Factors Governing Air Filter Testing

By Frances Russell


The air filters in our homes and offices are manufactured without any regulation or consideration to off gassing or consumer safety other than its flammability. Tests on flammability are important because they guarantee that a product will not cause a fire. What I am concerned about is everything else. The only considerations when developing new products or sourcing new components was price, and will it make the filter catch fire. This attitude has made me question many other products on the market today. Some safeties to consider on air filter testing.

That's not an exaggeration either - it's been determined that an air strainer can lose a big chunk of its durability by simply being cleaned in an improper manner. In fact, the sooner you realize that, the more you'll benefit in the long run by keeping your air strainers in a good condition. The best thing you can do for your strainers is to get in touch with a professional strainer cleaning company and figure out a long-term relationship with them. And no, simply buying new strainers all the time isn't going to be a good substitute. It will actually have the opposite effect.

Medias: All Medias are made from some form of synthetic fiber and most use a resin or adhesive to hold the fibers together. Some Medias that I prefer use a low melt process for the fibers to eliminate the need for resins, but almost all have resins. Newer pleated riddles that do not have metal on the back of the media for support must use huge amounts of resin to make the media stiff.

This makes it even more important to hire a good air strainer cleaning company. Preserving this special coating during the cleaning process is extremely important. The cleaning requires a careful approach to the as well as a lot of expertise in the field.

Filter frame: The mesh frame is made from metal, plastic or paper. This is the component I am least concerned about. However, plastics are becoming increasingly popular without regard to testing. In addition, most of the paper is treated with a moisture barrier in the fibers. These chemicals are regarded as proprietary from the paper mills.

It is generally held that there are 10 major contaminants found in compressed strainers. Nine of these are removed using filtration technology. Strainer design is based mostly on what works! In other words, development is largely empirical - the result of experiment and observation. Strainer material design and specification needs to demonstrate better than adequate retention capacity, separating ability, a stable pressure build up and low pressure loss.

Antimicrobial Chemicals: Antimicrobial agents are added to strainer Medias to prevent the growth of mold. Many suppliers nowadays market the product as "an EPA registered product". Well folks, EPA registered does not mean safe. They are registered with the EPA as pesticides! Don't use pesticides around kids, and certainly would not spray roach killer in my air conditioner and then stay in the house all day. If we want to avoid bacteria and mold, why not just change the filter more often? Really folks, pesticides? Who are these guys? If you see an antimicrobial filter, run away. There are some metals that can be used such as silver ions, so technologies are improving.

It's kind of hard to find good companies in this field nowadays, as this service has become so popular and the market for it has been suffering from a bit of an overcrowding lately. Just hire them for a test run if you're not sure what they can offer you, see how well they pull off the job, and if you're satisfied with that then work out the terms of a longer deal with them and see what they can offer you in terms of price and availability!




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