Cleaning air filter screens (difficulty level: long-haired cat)
September 28, 2017 9:35 AM Subscribe
Our rental house's furnace system includes one of these. We've lived here less than a year. We tried to clean the pre-filter screens before heat season, and they have fur from our fluffy cat tangled inside. Recommended cleaning methods didn't fully work. Help?
We have a fluffy cat who sheds abundantly. His fur got into our electronic air cleaner system despite regular brushing and sweeping, and it's proving difficult to remove it from the pre-filter screens. The recommendation for serious cleaning seems to be to stick the screens in the dishwasher, but I don't want to clog the dishwasher with cat fur.
I've tried using compressed air, a scrub brush, bathtub faucet water, a Shop-Vac and tweezers. The tweezers are sort of working, but I don't have time to clean two big screens with tiny tweezers. Has anyone ever solved this problem? How?
We have a fluffy cat who sheds abundantly. His fur got into our electronic air cleaner system despite regular brushing and sweeping, and it's proving difficult to remove it from the pre-filter screens. The recommendation for serious cleaning seems to be to stick the screens in the dishwasher, but I don't want to clog the dishwasher with cat fur.
I've tried using compressed air, a scrub brush, bathtub faucet water, a Shop-Vac and tweezers. The tweezers are sort of working, but I don't have time to clean two big screens with tiny tweezers. Has anyone ever solved this problem? How?
Best answer: Do you have an outdoor area where you can spray them with a hose and a strong pressure sprayer? (I like this type.) Or even a DIY car wash with pressure sprayers?
You could also try scrubbing them with dishwasher detergent as part of your pressure washing, to sort of break down the hair some more.
I would wash them as well as possible that way, and then put disposable filter material over the prefilter screens going forward. The cut-to-fit type is probably your best option.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:43 AM on September 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
You could also try scrubbing them with dishwasher detergent as part of your pressure washing, to sort of break down the hair some more.
I would wash them as well as possible that way, and then put disposable filter material over the prefilter screens going forward. The cut-to-fit type is probably your best option.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:43 AM on September 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Best I can recommend is to blow with compressed air in opposite direction of the normal airflow. If you done anything else first, especially using water, it'll be pretty difficult. Prior to putting these back in place you might try covering the intake side with a piece of window screen. It would be thin enough as to not cause an installation problem and I'd think when it went time to clean it would be a lot easier to get the hair off instead of the tangle that the current filter presents.
Super out-of-box, stick with me here cause it's gross, but if you end up unhappy after trying everything else and there's nothing left to do, hit it lightly with a torch, burn all the stuck hair, then wash thoroughly. Last resort only.
posted by achrise at 9:49 AM on September 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Super out-of-box, stick with me here cause it's gross, but if you end up unhappy after trying everything else and there's nothing left to do, hit it lightly with a torch, burn all the stuck hair, then wash thoroughly. Last resort only.
posted by achrise at 9:49 AM on September 28, 2017 [1 favorite]
Have you tried lint rollers or packing tape?
posted by oneear at 10:56 AM on September 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by oneear at 10:56 AM on September 28, 2017 [2 favorites]
My house has these and what I do is first remove/rub off all of the easy lint and hair. I then take it to the bathtub where I go at it with the showerhead on its most powerful massage setting. That gets rid of most of it so then I let it dry a bit and put it back in the filter. The bathtub gets pretty gross after that but in my case it's a basement bathtub that is never used so no big deal.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:20 AM on September 28, 2017
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 11:20 AM on September 28, 2017
Depending on how much you value your time, you can buy replacement pre-filters for not too much money. Looks like you might need two of these.
You need to check for the exact model and fit for your air cleaner.
posted by JackFlash at 1:13 PM on September 28, 2017
You need to check for the exact model and fit for your air cleaner.
posted by JackFlash at 1:13 PM on September 28, 2017
Response by poster: Thanks, all! Dish detergent worked for the short term, and we're going to try the window screen thing this fall and see how it goes.
posted by centrifugal at 8:25 PM on October 1, 2017
posted by centrifugal at 8:25 PM on October 1, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jon1270 at 9:36 AM on September 28, 2017