Shoutout to the guy who yelled at me about my AC filter last summer

I always thought those filter changes were a scam to sell more filters... my electric bill hit $210 in August and I was blaming the old unit. Then my landlord came by to fix a leaky faucet and saw the filter. He pulled it out and it was basically solid gray. He held it up and said "you're choking your system to death." So I changed it. Bill dropped to $150 the next month. Still bugs me that nobody ever told me they needed to be swapped every 3 months. Has anyone else had a landlord teach them something obvious about their place?

2 comments

2 Comments

kim.nina22d ago

Learned the hard way when my furnace started making a sound like a dying cat.

aaronsullivan22d ago

Oh man, that's rough! Hear me out though, it might not be what you think. That dying cat noise is usually a sign of a failing inducer motor, not the main blower. I know because I was chasing a weird grinding sound for weeks thinking it was the fan belt or something. Turns out the little motor that pushes exhaust out before the flame kicks in was seizing up on cold starts. Nobody talks about that part because it's tucked away behind the main furnace panel. If you catch it early you can just replace the motor for like $80 instead of the whole furnace