In this episode of Fix It Radio, we dive deep into the world of home maintenance focusing primarily on HVAC systems and filter management. As we transition through seasons, it’s crucial to understand the importance of regular check-ups and maintenance to ensure comfort and efficiency in your home. Discover why changing and maintaining air filters can make a significant impact and learn practical steps to take care of these essential tasks yourself.
SPEAKER 02 :
Walter? Upstairs! Are you alright?
SPEAKER 10 :
In the floor behind the chair.
SPEAKER 06 :
This is America.
SPEAKER 02 :
Does everybody know what time it is? Fix It Radio!
SPEAKER 03 :
And it is that time, Fix It Radio, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all joining us. Live program today on the last weekend of March, the 29th to be specific. And the first quarter of the year is just about done. Larry Unger with me today. Charlie Grimes, of course, our engineer. Got a lot in store for you today. But, yeah, Larry, time rolls by.
SPEAKER 11 :
In a hurry it does.
SPEAKER 03 :
Seems like it was just Christmas.
SPEAKER 11 :
I was talking to a friend of ours the other day, and she said, you know, a year is now six months.
SPEAKER 03 :
it uh it rolls along very quickly and again all the more reason why some of the things that we talk about here and just having things ready to go with your home and being prepared and all those different things yes all of those things matter a lot of you may be contemplating you know am i going to make a move this summer am i going to do anything along those lines those are all things that you guys need to be discussing among yourselves bottom line keeping your home up well maintained uh you know studies show and it’s mathematically proven that you will save more money down the road and or have more return on your investment the better care you take you know the better you take care of the things that you have that includes your home we talk about the car and drive radio and all of that but Larry it it’s still surprising to me and for those of you that are listening you know don’t take this the wrong way because I know everybody has different capacities and so on but still surprising to me Larry that your largest asset which is your home in most people’s cases why would you let that deteriorate well again like you said in some cases they physically can’t which I understand
SPEAKER 11 :
But in other cases, they just don’t think about it. There’s other options to do. And I’m like you. The home is your biggest asset.
SPEAKER 03 :
For most people, it is your largest asset. Some of you that have businesses and things like that, yes, I understand that in that case it may not be your largest asset. But it is still a very large asset. asset for a lot of individuals and even those of you that are you know business owners self-employed and so on it still becomes a large part of what you’re going to do down the road you know retirement wise and so on it’s still a big chunk of that equation and the better you take care of it the more money it’s worth on down the road well not only that but
SPEAKER 11 :
As you go along in your daily lives, I mean, you spend more time at your home than you are almost anywhere else. So why not be comfortable at it?
SPEAKER 03 :
Make it enjoyable. Keep it up. Do your maintenance. We’re going to talk a little bit today about HVAC and some of those things as it’s kind of that time of the year to where you need to start thinking about it. Yes, I know today right now it is, and this is Saturday, so if you’re listening on Tuesday, the temperature might be a tad different, but it’s 44 degrees right now. on this saturday morning i don’t think though moving ahead for those of you listening on tuesday our weather is not going to change a whole lot here throughout the week so i get it we’re going to talk about some hvac stuff right now some of that involving air conditioning and so on just because of the type of day that it is outside but what i will tell you is you might still be using your furnace some at night so this is that time of the year larry where one week you might be using the furnace right and it may not be too long after you’re using the air conditioner
SPEAKER 11 :
Which brings the matter of the heater. Better check your filter again.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I was just going to start with that, so I’m glad you said that. Larry’s leading us off. So, yes, first things first. Given that we’re this time of year, and for those of you, whether you’re using just a furnace and you don’t have any air conditioning, maybe you do a swamp cooler or something along those lines, a lot of you, though, listening, and I know I talk about this a lot and don’t want to date myself too badly, but air conditioning today is a norm for a lot of people. When I was a kid, it was not. It was only for rich people.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
So it has gotten to where most everybody now has the ability to have or does have air conditioning. So you may be turning that on. We’ll go through a few things along those lines. I will say that today is a cold enough day to where there are certain things, even in AC tech. can’t necessarily check and have good readings on because the ambient temperature isn’t quite warm enough to really tell if, you know, pressures are correct and so on when it comes to the unit itself. But we’ll get into some basic things that even some of you can do yourself, which will save you money and headache down the road. But Larry just mentioned it, your filter itself. One of the probably most overlooked things is the filter, and it’s operating any time, or it’s in the system and it’s being used any time the system is on. So if the furnace is on, it’s being used. If the air conditioning is on, it’s being used. And I will tell you that a plugged filter will have as much to do with inefficiencies in the system as probably anything else you could do, and most people don’t realize what… How important – let me say it that way. Let me phrase this correctly. I don’t think most people understand how important it is to have a good, clean filter that’s in there. And if you’re somebody – here’s a piece of advice. If you’re somebody that changes your own – now, some of you don’t, and I understand that. You have to have somebody come out and do your system and so on. And if that’s you, that’s fine. A lot of you listening, though, because of us and you’ve learned how to do this, you change your own. And every system is different. That’s where it gets a little bit dicey when it comes to, you know, filters in systems. Some of them, it’s a filter that’s in the return air duct. And there’s a grate that you would lift off or remove. In some cases, you put a new filter in. Those, by the way, are fairly easy. Yeah, you might have to get a step ladder or something out to actually make that happen. But those are fairly easy to do typically. The ones that are in the furnace can get a little bit more dicey. It depends on how that furnace technician set that filter system up. In other words, some have a little