Thread: Furnace Filters.

When I first came to Australia many years ago, I was amazed that furnace filters were unknown. From my youth in Canada, it was drummed into me that you must change the furnace filter twice a year. For those that don't know, a furnace filter is placed in the cold air return immediately prior to the furnace's heat chamber. It's purpose it to filter dust out of air in "forced air" heating systems. In a six month period, the filter becomes quite clogged with dust, (and that's in Vancouver much less dusty than most Australian cities due to its damp climate). I don't understand why these are not a common feature in Australia. They can be purchased in every hardware store in N.A. and come in a range of sizes to accommodate different furnaces.

To complete this post, as my wife was annoyed at having to dust the house every day, I had a furnace filter installed in our heating system. It is the washable kind so does not need changing. The point is though, they must be available in Melbourne, because our furnace service person had not trouble locating it.

LAST MINUTE THOUGHT! My shop's air filter has a 'furnace filter" in it. It's the first filter - the thin filter "sandwich" made up of a front paper grill, a layer of spun glass, and the back paper grill. I know Carbatec sells these.


From Vancouver

I think you will find what you are looking for at an 'Industrial Air Conditioning' equipment supplier - all the industrial AirCon's I've seen have dust filters like what DPB is talking about.

You often see A/C mechanics pushing carts of grotty filters in frames arounf the place - in my old workplace they just carted them out into the car park & turned the hose on them, but they are supposed to be properly cleaned & sterilized - probably responsable for all the respiratorey illness & 'sickies' we had.

Some of the North Americal ones seem to have 'Tyvek' - an artificial paper made of poly-whatever - as a filter material - the Triton dust bucket has a single layer piece as its dust filter & gets overloaded - but the 'real' ones are pleated, giving a much bigger area to load up.

Of course the 'big sucker' you already have should move most of the dust away anyhow. If you put the right filter bags on it a 'room' filter becomes surplus.

I reckon you could adapt a car type air filter to the job very well with the advantage they are cheap and easy to get.

Here's a link provided by AlexG on a parallel thread last week
http://www.austair.com.au/index.html

Cheers,

P

The term furnace filter is probably not very well known in Australia because there are very few furnaces installed here but in the States and Canada just about every house in the cold climates would have one.

In one of my many occupations over the years I have installed ducted furnaces but also ducted air conditioning systems.

I think you will find in Australia they are referred to as Return Air Filters even when they are used in furnaces or air conditioners.

And certainly this is where you would find them.

bsrlee
I think you will find what you are looking for at an 'Industrial Air Conditioning' equipment supplier - all the industrial AirCon's I've seen have dust filters like what DPB is talking about.

I think you will find in Australia they are referred to as Return Air Filters

"Of course!" He said slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand in a gesture that was meant to convey his perplexitudousness (new word) as to how he can have stared at the term "furnace filter" for years without having twigged.

All this time it's been staring me in the face!

Cheers,

P

Concussion pending?

Originally Posted by

Concussion pending?

G'day.

I don't think you can get concussion of the plam of the hand

Depends who does it.

Midges have tiny little hands, weency little arm muscles and great big heads, so I came off OK!

Thanks for your concern though!


P