Dirty Furnace Filters Can Be Deadly

What do you assume is the result if you neglect to keep your furnace filter clean? Do you think that your furnace will be able to run forever without problems using the same dirty filter year after year? What do you think will happen when your filter becomes over saturated by dirt, pet hair, allergens and dust? You are looking at more than the fan simply refusing to run properly. A dirty filter in your furnace can be deadly, make you sick or worse, causing your home to go up in flames.

When either your furnace or air conditioning unit are not being maintained properly every six months or every year, dirt, dust and other debris can build up inside causing serious problems in the long run. Not only will you be paying more for heating if your heating unit has to struggle harder to heat the same amount of space but also run the risk of some pretty serious dangers are also involved with not properly responding to a dirty furnace filter. When your furnace and the motor in your air conditioner become clogged by dirt and debris, that air is what will be circulating through your home, rather than the clean, fresh air that you once enjoyed. Your family will be breathing in all these toxins that otherwise would have been sucked out of the air by a clean or new filter. If you continue to breathe this bad air, there is the possibility you will become sick. So if your family is sick and the cause cannot be found, it might be time to replace your filters and to restore the clear air in your home.

After a few years worth of neglecting your furnace serious things can possibly happen. Your furnace may simply break down and you will be lucky if you could find a cheap replacement part. If your heat exchanger becomes warped or cracked from the unbearable heat build up within your furnace, noxious carbon monoxide fumes may leak into your home, not only making you sick but also potentially killing you and your entire family. Can you imagine all of this, simply because you could not be bothered to maintain your furnace filter?

Faulty furnaces have also been known to cause fires, all because the filter wasn't clean, and air couldn't circulate properly through the furnace and throughout your home. Clean up after a fire is incredibly expensive, and there is no telling what damage you may in the process. What if your entire house goes up in flames? What is a pet, or a family member is trapped inside when it happens? Hopefully now changing out your furnace filters or buying filters that are permanent and only need to be cleaned seems like less of a trivial matter. You can save yourself a lot of stress, a lot of health problems and a whole lot of financial burden simply by keeping your filters clean, or replacing them often. If there is any doubt, you can always contact a contractor who can check your furnace and clean your filters if need be.

With so many reasons to keep up on your furnace maintenance, and no known reasons for why not to, you should take the next few moments to check out the state of your furnace filter to make sure that air is circulating properly through your home, that your heat exchanger is still in one healthy, solid piece, and that there is no risk or danger present that you could easily have avoided.

Bill Whitworth writes air quality articles for Web Products, Inc., the Internet's premier supplier of furnace filters, air filters, replacement filters, and custom filters.