door you can lift and pull the filter in and out. Some might have a little bit of a cover that you have to remove and then put back on. Every system is a tad different. Again, it depends upon – it literally comes down to who installed it, how did they install it, and you know what did they do in that process to actually make that filter system you know work correctly and biggest thing is also making sure that when you do this that you put the filter in the correct direction correct there will be arrows on the filter and that always in in the case of the return air and where the filters that is going to point towards the furnace because that’s where the airflow is typically coming up and through and then into the furnace you can’t do an air filter afterwards it’s always coming air into the furnace so you’re always going to point the arrow toward the furnace. And what I mean by that is wherever that exchanger is, whether it’s on the AC, which is above the burners in the furnace itself, but where the furnace assembly is, you’re going to point the arrows Because in some cases, you may find the filter is a few feet, in some cases, away from the furnace itself. And you may be wondering, okay, which direction does this go? Always point the arrow toward the furnace, towards the air handler. If you have a system like mine to where it’s not a furnace, but it’s an air handler to handle the air conditioning sides of things. Some of you that have hot water heat… your baseboard heat and so on you will have just an air handler they call it where you’ve got your coils and that for the ac in the unit but it’s still still doing the same thing that a furnace would do still needs to have the filter change now i will say this if you have just an air handler and the furnace is only the furnace the air handler is only on when the ac is on you will not find yourself changing the filter as often as a regular furnace Because the air is only moving when you’ve turned the air conditioning on, which typically in our area is going to be, oh, I don’t know, mid-April to sometimes mid-October. It’s kind of in our area here where AC gets used. And if you’re up in the foothills listening to us, you may have even a little bit less time than even that. You’ll know where you’re at. So here’s another recommendation when it comes to filters. To save money. Figure out who’s got the best deal. Typically it’s online. And buy a six-pack. Typically, you can buy a four-pack, six-pack, probably even more than that if you’d like to. But the more you buy, like anything else, the cheaper they get. So what I typically do is, and I know I’ve got this. My wife knows this, and so does my family. I have a full row. Fear of running out.
SPEAKER 1 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
So I am one where I will buy the six-pack of filters, and when I get down to two, I’m ordering another six-pack. So that no matter what, I’ve always got two on hand, which in my case, given that I have just air handlers and not an actual furnace, I’m usually only changing those out once a year, maybe twice if it’s a super hot year and the AC is running a lot. I might change it more often, but typically for me, I can get by with one change a year. So if you think about my end of it, if I buy six of those, I’m out six years or so. So for each of you, you kind of know where you’re at and how to do that. But my point is, the last thing you want to do Is be pulling out a filter and you have not one on hand to replace it with, you know, and I get it. If you’re maybe you’ve moved into a new house or a new house to you and maybe you’ve never done this before. And so now you’re getting your stuff all dialed in and you have to have the size first before you can actually go get the filter. And I get that because this is not a one size fits all, which. Because of the different size of units, the different size of ducting and so on, there are probably, I don’t think I’m exaggerating, Larry, if you really want to get down to it, and some of them aren’t even stocked in stores depending upon the size, there’s a dozen choices.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oh, easily.
SPEAKER 03 :
Maybe more.
SPEAKER 11 :
If you go into the store, you’ll see how many different sizes there are, and it’s amazing.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s a lot. A lot of that, again, has to do with the size of the ducting, the air handling unit, the furnace size itself. All of that contributes to this. And, again, do you have, in some cases, some of you with units where now they’re in a lot of the new units. I was talking to Hunter at Cub Creek this last week, Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning, and a lot of newer homes that have been built, oh, gosh, in the last decade plus even. maybe the last two decades, what they’re doing is to make things more comfortable and even more efficient in the home. If you’ve got a home that’s over a couple thousand square feet, they’re literally putting a unit upstairs and typically a unit in the basement. So you may have a unit up in your attic upstairs, and a unit in the basement if you’ve got a newer home that’s over you know 2 000 square feet or so and they do that because they can be more efficient by splitting things because you may want to run for example in the furnace end of things the heat rises of course so in that particular case you may run your downstairs furnace more so than you will the upstairs furnace because the heat is rising in the summer though that’ll become opposite you’re more likely to run the upstairs ac a little more than you would downstairs because it’s gonna get hotter upstairs so it’s kind of the reverse and my point with that is some of you that have upstairs furnaces ac units you know air handlers that are in the attic you may find yourself with more than one filter for the return air depending upon again how that system was designed i owned a home at one time that had one in the attic and i actually had two filters that had to be changed because it had two return air ducts that they had filtered that were in the upstairs area and whenever you changed filters on it you had to do two of the same size but you did two instead of one so really analyze if you’re going to do this yourself really analyze your system and look and see exactly you know where are my filters how many do i have do i have one in the return air versus the air handler or the furnace itself and know your system, and then, of course, buy your filters accordingly based upon what I just said. Some of you would say, well, I don’t even know if I’m going to live here that long. Okay, these things aren’t that expensive, and here’s what you would do for the next owner. And even the inspector coming through to look at things, by the way, this is a bonus to you. If all of a sudden the inspector rolls through there and they can see that, oh, these filters look pretty well changed. No, this guy’s got a stack of three more sitting here. What’s the first thing that inspector, Larry, thinks?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, it’s been maintained.
