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Guardian Angle EP#2 – Changing Furnace Filter

What is the one thing that can save you thousands on your heating and cooling system, that so many people don’t know. Pay attention! This one piece of advice can extend the life of your equipment for years.

Einstein said, when you stop learning you start dying, so I’m going to help you live a little more today!

Blaine here for Guardian Plumbing and Heating. Excited to bring you another Episode of the Guardian Angle. These videos are for you, our customers. They are not intended to be heavy, technical, install your own equipment tutorials, but alternatively, easy to understand, tips about things that most people can do to protect there homes and increase the life of all their mechanical equipment.

Let me tell you a quick story, when I was just a toddler, my dad was tasked with the job of putting some mosquito spray on me. Somehow in the process the spray got a little too close to my face and I started to have trouble breathing. Now this was back in the 80’s when we had real mosquito spray, you remember the stuff, it didn’t repel mosquitoes, if they got too close they just died. Well apparently they thought I might be having an asthma attack, (not sure how this conclusion came as I didn’t have asthma) but dad was getting ready to rush me to the hospital ran to the vehicle and on the way slammed my head into the side of the truck. Who knew the best ways to stop an asthma attack is a smack to the head. All kidding aside, I started to breath normal and everything was fine. Clean air matters!

Today’s tip revolves around your Furnace’s air. No matter what brand you have, the most important thing you can do to extend the life of your furnace is to change your filter. Now that might seem really basic and a no brainer, but even as a Professional in the industry this is something that I just can’t seem to make a routine. Ask my wife and she will say something about shoe makers and shoes. First of all the filters #1 job is not to clean the air in your home, we have different solutions for that, but that’s another video. Your filters #1 job it is to protect your furnace from dust, dirt and debris. The first thing that dirt is going to destroy is the expensive motor that turns the fan to move your heating and air conditioning around your home. If it makes it past your motor on its journey it will run into your secondary heat exchanger if you have a high efficiency furnace. This heat exchanger has small fins and is where the money is saved by getting the last few dollars out of the gas you just paid for. If the dirt makes it here, it will plug it up and begin to restrict the air from going through and can cause your furnace to get hotter than it was designed for, plus its not going to let the air get to your rooms. The next place for the dirt to plug is you’re Cooling Coil. This basically causes the same issues as plugging up the secondary heat exchanger, but it can also cause your air conditioner to turn into a massive block of ice, and basically leave you stuck in a sauna. Lastly it does stop some of the dirt from entering the air on your home and landing on all of your furniture, creating some chores for the kids to take care of.

Alright there are several different kinds of filters but, we’ll dive into that deeper in a future episode. What I want to touch on today is how to change a furnace filter you wouldn’t believe how many people make this one common mistake when changing their filters.

The first thing you need to do when you change your filter is turn off the power to your furnace. This may be done by turning your thermostat to the off position, flipping the furnace switch on the wall and in some applications you may have to turn it off at the breaker.

The reason why this is so important, is that if you try and remove a dirty furnace filter while the fan is moving air, you are certain to shake off all the dirt that the filter collected and have it get sucked into the furnace. Basically reversing everything the filter was installed to do. After the fan has completely stopped, slide your filter out slowly and carefully, place it into a grocery bag for easy disposal.

The next important item is to ensure that you reinstall the filter in the right direction. On your filter you will see an arrow. You want that arrow pointing towards the furnace. Your filter is always on the Air in side of your furnace and the filter is basically the border guard only letting the clean air enter the furnace.

After you are certain the filter is installed correctly, you can turn the switch back on or turn up the thermostat up or down, depending on the season and you are ready to go.

That clogged filter can cause your system to have to work harder, increasing your energy bills and putting increased burden on your furnace parts. The department of energy in the US says that you can save 5-15% on your utility bills if you consistently change your filter.

So just like mosquito spray in your lungs, dirt in your filter is not optimal.

If you have any questions on how to turn off your furnace or change your filter, don’t hesitate to call us, we can even FaceTime with you to help you locate the right switch.

Our top priority is building trust and integrity through lifetime partnerships that meet our customers needs. This is accomplished through a WOW experience for our customers consisting of honesty and fairness, exceptional technical knowledge, reliable, efficient products and a commitment to excellence. One of the key ways we fulfill this mission is though the Guardian Protection Plan, Annual Maintenance included, 20% Discount on repairs, 24 Hour Priority Service and and industry leading Lifetime Warranty on Recommended Repairs.

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And that’s how we saw things today from the Guardian Angle!

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