Pam anti-stick cooking stuff on A/C filters

[rphillips]

Anyone heard of this? A Professional Heat & A/C guy told me buy the cheapest filters & coat them with PAM then they will filter just as good as the higher priced ones. His Co. sells the filters so thought he would try to sell the higher priced ones instead of saving me money. Just wondering !!

[Nessism]

K&N's, as far as cleaning the air is concerned, are quite poor. It's hard to image that Pam oil will change that, but if anyone has data showing Pam saves the day, please share. In the meantime, I'll stick with a good 'ol OEM filter, thank you very much.

Edit: Guess I missed the point, I thought we were talking motorcycles here. Nevermind...

[bwringer]

So the homemaker's version of a K&N, eh?

"Just buy the damn correct filter" is my main reaction... but if you don't mind the smell of cooking spray throughout your house, it might be worth an experiment for a few weeks. To really keep with the spirit of the endeavor, use store brand cooking spray instead of Pam. Also, that stuff tends to go rancid after a while, so, um, well, good luck with that.

If your HVAC was correctly installed (big "IF", of course) it's calibrated for a specific filter rating to ensure the correct amount of air flow. For example, my heat pump, installed last year, takes one of those big box jobbies, and it wants a MERV11 filter; a MERV13 could flow too little.

If your system has one of those old-skool 1" filters, then it might be worth a try. Maybe? I dunno. I suppose it couldn't hurt anything unless you get super-silly with the spray and it gets all over your ducts.

The hyperspeed proprietor of Project Farm tested several different furnace filters a while back; his methods and results may be of interest. Some of the best filters actually flow very well. He did not test the oily filter trick...

All the above said, I would NOT want edible oils anywhere in my ductwork. Seems like bugs and rodents would love that sort of thing.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

I’m thinking it would make the filters more attractive to rodents as well. And don’t you actually want the dirt to stick to the filter?

[dorkburger]

As noted, a filter that is too restrictive can cause low airflow issues resulting in frozen coils (and possibly worse) in cooling season and high temperature safety trips in the heating season.
Another thing people don't think about when putting a high efficiency filter in a system is that air, like water, is lazy and the added restriction will cause air on the intake side to get in where ever it can if its not sealed well - think bad GS intake orings...
I use the cheapest filters possible on my circa 1986 cooling system. The air outlets do get a bit dusty over time requiring a wipe down two or three times a year.

[rphillips]

I never knew there was so much to know about A/C filters. That video showed a lot but, for me, went so fast it was hard to keep up with all they were saying. ringer said "Just buy the damn correct filter", My unit is appx. 12 yr. old & nobody ever told me what the damn correct filter for my unit was, every A/C filter advertisement I've ever seen says their filter is the best.. The PAM thing, I'd thought of it like a K&N that uses the kind'f wet oily to catch & hold dirt particles & figured the PAM, if it worked, would be the same principal. Hadn't thought about being appetizing to bugs or rodents, maybe K&N oil would work better. It seems nobody's heard of the PAM thing, so guess I'll just forget about it & just keep doing like I've been doing because I still don't know what the correct damn filter for my unit is... Thanks for yall's input.

[bwringer]

LOL, yep, no one really bothered about MERV ratings until pretty recently, so the correct filter is one that fits in the space.

Like I said, the Project Farmguy talks at light speed, but if you FF to the end he always mentions his favorites.

If you're dealing with an unknown, I'd go for a step or two better than the minimum. Keep an eye on how dirty they get, and adjut the changing schedule accordingly. The 1" filters might need to be changed every month. Our new system uses a 5" thick filter and easily goes 6 months (I think we could also stretch that quite a bit; the dirt is barely visible at 6 mos.)

Also, duct cleaning, if you can find a legit service that uses a high-volume vacuum truck, is often worth doing. We had ours done when we had our heat pump installed. Lots of such services don't do a good job, or use much simpler, less effective equipment. The truck they used literally shook the ground when they engaged the vacuum, and my ears popped inside the house. Very impressive, and the ducts went from "crypt-keeper's living room" to squeaky-clean inside when they were done.

[Cipher]

Wont it go rancid and smell?

[rphillips]

I wouldn't have had a clue PAM was a cooking oil. I always thought PAM was some kind of spray on Teflon or coating like, or equal to, Teflon . Just thought it was some kind of coating that wouldn't let things stick & wouldn't change the flavor of the food. Never thought about being an actual food product. Just back from looking at A/C filters, mine is 20 X 30 X 1. Lowest price ( & looked really really cheeeeep) was 2 for $5.47 @ Lowes & go up to $39.99 for 1 at a local retail store. Didn't even look at the ones that you wash & last forever.

[bwringer]

Yep, cooking spray is just some sort of vegetable oil (soybean oil, in the can I have on hand) plus lecithin (also derived from soybean oil) to control the texture, in a handy spray can.

The spray spreads it very evenly and allows you to use a lot less than you might if you dump a little in and spread it around. And the spray can also keeps oxygen and light away from the oil so it will go a long time without going rancid.

If you poke around at different stores, you should be able to find a filter that's better than the minimum without breaking the budget, or a multi-pack that saves money. IIRC, for our previous system we found some at Menard's that worked well without costing $40 each.