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

[wopachop]

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.

[RayJayco]

In case that you are interested in just how bad the air is in whatever location, I often refer to this site:
https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/mAQI/a10/cC0#4.06/33.55/-103.78
Use it like you would any map, scoot it around, enlarge and such...

Another good site:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-92.88,37.54,464

Good luck and best wishes!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

I left my Holmes HEPA 2 filter behind. It would filter dust, smoke, pollen and yes, Covid19 from the air. Not just "so much" but greater than 99.9%.

Yes, even the virus. All of it.

It was a large unit not all tall but every bit as fat as a wheeled battery charger.

The replacement filters are not cheap either.

But for unexcelled purifying a "HEPA 2" filter is the cat's meow.

Every few years we had a bloom of a nocturnal plant. Even with Loratadine, an effective oral antihistamine, I could not sleep. After I smuggled the Holmes filter, the symptoms stopped 100% and I ceased the medicine.

The stupid virus seems like it's going to be around long enough to almost justify the purchase a HEPA 2 filter, with fan. It takes a strong, well made blower to push air through the HEPA 2 media.

The EPA, the CDC, and JAMA has proven the effectiveness of HEPA 2 against the COVID Virus

It would filter out contaminated air from a fire, no sweat. It filtered out the intense aroma of a Night Blooming Jasmine just outside the bedroom window.

A rough guesstimate for cost, would place the cost for a 5 story 100 bed hospital at seventeen million dollars purchase and installation and fifteen thousand dollars a w e e k to renew elements. So that thought flies out the window, never mind Hazmat disposal of used filters.

HEPA 2 is a great option despite it's cost for RV use. I love how it filters out fish fry odors from the galley. It would take a half horsepower ball bearing squirrel cage blower and 20" square, filter element to satisfy the needs of a 35' 5th wheel trailer.

[wopachop]

Any thoughts? Guess you have to trust me on the numbers.
Been wanting to ditch the stock filter since the first day i bought this trailer.

[wopachop]

I tested the wind speed coming out of the duct at the end of the line. Did the stock filter, no filter, new filter, clogged filter which was a kneenex covering half of the opening with the stock filter installed.

[wopachop]

poppa wrote:
pack up an move outta the smoke? kinda like comin in outta the rain, no?

kinda like having this song in my head all morning cause of you!! Had to come play it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmN9AE8Lz90

[wopachop]

down home wrote:

Just a thought: one of your roof fans, an air filter taped over one and the fan control turned to pull air in. Good filter might catch everything and positive air pressure keep air with smoke etc from getting in anywhere else. I have not tried it and don'tknwo the percentages, so to speak.

In my opinion thats a great idea!! Was going to do exactly what you described using the MaxxAir roof fan. I wanted to put a filter on that sucker.

Went a different route and drilled a 4" hole into my floor. Mounted a 4" blower and ran 4" pipe into my trailer. Blows fresh air that is filtered by a 4" automotive air filter.

[down_home]

Our Mh is pretty tight. The air conditioners recirculate air inside the RV. Going down the road we get a lot of dust and everything else through the dash air intake to the ac
Newer models may have intake filter. Bad smokey air in the ac an air purifier sound like the better approach. here lately we've seen a number of ads for them on tv. May have something to do with the fires, I dunno.
Just a thought: one of your roof fans, an air filter taped over one and the fan control turned to pull air in. Good filter might catch everything and positive air pressure keep air with smoke etc from getting in anywhere else. I have not tried it and don'tknwo the percentages, so to speak.

[msmith1_wa]

I have 4 box fans plus the furnace running in my house to filter the air. I am using MERV 8 filters which are not rated for small particles, but in just 2 days you could see the color difference. So they do work.

To the OPs question if you think your set up is too restrictive, provided you can find more filters, you could tape 5 together in the shape of a cube with one side open. So it looks like a open box, and put that over the ac. Still not attractive and will lower headroom, but when it is nasty like this you do what you have to.

[poppa]

pack up an move outta the smoke? kinda like comin in outta the rain, no?

[road-runner]

In the bad smoke areas the local advice is to get a furnace filter and tape it to a box fan. I've had several reports that they turn brown in a day, so they must be catching something. For the most part, stores are all sold out of the filters. If you're not in one of the high smoke areas you might not understand how bad it is. Outdoors has been a no-breathing-zone for about a week now. It feels to me like spending a day outside without a mask would kill me. An AQI reading over 200 is classified as "hazardous". Much of Oregon has been over 500 for several days, sometimes in the 700s.

[wopachop]

Ive wanted to replace the stock filter since i first got the trailer a few years ago. Anyone think the filter shown might actually flow better than the stock filter say somewhat dirty? The new filter is twice as large, not counting the pleats.

Maybe i can learn the flow of the AC on high. Then pick a type of filter like MERV-11 for example. Then find the specs and just get the size that flows way more than needed.

[wopachop]

Lynnmor wrote:

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.

That was awesome!! I put my hand on shop vacs all the time to listen for motor change indicating the filter is still clean. Wow never really thought about how the motor speeds up, because there is less air to move around!!

[ajriding]

No, take it off. Unfortunately the home filter is not going to filter out small particles like smoke, just dust.

You do know that the AC is recirculating inside air, it is not taking in outside air?

The air inside should have less smoke than outside air in a house but in an RV it just depends for how much less.

I agree on an air purifier. A quality hepa or similar filter will pull pollution out.

These silly mask people wear also will NOT filter out smoke particles, no more than they will filter out tiny virus particles people are so afraid of.
You need a respirator with a canister made for those particles, and even then they have a useful life of only a few hours, maybe 8 max if I remember, and that was ones for working with harsh solvents/ fiberglass resins...

[dougrainer]

When I think I have seen everything, another day and Post is posted:h