SPEAKER 03 :
These people are on top of things. That’s right. And what I’m getting at there is you’re less likely to probably even have an issue with anything along those lines because this person looking at it is like, oh, okay, these people are on top of probably more than this as well. It more than likely, I’m not an inspector, so I don’t know what goes through their mind, but I can more than likely tell you that initially they’re thinking, oh, okay, here’s some folk that actually take care of things, understand maintenance and so on. This is gonna be a pretty good inspection.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, even if I’m not an inspector and if I’m a buyer and I go through the home and I see extra filters and things, I’m thinking the same way.
SPEAKER 03 :
So point being, just because you think, well, I don’t know how long I’m gonna be here. I’m only gonna buy one at a time because I’m only gonna do this once a year. Well- The little bit of extra money that it takes to buy a three, four-pack, six-pack, whatever it happens to be, and have a couple sitting there laying there that, by the way, aren’t going anywhere. You can literally leave them in the cellophane and just leave them right there next to the furnace. They’re not going to hurt anything at all. You leave those sitting there so the next person looking at it, again, they’re ready to go. They’ve got the filters necessary. And no, you’re most likely not going to take those with you and move because how likely you are to have the exact same size in the next house you move to, you worry about that when you get there.
SPEAKER 11 :
And for the cost of them, yeah, it’s not worth it.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, and folks, really, I’m talking, and this is where nothing against the big box stores, but you literally can go online, and in a lot of cases, and this is not an exaggeration, in a lot of cases, buy a six-pack for not a whole lot more money than you’re going to buy one or two at the big box store for. That is one of their good markup items they have in the big box stores. The other thing the big box stores like to do is upsell you on all of these – heavier filters i guess you could say and reality is and you hear you know joe from jersey call in who’s been in that industry before i’ve talked to different folks inside of the hvac industry itself and the reality is they will not recommend that you buy those super expensive hepa type filters and this that and the other if you need that much extra filtration talk to one of your Favorite HVAC companies give Cub Creek a call even. They’ve got extra filtration devices they can actually put on a system where if that’s something that you’re really in need of, look at that because a lot of those heavier filters are actually doing more harm than good.
SPEAKER 11 :
It does.
SPEAKER 03 :
Blocking airflow.
SPEAKER 11 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 03 :
it doesn’t necessarily eliminate the things in the air that’s going to cause you asthma you know precisely larry precisely so again that’s something where first of all you know i know we spent a little bit of time on air filters but it’s a big deal and today by the way for those of you that are listening especially those of you that may have one of these in the attic You couldn’t pick a better day than today to be up in the attic doing some of these things because it won’t be 100 degrees in the attic. Exactly right. It’ll actually be a really nice, pretty medium temperature right now. So if there’s anything along those lines you need to do when it comes to servicing something along those lines, today would be a great day to get up there. and actually do that so we’re gonna take a break if you got any questions for us you can send us a text as well 307-200-8222 307-200-8222 and don’t forget you can call in directly as well 303-477-5600 303-477-5600 we’ll be right back this is fix it radio klz 560.
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SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560. Go ahead, Larry’s mic up. There you go, say it again.
SPEAKER 11 :
Go along with what we were talking about, filters. If you don’t think your filter’s getting dirty, look at the air intake vent. It will tell you just exactly how bad it’s getting.
SPEAKER 03 :
Got a text message a moment ago from somebody who’s been in that industry for a very, very long time, a previous owner of one, and said the same thing we just said. Don’t go super expensive. Don’t go super cheap either. There is that. Yes, thank you for saying that. No, you don’t want to get some paper, cheapy, bottom of the barrel. But don’t go expensive either. If it’s a good, better, best, just make sure it’s a good, good one. But, yeah, you don’t need to spend a bunch of money on filters. You’re going to find yourself actually not helping you out at all when it’s all said and done. And there’s some of these even that make like a double filter where it’ll be like a filter with sometimes even a piece of foam on the outside of the filter or it’ll have like some fiberglass type looking insulation stuff that’s on the outside of the filter before the filter itself. Yeah, don’t do those.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, all it’s going to do is it’s going to plug up quicker.
SPEAKER 03 :
It changes your airflow, which can affect a lot of things in regards to the furnace on the furnace side and also on the air handling on the AC side as well.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, sure, because as the system plugs up, it can’t heat up the house quick enough, so the heater has got to run until it gets to a specific temperature that your thermostat is set for.
