Have you ever woken up feeling sick, even after a full night’s sleep? Unfortunately, those cold and flu-like conditions – cough, stuffy nose, headache and itchy eyes – might be because of your air conditioner.
Most people need their homes to remain comfortable, and an operational air conditioner is essential for this purpose which leads us to your AC filter.
Every type of AC will typically have at least one air filter. A reason why air filter maintenance is an essential yet overlooked duty when it comes to AC care.
Knowing how often to clean aircon filter is crucial, as is understanding when an air conditioner filter change is necessary. This blog will provide essential help for developing an efficient and healthier home environment. We’ll explore how often to clean the air conditioner filter to prevent these issues.
Related: How Often Do Air Conditioners Need Servicing?
Is It Possible to Get Sick From Air Conditioning?
People widely believe that staying in contact with cold air from air conditioners leads to illness, but that has little truth in it. Cold air definitely won’t help you recuperate from an existing illness, but cold air by itself does not infect people even during summertime. The real source of air conditioner problems is dust particles and other pollutants accumulated inside the system.
You see, taking in fresh air and then refrigerating it is not something the standard operation of split and ducted ACs do. A split system air conditioner operates by keeping existing household air circulating, cooling it down, and then sending it back to the room. During this process, indoor air pollutants enter the system’s upper part.
People need to determine how often to clean air conditioner filters and the recommended frequency of maintenance to limit the spread of indoor pollutants. Proper maintenance and regular air conditioner filter changes are essential for maintaining safe indoor air quality.
Check our Can Air Conditioner Make You Sick guide to find out more.
Is the Air Filter in My AC Enough?
Permanent screen filters are built into air conditioners to capture airborne pollutants. However, the mesh on these filters offers minimal filtering capability, trapping only big-sized particles while ignoring the smaller ones.
Check the current condition of your AC filter right now. Unless you’ve cleaned it within the last three months, your air conditioner’s mesh filter most likely contains dust due to an uncleaned condition. People need to understand how often to clean the air conditioner filter and to consider a more thorough air conditioner filter change rather than just relying on the initial filter.
What is in Dust
The dust bunnies and floating particles that appear daily primarily include unpleasant stuff.
For starters, your air conditioning system has these enemies: outdoor dirt, which combines with various contaminants, including dead skin cells, hair, fabric fibres, germs, dust mites, bug remains, pollen, animal dander, and even minuscule plastic fragments. And these are just the pollutants we can see!
Your air conditioner utilises its filter to capture sizable objects in the air, but this fails to block the micro-scale pollutants. People seeking improved air quality should determine how often to clean their air conditioner filters while adopting premium air conditioner filters as an air quality upgrade solution.
How Often Should You Clean Your AC Filter?
The recommended schedule for inspecting and cleaning your AC filter is every 3 to 6 months. If you live on the ground floor, smoke, or have pets at home, you may need to clean your filters more often or even replace them.
Why Is It Important to Clean Your Air Conditioner Filters?
A simple AC filter cleaning protects your and your family’s well-being from danger. If you don’t care about your family’s health, cleaning the air conditioner filter is unnecessary. Contacting a professional HVAC expert is a reliable alternative when you decide to avoid handling this process yourself.
Benefits of Cleaning Your AC Filter
Understanding the risks of delayed AC maintenance leads to a clear understanding of its negative effects on unit performance. Here are the benefits of regularly maintaining your AC filters and what happens if you don’t.
More Efficient
The efficiency of an air conditioner improves when you maintain a clean air filter. A clogged AC filter accumulates dust, dirt, and pollution, which leads to obstructed airflow and requires your air conditioning system to work at a much higher effort.
Regularly cleaning the filter stops this buildup, allowing for the best airflow and improving your unit’s operation at its peak performance. By keeping the filter clean, you’re actually protecting the rest of the unit and reducing the chances of problems like poor airflow and higher energy use.
Longer Lifespan
Over time, an air conditioner filter gets clogged and becomes completely blocked or weakened, allowing more dust and grime to reach inside the machine. An obstructed air filter makes the air system work harder to move air, leading to increased strain on the unit.
Your air conditioner’s reliability is endangered when you don’t consider how often to clean the air conditioner filter or when to consider an air conditioner filter change. The system may require professional services from technicians, resulting in financial costs if not addressed. Regularly cleaning or changing the air conditioner filter helps your unit last longer, saving you money and the hassle of having to replace your AC too soon.
Improved Indoor Air Quality
An air filter exists primarily to trap airborne contaminants, including dust, pollen, mould, and pet fur. Once these contaminants accumulate inside the filter, your AC becomes less efficient, and the air inside your home deteriorates.
These result in mould and mildew developing on air filter surfaces. Then, as air flows through the dust and mildew mixture, it gets small particles that lead to contamination. Your AC output will smell excessively musty, making your indoors smell unpleasant.
The effectiveness of air conditioner filters in removing pollutants depends on how often they are cleaned. By cleaning and changing the air conditioner filters, you can be assured of a healthier home and cleaner air that helps people with breathing problems.
Consistent Cooling Performance
The state of your filter determines the performance of your air conditioner in cooling your house. When air has unobstructed movement, the unit maintains uniform temperatures throughout the space.
A blocked air filter results in temperature inconsistencies that create zones of different thermal comfort within the area. The system loses airflow strength, which means it may fail to adjust your room temperature adequately.
The necessity of knowing how often to clean the air conditioner filter becomes evident. How often you clean the air conditioner filter affects the consistent cool comfort in your entire living space.
Check here for other reasons why your AC is not blowing cold air properly.
