5 HVAC Maintenance Tips for Pet Owners

For most American families, owning a pet is an essential part of life. Pets offer a certain kind of friendship that other people can’t provide. But owning a pet comes with responsibilities that shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially if you are running HVAC systems. As a pet owner, you need to provide your house-trained animal with a safe and clean environment.

Four Seasons Air Specialists is your trusted HVAC company in Lino Lakes MN that cares about your family’s health and safety.

Here are five practical tips for homeowners living with their pets.

Change your filters often.

Since your filter traps pollutants and keeps them from circulating throughout your home, you should pay close attention to its condition. When your filter is clogged, your HVAC equipment’s performance is weakened and your home’s indoor air quality is limited. Don’t be surprised when your furnace or air conditioner automatically shuts itself down if the air filter becomes too choked. In addition to improving your indoor air quality and minimizing your utility costs, a clean air filter will also prevent dust, dirt, debris, and dander from building up inside your HVAC system, lowering the risk of untimely system breakdown.

The more pets you have, the more often you should change your air filters. And if you have anyone living with you who suffers from allergies or has a respiratory illness, you need to replace your filters more often. If typical homes replace their filters every six months, those with pets should change filters quarterly or even monthly.

If you can’t monitor your air filters, consider investing in high-efficiency models. While high-quality filters are indeed more expensive, but cheaper ones actually need to be changed more frequently, costing you more money in the long run.

Keep the outdoor unit safe.

Household pets, especially dogs, like to use your outdoor area as a place to play and urinate indiscriminately. Pet urine can cause corrosion and other damage to your outdoor unit. They can also claw the outdoor unit, causing damage or hurting themselves. To keep your HVAC system and pets safe, enclose your outdoor unit with fencing or other forms of barrier that can protect the system while allowing air to flow freely.

Inspect your electrical wires.

Your HVAC system’s exposed wires can be enticing chew toys for your household pets. While this is not common in younger cats and dogs, but you can never be too safe with your adult pets. To ensure your pets’ safety, be sure to enclose your electrical wires in channels.

Invest in a whole-home air purification system.

An air purifier is a powerful way to clean your indoor air. It works by passing air through filters, which seizes small particles and eliminates them from the air in the room.

Air purifiers also help you breathe cleaner air that will allow your lungs and other organs to work more smoothly, which helps your brain to absorb more oxygen.

Certain air purifiers use high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters that effectively catch up to 99.97 percent of airborne particles larger than 0.3 microns. HEPA filters put away smaller allergens like dust, smoke, chemicals, asbestos, pollen, and pet dander.

Keep your pets clean.

Pet dander is one of the main indoor air pollutants. Also, dander from dogs and cats is the leading cause of allergies. For this reason, you should regularly give your pets a bath. In addition, be sure to vacuum and dust your home regularly to keep pet dander to a minimum.

Also, grooming your pets regularly lowers the amount of casting off of hair, which means less cleaning time for you and longer life for your HVAC systems’ filters. Pet grooming is important since pet dander can easily trap your filter’s surface and clog your air ducts. If you fail to pay attention to this, it can cause your HVAC system to work harder than usual, resulting in higher utility bills.

Call the HVAC Masters

To help you maintain a clean and safe indoor environment, schedule an HVAC system maintenance with Four Seasons Air Specialists. Our teams of highly trained HVAC professionals understand heating and cooling systems inside and out and can ensure they operate at peak performance. We are your friendly Shoreview heating and air conditioning contractor serving you since 1974.