SPEAKER 03 :
It can affect the way the flame is, all sorts of things along those lines. So, yeah, don’t… To the point of that person that just texted in, don’t go super cheap, but don’t go expensive either, because at the end of the day, you’re not going to really help yourself out at all. In fact, I would… caution and if if you had the choice between going super expensive or a little bit on the cheap side I’m one say a little bit on the cheap side you’re probably better off at the end the biggest thing in the cheap ones you got to be careful of is you don’t want them with the amount of air that can come through there to collapse the filter or change its It’s shape, I guess is what you could say. You don’t want it to deform, and that’s why you don’t want to go super cheap, because some of the super, super cheap ones can actually deform, and then you’re going to leak around the edges, and then the filter’s really not doing much of anything anyway. So yeah, don’t go super cheap, but don’t go super expensive as well. Now, let’s talk a little bit about the air conditioning side. We just handled the furnace side. Now, what I also want to say is on the ductwork, this is kind of a separate thing, and I’ll be straight up honest. While there are a lot of companies out there that do this work, somebody that, frankly, I’ve never, ever had it done. I don’t know why. It’s not that I don’t believe in them. I think that they are, I think at times, justifiable, especially… given certain circumstances and what i mean by this is you may have heavier allergies or you might have more pets or or or i can go down the list of things and what i’m getting at is the duct cleaning end of things now if you kind of get a flashlight and if you’ve got the ability to look through some of your ducts at times and you can kind of see man there’s a lot of i got a lot of crud in there okay you may be somebody that wants to look at doing some duct cleaning That’s a whole different world than just changing the filter out. Ducks are rough on the inside, and depending upon who did the install and what they did to finish off joints and things like that, you could even get a lot of lint and hair and buildup and things like that around certain joints and things along those lines. And again, most of them can even kind of scope things out and tell you how things look in the home. They’ll give you a price on what it takes to actually do the duck cleaning afterwards. And it’s not that I am against them. I’ll just be straight up honest. I’ve never had one done. I think for me, I just kind of did the flashlight test in a lot of cases, and I would look down through the ducts and so on and never really saw the need in my particular case. And now keep in mind, I’m a very particular individual with the amount of things that get In the house, even with having pets or whatever, I mean, everything is kept clean and there’s not a lot of things that are going down the return air and so on. But everybody’s a little bit different, especially depending upon the home and who owned it prior. It may be something that you want to look at. That is something that I don’t have a contact for. In other words, we have no sponsors or anybody that I’m affiliated with when it comes to doing duct cleaning. So what I would say is maybe to help others, if you know somebody, Let’s throw this out there to those of you listening. If you know somebody that does really good duct cleaning and that’s something you would like to recommend, pass that along. And I will pass that along as well and maybe even have a conversation with somebody about becoming a part of what we do here. But I’m not familiar with that end of things. I don’t do that, Larry. I don’t know what you’ve done along those lines, but I’ve never really done much with that.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, I never used to until I moved into my house in Thornton when it was brand new. And I was advised at that time to have somebody clean the ducts. I’m thinking it’s a brand new house. Why would I need somebody to clean the ducts? Well, they showed me what they pulled out of the ducking. You’d be surprised at how much material is left in the ducts from the home builders themselves.
SPEAKER 03 :
thank you for saying that as well. That’s another big one to where depending upon when the home was built, how it was built, how tidy the folks were. And what I mean by that is, When was it built? So, for example, let’s say that the AC unit goes in. There’s still a lot of interior things that have to get done and so on. And depending upon the time of the year that that gets done, let’s say that that’s the middle of winter and they’re running the furnace. And they’re still doing a lot of drywalling and things like that. And typically that’s, you know, all the AC stuff is done or furnace stuff is done. Ducts are put in and so on. Then they start covering up walls and doing drywall and so on. Well, depending upon when the house is built… If all of that’s running when they’re doing a lot of that work, you may have more buildup versus one that got done in the spring and fall where you’re not even in heat or AC season. So to your point, and by the way, I have seen things thrown down ducks where it’s like, okay, you guys are just pigs. You throw the McDonald’s wrapper bag down there. You throw your gum wrappers down there. You throw pieces of wood down. I mean, I’ve seen, Larry, when I’ve been looking at houses and different things, you kind of look down through the vents. It’s like, oh, my word, what pigs built this place?
SPEAKER 11 :
I’ll tell you, when they came out and they cleaned my heater vents, I could not believe the amount of garbage and trash that they took out of there. Now, once I’ve had it done, I probably haven’t had it done twice since then, and I’ve been in that house 38 years. But the point I think I’m trying to make is if you haven’t had it done, do it. It’s not that expensive. Yep. But, again, you have to find the right person.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. That’s right. That will take care of you and not just do some fly-by-night thing where they clean a few things here and there and then out the door they go.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, if you think they’re going to blow air through the ducts and clean it.
SPEAKER 03 :
They’re not going to do that. You’ve got to scrub them out. That’s right. Jeff in western Montana, what’s up?
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, morning, all.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good morning.
SPEAKER 09 :
Two quick comments on this. First of all, on filters, HVAC person. The plan was to collect dust so it didn’t get in the house. The sole purpose of the filter is to protect the furnace, particularly the furnace blower. I’m sorry, is that good?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, I can hear you. That makes sense. Yep, totally. You’re exactly right.
SPEAKER 09 :
I’m sorry. I was in my truck, and it just transferred.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, no, you’re fine. No, I mean, to your point, that filter is not for your duct protection and even your sinuses and allergies and so on. It’s to protect the unit itself from having a bunch of junk get built up inside of it that then can cost you a bunch of money to clean out, Jeff.
SPEAKER 09 :
Or cause fires.
