AIR FILTER

Filtrete 16x25x1, AC Furnace Air Filter, MPR 300, Clean Living Basic Dust, 6-Pack (exact dimensions 15.69 x 24.69 x 0.81)

Brand	Filtrete
Material	Electrostatically charged filter media
Item Dimensions LxWxH	25 x 1 x 16 inches
MERV Rating	5
Compatible devises	Air Conditioner

 hey guys malik mursaleen here with a word of advice is going to be all about furnace filters for a while now I wanted to get an assortment of furnace filters and check the static pressure drop across each one of them just to see how restrictive each of these air filters are so I got a kind of an order from fiberglass filters or Nepali filters these are you know they're popular for not filtering much of anything at all but they do let a lot of air flow through and they're very cheap filters I couldn't even find a pack of just one so I had to buy four of them even though I'm not planning on using them and how I got four of these I'll just use one of them for this video the next one is a 300 it's not labeled because I buy these in a big Amazon box, this is the ones I use this is a 300 MPR filter I think that stands for microparticle performance ratio I think that's what it was I'll put it on the screen this one is 300 the next one I got is 600 and it just kind of stops up steps p next one is 1200 1500 the last one is 1900 I couldn't find anything higher than that and of course the higher the number the more it supposedly filters off dust and particles bacterias and viruses dander pollen etc and just because I always want to try this this is the last filter I like to call this a hundred percent filtration it's just a piece of plywood that's cut out to you know the 1625 size I'll put it in there and see what kind of static pressure drop we get from this one so these are all the filters I got I went through three different stores to get them actually, I went to Walmart Target and Fleet Farm and it looks like Phil tret or 3m kind of took over to filter business all three of those stores I pretty much just had 3m there was a A couple of Honeywell other brands but none of them was my size so I ended up with pretty much all 3m filters and I also have three examples of dirty pleated filters that we can check as well this is from a house that is owned by two cats and two there's a bunch of hair over it dust and whatever else this one is from a house that was using dart candles like blue and black and just darker colors apparently, they can turn filters black like that and this is what seemingly it looks like a clean filter here's a new one compared to the used one and I took this one is out of my furnace because my the furnace is overheating so even though it looks nice and white this was actually pretty plugged up and I'm kind of curious to measure this with my manometer and see how plugged up this the filter really is but even though it looks clean this filter was actually pretty plugged up so I got three plugged up filter examples and got all these clean ones that we can check and see what kind of static pressure drop would get from all these filters and to do this test I turn my thermostat off and turn the fan to the Han set I have my switch is turned off now because it's kind of hard to pull out the filter and as you're pulling it out you're kind of banging it on the sides so all the dust is flying in there so I have the power switch off so it's not interrupting me while I'm talking at the same time so it's easier to pull that filter in and out after I put the filter in the next test subject I'll turn the switch back on and then after I'm done testing it turn it back off and just kind of go in that order hop on off put in the next filter next next next and what I'll be using to test these filters is a digital manometer and a static pressure probe kit that looks like that and you may have seen this in my other videos there's just two probes with either I believe it was five foot or six foot hoses which sometimes is very useful for checking static pressure on a furnace or an air conditioner I'll plug them boththem one in one port of one in the other so my manometer is ready after I untangle this stuff and exit this off camera but I also drilled holes one hole before my filter and one hole after my filter and I will be putting my two probes one destroyed a filter and one after the filter to check how much of my air restriction this filter is creating or in technical terms the static air pressure drop and then I'll turn on my manometer and make sure it's on the inches of water column scale I and WG it'll look like that and we are ready to begin the test, to begin with I think I will check the filter that I have in there currently I think it's been in there for a bar a month now this is the 300 NPR filter so let's turn the furnace back on then the fan should come on right away and see what the static pressure drop is there it goes [Music] and we're reading 0.38 and that's actually pretty high that filter is pretty restricted and that's why I'm hearing all these whistling noises I don't know if you're hearing that on the camera but that is a restricted filter it's only been in there for a month even though that filter supposedly lasts up to three months that's usually not the case so 38 is what we're getting so let's turn it back off pull this bad boy out as you can see it doesn't look that dirty but we can go ahead and check a brand new filter and see what that will be reading I buy mine on Amazon just a pack of 6 it's a lot cheaper than buying them in the store so let's put this new filter in and see what kind of reading we get from this one don't forget that the netted side goes towards the furnace or the arrow is pointing towards the furnace a lot of times at homeowners houses I'll actually take a permanent marker and draw an arrow pointing towards the furnace as a reminder for them so that they line up their furnace filter arrow with the arrow that I drew by anyway let's put that in my manometer is still a turn my furnace back on so I'll brand new 300 MP r filter let's see what it reads so right off the bat a brand new 