Cost-Effective Solution
Replacing your air filter costs you little money to achieve numerous positive outcomes. A new air filter costs little compared to the expenses which would occur if your cooling system stops working.
Regular attention to filter maintenance, including knowing when to have an air conditioner filter change and how often to clean it, will lead to reduced energy expenses and delayed costly future repairs of your AC.
Find out here how much electricity an AC uses to gauge if you’re having a cost-effective AC.
Health
Molds on filters will spread to other AC components, contaminating them. The more mould there is, the greater the health risk.
Air conditioners operate through fan systems, which generate airflow inside the room to maintain proper distribution. When mould accumulates within the unit, the fans disperse mould spores throughout the home.
WHO reports that exposure to mould carries health risks, including respiratory symptoms such as infections, hay fever, and asthma.
Following proper filter maintenance routines, changing the air conditioner’s filter appropriately, and knowing how often to clean the air conditioner’s filter help reduce the presence of pollutants in the air that circulates within your home environment.
How to Clean Your Air Conditioner Filter
After learning its essential importance, we need to understand the procedure of effective filter cleaning. It’s actually quite easy.
Step-1 Turn the Unit Off
The first step to safety and AC unit protection is shutting off its power before beginning maintenance tasks.
Step 2 Find the Filter
The position of air filters lies near the point where your AC system reintroduces air. The unit manual provides exact directions on its location. Sometimes, the air filters can be located beneath a removable metal or plastic, which does not require complex manipulation to remove.
Step-3 Inspect Carefully
Open the filter for observation before attempting to clean it. If it’s dirty, you’re better off just putting in a new one. Remember that certain filters can be washed and used again, but some require replacement after getting dirty.
Step-4 Clean if Reusable
If you have a washable filter, gently remove it and clean it as the manufacturer suggests. Typically, this means washing it with water and then letting it dry completely before you put it back in.
Step-5 Replace if Disposable
Disposable filters require users to replace them with new filters of the same size and type. Your AC manual provides instructions on how often to replace your air filters, so make sure you check this section to determine the recommended times.
Step-6 Routine Planned Maintenance
Make it a habit to clean or change your AC filter regularly. A good rule of thumb is to do it every three to six months, but excessive use, living conditions, and pet ownership might require you to do it more often. You should create reminders to ensure you remember to perform this crucial task.
We recommend cleaning your air conditioning filters every three months to stop unhealthy substance inhalation. After opening windows for air circulation, you should use a mask to protect your lungs from dust before handling the filters.
AC Features that May Help
Thinking about cleaner air conditioning? Modern technological advances in air conditioning have produced simpler models to maintain and operate and have increased energy efficiency. When you’re looking at cleaner AC options, keep these features in mind:
- Smart Filter Replacement Alerts make it simple to know how often to clean the aircon filter because some new ACs have smart systems tracking if the filter is dirty. They’ll send you alerts when it’s time for an aircon filter change, taking the guesswork out of maintenance.
- You should choose air conditioners with Washable Filters as they are an environmentally friendly option. You can unglue these filters and wash them up for reuse without needing frequent replacements. This helps reduce waste.
- You can improve indoor air quality substantially by using filters with HEPA technology since they remove tiny airborne particles.
- Some high-tech air conditioning units use UV-C Light Technology to eliminate indoor bacteria, viruses and mould. Your home receives additional safety through cleaner air circulation, which your AC distributes.
Help Safeguard Your AC Further
An increasing number of people understand that maintaining clean indoor air has become essential. Considering we spend about 90% of our time indoors, maintaining air quality indoors has become an important necessity. We need to implement steps that will protect our safety.
Standalone Air Purifiers
People have started adopting air purifiers in ACs because these devices provide an active solution to enhance home interior air quality. However, their effectiveness is limited to one particular room, and their cost accumulates over time.
Despite these limitations, smart air purifiers are highly effective home air protection systems. A smart air purifier equipped with integrated air quality sensors lets users control their device through an app so they can schedule automatic purifier operations when pollution levels become unhealthy.
This can be a more proactive approach than wondering how often to clean an air conditioner filter or remembering the schedule for air conditioner filter changes.
Antiviral AC Filters
You can approach cost-effective protection by using disposable antiviral air conditioner filters. These filters mount onto standard air conditioner filters to augment their performance in blocking viruses and small pollutants.
The filtering mechanism traps bacteria, viruses, mould spores, pollen, and other airborne irritants with negative health consequences. You must replace these filters every three months.
This makes it a cost-effective way to consider how often to clean the air conditioner filter and a simple solution compared to a full air conditioner filter change.
Experience Breathing Easier with Global Cool Air
Cleaning your air conditioner filter is a simple but essential task that contributes directly to improved performance, longer lifespan, and better operational efficiency of your AC unit. By performing routine AC maintenance, you can achieve better energy cost savings and improve the indoor quality of your home.
How often you clean the air conditioner filter and the schedule for filter change depend on your specific AC model and brand, so it’s always a good idea to check what the manufacturer recommends.
In Perth’s climate, where air conditioning is vital to daily comfort, maintaining good indoor air quality is essential for your well-being. Global Cool Air understands this, and we’re dedicated to helping you breathe easier.
At Global Cool Air, we provide expert advice on the ideal maintenance schedule for your specific AC system. We ensure you know how often to clean the air conditioner filter based on your usage and the local Perth conditions. Beyond basic maintenance, Global Cool Air offers various solutions to enhance indoor air quality further.
Ready to experience cleaner, healthier air in your Perth home? Contact us today for professional advice and solutions tailored to your needs! Call us at 0448 752 327.
