Went from DIY furnace filters to paying a pro every 3 months, saved $40 a year

Honestly I used to buy the cheap fiberglass filters at Home Depot in Edmonton for like $8 each and swap them myself every month. Then my AC unit started acting weird last summer so I called in a HVAC guy from Aire Serv and he told me those cheap filters were letting dust through and killing my blower motor. Now I pay $30 a visit for a local company to install proper pleated filters and clean the coils every quarter. Has anyone else had a pro service change their mind on DIY maintenance?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucasking29d ago

Man that sounds like the exact situation I went through in Calgary last spring. I was doing the same thing with those blue fiberglass filters from Canadian Tire thinking I was saving money. My furnace kept short cycling and the vents were blowing weak air. Had a tech come out from a company called Action Furnace and he showed me the layer of dust caked onto my evaporator coil. I felt pretty dumb honestly. Now I pay $35 every 3 months for the same thing and my system runs way quieter. It hurt my pride a little at first but the peace of mind is worth it.

abby_chen29d agoTop Commenter

That $35 every 3 months sounds way more reasonable than I would have guessed (honestly I always thought the cheap ones were fine). I had the same pride thing when my cousin who does HVAC for a living told me I was ruining my unit with those fiberglass filters from Lowe's. I didn't believe him until I pulled mine out after 6 months and saw how much dust was getting through. Switching to the MERV 8 ones made a noticeable difference in airflow and my electric bill actually dropped a bit too. Sometimes admitting you were wrong about something simple like a filter feels dumb but your furnace will thank you.