SPEAKER 03 :
Or cause fires, et cetera. Yes, thank you, Larry.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, particularly that blower. You know, if you don’t put a filter in, that squirrel cage fan is going to collect all sorts of dust and lint and crap. So that’s why the filters are designed the way they are. They’re not there to capture everything. They’re just there to capture the big stuff down to a certain level, and the other stuff will flow through. And you can get an actual filter for the house. We actually put in an Aprilaire when we had a – forced air furnace and paid for that and they do a good job and that’s a once or twice a year thing with their big six inch thick filter so okay that’s an option as well yeah no that makes sense and that and to your point that’s a different need and different thing that you’re handling than protecting the furnace Right. If you have sensitive allergies, I would recommend getting an Aprilaire or some equivalent so that you can actually get that down to whatever micron level they do.
SPEAKER 06 :
Makes total sense.
SPEAKER 09 :
They do a good job. And then, oh, what was the other topic?
SPEAKER 03 :
The ducks. Oh, duck cleaning. Duck cleaning.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, duck cleaning. I had ours cleaned in Colorado Springs, and I… I stopped to think about this, and again, it’s one of those things you don’t think about until you think about it. But if the purpose of the filter is to protect the squirrel cage, and if it’s doing its job, you really don’t have much lint and stuff accumulating in your supply ducts. That’s right. But you don’t know what the person before you did. So what we did is we had ours cleaned. And two things came out of that. First of all, it was kind of amazing, all the stuff and crap that was in there. But at least this particular duct cleaning company, and I don’t know if they’re all the same, they did not get out the heavy debris. If there was, like, chunks of plaster or big nails or anything in there, that did not come out. They left that in the duct. Their brush was not intended to get that stuff out. It was intended to brush the dust off the various – supply so um so that might be a question you want to ask somebody is are you going to get everything out or are you just looking at getting the big stuff that’s what i was thinking is there a reason to leave it in there i don’t i it just happened afterwards And so it was one of those, well, I guess I didn’t know I was signing up for that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Maybe not the ability to retrieve it. I don’t know. I mean, that’s something that somebody that is in that world would have to either text or call me on, because, Jeff, to that, you and Larry’s point, I don’t know the answer to that. I have no idea.
SPEAKER 09 :
Neither do I. I just know that, and again, it was on the end, and I said, well, okay. And I asked, is that typical? He goes, yeah, we do that all the time. So I was… I either call him a liar and get into a big fight about it or realize he probably did the best he could with my ducks at that point. And I should have checked to make sure I knew what was going on. And so bad on me as much as if there was any bad on him. I don’t know that there was. But that’s just something for people. When you contact the duck cleaning company, just ask them, are you going to get everything out?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, great idea.
SPEAKER 11 :
One of the things that I did find out on the last duck company that I used, they had a camera system that they would go down the ducking with and show you how clean it got.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
So that’s another option.
SPEAKER 03 :
Okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
Something to ask about.
SPEAKER 03 :
I’m sure that’s come a long way from where it used to be.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, but once you do that and you put your filters in and you change them once a year, I don’t think you need another cleaner. I can’t find anybody to give me a good reason to do it annually or every five years. It’s not like a septic system where you’ve got to clean stuff out of a filter. I got an answer, too, from somebody on that.
SPEAKER 03 :
On that line, as far as the debris goes, it says basically it depends on the kind of access to those ducts that they have. In other words, if they’ve got a little more access and they can get tools in there to get some of that stuff out, they will. If not, it may very well just stay there, Jeff.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I think ours was down the vents.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and that would make sense.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, obviously it’s not going to be a big hindrance if it is staying in there.
SPEAKER 09 :
Right, right. No, I mean, I didn’t notice any difference. It was just kind of one of those things that make you go, hmm.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right, right. Well, I would be more interested in making sure the squirrel cage fins are clean because that’s what’s going to develop your volume. And another thing I might look at is on my intake system, I might want to add some kind of a filter to the intake system so the air coming down to the heater is filtered before it even gets to the filter. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, I don’t know about restrictions on air flows and that sort of thing. Yeah, that’s not my expertise. It’s a lot more sophisticated than people realize, but if you just do those simple things you were outlining, it’s going to pay off huge dividends.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep. Great point. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 11 :
And the cost of Xcel’s energy cost, anything you can do to save money is going to help you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 09 :
Bingo. Oh, the other thing I was going to mention, too, when you’re talking about fins, if you’ve got an air conditioning unit in there, make sure they clean off all those fins, you know, because those are a lot closer together than any other component. And that needs to be cleaned off. I’m sure that the finer stuff that even makes it through the filter might collect on those fins.
SPEAKER 11 :
Great point. I know they have a fin rig just like we use for radiators in cars. They do the same thing with air conditioning.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, okay.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 09 :
See, I learned something.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yep. We do it every week. There you go.
SPEAKER 09 :
Thank you, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
Jeff, as always, appreciate you very much. Let’s jump over to John Cheyenne. Go ahead, man.
SPEAKER 10 :
So, John, being in the utility industry for all these decades, if you’re moving into a single-family house and it’s new construction, I would definitely recommend it because they will put a temp meter in the yard to have electric power. And those drywallers and the texture guys and the painter will crank that heat up.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
Because in the winter, they don’t want to work in it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, sure.
SPEAKER 10 :
And the other thing is, and they might even just have space heaters running off electric if the gas isn’t in yet, if they’re going to have gas. But the thing is, if they’ve got the, you know, those ducts are open. If they’re not fully sealed… That drywall dust and everything else from cutting and shaping and everything is going to get in those ducts. And then anything else, the guy’s sweeping up and he sweeps it into the duct because it’s easier than sweeping it into the dustpan. Same thing, apartment buildings. We will get requests that they are ready to have the meters installed and there’s just one circuit run in each apartment so we can check them. And everything else hasn’t been fully wired because they’re waiting on the drywallers and the drywallers want the heat. So they, you know, especially the tape and texture guys.