300 NPR filter pleated filter is reading  18 point one nine inches of water column which tells us that these pleated filters are actually restrictive to begin with that's why some technicians will say to only use these fiber glass filters and the reason for that is because most air conditioners and furnaces are designed to run with a fiberglass filter, not a pleated filter these tend to be a little too restrictive especially those premium expensive filters and next up I have the fiberglass filter and before I continue just briefly a normal furnace you know the static pressure drop across the filter really should be anywhere from 0.1 to 0.3 that's the normal reading that I see optimally of course the lower is better on very dirty furnace filters especially these really high rated ones either a Marv or the MPR if I see one of these premium great filters really plugged up usually the reason I get is like 1.2 or 1.3 inches of the water column which is like severely plugged up if you run your furnace with the filter like that it'll overheat in about a minute and if you're running your air conditioner the coil that's on top of your furnace will start to freeze up so those are the premium grade filters the medium grade pleated filters you know where - accordion is more spaced out and the MPR rating is lower those when they're pretty dirty usually they read anywhere from  is what I see in the field all the time but I do have a couple examples of dirty pleated filters so we'll be able to check that later on I just want to throw that out there just so you know what normal readings are but anyways let's proceed we got the fiberglass filter next stake out the 300 mm PR filter put it aside put in my fiberglass water and this one should be the least restrictive filter so let's see if that That rings true I'm pretty sure it will I turned my power switch back on there goes the fan [Music] as expected point zero seven on a fiberglass filter this filter is definitely the least restrictive it allows the most air flow through your furnace it's very easy on the blower the motor that's why manufacturers design it for fiberglass filters, they are very easy for the furnace you know the motor does not get overstrained your compressor and the air conditioner does not have to work as hard but the downside is that this filter tends to let a lot of stuff through so a lot of the dust and other particles that get through this filter, they end up in your a coil or Die evaporator coil which is part of the air conditioner usually sits on top of your furnace so eventually with the time that coil will get plugged up when you have to get duct cleaners to come out and clean that up or if you get lucky yours is easily acessible and maybe you can get to it yourself and that's the biggest reason why I personally use just the cheap pleated filters the lower Merv rating or the lower MP R rated filters instead of these fiberglass ones because I don't really feel like having to clean my coil down the road so that's the fiberglass filter this is definitely the champion of the least restrictive filters so let's move on the next one is 600 MPR let's open this guy up turn that furnace back yard we'll see what we get for 600  and we're getting 0.23 from the 600 point two three so that's as expected for a pleated filter that's pretty normal for a cheap or a medium grade pleated filter usually the reading for a brand-new filter 0.2 inches of the water column and let's move on the next one is double that it's 1200 MPR well let's put the next one in and see what kind of read we get from this one 0.21 which is less restrictive than the 600 that we just used so 1200 is actually less restrictive than the 600 that's pretty impressive let's try to put this thing back on and see if that makes a difference it did not really make a 0.21 so I'll just keep changing the filters out with this thing off because it's not making much of a  that out let's move on to the next one is 1500 kind of curious to see if it's gonna be lower or higher or the same my guess would be this gonna be pretty similar to 1200 not very far off although 1200 had the accordion spaced out whereas starting from the 1500 series the cord Ian is closely knit together as far as I know this is like 30 feet of paper stacked together like that so let's put that in and see what kind of reading we get from a 1,500 let's see what we get so brand-new right when you put it in it's already reading 0.26 so that one actually starts out pretty restrictive and this is the one I was talking about where if it gets really dirty your static pressure drop will be like 1.2 inches of the water column which will cause your furnace overheats really fast so let's turn the power switch off and next up is 1900 so going up from 1500 to 900 IT 2.25 I'm kind of curious to see if this one is going to be exactly the same or if it will be different let's take a look [Music] Wow that is impressive it is actually reading 18 points one nine which amazingly is actually the least restrictive out of all the filters we've just tried and this happens to be the highest-rated one that was a little surprising I thought it was going to be pretty close to the 1500 but amazingly enough this one was actually the least restrictive but there is something you should know about that just because it might start as the least restrictive if this filter gets plugged up it becomes twice as restrictive as a cheap pleated filter meaning the static pressure drop on a dirty premium, filter is going to be way higher than on a dirty medium grade or a cheap pleated filter but anyways let's move on to this one I'm curious about myself 100% filtration I've never actually tried it I mean I have a idea of what I'm gonna get but let's try it BAM see what kind of read we get with a piece of plywood in there that will filter everything all the dust particles any kind of debris anything that comes at you can hear my furnace whistling like crazy as you can see it's 15 so if you think about it that is crazy, I have a piece of plywood in there and it's coming out at 