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Thread: Home furnace filter - Is this right?

  1. #1
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    Home furnace filter - Is this right?

    I recently had my furnace replaced at home. I am used to having to open some kind of door to install the filter.

    The HVAC company - who otherwise I've had really good experience with - told me THIS is a common way of doing it: slice the return and just stick the filter into the duct.

    Is this legit?

    super convenient to change, but a) the filter cannot be inserted completely into the duct, which means it can't be completely efficient, and b) the 'lip' of the duct catches the paper facing of the filter when I remove it.

    Go ahead, let me have it.
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    Last edited by Prashun Patel; 02-16-2018 at 8:32 AM.

  2. #2
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    That's how mine is, but mine does go all the way in flush (20x20). If yours is sticking out as shown you may need a special size; or the HVAC company messed up....

  3. #3
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    No it is not normal IMO. There should be guides or channels inside the duct to hold the filter in place and a door/panel to seal the air duct. It looks like a low cost short cut. Did they also not install a separate air intake pipe for the combustion air?
    Lee Schierer
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  4. #4
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    There must be some sort of brackets inside for the 3 sides of the filter to rest upon, right?

  5. #5
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    That's the cheap way to do it. My mother's 1990 condo was done that way with a non standard size duct so I had to make custom filters to fit. The developer also put $2000 window walls but spent very little on the skylights and $20 toilets. He later (after all the lawsuits) went out business.

  6. #6
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    That seems like a total hack but, it could be that I’ve just never experienced a system using that method. My filter compartment is obviously integrated into the pathway with a spring loaded door with a magnetic catch and a sealer gasket.
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


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  7. #7
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    One of my systems is setup the way your photo shows, (with a flapper door to cover the edge of the filter...that door holds shut from air flow). The other system requires me to physically open the furnace to change the filter. I prefer the former, but the installer of the later wouldn't put it in that way. I guess it's a different philosophy. I think that making filter changes really easy would encourage folks to actually change the filter more often than most people do.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #8
    That's what you get when you take the cheapest price. The contractor has no idea of how to size a furnace filter. That filter is way too small for your furnace. Those filters are rated at 400 fpm air velocity. The actual surface area being filtered is only 10"x24" sincle the duct is 10" wide. Thats equal to 240 sq. inches of surface area. The formula to size a filter is cfm/rated fpm=sq. ft. of filter. That gas furnace requires at least 1000 cfm during the heating season (If not more, I don't know the size of the furnace), could be more during the cooling season, depending on the size of your air conditioner. Do the math. You need a minimum of 360 sq. inches of air filter, if you only need 1000 cfm of air. It WILL shorten the life of the blower motor, it is running higher static than it should be. That's the sign of a installer that doesn't know how to size things properly. Did they provide you with a load calculation on what size the house requires?

  9. #9
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    Thanks for the thoughts, Guys.

  10. #10
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    Deleted.
    Found demensions of the filter
    Last edited by Bill Jobe; 02-16-2018 at 12:33 PM.

  11. #11
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    I would demand they make it right.
    The furnace is brand new.
    Last edited by Bill Jobe; 02-16-2018 at 12:34 PM.

  12. #12
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    I don't see a problem with it. As long as it's in the return air path, it'll work.
    Make a cover to seal the opening.
    Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night

  13. #13
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    Bill, I did, but they maintain that it's right. They contend that because it's in the return path, it does not require to be sealed; all it means is that some return air may come in from the furnace room. The argument seemed logical.

    They were not, by the way, the cheapest option out there. I've used them for other work and they have been professional.

  14. #14
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    Every house I have had and all the houses that I have worked on has a similar set up but the filter was sized to fit in without sticking out.

  15. #15
    The issue is that it is too small a filter. I gaurantee that the total external static pressure on the furnace is above what it is rated at. Does the furnace whistle or change air flow sounds with the filter in? I size, design, and install these things for a living. IT IS TOO SMALL.

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