How To Change An Air Filter

Do you know how to change your home air filter?

Irresolute a furnace filter is perhaps the quickest and easiest manner to maximize the efficiency of your heating system—and to help purify your home's air. Doing and so is easier than y'all think.

The procedure should take all of five or ten minutes. Likely the most-time consuming function of this projection volition be finding what size filter you need, and running to the store to buy a replacement.

Essentially, y'all are only swapping out the old filter with a new replacement. Once you have the replacement filter, all you demand to do is go through these 6 simple steps:

Turn off your furnace
Find and locate your furnace filter
Make up one's mind the size of your filter
Remove the existing (old) filter
Insert the new filter
Render furnace to "on" position

1. To Change Your Home Air Filter, You'll Demand To Turn Off Your Furnace

To prevent the HVAC unit from turning on while you are changing the filter, make certain you turn the thermostat to the "off" position. This volition assistance protect your HVAC system from loose debris or maybe a loose filter plumbing equipment escaping into the duct.

For maximum prophylactic, disconnect power from your furnace system while you are doing maintenance.

ii. Observe and Locate Your Furnace Filter

Where is my air filter located? Here are two suggestions to answer this vexing question.

First, refer to the transmission that came with your heating and cooling organization. This transmission should tell yous what kind and size of a filter is recommended for your heating and cooling organization.

If yous don't have your unit's performance transmission, well-nigh air filters are located in either the blower compartment of the furnace (remove the furnace cover, typically past lifting upward), or built into the metal ductwork before the blower fan.

Some of these systems come with filters that tin can be hosed off or rinsed in the sink or bathtub. Others use fiberglass filters that can't be reused. These filters are hands institute at hardware, home improvement and even grocery stores.

iii. Determine the Size of Your Home Air Filter

Check if your furnace transmission gives you the size of the air filter to buy.

If information technology doesn't, partially remove the existing filter and look for its dimensions, usually printed on the paper-thin filter frame.

If you cannot locate this data, use a measuring record or ruler to measure out the dimensions for height, width and thickness. For case, the filter pictured to the left are sixteen-x-25-x-4. In other words, 16 inches wide; 25 inches long and 4 inches thick.

Write these dimensions down on a piece of paper to have with you when yous get to the store to buy the new filter. It's also a good idea to write them with a permanent marker on the actual furnace housing or ductwork to ease this process next time.

While the physical dimensions of the filter's width and length (e.yard., sixteen-ten-25) are preset according to the size of your ductwork, sometimes you tin can add together additional cleaning power past purchasing additional filter depth. For example your ductwork might let you to purchase a 16x25x5 filter – that boosted inch of filter chapters can get a long way to making the air you lot breathe cleaner.

4. Remove the Existing (old) Air Filter

Before you remove your existing air filter, annotation the pointer on the filter frame that shows the right air menstruum direction. Yous will want to install the new filter in the same management as the old one. The "air-flow direction arrow" printed on the new filter should be pointed towards your furnace (or more specifically; arrow pointed towards your furnace fan unit).

It's a adept idea to depict the airflow direction arrow with a permanent marker on the actual furnace housing or ductwork. Ideally, you'd indicate the airflow management and filter size (16x25x4 Airflow→)

Pull the former filter out and place it directly into a garbage bag to avoid scattering the dust around.

Every HVAC filter has a MERV rating, which measures how efficiently the filter captures pollutants that pass through your heating and cooling system. MERV ratings range from i (least efficient) to xvi (extremely efficient). Some studies show that medium-efficiency filters — in the MERV 7 to 12 range — strike the best balance between allergen removal and filter toll.

>> Exist sure to check out How Constructive are Your Home Air Filters? to learn more than about MERV ratings.

Bones furnace home air filters are designed to trap dust, clay, and airborne particulates before they tin can get into the organization and potentially damage the blower fan or the heating coil. More expensive filters perform the aforementioned role, plus they tin can heighten the air quality in your abode past trapping leaner, pollen, and mildew and mold spores.

>> Learn more virtually some of the pollutants your filter might be capturing in this article.

5. Insert the New Air Filter

Again, note the pointer on the sometime filter frame that shows the correct air menstruum management. Remove the old filter and insert the new one and then that the airflow direction remains the aforementioned.

Home air filters are designed to filter air from one direction, so that as they load up with dirt, they volition not collapse or autumn autonomously. It's that simple.

6. Return furnace to "on" position

Brand sure you plough the thermostat in the "on" position once you take replaced the filter. With your fresh filter, you are now ready to use your furnace over again!