My 30-year-old Honeywell electronic air cleaner stopped working. The
repair man highly suggested that I remove the cells and replace them
with pleated air filters (4"). I did this, but am wondering if it was
a good move or not. The repairman insisted that the pleated media
filter would do a much better job than the electronic unit did,
especially good for keeping dust out of the central A/C.

Should I feel good about the change? Will the new filter catch the
ultra-fine particulate matter that an electronic cleaner claims to?

Thanks!

wrote:
My 30-year-old Honeywell electronic air cleaner stopped working. The
repair man highly suggested that I remove the cells and replace them
with pleated air filters (4"). I did this, but am wondering if it was
a good move or not. The repairman insisted that the pleated media
filter would do a much better job than the electronic unit did,
especially good for keeping dust out of the central A/C.

Define better. Assuming the pleated filter does not produce too much
air resistance and reduce the air flow too much, it should do a very good
job of normal air cleaning, maybe better than your old one in some ways.


Should I feel good about the change? Will the new filter catch the
ultra-fine particulate matter that an electronic cleaner claims to?

Depends. However I have to ask. Does it matter to you? Really. There
are many products on the market that arguably better than others but often
cost more or are less reliable or have some other disadvantage. You need to
weigh the advantages against the disadvantages. Do you really have a
problem caused by those ultra fine particles? It brings to mind the
commercials about the "lurking" germs in the bathroom air. According to all
the independent information I have found, yes there are germs in the air in
the bath, but no more than in the kitchen. They are not a problem, except
in the extreme case.


Thanks!

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

Joseph Meehan wrote:

wrote:

My 30-year-old Honeywell electronic air cleaner stopped working. The
repair man highly suggested that I remove the cells and replace them
with pleated air filters (4"). I did this, but am wondering if it was
a good move or not. The repairman insisted that the pleated media
filter would do a much better job than the electronic unit did,
especially good for keeping dust out of the central A/C.


Define better. Assuming the pleated filter does not produce too much
air resistance and reduce the air flow too much, it should do a very good
job of normal air cleaning, maybe better than your old one in some ways.


Should I feel good about the change? Will the new filter catch the
ultra-fine particulate matter that an electronic cleaner claims to?


Depends. However I have to ask. Does it matter to you? Really. There
are many products on the market that arguably better than others but often
cost more or are less reliable or have some other disadvantage. You need to
weigh the advantages against the disadvantages. Do you really have a
problem caused by those ultra fine particles? It brings to mind the
commercials about the "lurking" germs in the bathroom air. According to all
the independent information I have found, yes there are germs in the air in
the bath, but no more than in the kitchen. They are not a problem, except
in the extreme case.


Thanks!


Hi,
One thing air, flow rate will be less with filter.
Tony

I replace mine with pleated filters 6 years ago because I got sick of
cleaning the electronic ones.

They do a good job. Can't tell if if they are as good because the stuff
they pass is too small to see.

wrote in message
ups.com...
My 30-year-old Honeywell electronic air cleaner stopped working. The
repair man highly suggested that I remove the cells and replace them
with pleated air filters (4"). I did this, but am wondering if it was
a good move or not. The repairman insisted that the pleated media
filter would do a much better job than the electronic unit did,
especially good for keeping dust out of the central A/C.

Should I feel good about the change? Will the new filter catch the
ultra-fine particulate matter that an electronic cleaner claims to?

Thanks!

Try WW Grainger for pleated filter information. They put a good amount of
information about the filters they sell. I use their extended service for
the lower static pressure. Best check with your manufactures of the filter
and the a/c see what levels of static your system can handle. My a/c pretty
much craps out when 0.70 of static pressure is reached. Some filter
companies tell you to change the filter at 1.0.

Depending on the media pleated filters are far superior to electronics. Have
you ever seen a clean room with a electronic filter? They use Hepa pleated
filters.

wrote in message
ups.com...
My 30-year-old Honeywell electronic air cleaner stopped working. The
repair man highly suggested that I remove the cells and replace them
with pleated air filters (4"). I did this, but am wondering if it was
a good move or not. The repairman insisted that the pleated media
filter would do a much better job than the electronic unit did,
especially good for keeping dust out of the central A/C.

Should I feel good about the change? Will the new filter catch the
ultra-fine particulate matter that an electronic cleaner claims to?

Thanks!



I do HVAC service for a living. I have yet to see someone service an
electronic air filter often as they needed to. Once the electronic elements
get dirty the filter does nothing. When in use, cooling or heating season,
electronic filters need cleaning at least once a month to do the job. A
pleated filter in place of the electronic elements is a very good idea.
When I notice that a customer has an electronic filter I ask them how often
they clean it. Most are surprised that once or twice a year is not enough!
Greg

