How Often Should You Clean Your Air Conditioning Filter?

Let’s be honest – most of us don’t think about our air con filters until something goes wrong. One of the most common questions we get from customers is about how often to clean aircon filters. It’s an important topic, and one that doesn’t exactly come with a one-size-fits-all answer. But getting it right can save you money and headaches down the track.

What’s an Air Con Filter Anyway?

Think of your air conditioning filter as the bouncer at a club, except instead of keeping troublemakers out, it’s stopping dust, pet hair, pollen, and all sorts of nasties from circulating through your home.

It’s usually a mesh-like panel that sits behind your return air grille (the part where air gets sucked back into your system). Without this unsung hero, your air conditioner would get clogged up faster than a drain at a hairdresser’s, and you’d be breathing in whatever’s floating around your house. Not exactly what you want on a scorching Queensland afternoon!

How Often Should You Clean Your Aircon Filter?

So, how often should you clean your aircon filter? It depends on the type of system you have. Got a regular home split system or a fully-ducted product? You’ll want to clean those filters around every four weeks or so when you’re using the aircon regularly.

Running a business? Commercial systems need a bit more attention – aim for every couple of weeks because they’re working harder and pushing more air around. And if you’ve got a window unit or portable air con, you’ll probably only need to check and clean the filters every couple of weeks during summer.

Something else to consider is your living conditions. Here’s a heads-up for pet owners or those in dusty parts of Queensland – you might need to bump up your aircon filter cleaning to a weekly or fortnightly schedule. Those fur babies and dust storms don’t do your filters any favours!

How Do I Know If My Filter Needs Cleaning?

Your air con isn’t shy about letting you know when it’s struggling. Watch out for these tell-tale signs that the filter (or potentially other parts of the unit) need a good clean:

• The air flow starts to feel weaker than a ceiling fan on low speed
• Your power bills are creeping up for no good reason
• You hear strange noises that weren’t there before
• There’s dust gathering around your vents
• Funky smells come out when you switch the unit on
• Your unit is running flat out, but your room still feels hot

Spotted any of these? Your filter is probably crying out for a clean.

Why Bother Cleaning Filters?

There are actually a bunch of good reasons to spend the time and energy cleaning your aircon filters:

Save Your Hard-Earned Cash

A clogged filter makes your system work overtime, which wastes power. In our hot Queensland summers, that could mean hundreds of dollars down the drain.

Keep Your Air Con Alive Longer

It’s like making your car run with a dirty oil filter – it puts strain on all the important bits. Clean filters mean less stress on your air conditioner’s compressor and a longer life for your entire system.

Breathe Easier

If you’ve got kids with asthma or someone with allergies at home, clean filters can trap the nasties that would otherwise be floating around your living room.

Avoid Costly Repairs

When your filter gets clogged, dirt can build up elsewhere in the system. Before you know it, you’re looking at a frozen evaporator coil or worse – a dead compressor. That’s when you’re talking serious money.

So, don’t delay and get your aircon filters cleaned ASAP if you haven’t given them any attention for a while. Plus, if you want to give your whole aircon system some TLC, check out our step-by-step air conditioner cleaning guide for the full rundown.

When to Call in the Pros

While giving your filters a quick clean isn’t rocket science, there are times when it’s worth getting the experts in. For example, for commercial systems, which are typically large and more complex, professional cleaning is a big help. Our experienced maintenance techs can get to all the tricky parts safely, spot potential problems before they become disasters, and make sure everything’s cleaned properly without damaging any sensitive components.

Even for home systems, having professionals like us check things over at least a couple of times a year (ideally before summer kicks in and again before winter) keeps everything running smoothly. If you’re in Gympie, or anywhere in the Wide Bay or South Burnett regions, give us a call. Whether your system just needs a good clean or it’s time to consider upgrading to something more efficient, we’ll give you straight-up honest advice without the sales pitch.