Air Filter Installation and Maintenance

Amistee will always check to see what type of filter your furnace requires during our air duct cleanings. Along with this check we will see if you should replace the filter after our cleaning or if the current filter has more life. A lot of times we find that homeowners are installing their air filters improperly or not changing the filters as often as they should.

Every air filter has a different life expectancy. Some of the 5" air filters have a life of anywhere between 6 months to 1 year. The smaller air filters have a life more around 1-3 months.

When purchasing an air filter, any Amistee Air Duct Cleaning employee will tell you that to catch dirt and dust from recirculating throughout your duct system and back into your home you should use a filter that you can not see through. The general rule of thumb is that if you can see through the filter, most dust will go through the filter as well.

The average size of most household dust is roughly the size of sweet and low. If you pour a packet of sweet and low over your filter pretending it is the air from your house, how much of the packet will be trapped in the filter and how much will pass through. This will tell you how good your filter is. We generally tell customers not to get the cheap fiberglass filters and not to get the very expensive pleated filters when replacing their 1 inch filters. Get the middle of the road filters just as long as you can't see the person standing next to you when you look through it.

Installing your air filter is easy to the person who does it for a living but sometimes confusing to the average homeowner. On every filter there is an arrow pointing in one direction. This arrow represents the airflow of your duct system. When you insert the filter into the slot the arrow should be going in the same direction as the air when the system is on. The arrow is pointing TOWARDS the furnace and not away from the furnace. If you have any questions or problems you can call Amistee Air Duct Cleaning and we will give you a free 2 minute phone instruction on how to install your filter. You do not need to be a current customer to get this help. Call 877-349-8877 and ask anyone on staff and they will gladly help you.