SPEAKER 03 :
There you go.
SPEAKER 10 :
The regular drywall guys, they can hang in the cold, but the tape and texture guys want it warm. So they’re going to, you know, they’re going to do that. The other thing I had somebody tell me a couple of decades ago, there’s that little number on the sides of the filter. You know, it’s 1, 3, 5, 7. They go all the way up to like 15 for the Super Hepa. He said never go higher than 5. And I’d love if Joe’s listening for his input on that. Okay. Because, you know, being for Carrier for decades, he probably knows more than the rest of us about that. But the other thing is, you’re right. If you buy him by a dozen or a half dozen and you change him once every month, six weeks, it’s not a big deal. I mean, you just… You put it on your Google calendar or whatever, you know, your reminder. Just, hey, change the air filter.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I just looked up a chart for the numbers, John, just to kind of verify what you’re saying. And, yeah, in fact, one through four is covering dust, lint, mites, and pollen. And there’s a percentage, you know, of that. Five, you kind of get into now the mold category. end of things which again means the filter is probably filtering more than it needs to be so i i think you’re right i wouldn’t go much over probably from looking at this chart a four or five is probably all the heavier that i would go anything above that i think you’re getting too restrictive right what jeff was saying if you have bad allergies i know right now just change the subject my wife wants me to pick one up costco has a has a a sale right now on a whole house air filter
SPEAKER 10 :
you know, sits in a room, but it’ll do up to 2000 square feet and it’ll filter the air and clean the air that, or like Jeff said in April air, that’s a very good brand. Something like that to filter the air would be better than the other thing. But the other thing is open. If you open your windows in the spring and fall, especially your body will get used to the dust more than say, you know, you’re constantly in a, you know, a sterile environment, and then you get outside and you can’t breathe and stuff, let that stuff come in. I mean, your body will get used to it. And I know this is not for now, but if you suffer from hay fever allergies, this is a little change of subject, John, I hate to do this, go get some locally grown honey and have a teaspoon every day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 10 :
And that will help your allergies disappear. Because the honey is made from the pollen from the local plants. So if you can find like a local beekeeper, you go to a farmer’s market and they have locally grown honey, a teaspoon in the morning every morning will help your allergies immensely. I started doing that when I lived in New Jersey, and it really helped a lot. I don’t know. You could write that down and ask Dr. Kelly if there’s any science behind it, but it worked for me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Works for me. I agree with you. Yeah. I mean, normally this time of the year you hear a little bit of allergies in my voice right now because this time of the year, everything around my place is blooming out and budding out and the leaves are coming out and so on. So it’s a super heavy year. Typically, I would be taking some sort of a allergy medicine or something along those lines. And honestly, John, since I started the honey thing. If it gets super heavy, I might actually take an allergy pill. But, I mean, I bet you I don’t take a handful throughout the year now. I can pretty much get by without because of what you’re talking about. And I’ve done that now for several years.
SPEAKER 10 :
Oh, yeah, because it helps. And with allergy season on, it’s a perfect time to also check your furnace filter and get some of that, you know, if it’s dirty or you want a clean one. As the allergies comes up, you’re going to get pollen in your house. You want to have that filter as clean as you can and also dust more.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 10 :
Not climate. Everything’s dusty. But last thing, I had snow at the house this morning. Oh, you did? What was cool is I got up this morning, the sun came up, right about 7,500 feet was the snow line because I looked off to the south and I could see exactly across the pasture where… The snow line started. All right. And it’s all melted now already because it warmed up just enough. But it’s that really good snow that we want.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Because it’s going to just melt right into the pasture.
SPEAKER 03 :
That good moisture.
SPEAKER 10 :
Have a good day, John.
SPEAKER 03 :
We’ll take it. John, thank you very much. As always, appreciate it. And by the way, what he was talking about when it comes to those filters is the MERV number, minimum efficiency reporting value. And, yeah, you’ll see that on the filters. And I think to our person that’s been texting in, I probably would try to stay in that 4 to 5, 3 to 5 range. I don’t think you need to go below that. I wouldn’t go above that. I don’t think it’s necessary, and you’ll find that your filters are less expensive that way, and you’ll be just fine in everything that we’ve talked about. John and Jeff, both, thank you guys very much. We’ll take a break. We’ll come back. I’ve got a few more tips for you guys along these lines. Don’t go anywhere. Fix It Radio website, fixitradio.com. We’ll be right back. KLZ 560.
