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How Do I Know Which Air Filters To Use? · Shafer Heating and Cooling Service Repair Podcast

• 0:02
  Nathan Shafer's joining me from Schaefer Heating and Cooling. Hey, Nathan.
• 0:06
  Hey, Jim. How are you? I am doing well. Thanks for joining me today on the program.
• 0:10
  I really do appreciate it. We hear a lot about air filters, how important they are.
• 0:18
  I know there's a whole bunch of types. If we go to the store,
• 0:23
  let's say we go to a big box store and you go into the HVAC aisle, right?
• 0:28
  Heating ventilation air conditioning aisle you're going to see all kinds of
• 0:32
  things from thermostats to system duct work and other things and you're going
• 0:36
  to see a ton of filters all different sizes,
• 0:40
  thicknesses and so forth what's the right one yeah it's almost overwhelming
• 0:45
  and it's like well which one do i get and you know the problem too is when you
• 0:48
  walk into the box store like that or oftentimes go online i mean you know everything
• 0:53
  you find there is always accurate right As you're doing that research,
• 0:57
  a lot of times we're misled.
• 1:00
  There's false advertising or false marketing. A lot of these filter companies,
• 1:05
  just like anything else out there in the world, they're really good at marketing
• 1:10
  and pushing whatever product that may be.
• 1:13
  And so you walk down that filter aisle, there'll be these good, better, best.
• 1:17
  And there'll be these ones that are just cash 99%.
• 1:21
  It's some great filter, but it's also too what we call in the tradeoff times a system killer.
• 1:26
  And so you see some of these one-inch filters, these pleated filters,
• 1:30
  and they might be, you know, a MERV, whatever.
• 1:33
  You can find different ones on the shelf. You know, it might be an 8,
• 1:35
  10, or 11, you know, on the shelf.
• 1:37
  And the problem is in that one-inch filter, yes, it's going to catch more particulates,
• 1:42
  you know, dirt, dust, debris, different things in the air.
• 1:45
  However, it's also not going to allow that system to breathe.
• 1:48
  And all the air coming out of your vents, you know, that you want to feel for
• 1:52
  your comfort, the properly heat and cool your home.
• 1:54
  Well, all the air has to suck back through the return and through that filter
• 1:57
  before it can ever come out of those vents.
• 1:58
  And that system is very, you know, systematically designed to deliver a certain amount of airflow.
• 2:03
  And if it can't get the air coming in, it's not going to perform properly.
• 2:07
  And it's going to affect your utility bill. It's going to affect your comfort.
• 2:09
  It's going to affect the life of your system.
• 2:11
  And so filtration is not only extremely important and crucial for the air quality
• 2:16
  in our homes, it's It's also very important and crucial for how your system
• 2:19
  operates and how long it lasts.
• 2:22
  So as you go down that aisle and you're looking at those filters,
• 2:24
  oftentimes in the box store, I know this may sound crazy, but probably the best
• 2:28
  one you could buy off the shelf in the box store is going to be one of the cheapest ones.
• 2:32
  That cheap throwaway monthly fiberglass filter.
• 2:36
  And the reason I say is because it's going to catch the big particulates.
• 2:39
  It's not going to do the best job of filtering the air, but it's not going to...
• 2:43
  Not allowing your system to breathe properly. Now, that doesn't mean that's
• 2:47
  the best filter that you can put in your system though. There's other filter options.
• 2:51
  And that's when we started getting into like media air filtration, as well as air cleaners.
• 2:56
  And so those are typically going to take maybe a couple of modifications on
• 3:00
  the system, nothing major, nothing to guess, things that we can take care of. It's no big deal.
• 3:04
  But now we're going to take and start actually cleaning the air,
• 3:07
  keeping the system clean.
• 3:08
  That's going to be like big, thick media filters, um, that can be installed in your system.
• 3:12
  We've got to size those appropriately or appropriately, uh, because yes,
• 3:16
  there is more pressure drop that comes to that.
