Forum Discussion

wopachop's avatar
wopachop
Explorer
Sep 16, 2020

Bad air quality--finally taped a house filter on the A/C

Its the cheap kind ive had it for years. Hope its decent for smoke particles. What are the negatives besides tape residue and reminding me of wearing a mask? Im out of blue tape. Just got to the trailer and decided to slap it up real quick. Made it a partial dome shape. It was holding up without the tape. Which i consider a bad sign. But i suppose the stock filter does as well.

I do have 2 larger pieces of filter if the A/C pros consider it too restrictive. My plan years ago was to make a nice looking filter housing so i could leave it installed. I dont want to leave the tape overnight.

Safe to assume running the fan on low would be best? Or could that act like bogging down an engine? I know we are talking about an electric motor. Its more comparing a bogged down engine to the efficiency of the fan blades. Maybe the fan blades work better at the higher speed. For now i have it manually set to stay on low.

  • wildtoad's avatar
    wildtoad
    Explorer II
    Sep 16, 2020
    What are you trying to solve with this rather ugly DIY filter? Clean the original filter and coils.
  • profdant139's avatar
    profdant139
    Explorer II
    Sep 16, 2020
    wildtoad, it may look funny. But if you were stuck in a place with bad smoke (West Coast), this solution is a lot better than nothing.
  • time2roll's avatar
    time2roll
    Nomad
    Sep 16, 2020
    You really need MERV-11 or better to block smoke particles.
    Might get some with that but it will take a large format filter to minimize restriction.
  • Flyfasteddie's avatar
    Flyfasteddie
    Explorer
    Sep 17, 2020
    Wildtoad, he's trying to mitigate the horrific air quality those of us in the west have been under for the last week. Wopachop, if I was out in the RV in this mess I would do the same thing. I would just go by the sound of the motor - if it's bogging too much then try something less restrictive. It's going to be a trade off, the more restriction the more potential stress on the motor but I would be trying to filter this lousy excuse for air too.
  • Old-Biscuit's avatar
    Old-Biscuit
    Explorer III
    Sep 17, 2020
    Is that on the Return side?
    YES...then you will end up with diminished return airflow which can lead to Evap Coil Icing up especially with fan speed on low

    RV A/C Units are 'recirculating' units...inside air gets sucked in/cooled down/discharged back inside

    You source of smoke is via bad slide seals, open roof vents, open windows, entry door leaks etc
    It's not from the A/C Unit.
  • wopachop's avatar
    wopachop
    Explorer
    Sep 17, 2020
    Wonder if i could measure intake airflow. I do have a cheap anemometer i could rig in there. Could also mount a small camera. Actually i think i could do it.

    Goal would be to test the stock filter. Then see what the new filter does. Ive wanted to run a household filter on the trailer AC for years now. Its dusty here.

    The smoke issue was enough to tape the filter up real quick. Will pull it down now before i forget.
  • Rover_Bill's avatar
    Rover_Bill
    Explorer II
    Sep 17, 2020
    Most A/C filters (and furnace filters) are for cleaning dust only and don't trap smoke. To clean out smoke you should use a stand-alone air purifier equipped with a HEPA and carbon filters. Something like this.
  • Lynnmor's avatar
    Lynnmor
    Explorer
    Sep 17, 2020
    Flyfasteddie wrote:
    Wildtoad, he's trying to mitigate the horrific air quality those of us in the west have been under for the last week. Wopachop, if I was out in the RV in this mess I would do the same thing. I would just go by the sound of the motor - if it's bogging too much then try something less restrictive. It's going to be a trade off, the more restriction the more potential stress on the motor but I would be trying to filter this lousy excuse for air too.


    Actually the motor has less to do with more restriction, just like a vacuum cleaner speeds up when the nozzle is closed off. Motor failure from less air flow would be caused by over-heating. I think the OP has the right idea, but I would use the MERV-11 filter and make it much larger.

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