Filter question

[jodil]

Can anyone give me an idea of why the 2 month old filter in this 2 year old Geothermal heating unit has mold/mildew growing all over it? The humidity was 25% in the room.

Thanks

Jodi

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[SonOfSwamp]

Originally posted by jodil

Can anyone give me an idea of why the 2 month old filter in this 2 year old Geothermal heating unit has mold/mildew growing all over it? The humidity was 25% in the room.

Thanks

Jodi

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95.58 KB

Could just be dust/dirt.

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[jodil]

I tried to get a good picture of whats growing here, its not dirt or dust. It is uniformally round areas of hairy little mildew patches in black, green and cream colored.

[hausdok]

Got a pet in the house?

The system might have sucked in some kind of organic material that the mold is feeding on. Then again, it might just be such an old filter that it's just feeding funk. I'd tell 'em to get the system commercially cleaned and sanitized and then install a new filter and replace the filter every 3 months thereafter.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Richard Moore]

And that looks like the "downstream" side of the filter. What did the other side look like?

If the house had a crawl space, especially a damp one, with the return duct running through it, I would suspect a disconnected section. Or...some idiot installed a new range hood and vented it into the return?

What Mike said about about a good cleaning. It looks like month old bread I have sometimes found buried in the pantry.

[Jeremy]

The humidity wasn't always 25% during the life of this filter.

[kurt]

Could you get a look at the AC coil?

[hausdok]

Kurt has a good point,

I don't know about where you are, Lori, but A/C isn't used much here and the heating guys seem to ignore the evaporator coils when they service the furnaces. The first time I had an A/C system here, I slit the tape and opened up the A/C cabinet to inspect it and found it growing stuff that looked like a holloween beard all over a coil that was all clogged with years and years of pet hair, dander, Luck Charms, and everything else that got sucked into the system. There were service notations on the side of the furnace but it was pretty obvious that the evaporator had never been looked at.

Put a role of foil HVAC tape on your truck for those times when you run into these and need to remove the access cover to peek inside.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Bain]

Originally posted by hausdok

Kurt has a good point,

I don't know about where you are, Lori, but A/C isn't used much here and the heating guys seem to ignore the evaporator coils when they service the furnaces. The first time I had an A/C system here, I slit the tape and opened up the A/C cabinet to inspect it and found it growing stuff that looked like a holloween beard all over a coil that was all clogged with years and years of pet hair, dander, Luck Charms, and everything else that got sucked into the system. There were service notations on the side of the furnace but it was pretty obvious that the evaporator had never been looked at.

Put a role of foil HVAC tape on your truck for those times when you run into these and need to remove the access cover to peek inside.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

Jodi, lots of times you can simply remove the filter on a heat pump to see the coil.

But if it's an A-coil on a gas furnace, it'll probably have a thin internal cover with a bunch of screws in it, so be ready to spend some time.

And if there's an easy method for completely removing the internal cover without putting a permanent crimp in it, I haven't figured it out.

[Erby]

On those where the coils is right next to the filter, I just slip my little old Sony Cybershot thru the filter slot and shoot a few pictures of the coil. Gives a good idea of it's condition.

Don't work for beans on an A-coil over a gas furnace though.

Too many realtors around here tell the seller to ensure that they change the filter because the inspector will look at it to see what condition it's in. I tend to ignore the filter and dig deeper.

[Eric B]

As previously mentioned, there's been a moisture problem and maybe not related to the HVAC system. I'd be checking out walls behind furniture, items on the basement floor - any area that is usually dark and without much air flow.

[Bill Kibbel]

In addition to the above, maybe:

• A humidifier on the return or leaking humidifier.
• A/C condensate backing up.
• Something living in the air handler.

[jodil]

Thought you would like to know the findings of this problem. The seller says she kept a humidifier next to the heat register (which was really the return) so the hot air would blow the moisture around...And she didnt think she needed to change the filter on a Geo Thermal system... LOL..woman! Oh wait, I am o[]ne