Such air filters should be relieved of their duties by fresh, clean ones every few months
For a long time, I had a bad HVAC habit. I decided to curb this habit when I discovered how harmful it could be. The bad habit I had was letting the air filter go for too long without changing it. Sometimes, I would take a look at the air filter and decide that it was still good, despite the fact that it was quite dirty. I have a tendency to try and get the most out of everything I use, so sometimes, I continue to use things that I should just throw away. I have that problem with tennis shoes, cars, and furniture, to name a few things. Well, I can tell you that it is not helpful to become overly attached to air filters that have given up the ghost, so to speak. Such air filters should be relieved of their duties by fresh, clean ones every few months. However, I will admit that sometimes, I just completely forget about the air filter altogether! It took deliberate marking on my monthly planner as to when I installed the fresh air filter and when it was time to replace it. What drove me to start documenting when it was time to change my air filter is my discovery that not changing the air filter of an HVAC system, far from being only mildly destructive, can be the root of just about every kind of heating and air conditioning system problem that you can imagine! Simply neglecting to change the air filter could kill the life of your unit and cause you to have to make all sorts of costly repairs that could have been easily avoided by a few seconds of work every few months!