Expensive Furnace Air Filters Are Unnecessary
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I walked into a Lewis drugstore the other day wanting to find a filter for my furnace. I was shocked to find the 3M filters they carried were $14 each for the size I wanted. It was also conveniently the only filters they had in stock. I was not going to pay this amount, so I went across the street to the Ace Hardware where they had a wide variety of filters. Many of them advertising how they keep the air in your home clean. While that may be true, filters are really designed to keep your furnace clean, not the air you breathe in your home. Your furnace is also most likely not built to utilize these expensive filters. The higher end filters make it more difficult for your furnace to draw and push air throughout your home, putting strain on your furnace and your energy bills.
The guy who worked on my furnace recommended the cheapest of the cheap filters, the purple ones that cost 69 cents each. Once I switched I noticed my furnace didn’t stay on for long when heating or cooling my home. My heating bill was about 10 percent lower than it usually was despite the month being cooler than normal.
Bottom line, if you want better air in your home, buy an air purifier instead of these air filters that claim to cure cancer. Your furnace and your wallet will thank you.
4 Comments
CareWolf
March 2nd, 2009
at 2:27am
I had the same thing happen. we had the “best” filters and no air was coming out of the vents. When we called the service man out he said they were blocking the air flow. Now we use the cheap ones and it’s much warmer in here.
etim
March 2nd, 2009
at 8:36am
Or just vacuum the dirty side 2-3 times a year. They can also be soaked with some dishwater detergent, rinsed and dried. A damp filter will dry quickly after installation. A little bleach will help keep molds, allergens away.
Eric L.
March 3rd, 2009
at 10:59am
Well I wouldn’t go with what someone tells you that is looking it make money by cleaning your furnace. Just like you should never take your car to the dealer that likes to sell you cars, for fixes (unless it’s under warranty of course).
I would suggest taking your car to someone that has your best interest at heart, like maybe a family friend, or someone that most of your family uses and has a good reputation, not where you bought it. The same would hold true for anyone that you have fix something in your house(which is why I do all my own upkeep and repairs). Have someone that isn’t your oil/gas company clean your furnace. My furnace was installed by the oil company that I worked at and bought my oil from, I was going through 3 tanks of oil a season. I had a friend come in to do a tune up and show me how to do it, he added some tweaks to it, that winter I didn’t change my usage of it, but my oil consumption was only 1.5 tanks for the season and the daily average temp was lower than the year before.
As with cheaper gas, you can fill up your car for less, but your going to be needing your mechanic a lot more. Find a good gas station, find out about their company and their product, what else is in the gas, where it really comes from. Up here in the North East USA I get mine at Sandi Sunoco, Privately owned by Mr. Sandri. Their fuel is the cleanest, at least in this area. I pay a little more than some of my friends and family that get the cheap gas at Cumberland farms, or dairy mar, but my fuel injectors/filters/ etc… I never have issues with like my friends do. (ever see that water drip out of your exhaust? that can’t be good, and can be caused by cheap fuel.)
So back to filters. If you want your furnace to double as an air filter, then your going to have to pay for it. If you buy a separate air filter, most electrical, then your still paying to run it. Do the filter work? YES. I suggest everyone at least buys one and do a visual test over the same amount of time. You will see that it’s pulling out a lot of dust, dust that you didn’t have to breath. Now sure you can get the cheap ones, save yourself some $$$, and sometimes it’s all someone can afford, but you’ll be calling in that furnace repair guy more, your fan will get clogged, your duct work will collect the dust, and it will get blown back up into your home, those are facts. If you keep your filter clean than your furnace wont have to work any harder than it would with a cheap one. Not only is buying the expensive one better for keeping your furnace and duct work clean, It will help keep the dust down in the house, that will collect on your TVs, Computers, Nick knacks, lets not forget about your lungs you’ve only got one set of those, do you want to risk it? The cleaner I can get the air in the house the less work there is cleaning, and is healthier. If they weren’t so good would they be used by hospitals and doctors offices? Cause they are. Just keep them clean so they can do what their meant to do.
The other thing that is out on the market is the reusable filter. Its a little more expensive, but once a month you take it out, run it under the faucet or garden hose, shack it off and throw it back in. That one works more on static cause by the air flowing threw it, and traps the air. Just got to remember to clean them thats all. Any air filtration is better than none, but it pays off in the long run to spend a little more.
–Eric
PS: No I don’t work for the filter company, but I hate to see people get bad advice. At least I gave you something to think about the next time you buy that flimsy $0.69 filter.
oztech
March 3rd, 2009
at 8:12pm
I guess I don’t buy that the more expensive filters actually keep out more dirt than the cheaper ones. Furnaces are not designed for $14-$25 filters. Perhaps buying one of the $2 ones would be an option, but $14 to $25? Ricockulous!
I also forgot to mention that my pilot light on my furnace would go out regularly when I used the more expensive filters. When I switched, more air was able to flow through to the pilot light, thus keeping it on.