Are Expensive Furnace Filters Necessary

How Much is a Filter For a Furnace?
5 Factors That Touch on Furnace Filter Prices

Air filter cost isn't just about who you buy the filter from - there are several considerations that play a office in how much you lot pay. That makes it hard to sympathise what you should and could expect to pay for filters in your own domicile.

Below are five of the top factors that make up one's mind furnace filter cost.

Filter Size

Like many products, bigger products translate into higher cost. With filter sizes, the length, width and thickness (also called depth) touch the pricing in dissimilar ways.

Let's look at a few examples from our stock to bear witness how big a departure filter size can make in price (note: prices are electric current every bit of 10/two/20. Your mileage may vary when you go to the pages themselves).

Looking at the nigh farthermost example, nosotros tin can compare our smallest air filter size to our largest:

That'southward more than triple the price per unit – so, which factor plays the largest role in that price increase.

Here we have 2 standard 1" thick air filters with the aforementioned MERV rating (more on that here). Based on the size differences in length and width solitary, that accounts for a $20 deviation in the toll of the filters:

Past contrast, when we compare air conditioner filter price when the height and width are the same, only the depth is unlike, the price differential is less severe:

These three examples highlight how large the air filter price cost range can be depending on the size. While there's non much you as a client can do to modify that, it does give y'all an idea of how much you have to pay. It is possible to apply a shallower filter in a render vent that tin can adjust a deeper one – still, know that you may take to change that air filter more often, which negates some of the cost savings.

Read More than: How Often Practice You Need to Change My Air Filter

Render Vent vs Whole Firm Filters

Do you demand a whole house air filter or a standard return vent filter? A whole house filter slots into your central heating or air conditioning unit of measurement, so that air coming in and going out of the unit is filtered properly. By dissimilarity, the return vent filter fits into a grate in the largest air vents in your habitation, normally mounted on the wall or ceiling. Whole business firm is thicker than standard air filters, many of which are just 1" in depth. Well-nigh whole house air filters are 3-5" in depth. That deviation in size, every bit discussed to a higher place, makes a dissimilar in sizing.

Many whole house filters are also brand specific. If you lot look at our selection of whole business firm filters, you'll see there are over three dozen brands to choose from. Those products are as well different because they are outfitted with specific parts or frames to brand them uniform with that specific brand or furnace or air cleaner. As a consequence, when comparing a brand-specific filter and a not-specific filter with similar width and length, the toll differential is more significant than the example shown higher up:

MERV Rating

Next up is MERV rating, or in other words, how well your air filter purifies the air. MERV rating ranges from 1-20 with xx being the well-nigh proficient at cleaning the air. But that effectiveness comes at a price.

Here again some Filterbuy examples tin help illustrate the deviation.

Each fourth dimension you movement up the MERV rating the toll to replace an air filter goes upward by most $v per filter. Now permit's meet what the furnace filter price would be if the air filters also aren't the same size.

What most ratings in a higher place MERV 13? That'southward when yous start getting into the filtration territory of HEPA air filters? Like any increase in filtration capabilities, the toll will go upwardly appropriately – because Filterbuy doesn't deport HEPA filters, we tin can't showcase an exact price difference here. Well-nigh HVAC systems are also not configured to use HEPA-class furnace filters, both in a whole firm or return vent setup. This is where air purifiers with HEPA filters come in handy – you lot tin can get the benefits of that level of filtration without having to rework your home arrangement.

Filter Construction

How well an air filter is constructed will bear upon the toll. The biggest filter construction consideration is the filter material (as well called filter media) itself. The two most mutual materials are fiberglass or pleated. Fiberglass filters are made with strings of nonbiodegradable fiberglass that are woven together, while pleated air filters are made with either polyester, cotton or paper sheets that are layered and pleated together.

More often than not speaking, pleated filters will price more if all the other factors are the same. Pleated air filters are only more than efficient and ameliorate constructed. Because of this, they tend to final longer. That means fifty-fifty though a pleated filter costs more at the time of purchase, the air filter replacement cost is lower over time.

Read More: Fiberglass vs Pleated Air Filters

Filter media treatments can enhance performance simply may also increment the price. Electrostatic air filters activated carbon air filters, and aroma reduction filters will all price more a standard filter of the same size, but the added media treatment could be worth the higher price tag.

Finally, the frame of the filter will touch on the price as well. While well-nigh home air filters are made with a cardboard material, not all cardboard frame is created equal. Filterbuy's frames, for example, use a stronger beverage board material for the filters and then that the frames don't bend and interruption unexpectedly. That's crucial for air filters used in a commercial context or in buildings with college levels of humidity.

Some commercial air filters will come in a metallic casing, and those will be more than expensive than the traditional frame material.

Purchase Behavior

As Costco has taught us all, buying in bulk can cut down on your costs when ownership things for our homes, and air filters are no exception. The more air filters you buy at in one case, the cheaper each 1 will exist.

Permit's look once again at the previous example, twenty x 20 x 4 air filter with MERV 8 rating. Hither's how the price per filter breaks down past the number of filters existence purchased. Equally you can see, the price per unit is almost 50% lower when you lot buy in the largest quantity:

Quantity	Price per Filter
1	$25.83 ea.
two	$16.64 ea.
3	$xv.19 ea.
4-v	$14.72 ea.
6-11	$14.15 ea.
12+	$13.29 ea.

That cost benefit compounds when y'all order filters of a larger size or MERV rating. Bank check out what happens when we upgrade to a 20 ten 20 x 4 air filter with MERV thirteen rating.

Quantity	Price per Filter
ane	$33.43 ea.
2	$20.89 ea.
3	$19.94 ea.
four-v	$19.47 ea.
6-11	$18.ninety ea.
12+	$18.04 ea.

And here's how the discount breaks out for another MERV xiii air filter in a smaller size (8 ten 14 x 4):

Quantity	Price per Filter
one	$28.79 ea.
2	$17.99 ea.
3	$16.99 ea.
4-5	$xvi.49 ea.
six-11	$15.89 ea.
12+	$14.99 ea.

Some other way to relieve is by joining an air filter subscription service. The Filterbuy subscription service automatically delivers an air filter every three months for an boosted 5% discount.

Using our cost-saving measures and quality production, we tin can help you get the best quality air filter for the coin. Come discover your new air filter with us!