How To Change Your Furnace Filter

Here is a short tutorial on how to change your furnace filter.

1. Determine which type of filter you have. The type of filter you have will alter the number of times per year you have to change it.
2. Get the right replacement. If you buy a filter that is too thick for your current set up, it will not work.
3. Remove the old filter. Remember that your home plays a part in how often you replace it. If you have pets or a lot of dust, you will have to change it more often.
4. Determine which way the filter is to be place back in. The arrows to towards the furnace.
5. Place in the new filter.
6. Turn the power back on to the furnace.

Media Filter…

1. *Remember that if you have a media filter, such as the one in the video, you will likely have to remove the door to the filter housing.
2. *You will also have to place the media filer back in the housing along the tracks that hold the filter in place.
3. *Snap the door back on the housing.
4. *Turn the power back on to the furnace.

Transcript: “Hi, I’m Bruce Perkins with Harker Heating. Today we will discuss replacing your furnace filter and the importance of that. Prior to doing that we’ll talk about the different types of filters which will determine how often we change those. We’ll begin with one of the more common filters. This is a fiber glass filter. It is effective at stopping particles, but as you can see, it’s not going to stop a lot. A filter like this you want to change monthly during the heating and cooling months. They are pretty simple to do. They show you an air flow indicator arrow. You always want to make sure the arrow is pointed towards the furnace. Another common filter is the pleated filter. This one is going to stop a little bit more than the fiber glass filter. And I still recommend that you change this monthly as well. It’s also going to have an airflow indicator arrow on it as well. It will indicate which way the filter it needs to be placed towards the furnace. The filter that we are going to be changing today is the media style air filter. This is an Aprilaire product. They are made in Wisconsin. The nice thing about these filters is these are the most efficient filters out there when compared to the one inch filters. These filters generally need to be changed every 6 months to 12 months. It all really depends on your home. If you have a lot of pets, a lot of dust, whatever the case may be. First things first, you want to make sure that your furnace is turned off. We’ve already don that. You will have a power switch on the side. Just turn that off before you do anything. This just has a door that snaps right on, so we’re going to snap that right off, it comes off pretty easy. And this filter slides in on a couple of guides on the top and the bottom of the unit. As you can see, this filter has seen some use. It’s pretty dirty, it should not be this color. We’ll open the new one and show you a comparison. But one thing I’d like to point out is that when you look at this filter and how dirty it is, it’s very important to change these out on a regular basis because this can actually harm your furnace. The more plugged and dirty it is, the harder the furnace blower has to work to pull that air through the return, and return it to the supply portion of the house. Not only is this damaging to the blower motor but also has an impact on several other components of the furnace. So, you can see these come in a nice compact package. We’ll get this one opened up. And now you can definitely see the difference between the old and the new just based on the color. Now, these filters like others have the airflow indication arrow on them. And you can see that we’ve got these plastic sliders that we will get on the guides, here. So, well get this into position. And we’ll slide it right back in. Put the door back on.. And that’s it. We’re all good to go.”