• 3:18
  We can catch more particulates, uh, and, or putting in like the electronic air
• 3:21
  cleaners, uh, that's going to positively charge the particulates in the air,
• 3:25
  uh, to cause them to attract and catch in that filter.
• 3:28
  So, um, there's kind of different levels of filtration, depending on what all
• 3:33
  you're trying to catch, how clean you are trying to keep the air as well as your budget.
• 3:37
  Um, obviously the the better the filtration system, the more it costs to get
• 3:41
  it installed initially.
• 3:43
  You know, we know that we get what we pay for. And so we can buy that cheapest
• 3:47
  filter, but we're also going to not filter very well.
• 3:49
  And or we can go up to the top of the line, go into HEPA filtration,
• 3:53
  costs a little bit more upfront.
• 3:54
  However, I mean, we got hospital grade air at that point, you know,
• 3:57
  extremely, extremely clean air.
• 4:00
  Yeah, there certainly are different levels. A lot of people who live in a basic
• 4:06
  apartment complex probably have a simple one-inch replaceable filter.
• 4:12
  Often the landlord will say, we're going to come by every month or we recommend
• 4:17
  that you replace these every month.
• 4:20
  In a high-end custom home, they might have a big media filter.
• 4:26
  In my home, I've got big media filters, which are great. Also,
• 4:32
  what people can do, which I don't necessarily recommend, depends on how much
• 4:37
  thrust you've got going through your ductwork.
• 4:40
  Sometimes people double filter. They'll put a very inexpensive filter in their
• 4:44
  return just to catch some bigger stuff. So the media filter has to do less work.
• 4:51
  Yeah, so that can be done. But once again, yeah, like you said,
• 4:54
  it's usually not recommended because most your duct system has to be oversized
• 4:57
  typically to allow for the extra restriction, right? What we call pressure drop. Yeah.
• 5:02
  Coming through there. So, you know, that brings up a good point,
• 5:06
  though, because one common thing that we do see a lot of, and this also,
• 5:09
  you know, hurts the system. them.
• 5:11
  But once again, they're marketed in a way that, hey, it's a great idea,
• 5:15
  right? We go to the stores.
• 5:17
  As you'll see, they look like little dryer lints or fabric softwares,
• 5:21
  whatever, in people's registers or on their vents.
• 5:23
  And it's to catch more things. But you'd be surprised, even that little bit,
• 5:26
  you start putting that restriction over every single grill or every single register.
• 5:30
  It's amazing what it does to the system pressure and that ductwork and how that system operates.
• 5:35
  And when they're on the supply side, it's really not doing anything anyways,
• 5:38
  ways because the filtration should be on the return side.
• 5:41
  But once again, they market those and they sell a lot of them and people,
• 5:47
  we don't know what we don't know.
• 5:48
  And so that's where things like this come into place or just these little helpful
• 5:51
  tips of, hey, how can I really protect that system, clean the air in my home
• 5:55
  and not spend money I don't need to spend?
• 5:57
  And one great place too that I recommend people to go find these filters.
• 6:02
  There's pretty much every filter made on the market. It's an easy access.
• 6:07
  If you want to go to the stores, you can go to our website.
• 6:10
  SchaeferHVAC.us and click the shop button. There's thousands and thousands of
• 6:14
  filters, sizes, types, brands, you name it.
• 6:17
  You can find almost any filter made on our website.
• 6:20
  It's as simple as Amazon. You can auto-ship them. You can buy one at a time,
• 6:24
  whatever you wish to do. It's shipped right to your door, typically within 24 hours.
• 6:29
  Just a nice, easy access point to get that filtration.
• 6:32
  If you have questions on filters, by all means, Call us and every house is a
• 6:36
  little bit different, right? Every system is a little bit different.
• 6:38
  We can help pick that right filter for you You know, that's a good point one
• 6:42
  more tip if you're gonna do it yourself with air filters Make sure you install
• 6:49
  them in the right direction.
• 6:51
  There should be an indication little arrow. Okay, it's important. Absolutely.
• 6:55
  Absolutely Yeah, thanks. Nathan as always appreciate it. Hey as always.
• 6:59
  Thank you Jim. Appreciate you.