Filters & air quality
Filter replacement, on a schedule nobody has to remember
The cheapest fix in HVAC is also the one that gets forgotten until something stops working. We come, pull every filter in the place, fit the right size and grade, and write the date on the frame. $89 per visit, filters at cost.
Filters at cost — we do not mark up a piece of cardboard and pleated media.
per visit, flat
the filters themselves
a typical apartment
sizes we usually find per home
The half of the dust you can actually stop
A filter is the only part of the system designed to be thrown away, and it is the part most homes ignore for a year. Everything it fails to catch ends up on the coil, in the blower wheel and in the air.
A loaded filter stops filtering and starts bypassing. What goes past it settles on your furniture and inside the machine.
A blocked filter is the most common cause of a system that runs constantly and still cannot hold temperature.
Filters cost a few dollars. The coil and blower they protect cost a cleaning visit, and the compressor beyond those costs a great deal more.
Every filter goes in with the date written on it, so the next person — you, a tenant or us — knows exactly how old it is.
What people ask about filters
It is a small job with a surprising amount of bad advice attached to it.
“Isn’t a better filter always better?”
No. Push the rating too high for the equipment and you starve the blower — which costs you more airflow than the filter buys you in cleanliness. The right grade depends on the machine, not the packaging.
“I can change a filter myself.”
You can and you should. Most people call us because there are six of them in four sizes across two floors and nobody knows which is which. After one visit you have the list.
“Washable filters last forever, right?”
They last as long as you wash them properly and let them dry completely. A damp washable filter put back in a unit is a mold farm with a warranty.
“Can you just post me the filters?”
That is the subscription, and it is coming. Today we bring them, fit them and take the old ones away — which is also how the list of your sizes gets made in the first place.
How the half hour goes
Four steps per filter, and a list at the end that makes the next visit a five-minute job.
Open every return
Every grille, cabinet slot and head panel in the place is opened — including the ones nobody knew were filters.
Old filters out
Out, photographed and measured. The photo is what tells you whether your schedule is right or a season too slow.
Right size, right grade
New filter fitted the right way round for airflow, at a grade the equipment can actually pull through.
Dated and listed
Date on the frame, sizes and locations written down, and the list goes to you so the next change is trivial.
A flat visit, and filters at what they cost us
The visit is the price. The filters are whatever they cost, shown on the invoice — this is the one job where marking up the parts would be most of the margin, which is exactly why we do not.
$89
per visit
Every filter in the home or unit, however many that turns out to be
At cost
the filters themselves
Receipted on the invoice, no markup
What the visit covers
- Every return, cabinet and head panel opened and checked
- Correct size and grade fitted, the right way round for airflow
- Date written on each frame and old filters taken away
- A written list of sizes and locations, so the next change is easy
Booked with a cleaning, the filter visit is included in that price rather than charged again — ask when you book rather than after.
Filters we have pulled out of real systems
Three frames: what a late filter looks like, what the rack looks like when it is empty, and what goes back in.
As found 
The rack 
Fitted ~30 min
a typical apartment
At cost
the filters themselves
Dated
every frame we fit
Photographs from our own visits, cropped and scaled and nothing else. Addresses and figures follow as the jobs are written up.
Filter replacement — FAQ
The small questions that decide whether a system stays clean between visits.
How often should filters be changed?
Every one to three months for disposable filters in a lived-in home, monthly with pets or a renovation nearby, and monthly for the washable screens in a mini-split — those get rinsed rather than replaced.
What MERV rating should I use?
The highest the equipment can pull through, which is usually MERV 8 to 11 in a residential system. Higher is not automatically better: a filter the blower cannot breathe through costs you airflow you need.
Do you supply the filters?
Yes, at cost, receipted on the invoice. If you would rather buy your own, we will fit them and tell you whether the grade suits the machine.
Can this be a standing arrangement?
That is what the subscription will be. For now the visit produces the list — sizes, locations, dates — which is the hard part of setting one up anyway.
My mini-split has no filter slot. What then?
It does: two washable screens behind the front panel. They come out, get rinsed and dried, and go back — and it is worth doing monthly in summer.
Goes well with
What a filter visit usually turns up next.
Half an hour now, or a cleaning visit later.
Book the round and keep the list — sizes, locations and dates, so the next change takes five minutes.
Book a filter visit