Filter

Filter

QUESTION:

We had our central air conditioning Spring checkup this morning, and the service man commented about the filters I use in our furnace/Air conditioning blower. He suggested using a "better" filter, pointing out I could see through the spaces between the fibers in the filter. It wasn't a sales pitch because he did't try to sell me a filter even though I believe his company does sell them.
I have two filters; the one that came with the furnace (which is only two years old), and another that I bought from Home Depot or somewhere. The replacement filter came as a largish piece of medium that I cut out to the shape of the original. Both are blue fiber medium, and both are washable. I keep one washed and ready to install and one in the furnace. I change the filters monthly. The one I take out always has some dust in it.
Anyway, the service fellow couldn't seem to explain to me what kind of filters I _should_ be using. He just said that the ones I use aren't the best and that the ones I should use are available at Ace or other hardware stores, and that they're blue. He also said I could use the filters made for electrostatic filtration even though we don't have an electrostatic filtering device.
So I'm confused (for a change).
Can anyone clarify this or at least recommend a good filter?

ANSWER:

owever, for what it's worth, I've had very good performance (I believe) out of a washable, electrostatic filter by AirKontrol. They are the Kwik Klean Electrostatic filters.
Mine is an oil-fuelled, forced-air furnace (I have no central air conditioning). 2 filters sit side-by-side at the top of the furnace.
These filters I have are washed in the spray from a garden hose every 4 to 8 weeks. Occassionally I soak them in some warm water and a mild cleaner, then spray them off, let them dry and reinstall them.
I suffer from mild alergies this time of the year and we've got dogs and a cat in the house. We found these filters do a much better job than the paper filters and the other throw-away filters we've had.
Hmm. . . 'Wonder what this means. I've just tried to go to AirKlean's web site at http://www.airkontrol.com but am getting an error that there's no DNS for them. . .

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