Electrostatic Air Filters: How Do They Work? Electrostatic air filters are a very effective way to improve the indoor air quality in your home. Therefore, if you are considering an air filtration system for your home, you may be looking for information about this type of filter and how it differs from other filtration systems. ... Continue Reading
Monrovia HVAC: Learn What Causes a Wet Air Filter and How to Prevent It in the Future
Monrovia HVAC: Learn What Causes a Wet Air Filter and How to Prevent It in the Future If you regularly check your HVAC system’s air filter, an accumulation of dust should come as no surprise. It’s just a sign telling you it’s time to change the filter. What most homeowners don’t expect is to find a wet air filter, but it can happen. Read on to learn what causes this and ... Continue Reading
Just Bought a Home? Avoid Air Conditioner Surprises with Your First Energy Bill
Don’t Get Left “Home Alone” with the Energy Meter Running The moving vans have left, and you’ve finally managed to make some headway on all those boxes piled up in every room. Life seems to be settling into a new normal in your beautiful new home. The weather outside is sweltering, so what’s the harm in cranking up the air conditioner or your HVAC system to keep ... Continue Reading
Extreme Weather Events Underscore Importance of Air Conditioning for Basic Human Health and Comfort
Comfort Systems Aren’t Just About Convenience. They Save Lives. During extreme weather events, we're often glued to our television screens watching the brave responders and courageous survivors struggle against the wind, rain, and other elements. We are heartened to see the overwhelming national outpouring of support and volunteer efforts that remind us of the ... Continue Reading
Tips for Increasing Your Commercial HVAC Efficiency
Learn the “Best Practices” That Make a Difference The big secret? Commercial HVAC efficiency isn’t complicated. However, the “best practices” behind keeping these systems running smoothly are often ignored until it’s too late, resulting in a system breakdown or expensive repair. Here are some tips you can put into play right now to avoid unexpected and costly budget ... Continue Reading
HVAC Funnies: 2021 Edition
From Dusty Ductwork to Filthy Filters, HVAC Professionals See It All We come across photos and illustrations from time to time that make us smile. Here are a few recent ones that you might find amusing too. And stick to the toaster when it comes to heating up crackers! Crumbs in your vents are never a good idea. Who doesn’t forget to change their air filter from ... Continue Reading
Allergies and Your Air Conditioner: What They Have In Common
Solutions for Your Sneezes Are a Phone Call Away Everyone has an allergy to something these days, it seems. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, more than 50 million Americans have experienced some type of allergic response in the past year. Worse still, these reactions are estimated to cost our nation upwards of $18 billion dollars a ... Continue Reading
Got MERV? HVAC Air Filters and Indoor Air Quality
Stopping Pollutants in Their Tracks Indoor air quality is always a concern for homeowners, especially here in Southern California. Yet few people are aware of the role they can play in ensuring their own HVAC equipment is filtering air at its best. Wondering how you can keep indoor air in your home at its cleanest for your loved ones? It starts with MERV. Don’t ... Continue Reading
Air Conditioning Repairs You Might Not Know You Need
Do you have a secret HVAC problem waiting to happen? So the lady on the phone was desperate. Their tenant complained that hot air was coming out of the air vents, and blowing warmth into the living room on the hottest day of the year so far. Was the condenser broken? Would they need a new system? How would they ever afford this? She was panicked, and we agreed to send ... Continue Reading
HVAC and Airborne Viruses: Separating Fact from Fiction
Air Purifiers Can Help Maintain a Healthy Home While the media focuses on airborne viruses and the risk of global pandemics, we’ve been fielding a lot of questions about the benefits and limitations of in-home air purification systems. Certainly, even before the emergence of Corona virus, air quality indoors has become a central concern for many homeowners. Smoke, ... Continue Reading
Don’t Let Fido Destroy Your Air Filters: Tips to Keep Heating and Air Conditioning Animal-Safe
According to the National Pet Products Association, more than 67% of American households own a pet. Whether it’s a gecko or a golden retriever, this number is up substantially from the 56% of households surveyed who did back in 1988, the first year the study was conducted. That’s a lot of fur (and scales, and fish food, and more…) Many of us at Air-Tro are also pet ... Continue Reading
MERV Ratings: Who Is Merv and Why Is He Weighing in On Your HVAC Filters?
Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) Is A Thing and You Should Probably Know About It When it comes to selecting what air filter will be the most effective, we’ll admit the process can be confusing for people. Very confusing. In fact, if you’ve decided to replace the HVAC filters yourself, one trip to the hardware store can feel like four years at a major ... Continue Reading
When the Air Outside is Smoky, It’s Time to Keep Your Indoor Air Quality Clean
Indoor Comfort Is Important For Health and Safety We’ve all watched with sadness as fires have ravaged much of California in recent weeks. The fact is that these kinds of events are becoming more frequent throughout our state and especially within the Southland. While we don’t have solutions to the larger issues here, we can provide you with advice on keeping the air ... Continue Reading
How to Maintain Indoor Comfort When There’s Wildfire Smoke Outside
Southern California Sometimes Means Smoky Air During Fire Season It’s an unpleasant fact of life for anyone living in Southern California: wildfire season. Along with maintaining your smoke detectors and considering fire safety in your landscaping designs, it’s also possible to take steps to maintain indoor air quality when wildfire smoke hangs heavy outdoors. For ... Continue Reading
Forget Toby Keith. We Want to Talk About HVAC Air Filters.
