How to Change Your Air Filter!

This is a simple step by step process on how to change your home HVAC Air Filter.

New Air filter (Verify size)

Screwdriver (If Needed)

Gloves

Safety Goggles

Locate your home's thermostat which should be located inside the home.

On the thermostat set the Control setting to the OFF position. This should cause the HVAC system to stop blowing air to the home.

Locate your furnace which could be in the attic or in a designated closet.

Once the furnace is located, search for the filter slot that looks like the image above. Some homes may have bottom return systems (very bottom of the furnace vertically), side return systems (where large ducts meet the furnace horizontally), ceiling or wall grilles (Check hallways or central living spaces for large slatted vents secured by thumb-latches), Internal slots (Lift off the main furnace door panel. Some systems house the filter directly inside the blower compartment.)

Slide off the magnetic or friction-fit slot cover. For grilles, swing the heavy metal face downward carefully. Check to see the old air filter and locate the arrow direction to match the new one to.

Take the old one and run to your local hardware store (Lowes) and using the old one, triple verify you have the exact same dimensions as the old one. You can also opt to take a picture of the Filter Slot which should have the dimensions needed for your HVAC system.

Once you have the new filter in hand, carefully remove the old filter ensuring you remember which direction the airflow goes. Replace the filter with the new one and the same airflow direction.

Make sure you close everything back in the same reverse order you initially opened it.

Return to the thermostat and change the control setting to ON and select your original settings.

If you struggled, know that it took me 2 hours and multiple YouTube videos to finally locate my furnace! Great job!