2013 Fall Home Improvement September 25, 2013
Special edition of LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
Page 11
Filters come in three varieties: disposable,
electrostatic and electronic. The most com-
mon filter is disposable, made of paper or
fiberglass, and is designed to be changed
MONTHLY during the heating and air-condi-
tioning season. If air is moving through your
furnace, you need to change the filter. A lot of
people seem to be really bad about remem-
bering to change the filter.
When the filter gets clogged up with dust,
it slows down the airflow, and if it gets too
dirty, the filter itself can fail and collapse,
allowing all the nasty dust to enter your fur-
nace intake.
If you are really bad about remembering to
change the filter, then maybe an Air Bear
filter is for you. This filter is almost 5 inches
thick, keeps your air cleaner and needs to be
changed only once a year. Bassett’s Mechani-
cal from Mount Pulaski installs Air Bear
filters, and most furnaces can be retrofitted
with the Air Bear.
Electrostatic filters trap dust by charging
them electrically. The nice thing is that you
clean the filter rather than throwing it away.
The charged particles adhere to the filter until you
wash them off. It is best to check and clean electro-
static filters on a monthly basis. Electronic filters,
the most expensive, operate without intervention
for long periods of time and usually guarantee 10
years of dust-free operation. Jake at Ace Hardware
can help you with your furnace filter needs.
After you have changed the filter, it’s a good idea to
go through the house and vacuum out the registers.
Take the screws out of the registers and open them
up.
Use the vacuum hose from your carpet vac or
your shop vac and clean up all the dust you can see
around the register and down into the duct. What-
ever you don’t vacuum up will likely be in your
rooms when you turn on your furnace.
A lot of people wonder if they should have their
ducts cleaned. In most instances the answer is no.
There is no data that cleaning ducts prevents health
issues except if (1) there is substantial visible mold