Country Musicians Come and Go, but HVAC Air Filters Are Forever Sitting outside, listening to songs on your iPhone or the radio, drinking lemonade. What is there to worry about during the dog days of summer? Well, we’ll give you something. When is the last time you changed your HVAC air filter? It may seem like a small thing, but that air filter can make the ... Continue Reading
Is It Time For You to Install an Air Purifier?
What You Need to Know About Blocking Smoke, and Other Particulates from Your Home Everyone knows there have been a lot of wildfires here in Southern California over the past few years. Smog and now smoke are common air quality problems for the San Gabriel Valley, and many families are worried about the health dangers that come along with breathing in these pollutants, ... Continue Reading
Indoor Comfort Means HVAC and More: Tips to Reduce Allergens in Your Home
Go Beyond Changing Your AC Filter with These Simple Suggestions The EPA has suggested that indoor air quality is usually about five times more polluted than the air outside. Despite our smog, Southern Californians are luckier than most folks when it comes to this IAQ (indoor air quality) problem. Our weather is usually mild enough to allow opening a window or two ... Continue Reading
Living with Pets And HVAC too: What You Need to Know
Happy Pets, Happy Owners, Happy HVAC Technicians We’re big pet people here at Air-Tro. Dogs, cats, and even the occasional iguana are some of the animals who enjoy living in total indoor comfort with the Air-Tro professional they call “Mom,” “Dad,” or “Hey, you with the cat food can.” Nevertheless, there are some special precautions and important steps to take as a ... Continue Reading
HVAC From Hell: Photos That Both Scare Us and Fill Us With Gratitude
Don’t try this at home. At least not with the HVAC folks who did this. We were looking through issues of one of our favorite magazines, the ASHI Reporter, and saw these HVAC pictures, along with a few of the stories that go with them. We hope these never happen to you, and are so grateful that they haven’t happened to us. All photos and captions courtesy of The ASHI ... Continue Reading
May is National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month: Here’s What You Need to Know about Air Quality
Here at Air-Tro, we strive to keep California comfortable. But what we don’t mention too often is perhaps HVAC’s most important job for anyone living in Southern California’s frequently unhealthy climate: protecting your health. With the air teeming with bacteria, pollutants, and organic irritants, your air conditioning filtration system can serve as an important ... Continue Reading
Air Filters: the Kanye West Part to Your Kim Kardashian Air Conditioner
Forgive the silly headline, but sometimes we find folks seem to tune out when we start talking air conditioning jargon, especially if they think they already know what we’re going to say. But judging from the number of problems we see as a result of this issue, well, heck, maybe we need an HVAC reality show too! Air Filters Are Mission Critical Here’s the deal. Your air ... Continue Reading
Spring Time Calls For a Fresh Air Filter!
Spring Weather Calls For Changing that Air Filter (Here's How to Do It) Spring is a transitional season when you may be using both the heat and the air conditioning as the weather outside fluctuates. It's also the season when pollen is in the air, and the sneezing and sniffling of allergies appear. The first step toward relief is replacing the air filter in your HVAC ... Continue Reading
6 Ways to Avoid a Spring Fling with Airborne Allergens
Preparing Your Home for Spring Allergens How to Prepare Your Home for Spring Allergens The weather is turning pleasant and the windows are open – Hooray! It’s spring! It’s finally time to put away the coats and scarves, and start to enjoy spending more time outside. But, for the millions of allergy sufferers out there, the blossoming of spring can wreak havoc on sinuses ... Continue Reading
Read This to Learn How to Prevent the Spread of the Flu
Read This to Learn How to Prevent the Spread of the Flu Get A New Air Filter A new air filter for your Monrovia HVAC unit can prove to be very useful in the fight against the flu. Air filters will catch a lot of particles in the air, and up to 99.9% of the particles are trapped in the air filter. If the flu virus is in the air, it can also flow through the air ... Continue Reading
Los Angeles IAQ: What Should You Do to Improve Indoor Air Quality this Fall?
Los Angeles smog, fall pollen and mold spores, and many other air contaminants make poor indoor air quality a common problem in our area. If you want to breathe easier this fall, there's a lot you can do to clean up your home's air. Control pollutants at their source. Improperly adjusted fuel-burning appliances can leak trace amounts of carbon monoxide. To prevent this, ... Continue Reading