"Greg O" wrote in message
...
I do HVAC service for a living. I have yet to see someone service an
electronic air filter often as they needed to. Once the electronic
elements get dirty the filter does nothing. When in use, cooling or
heating season, electronic filters need cleaning at least once a month to
do the job. A pleated filter in place of the electronic elements is a very
good idea.
When I notice that a customer has an electronic filter I ask them how
often they clean it. Most are surprised that once or twice a year is not
enough!
Greg
I agree; coincidentally, the other day, I picked, up for scrap, a used
electronic filter unit.
It appeared to have 'never' been cleaned!
The slide out electronic filtering units were literally jammed with
felt-like lint, comprised of human hair, even a few feathers and some scraps
of tissue paper! Maybe the building it came out of had included a hair
dressing salon?
Anyway the air flow through it must have been virtually nil. With the
electronic filtering action completely negated by the mass of debris.
Curious about how these things work, I removed the mess from one part of the
unit to view the electrostatics and had to use a knife to cut through the
mats of lint, section by section.
By the way it has as a 120 volt 60 hertz AC input 'transformer'. The output
of that, is connected to the electrostatic section, at presumably, a high
voltage. But is that electrostatic section operating at AC or DC? In other
words does the unit 'labelled transformer' also incorporate a rectifier to
convert AC to DC?
Info welcomed.

Terry,

The cells use DC high voltage at 7,000 to 10,000 volts to capture dust
and other fine particles. The higher the voltage and the closer the
plates are, the better the filtration gets. The trouble is when the
voltage gets too high for the plate spacing, the voltage arcs from the
ionizing wires to the plates and you get snap, crackle and pop in your
filter, which can be quite annoying.

Stretch

Electronic loose efficiency as they get dirty and at my electric rates
125kwh can cost 12$ a month to run 24x7. They need to be kept clean.
Media gain efficency as they get dirty but are more air restrictive
clean and more so dirty. A pooly designed system may freeze the coil
with the media reducing airflow if you dont have a pro check present
coil temp and calculate air flow reduction. My system is oversized so I
welcome reduced summer airflow as it removes more humidity. I like
Media, April Air 2200 Medias case does not seal positively, look into
Air Bear. Or for a fancier super cleaner April Air or Lennox has a new
unit out that is electronic and media. Just my non professional opinion,
experiance.

Hi Greg, hope you are having a nice day

On 25-Jun-05 At About 03:30:25, Greg O wrote to All
Subject: Replace Electronic Air Cleaner with Pleated Filter?

GO From: "Greg O"

GO "jim evans" wrote in message
GO ...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 21:41:52 -0500, "Greg O"
wrote:
GO I do HVAC service for a living. I have yet to see someone
GO service an electronic air filter often as they needed to. Once the elec
GO elements get dirty the filter does nothing. When in use, cooling
GO or heating season, electronic filters need cleaning at least once
GO a month to do the job.
I had an electronic air cleaner in a house several years ago. It had
an alarm and a meter that told you when it needed to be cleaned.
Do most units not have these or are they not effective?

jim

GO I have never seen one with an alarm or meter. Greg

I have Greg but it is an add on.


-= HvacTech2 =-


... "Chew electronic death, you snarling cur!" -- Calvin

___ TagDude 0.92á+[DM]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++
spam protection measure, Please remove the 33 to send e-mail

Are all these downsides to electronic filters also
applicable to portable electronic room filters such as
Friedrich C90a in link below?

http://tinyurl.com/5qr9q

IOW.... is it best to not even use such portable
electronic air cleaners?

If you want to learn about filters May Consmer Reports and older issues
online are worth the price of admission. Ozone is a serious issue of
room units in closed rooms, even open in reality in my opinion. Consumer
Reports covered the bases in several articles. The Ionic Breeze is the
biggest scam and crap out there.

"jim evans" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 21:41:52 -0500, "Greg O"
wrote:

I do HVAC service for a living. I have yet to see someone service an
electronic air filter often as they needed to. Once the electronic
elements
get dirty the filter does nothing. When in use, cooling or heating season,
electronic filters need cleaning at least once a month to do the job.

I had an electronic air cleaner in a house several years ago. It had
an alarm and a meter that told you when it needed to be cleaned. Do
most units not have these or are they not effective?

jim


I have never seen one with an alarm or meter.
Greg

I have an electronic air filter and I've had 2 problems with it - it needed
frequent repairs (usually diodes) and it needed frequent and cumbersome
cleaning.

I tried inserting a 4" pleated filter in place of the electronic cells,
but this restricted air flow too much. They are also relatively
expensive, especially if you are replacing them often.

My unit has two slide out mess filters and I have removed each of them
and replaced them with disposable filters. The first filter is one of those
extremely inexpensive filters which has a very loose weave fiberglass
material. The second filter is a medium quality pleated filter. So, I
now have return air flowing through a very inexpensive disposable filter,
then through the electronic cells which are no longer turned on, then
through a pleated filter, and then finally on to the furnace blow fan
compartment. This works extremely well for me.

I leave the electronic cells in place just because they are necessary
for holding the disposable filters in place.

About every 2 weeks I remove the disposable filters to examine them
and to quickly clean them. The shop vac will remove a lot of dirt from
the filters. A blow gun hooked up to my compressor removes much
of the remaining dust when I reverse flush the filters. I use a high volume,
low pressure blow gun - the sort which draws in ambient air through 4
venturi openings.