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SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Visit Radio KLZ 560. Warming up a little bit outside. We’re 46 degrees. Actually looking a little nicer outside. The sun’s starting to shine. So if you’re out and about, enjoy. It’s not going to be a super warm day like what we’ve been having, although spring has sprung. You can start to see, even as we look out to the west of us here, you can start to see some of the… Not only the grass is getting a little greener, but some of the trees are starting to not only bud out, but turning into leaves and so on. So it won’t be that long to where things are all green back up again. I had somebody text in, too, and we’ve been going back and forth a little bit. It’s been kind of fun. Basically said, a good contractor will filter all of the returns during construction. And my response back was, yeah, key word, good contractor. how many of those are actually left and i’ll just be straight up honest you go and run around and look at some of the uh what i call cookie cutter builds where you know you take a a you know subdivision where you’ve got a choice of you know one of six different builds or one of four different builds and i and by the way just as I want to be careful how I say this because I’m not trying to be derogatory. But personal experience, I can tell you that a lot of people that think, well, I’m building a $2 million home. I’m going to have way better people building this home than what I’m going to have if I went out and bought a $500,000 home. Yeah, no, think again. Nope, not even close. There is a bunch of homes going in in an area right near us, and I watch those construction workers come and go, and I hear the – in the conversation and you kinda know where I’m going here. The reality is, sorry guys, same guys that are framing and roofing and siding and windowing and, and, and, and, and, are the same guys that are working in a lot of the other quote unquote subdivisions as well. If you think those guys that are building two, two and a half million dollar homes, unless it’s a one-off home and you know the general contractor and he knows all of his subs and he has handpicked all those guys and so on, I will tell you that you’re thinking you’re getting a lot higher quality because it’s a lot more expensive home in a particular area or homes, plural, where, you know, you may have in this particular area I’m talking about, they’re putting up about 25-ish or so homes that are, you know, anywhere from two to three million bucks somewhere in that neighborhood. And yet I look at the construction site and the workers and so on, and I’m like, you know, this isn’t any different than, Homes that cost, you know, a third of that. So a lot of folks think that because I’m buying this higher-end home, I’m getting a lot better workers, quote-unquote, on site. Yeah, no, you’re not.
SPEAKER 11 :
No, I have had friends over the years that have been in construction working, and they’ll tell me that one day they’re working on a $2 million house, and the next day they’re over here working on this $300,000 house.
SPEAKER 03 :
Folks, it’s in a lot of cases the same crews, same subs, and so on. Now, I will say that… In a lot of cases, the higher-end homes will use higher-end, and yes, there are higher-end HVAC folk that are out there that will do things a little differently and even a little bit better electricians and so on, and yes, I know there’s code and everybody has to be licensed and so on, but just because you’re licensed doesn’t mean you’re as particular about your work as the next guy. That still comes down to your finished product and how you like to see things done and so on, and yes, I will tell you that there are better than others, and And depending upon the general contractor, the GC, and who’s actually doing your home, and those are questions. This is a whole conversation we could dedicate a whole entire show to. If you’re going to go build a custom home and you found a general contractor that you feel comfortable with, Great. You may be comfortable with him. Here’s what I would also do. Can I meet some of your subs?
SPEAKER 11 :
Exactly.
SPEAKER 03 :
I want to know, are they out working anywhere? I’d like to see the quality of work that the subs do under the drywall. Because keep in mind, once that sheetrock is hung, you don’t see anything. You have no idea what the electrical looks like inside. You have no idea what the ducting looks underside. You have no idea how the joints, when they’re even nailing 2x4s, 2x6s together, look like. You have the foggiest idea. The drywallers, if they’re really good, can cover up a lot of stuff, and you have no idea what stuff looks like underneath. So I would be wanting to meet not only the GC, but I want to meet the subs as well. Go ahead, Jeff.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hey, quick point just on what you were talking about in terms of quality of construction. had the ability to live in multiple different military housing. And so I have a lot of my kids who are married, a lot of daughters who are married to military members and that sort of thing. And one of the things the bases have done is they put up build-to-lease houses. They’re private houses owned by a company on military land. And they basically build them and then run them for the military so the military doesn’t incur any cost in terms of… having to do milk on and that kind of stuff. One of the government requirements is that all the houses meet ENERGY STAR requirements. That whole thing is just an example of a sham and a fraud because I’ve had my kids living in houses where insulation was missing from walls and those gaps were on windows.
SPEAKER 03 :
But it’s ENERGY STAR rated, Jeff.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yes, it is. It is Energy Star rated. You’re absolutely right. Does that mean it’s energy efficient? Absolutely not.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, good point. Great point, by the way.
SPEAKER 09 :
Word to the wise, yeah, if any contractor says, well, we comply with Energy Star, you go, really? How do you do that? Do some due diligence on that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, the other thing, too, that I’ve seen through the years, and Jeff, you and anybody else out there listening, if you haven’t seen this, I know you have, Jeff, I know Larry has as well, the amount of stories out there of things that still pass inspection, that when you actually look at these things and say there is no way an inspector should have or could have signed off on that, that might have been a day where an inspector got in a big hurry and it was more of a quote-unquote drive-by situation. inspection jeff and if any of you out there inspectors for cities and counties uh yeah some of you listening are probably really good at what you do and don’t do that but i can tell you right now and you know this as well as i you’ve got cohorts that in other people you might know even in other cities and counties that do exactly what i just said jeff because i’ve seen some of these where it’s like there is no way that thing could have been signed off by anybody at the city ever right right and uh
SPEAKER 09 :
And not to cast aspersion on our dedicated public servants, but there is, by mathematical, statistical certainty, going to be some on the take. So was it passed by somebody with his hand under the table going, okay?
