Remember to Clean or Change Your Air Filter

When was the last time you looked at your ac or furnace filter? Last week, a month ago, 2 months ago, 6 months ago, never?

We had a customer that did not know she had a filter in the grill that was in the ceiling 14′ feet up and she had been living in the house 4 years. When our tech pulled it down it was solid. The really sad thing is she had an AC company service her systems every year and they did not bother to look up either.

A dirty ac filter not only hurts the performance of your system it adds to the pollution inside your house. A clean filter will remove many of the harmful airborne allergens floating around in the house.

How do you remember to clean or change your air filter?  Once upon a time, when the world was a more simple place, I recommended that people clean or change their air filter when they mailed their mortgage payment.  I thought that by connecting the air filter maintenance to the one activity that you would never forget was a great way to remember to clean or change your filter. 

Mail a check, clean/change your filter.  Once a month, easy peasy.

Times have certainly changed.  Some people pay their mortgages bi-weekly.  With the spread of electronic debit and on-line banking many people don’t even mail a check to their bank or mortgage company, they just have the funds automatically transferred.  So, the old thinking needs some updating.

If you have allergies, it is important that you keep a good filter on your forced air system.  This keeps your HVAC or heating system from circulating the same dust all over your house as well as serving its primary purpose of keeping the blower motor clean. If your ductwork is dirty, a good filter won’t clean it, but it will keep it from getting worse.

There are two styles of filters; permanent and disposable.

The permanent electrostatic filters are highly recommended because they trap the most particles.  However, because they work well, they need to be cleaned on a regular basis. And if you can’t remember to clean the filter (despite the tips I am going to give you) the permanent filter is not for you. 

Disposable filters come in a spectrum that ranges from high-quality (like a pleated MERV8) to useless (like the blue ones at the grocery store). Either style needs to be changed on a regular basis. 

So, if you don’t mail a mortgage check, how do you remember to take care of your filter?  You can put that same electronic technology that makes bill paying easy to work as your filter reminder. 

If you have an Android smartphone, just go to the “Calendar” function and pick your filter maintenance day.  For example, you can pick the first day of the month.  Now, create an event called “filter maintenance” and set the frequency to one a month.  Your phone will now remind you take care of that filter.

You can do the same thing with your iPhone.  If you don’t want your phone nagging you, add filter maintenance to your Google Calendar our your OutLook calendar and your PC, tablet, or laptop can do the nagging. 

Just create the event and set the frequency to once a month and the expiration to never. 

Now that your electronic device is set to do the nagging, all you have to do is take action.  If you have an idea on how you remember to take care of your filter, let me know.

Til Next Time!

P.S. If the kids are old enough and the filters are not hard to get to let them do it. They are helping you and learning at the same time.