What Happens When You Don't Change Your Furnace's Air Filter

One of the most basic problems that we hear about at Parker Pearce Service Experts in Gaithersburg is dirty air filters. They might seem like a very small piece of the overall home comfort puzzle, but the role they play in helping us maintain comfort is a lot greater than most homeowners recognize. Regardless if it is cooling season or heating season, having a clogged air filter can cause a variety of concerns for your heating and AC system.

So what exactly happens when you forget to switch out your air filter? Here are a just a few of the side effects you may encounter:

• Reduced airflow. This is easily the biggest problem you’ll notice when your home’s air filter is severely clogged. The longer the air filter goes without being swapped out, the more dirt, dust and other particles build up. Of course, this prevents air from passing through the filter as it should, meaning your system is working quite a bit harder to give you the same amount of air.
• Frozen coil. If your system is running harder due to a clogged air filter, you also run the chance of having the cooling coil freeze inside of the system, because it’s operating overtime to provide you with cool air.
• Total loss of cooling or heating. This is also a probability if your air filter goes unchanged for months and months on end. In essence, you will have worked your system so hard that something breaks or wears out and needs to be replaced or serviced.
• Short cycling. Short cycling means the heating and cooling system turns on and off more than it should. When your system short cycles, it may overheat or break down from the added work, potentially causing damage to your system.

In addition to these, you can also expect:

• A diminished equipment lifecycle
• Lower energy efficiency
• Lower air quality
• Increase in dust and debris
• Lack of comfort