out of a customers house just yesterday. Here you can see that this filter has not been changed in a long time. Nor was it doing a good job. I'll tell you that the end result for this customer was that we ultimately had to end up cutting their evap coil out of their system, power washing it...because the coil was so impacted, like this filter is, and it cost this customer about $1600. They could have avoided that by simply putting in a good air filter. Now, we recommend a BoAir filter. This is a five part antimicrobial filter. This is the best filter on the market. It's metal framed, you take it outside, wash it down with a hose, kick it off, shake it off, and throw it back in there and you're good to go. This has a lifetime warranty on it. You can pick up a bow filter online and BoAir.com. One of these filters is going to cost $60 or $70. It has a liftetime warranty. You'll never buy another one ever again. You don't have to go the hardware store. You buy this one time, it comes to your house UPS. Fill out the card and mail it back and you get a lifetime warranty. It's what I have in my house. It works fantastic. It's the best on the market. Now, let me show you what a typical box filter...how it filters air. I think everybody will agree that a grain of salt is much larger than a grain or particle of dust floating around in your house. This filter, as I put salt on there...can't even stop the salt from going through the filter. Guys, if it can't stop salt particles, they simply cannot filter out dust particles. Here is the misconception. When you have a filter that only filters 25% of the air, the theory is everybody's been told you need to change your filter every single month. If you have a filter like that, first of all it's not doing anything. But in theory, you would have to change it less because it's not catching any dirt. A BoAir filter, filters out 98% of dust particles, guys it catches more dirt and dust and therefore it needs to be cleaned more often. There's the misconception out there that they are permanent washable filters and you don't need to clean them as often. That is completely untrue. This thing is filtering 98% of the dust particles in your home. It's going to get plugged up faster because it's filtering more air. Makes sense right? These need to be changed every 2 weeks. You need to clean these every 2 weeks. They are literally protecting the inside of your unit from plugging up. Thank you for sharing your questions. I hope this helps shed some light on keeping your home operating properly and as efficiently as possible. If you have questions, regarding your A/C, heating, plumbing or home performance needs, post your questions on our Facebook page and check back for additional videos. Who knows...we might just answer your question next. "Make a precision decision with Precision Air."