SPEAKER 03 :
Or just… You know, Jeff, was it Friday afternoon and the kids’ ball game was about to start and they wanted to get out of there as quickly as they can. And they know this contractor and they’ve got a pretty good relationship. And, you know, they pretty well know that, you know, quote unquote, everything’s usually good to go. And so this time around, they just sort of went through and windowed it and signed off and off they went.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yep. Those things happen. Yep. So, yeah, just, again.
SPEAKER 03 :
My point, Jeff, is just because it went through and passed a quote-unquote city-county inspector, in my book, I’m sorry to say, doesn’t mean anything.
SPEAKER 09 :
Bingo. So, by the way, we’re at 41 degrees this morning.
SPEAKER 03 :
41, okay. Well, we’re 45, so you’re just a few degrees, not much.
SPEAKER 09 :
There’s not much difference between western Montana and the front range.
SPEAKER 03 :
There is not. You keep proving that. You are correct.
SPEAKER 11 :
Are you getting any wind up there yet?
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, we had a massive windstorm night before last. Yeah, a bunch of hail in some areas. We have a community dinner up here, and one of the ladies was telling me that she had a $20,000 car A big tree, a big spruce fell on it and damaged it. That’s more for next hour, but she got her… The insurance company wouldn’t total it. They put $14,000 worth of work into a $20,000 car. Not worth it. They wouldn’t total it.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, that is a topic for next hour. I’ve got a situation going on with somebody I know very close to where we’re kind of going through the same thing. And in this particular case, Jeff, I would have been pushing for a total. I would not have accepted a repair. But in this case, they’re wanting to repair the vehicle because people get sentimental over things. And when it comes to these sorts of things, they should not.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, for her, I don’t think it was sentiment. I don’t think she knew how to argue that she could.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 09 :
That’s what the insurance company said.
SPEAKER 03 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah, we don’t have quite the same resources as you guys do, but I don’t know.
SPEAKER 03 :
Thanks a lot. Jeff, I appreciate it. All right, just a few things left here to kind of… uh finalize things when it comes to things you can do right now when it comes to prepping for turning on the ac and having all that done we’ve talked about the filter itself getting all that changed out the duct work we just talked about that don’t forget that those of you that have air conditioning units you’re going to have condensation drains Some of those will be internal. They’ll drain into a actual drain nearby. Let’s say you’ve got the water heater, the furnace, and all of that. You typically will have drain pipes and such coming out that will run right into a drain nearby. Make sure all of that is clear. There’s no gunk in it. Because remember, some of that may have, depending upon your furnace situation, high efficiency furnaces will have drains and level water coming out all the time. As well, typically, they stay pretty clear. Those of you, though, that have more of an air handler or you don’t have a super high-efficient furnace but you do have air conditioning, you’re going to have water because air conditioning is taking the moisture. That’s why it’s called conditioning, just like on your car. you’ll see water dripping out of that typical right front passenger area when you’re running your air conditioning on a hot day with your car and you’ll pull up and somebody say hey you got a leak under your car well no you you don’t you’ve got water coming out of the ac sides of things and that’s draining out and that’s supposed to happen in fact even on the car side if you don’t have any water draining out in that particular situation you have a problem You should see water draining out. Same thing with your home and your AC system and your furnace at that point. That’s the air handler now. Same thing. You should have water coming out when the AC is actually on and working and so on. If you don’t. You have other issues, and my point is that’s another one of those areas where right now, maintenance-wise, even if you need to run some sort of a flexible wire brush up that tube and try to get some of that cleaned out or do whatever you need to. In some cases, you can take the tube off, take it outside, wash it out really good, run some water through it. Whatever you need to do, make sure that you’re… ability to get that water out of the system and into the drain is all there it’s functioning it’s working properly and so on another reminder too which we never really talk much about is sometimes those drains you know they get put in by the builder and They will sometimes put a little clamp on the floor, screw it to the plywood, or if you’ve got a concrete floor, they’ll try to attach it some way, somehow, to where it doesn’t get moved around and kicked around and so on. It’s not quite as big of a deal on a concrete floor as it would be for some of you that have wood floor basements or it’s in the attic or something along those lines. Make sure that tube… is draining directly into the drain. The last thing you want is that to be getting all of that plywood or particle board or whatever it happens to be that it’s draining on. You want it going right into the drain and not getting a bunch of water around other areas. And there’s other ways you can cure that. In some cases, you can get that tube more to where it’s going right over the top of the drain. They make larger drain pans with a hole that would be exiting right out into the drain itself. All sorts of ways where you can address that. Bottom line, you want to make sure that your drain’s coming out of the furnace itself. And some of you are looking at that sometimes thinking, some of you may have even thought over the years, why do I have a drain coming out of the furnace? Well, this is why. And you want to make sure that it’s clean, that it’s free of any kind of debris, mold, gunk, things along those lines. That stuff will sit in there. You want to get that all cleaned out and done right. And on top of that, you want to make sure that that tube hasn’t been kicked by the kids or it’s come loose or… whatever the case may be. You know, they play hide-and-seek and things like that, and sometimes those things can get jostled around and moved and so on, and you want to make sure those things are actually draining over the drain itself and not just running out all over everything else. So, guys, that’s it today for Fix-It Radio. Our website, fixitradio.com. You can always text us a question throughout the week, 307-200-8222 is that number. Have a great rest of your day, and we’ll be right back. This is Fix-It Radio, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 05 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
