How To Replace Air Filter In Home

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Changing your home air filter is a quick, easy way to keep your air conditioner, furnace, or central air system running efficiently. Maintaining a clean air filter can keep your energy costs downwards and reduce the risk of mold or bacteria growing in your air system. Check your filter at least one time a month when it's beingness used often, and change the filter at least every 3 months.

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Check your unit's filter every month when it'south in frequent use. If you're using your air unit on a daily ground -- running your air conditioner in the summertime, for example -- yous should check the unit'southward filter in one case a month. This way you will be able to run across if the filter is dirty and needs irresolute.^[1]
- If you don't use your air unit oftentimes, you may still desire to check your filter in one case a month if your household includes pets, smokers, or a large amount of people.^[2]
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Change your filter once a calendar month if it is not pleated. If your unit's filter is non-pleated (has a smooth surface instead of a ridged 1), information technology has less surface area to filter out particles and will become dirty and ineffective sooner. You may prefer non-pleated filters as they oftentimes have lower free energy costs, but exist prepared to change them more often.^[three]

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Install a new filter at least every 3 months when it's in frequent use. Fifty-fifty if your filter doesn't look peculiarly dirty, it should be inverse at to the lowest degree every 3 months when information technology'southward existence used regularly. Air conditioners should have new filters every 3 months in the summer, and the same goes for furnace filters in the winter.^[4]
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Alter your filter anytime information technology looks dirty, damp or moldy. No thing when you changed it last, y'all should ever get a new filter if your current i appears dirty or clammy, or if it seems to be growing mold. If you hold your air filter up to a light, you should be able to encounter through information technology easily. If not, it should be changed immediately.^[five]

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Ask your HVAC installer what filter to use. If yous are effectually when your HVAC unit of measurement is installed, ask the technician what kind of filter it takes and how to install information technology. If you have a window unit, you may exist able to talk to a representative from the shop or company that supplied information technology and detect out which filter to buy.^[six]
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Look for a characterization on your unit of measurement that says which filter will fit. Many air units have labels somewhere on the outside that will say which kind of filter to purchase. Check any visible parts of your unit for a label.^[7]
- Some common air filter sizes are sixteen by 20 inches (41 cm × 51 cm), 16 by 25 inches (41 cm × 64 cm) 20 by 25 inches (51 cm × 64 cm). You should ever get by the size listed on the air filter and not its actual measurements, which are oftentimes a piddling smaller than the characterization states.^[8]
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Take a picture of your electric current filter to the store. The best style to ensure that you get the right filter is to lucifer it with the one already in utilise. Have out the current filter and run into if it has a characterization or number. Take a movie of any information written on the filter and of the filter itself to help yous lucifer it in the store.
- Y'all can too have the sometime filter itself to the store, but make sure y'all leave your unit turned off while the filter is removed. You should also wait for the pointer mark on the outside of the filter and make a note of which way it'south pointing and then yous will know which way to install the new ane.^[nine]
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Choose a filter with a MERV rating of at least half dozen. MERV stands for Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, which substantially ways how well information technology'southward able to filter out small particles. Notwithstanding, filtering more finer also means using more energy, so a college rating will raise your energy bill. 6 is an boilerplate rating for filters, and a good compromise between effective filtering and affordability.^[10]
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Purchase a filter with a college MERV rating if you are concerned about air quality. If someone in your household is allergies or asthma, or if you believe there is an unusual amount of dust or other particles in your air, y'all may want to opt for a filter with a MERV rating between 7 and 12. This will cost you lot more in free energy apply, merely volition filter more than effectively. This can be a adept choice for someone with a large family unit or several pets.^[xi]

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1

Locate your HVAC unit if you have fundamental air. If y'all have central air and estrus, you'll need to find the chief unit of measurement that weather and circulates the air. This is commonly in a basement, closet, or other out-of-the-manner infinite. Effort following any visible pipes or ducts through your business firm until it leads y'all to the HVAC unit, which volition exist a big metal contraption.
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Look for an air filter slot in your unit of measurement. On a HVAC unit, this will probably be somewhere between the air handler, a large box where the air is conditioned, and the plenum, another metal box located side by side to the unit of measurement itself. On a window air conditioner, the filter slot should be behind the grill that faces into your house.
- The location of the filter slot tin vary from one unit to the next, but it should look like a long, thin opening with a removable encompass.
- If you tin't detect a filter slot on your HVAC unit, try looking in the vents that blow air into your rooms. Some systems have filters in the return air vents themselves, although this is commonly only true of systems with 2 or fewer vents.
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Turn your unit off. To avoid hurting the machinery or yourself, you'll want the unit of measurement to exist off when you lot alter the air filter. This will also keep whatsoever dust or particles from getting into the machinery while the filter is removed.^[12]
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Remove the sometime filter. The filter should slide out easily. Exist careful when removing information technology, as information technology may exist covered in dirt and dust that could come loose and make a mess if handled too roughly.
- If the filter doesn't come out easily, you lot can attach a folded tab of duct tape to the side of the new air filter to make an like shooting fish in a barrel-pull handle for next time.^[xiii]
- The one-time filter can be thrown in the trash. You may desire to carry it to the trash in a garbage pocketbook to go on information technology from shedding dust and dirt on the way.
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Insert the new air filter. It should slide in the empty slot with little to no resistance. The filter should have an arrow on the side that indicates the direction of the airflow. Make sure this arrow points in the aforementioned direction the old filter did, which will be towards the ductwork and the unit's blower.^[14]
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Bank check for whatever gaps around the filter once it's in. If you find whatever gaps or other signs that the filter does not fit correctly, remove information technology and put the old filter back in temporarily. You may have the wrong size of filter, in which case you should double bank check which kind you lot should have and purchase a new i. It's also possible that your new filter was somehow damaged and misshapen. Look at it closely to see if you can detect any damage, and if and so, return it to the store and buy another.^[15]
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Clean off whatever rest dust with a rag or vacuum. If any dust or dirt was shaken off the quondam filter when it was removed, be sure to clean it up. Use a rag or vacuum to remove every bit much of the grit as possible.^[16]
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Plow the unit of measurement on to make certain it's still running well. It should run the same equally information technology did before, or else accept slightly better air pressure. If anything sounds or smells strange, or if the organisation isn't running at all, phone call a HVAC technician.
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Make a note of when you replaced the filter. This volition assist you keep track of how often you're changing the filter, and ensure that you think when it'due south due for a check. Make a annotation with your telephone or computer, or write it down somewhere that will be easy to keep rail of.^[17]

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How oft should you change your air filter in your home?

Victor Belavus is an Air conditioning Specialist and the Possessor of 212 HVAC, an air condition repair and installation company based in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to HVAC and air conditioning units, Victor also specializes in furnace repair and air duct cleaning. He has over 10 years of experience working with HVAC systems.

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Article Summary Ten

Before changing a home air filter in your HVAC unit, plough off the unit of measurement to prevent injury to yourself or harm to the machine. And then, slide the old filter out of its slot, but exist careful since information technology may be coverd in grit or dirt. Next, slide in your new filter, making sure that the arrow points in the same direction as the arrow on the old filter. Once the filter is in the slot, cheque for gaps or whatsoever other signs indicating that the filter does non fit correctly. For advice on how to choose to the right blazon of air filter for your household, keep reading.

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