[mtrent]

A dirty or clogged filter makes your air conditioning unit less efficient. Filters only range around ten bucks and are very inexpensive, but they can save you major dollars. Change your filters at least every two months, especially if you have pets and children.

[justjoy]

I change mine more frequently simply because we live in an area that gets more dust, etc. from outside. Plus I worry about what's getting blown back into the rooms when it's not clean.

[RFL1986]

I try to remember to change mine pretty often but it's easy to forget some of them. Now that I know it makes a difference for controlling temperature in the house I'll be more careful about keeping up on them.

[tater03]

Not only that but it is not good for allergies if you don't replace the filter when it needs it. We are lucky in that so far we haven't had to use ours all that much lately.

[mollyL]

When we lived in hotter and drier climes, I used to rinse out my window unit AC filter and that really got all the dust and dirt (which was considerable) down the drain. Then I slapped it back in, and got a nice blast of a little moist cool air until the filter dried out.

[RFL1986]

I have dust allergies and I definitely do know that it makes a big difference to clean them regularly. It's just one of those things that you can forget about so easily if you don't keep up on it all the time.

[mollyL]

It's also easy to forget that our pets (whether inside or outside) carry their load of dander and dust as well. We bought an ionizer to see if that would help clean the air and help my husband's allergies, and the first time I cleaned it, it was full of cat hair. Even though I dusted and vaccumed regularly, I wasn't thinking about brushing out the cat's hair. Doing that did wonders.

[tater03]

I have been wondering if those ionizer actually would help with cat hair. I will have to get one of these. May I ask which brand you have? Thanks.

[EviesEarth]

I have heard about ionizers, never used one myself. I wonder how this would work for pollen type allergies?

[RFL1986]

What are ionizers exactly? I can only imagine based on the name but would be curious to hear more about them if they're supposed to make a difference for this kind of problem.