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

My Filter Is Always Clean

28 Jan 2026 · 2 min

Episode

28 Jan 2026 · 2 min

0:00

A short podcast segment (single speaker) explaining why HVAC filters may appear clean despite problems: very poor/thin filter media that captures little, return-air bypass due to leaks in the house or ducts, and improper routing allowing hot/dirty attic or under-house air to return to the unit. The speaker emphasizes that dirt (lack of filtration) is a leading cause of breakdowns.

Chapters

Filter never gets dirty. That is not good. One could be the filter you're putting in is so, so terrible. It's so bad, it's so thin that it's catching nothing as it comes through, right? So it's staying clean that way. Or it's just bypassing the return altogether and not going to the filter. So it doesn't need to get the return. Because the house or the duck so leaky that it's coming back to the unit through that method and not through the filter, which is what it's designed to do. The reason you want it going through the filter is because you want that cool condition, clean air coming back to the unit, not the dirty, hot under the house and the attic air coming back to the system. Makes sense. So one of the big problems is dirt. So dirt is the cause of most breakdowns. And the reason being is because that filter, at the point where it's supposed to filter that air before it gets into the unit, it's not doing that. It's not getting to the filter. It's not coming through the filter. Or if it is coming through the filter, the filter is not stopping it from getting through. And that is also a problem. Sam.