My cleaning procedure takes very little time once every two weeks.
Obviously, I pitch the filters when the are no longer servicable. The
pleated filters in particular tend to get loaded with deeply embedded
dirt. I clean or replace the filters every 2 weeks because we run the
furnace fan 24/7, mostly for allergy relief.

Good luck,
Gideon

===================

wrote in message
. com...
My 30-year-old Honeywell electronic air cleaner stopped working. The
repair man highly suggested that I remove the cells and replace them
with pleated air filters (4"). I did this, but am wondering if it was
a good move or not. The repairman insisted that the pleated media
filter would do a much better job than the electronic unit did,
especially good for keeping dust out of the central A/C.

Should I feel good about the change? Will the new filter catch the
ultra-fine particulate matter that an electronic cleaner claims to?

Thanks!

On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 19:41:14 GMT, "Gideon" wrote:

I tried inserting a 4" pleated filter in place of the electronic cells,
but this restricted air flow too much. They are also relatively
expensive, especially if you are replacing them often.

My unit has two slide out mess filters and I have removed each of them
and replaced them with disposable filters. The first filter is one of those
extremely inexpensive filters which has a very loose weave fiberglass
material.


The reports on electronic air filters isn't encouraging, not worth the
price and maintenance hassle. The expensive pleated filters have
several disadvantages - restricted airflow, the expense and not much
more efficiency in removing dust than the el cheapo. Once the dust
layer forms on the coating it becomnes just an ordinary filter.

My current solution is to spray the el cheapo with a light coat of
cooking oil. Its been two months now but with the warm weather the
furnace had been on less than half a dozen times (night temps. did
drop to single digits a few times.) The filter element is still clean
and the oil coat sticky. No rancidity. I'll know how well this
works when the cold season comes around.

replying to toller, Nav wrote:
So do you just insert the pleated filter of same size into the housing of the
electronic air cleaner ? Would it just work sitting there like the standard
filters?

--
for full context, visit http://www.homeownershub.com/mainten...ter-64142-.htm

On Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 4:14:05 PM UTC-4, Nav wrote:
replying to toller, Nav wrote:
So do you just insert the pleated filter of same size into the housing of the
electronic air cleaner ? Would it just work sitting there like the standard
filters?


That would seem to depend on the design of the electronic air cleaner
and we have no specifics. In general, I'd suspect they are not designed
to accept standard filter media, but it's possible it might work in
some. There are measurements for the filters, you can measure the
filter unit. I'd think even if they are close in size, it may not seal
properly around the filter as compared to the electrostatic slide out
part and air would get by, etc.

trader_4 posted for all of us...



On Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 4:14:05 PM UTC-4, Nav wrote:
replying to toller, Nav wrote:
So do you just insert the pleated filter of same size into the housing of the
electronic air cleaner ? Would it just work sitting there like the standard
filters?


That would seem to depend on the design of the electronic air cleaner
and we have no specifics. In general, I'd suspect they are not designed
to accept standard filter media, but it's possible it might work in
some. There are measurements for the filters, you can measure the
filter unit. I'd think even if they are close in size, it may not seal
properly around the filter as compared to the electrostatic slide out
part and air would get by, etc.

It may also dramatically decrease the air flow rate.

--
Tekkie

On Tue, 27 Sep 2016 20:14:01 +0000, Nav
m wrote:

replying to toller, Nav wrote:
So do you just insert the pleated filter of same size into the housing of the
electronic air cleaner ? Would it just work sitting there like the standard
filters?
That's what I did after the power supply failed for the second time.
No problems with filtering or airflow. The pleated filter needs to
have the same dimensions as the electronic parts being replaced.

On Sunday, October 2, 2016 at 9:43:04 AM UTC-4, Tekkie® wrote:
trader_4 posted for all of us...



On Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at 4:14:05 PM UTC-4, Nav wrote:
replying to toller, Nav wrote:
So do you just insert the pleated filter of same size into the housing of the
electronic air cleaner ? Would it just work sitting there like the standard
filters?


That would seem to depend on the design of the electronic air cleaner
and we have no specifics. In general, I'd suspect they are not designed
to accept standard filter media, but it's possible it might work in
some. There are measurements for the filters, you can measure the
filter unit. I'd think even if they are close in size, it may not seal
properly around the filter as compared to the electrostatic slide out
part and air would get by, etc.

It may also dramatically decrease the air flow rate.

--
Tekkie

It will have some more airflow resistance than an electronic, but I've never
seen a furnace blower that wasn't capable of handling one of the media
type air filters. The reason they are so thick is that they have deep
pleats that greatly increase the surface area.

replying to Joseph Meehan, rmwmd wrote:
Although levels of bacteria and viruses vary over time, the levels are higher
in the bathroom. This is because the bathroom is smaller (keeps bugs
"concentrated") and more sources are exposed in the bathroom (think "exhaust"
fumes). Kitchen poses a risk of skin infections; bathroom increases risk of
gastrointestinal infections. Careful hand washing reduces risk of skin
infection, but it is much more difficult to reduce the GI bugs as many are
airborne, as well as on surfaces.

--
for full context, visit https://www.homeownershub.com/mainte...ter-64142-.htm