1.15 I've seen these premium grade filters plugged ones that were reading 1.2 1.3 so imagine when these get plugged up they're actually worse than a piece of plywood in your furnace and that's why a lot of technicians recommend against them or against using them originally they were nice but you have to change them pretty frequently otherwise, if they get d pretty hard on the motor and just components of the furnace air conditioner if it's overheating or if it's freezing in the summer that's all bad for the unit let's see if I could take it back out no success so a hundred percent filtration if you don't want any dust getting into your house try using one of these and the final remaining three are the three dirty examples we'll start with this one this one looks like it's white I mean I don't know if you can see it on camera you can actually see that it's covered with a bunch of white particles whatever it is light colored candles dust another kind of debris some kind of powders and you can see how the filter is kind of sucked in it's caved in that's because the furnace blower motor was really sucking on it straining to get the air through so let's put that back in turn my furnace on and see what kind of a pressure drop we'd get on that one you can hear it whistling right away oh my goodness this isn't even a premium-grade filter either so if you remember the piece of plywood we had that was 1.15 that plugged up a pleated filter that is white it's not even black or gray is reading almost a 1 it's 0.99 so that's a very very dirty filter that explains why my that particular filter I kept it my high limit switch or the upper limit was getting stuck open so actually wouldn't reset or it wouldn't close back up so I had to kind of smack on it to get it going I have a video about that were when I came home and that happened to me I filmed a video of how I was smacking it and how you can reset that high limit switch anyways this is the filter here's a new one for example compared to this one so imagine this one's like a point two and this one that doesn't look much dirtier is a point 9 9 so very very restrictive almost like a piece of plywood so let'smove on number 2 is the pet house I think I'm going to try to put this in as slow as possible I don't want all that stuff inside of my furnace okay that's it let's turn that on  well as you can see pets are not as restrictive it's still bad point six is still pretty restricted your furnace or AC will be having problems with a filter like that so point six if it's starting at point two that means it's three times as restrictive as it was, to begin with so 0.6 is not as impressive as that white filter but still pretty dirty so lesson learned from this one if you see a filter like this it's probably going to be around the point six 0.6 inches of the water column and this one's our Merv three so it's actually just a paid basic cheap pleated filter and the last one I got is from a house that was burning dark candles you know like navy blue black dark colors and the filter was actually coming out black let's see if it's as restrictive as it looks especially compared to the other two dirty ones slide that, in turn, it on this is an NPR 300 which by the way is like a trademark of 3m instead of Merv they use that MPR rating furnace whistling like crazy dark scented candles yikes so my filter I think my wife was using light candles was a point 99 dark candles are apparently not as restrictive but they're very close or maybe the guy just replaced his filter faster denied it 0.96 that's very restricted so keep in mind that the piece of plywood was 1.15 and these filters are coming out close to 1 which means if you have a filter that is that dirty if it's like a really dark color that means it's almost equivalent to you just having a piece of plywood in there I mean sure you're getting great filtration but your unit is really suffering and that is actually our last test subject I hope you found this video interesting I found it pretty interesting myself actually, if you have any other tips about furnace filters or maybe I missed something in this video I know filters tend to be kind of a topic of debate in the HCI community and homeowners and stuff what's the best filter which one to use I also didn't mention much about the allergy aspect of it as for allergies tend to filter out more of the pollen and stuff in the air so they do tend to have that effect although I've talked to homeowners lots of them and asked them you know the ones that are using the really expensive filters do you notice a difference and there's kind of a split opinion some of they say the premium-grade filters really do help them they stop sneezing they feel a lot better other people say you know the allergies they remain the same regardless of what filters are using so really I think it varies from family to family some allergies may be affected by filters whereas others will not the purpose of this video was not about the health benefits, it was more of how restrictive the filters are and how they affect the furnace or an air conditioner but if you have any other useful tips or recommendations do let us know in the comments below thank you so much I bought this on Amazon just so I can pull pranks on people in the office just lay this around I bought a couple of them this is basically a whiteout bottle with some whiteout poured out so you know you place it somewhere once somebody is walking by they start freaking out and try to grab a rag or something to wipe it up and much to their surprise when they pick this thing up the actual whiteout comes with the bottle so it's kind of fun I bought this on Amazon and the first time I saw this my friend had it at his house and he actually had a coffee mug that was spilled over with coffee on the table so you know we had a group of people came over and I was the first one there so, of course, I come in the house and I'm like ah man you spilled coffee I grab that thing and they start trying to wipe it up and of course, it's fake so after that, I sat on the couch.