The furnace is an important appliance at home. It offers heat so that nothing freezes inside your home during winter while it provides purified and cool air during summer time. Since it is an important appliance, it is imperative that you check it every month and change its filter whenever dirty. This practice lets you maximize the efficiency of the appliance and to prolong its life. Mike Holmes recommends changing your furnace filter 3 times a year.
However, it is quite surprising that most homeowners know little about their furnace. Hopefully, they learn how to provide a DIY maintenance to this appliance for such maintenance is not a hard thing to do. It is not necessary to seek the help of an expert just to replace your furnace filter since you can do this by yourself. How do you do that? Hold on as this article discusses the step-by-step process on how to replace your furnace filter. This step-by-step process works both ways in electric and gas furnaces.
- Turn off the appliance and find the filter. The filter appears similar to a mesh fabric expanded across a rectangular frame. To easily locate it for the first time, you can refer to your furnace’s model manual. Such reference manual will describe where the filter is and how you can correctly open the door on your furnace model.
- The purpose of a filter is to eliminate dirt and other debris from the air that flows through the furnace. To determine if it’s already dirty, remove the furnace filter and hold it where there is light. When you can no longer see light passing through it, it is time for you to replace it. Replacing the filter periodically is necessary to avoid major repair costs. Once you do not change the filter, there’ll be insufficient airflow that passes through it which can then cause the furnace to overheat and automatically shut down.
- Discard the removed filter and purchase a new filter. Make certain this new filter is the right one for your furnace type and brand. Once it does not fit, it’s not the right one. Do not force inserting it and replace it with the right one.
- Insert the filter in the same, exact way that the old filter came out. This step is very important for the filtration is unidirectional, which means that the filter should be inserted so that the airflow is straightforward through it within the correct direction. In most cases, filters are made from fiberglass material, with one side that is quite oily. Such side is commonly in front of the blower while the other side accumulates the filtered material for removal. To make things easy for you, simply find the arrows on your new filter and then turn them towards the direction of the airflow. One thing to keep in mind: Do not insert the filter in a backward manner for this will inhibit the efficiency of your air filter.
- Turn on the system and check if it’s working properly. Is it working? That’s good then. You did a great job in replacing your furnace filter.
See? It’s easy to replace them, and now you can actually buy furnace filters online with PureFilters Canada. Check your furnace system now and see if its filter also needs to be replaced.