By keeping your home healthy, you keep yourself and your family healthy too. Small things like vacuuming every few days or dusting once a week make a huge impact on the health of you and your family long term. One thing to be mindful about is when you must change the common filters in your home. Air filters, furnace filters, water filters, and dryer filters all contribute to your health and your home’s health.
Air Filters
These days, a significant portion of homeowners have air conditioning installed along with heaters. These units are often connected to whole-home air filters that keep extra dust and debris out of the air you breathe. Most of the time, air conditioning units are fine by themselves, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be inspected or maintained to keep you and your family healthy. The same holds true for your air filter. They require maintenance to keep working their best, and they should be regularly inspected. When full, they should be replaced or washed, depending on the style of filter system you have.
Furnace Filters
When homeowners think of filters, most people immediately think of them. They can be installed in the ceiling of your home, or a hallway, or a particular center room. They also are used every day of the heating months, and even more, if your home has an air conditioning unit too. This means that almost every day, this filter is catching dust, dander, and a host of other things trapped in the air. If this filter looks dirty, it’s time to change it. The continued use of a dirty filter can result in you and your family becoming sick—not because they were exposed to an illness, but because the air quality in your home is poor.
Water Filters
Some homes have installed water filters into their kitchens or beside their water tanks, to change the quality of the water. Water softeners are commonly installed to filter out harsh elements within the tap water. Brita water filters in particular are becoming the new standard for water filtration at home. But if you have another system, make sure that the filter is being changed on a schedule. This is important because if you consistently drink from your tap and you rely on that filter to remove bacteria—then letting that filter get dirty or become old, will greatly impact your home. This is the difference of drinking clean, filtered water, or water that tastes like fish food.
Dryer Filters
Most people know that they should be cleaning their dryer lint trap after or before every load. Doing this helps to remove loose fibers and fur while drying, but it also cuts down on the risk of fire from an over filled lint trap. So, while the other filters in your home can be left for monthly changes, it is important that the dryer filter is maintenance every time you use the machine. This will also help reduce the amount of dander and dust in the air, since you will optimize the performance of the machine and it will help remove particles from your clothing.
But there is more to this particular appliance. There is also a duct for your dryer, which runs outside of your house. You need to ensure that the dryer duct is not around anything which could catch fire or cause destruction when heated. Yard debris in the area during a hot summer day may catch fire and result in bad consequences. Thus, you should check your dryer duct once a month, while you’re checking all of the other filters, perhaps. Also, make sure that there is nothing stuck inside of the duct because that can also have horrible results given the immense heat that can be forced out of the chamber.
Set a Schedule
It’s challenging to remember that these filters need to be changed. And we all know that some of us can use the extra reminder now and then. So, we suggest you set a schedule to maintain your health and your home. Make sure you add in specific things, like checking your car’s elements or gutters for blockages. Four times a year there should be whole-room deep cleaning, so setting those days aside strictly for that will help a lot when it comes time to do the actual cleaning. And if ever you become stuck, look toward the internet for insight.
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