How often to check furnace and AC filter in a Pueblo house

How often should you check a furnace and AC filter?

The rule on how often to check furnace and AC filter is short: once a month. ENERGY STAR gives that advice for inspecting, cleaning or changing air filters in a central air conditioner, furnace or heat pump.

In most houses one filter serves both seasons, because the same blower moves air through it whether the system is heating or cooling. A look is simple and needs no tools. What you do next, clean it or change it, depends on what you see.

Why does a regular filter look matter?

Filter care is the easiest habit in heating and cooling for Pueblo homes, and it has a real effect on the equipment. ENERGY STAR says a dirty filter can increase energy costs and damage equipment.

The cause is airflow. A clogged filter makes the blower push against resistance, and the coil or heat exchanger gets less air to work with. The system then runs harder than it was built to.

The US Department of Energy says regular maintenance, such as charging refrigerant and replacing filters, is necessary to keep central air conditioners at peak performance. Only one of those jobs belongs to a homeowner. Charging refrigerant is licensed contractor work.

Heating and cooling both load the filter. The NOAA weather station near Pueblo averages 5,386 heating degree days and 1,060 cooling degree days a year. Those numbers describe a long stretch of blower running in both the heating and the cooling months, and the filter sits in the airflow for all of it.

On a hot afternoon, a restricted filter adds to the load on the AC. The same station averages 74 days a year with a high of 90°F or more.

How do you find and check the filter?

Start at the thermostat. Switch the system to off so the blower stops before you handle anything. Then work through these steps:

1. Find the filter. It usually sits in a slot in the furnace or air handler cabinet, or behind a return grille on a wall, ceiling or floor. Check for a second one if the house has more than one return.
2. Slide it out and note the arrow printed on the frame. The arrow shows which way the air travels.
3. Hold the filter up to a light. If you can barely see light through it, or the surface is matted with gray fuzz, it is ready to be changed.
4. Write down the size printed on the frame edge.
5. Slide the clean or new filter in with the arrow pointing toward the blower.
6. Turn the system back on at the thermostat.

To tell it worked, hold a hand at a vent once the system restarts. The air should feel steady, and the system should run without a new noise.

Stop if the slot is wet, rusty or crowded with wiring, or if reaching the filter means removing a panel held by screws. Those are signs to leave the cabinet closed.

Disposable or washable: what do you do with what you find?

Fiberglass and pleated paper filters are made to be replaced. Washable filters can be rinsed with the system off, and they need to dry fully before they go back in. A damp filter in a running system is a problem of its own.

Pets, construction dust and heavy use can load a filter faster. A filter that looks fine on one check may need changing by the next. The contractor advises how often your particular filter and system need new media, since it depends on the type and the house.

A wrong-size filter lets air slip around its edges, so match the printed size every time. Pair the habit with the seasonal routine in the seasonal check-in guide.

What signs mean a filter problem has become a repair?

A fresh filter fixes a clogged one. It does not undo damage that a clogged one already caused. Watch for these:

• Warm air from the vents, with weak flow
• Ice on the refrigerant lines
• Short cycling, where the system starts and stops in quick rounds
• Water at the indoor unit
• A furnace that lights and drops out
• A new noise from the blower

If you see ice, switch the cooling off at the thermostat and put in a fresh filter. If the ice comes back, the cause is deeper, and AC repair in Pueblo covers what that looks like. A furnace that lights and drops out is a case for furnace repair in Pueblo.

A licensed contractor handles refrigerant, electrical parts and wiring, the burner and gas valve, and sealed components. You can reset a tripped breaker once. If it trips again, leave it off and stop.

If you smell gas, leave the house, then call the gas utility from outside. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone out and call emergency services.

Does equipment age change the filter routine?

A tidy filter habit does not reset the age of the equipment. ENERGY STAR suggests considering replacement when a heat pump or air conditioner is more than 10 years old. It gives a later mark for heat: a furnace or boiler more than 15 years old.

Older equipment has less room for avoidable strain. A neglected filter is one strain you can remove yourself, and the regular look is how you remove it.

When a fresh filter does not clear the problem

If new media changes nothing, the cause sits elsewhere in the system. A licensed contractor can trace it to the blower, the ducts, the coil or the controls.

Start with HVAC in Pueblo for the full picture of heating and cooling repair and installation.