Derek ColeGM, Simmons One Hour Heating & Air · AI HVAC Answers

Choosing the Best Air Filter for Allergies: A Comprehensive Guide #shorts

1 Jul 2026 · 2 min

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1:41

In this short instructional video, Derek Cole of Simmons One Hour Heating and Air explains how homeowners can select the right air filter for allergy relief when they are not using whole‑home air cleaners. He emphasizes the need to upgrade to an allergy‑grade filter, clarifies what MERV ratings represent—higher numbers mean better capture of small particles—and warns that very high‑MERV filters can restrict airflow, potentially causing the HVAC system to freeze. The video guides viewers to balance filtration efficiency with proper airflow based on their specific system and home setup.

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Derek Cole here with Simmons One Hour Heating and Air, and today I want to talk to you about air filters, specifically allergy filters. Now, air cleaning is always better than an allergy filter, but if you don't want to do air cleaning and you want to stick with filtration, stick with filters, you need to get upgraded to the allergy filter. Now, depending on Your system, your home, how it's set up is going to depend on which filter you use. There are a lot of choices. When you go to Home Depot or Walmart or Lowe's, you see aisles and aisles of filters and choices and ratings. And what's a MERV? And they're rated like this. A MERV rating is how efficient the filter is at collecting small particles. So the higher the number, the better it is at collecting those particles. The downside to that filter is you're going to have to sacrifice some airflow for filtration. So if you're not doing air cleaning, you have to strike that balance between airflow and then collecting those small particles in the air filter. So Most cases you cannot have a really high MERV filter that's really good at cleaning particles because it's then going to stop the airflow to your system, in your system, and that's going to be a challenge, a problem. Your unit is going to freeze up.