Furnace filters

I've been in my house for about 5 years now. It has an Aprilaire 2200 filter on the furnace. For those of you that don't know, it uses a pleated filter that they call the 201: http://amzn.to/1OLQD2u. It's a plastic box that holds an accordian type filter. They are a pain to replace because of these combs that you have to install between the pleats to keep its shape. They are also pretty expensive at $20-$30ea. I had my HVAC guy out for a checkup last week and he suggested an upgrade kit that eliminates the need for the combs. It looks like it would save some time in the replacement, but filters double in price. I nixed that idea as soon as I saw the filter price. There are also cardboard box type filters that cost about the same as the original filter.

I was thinking though about the electrostatic filter in the house I grew up in. Pop it out, wash it, pop it back in. My googling has not found much detail on installing one of these in place of my paper filter. Does anyone have any suggestions? Would I still need to run a 1" filter in front of it?

My dad had a new furnace put in and he told me to get him a filter for it. so I spent some money and got the high end one.

Then it started shutting down and not running so the furnace guy said to use the basic $.79 cheap filter. No problems after that.

I don't get it.

It's to my understanding that the point of the filter is not to clean the air, it's to keep most of the dust out of the fan and heat exchangers. Fancy filters often cause issues from not flowing well enough.

Filters keep dust out of the house of course. Ours is installed after the furnace itself so the fan is drawing unfiltered air. We have a washable one. It is made of multiple layers of ever finer stainless mesh. The digital control let's us know when it needs cleaning and I do it usually with compressed air.

http://www.amazon.com/20x25x6-Washable-Permanent-Furnace-Filter/dp/B013XJFEU0

Or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20x25x6-Washable-Permanent-Furnace-Filter-For-Aprilaire-Spaceguard-2200-201-/390912425111

Maybe?

I was told the same thing about simply using the cheaper high flow filters by the guys that redid my duct work. Apparently the high end 3M ones can reduce the flow by 30 or 40% which is pretty significant.

It's far better to buy a half price filter and change it twice as often.

Thanks guys. Those washable auto-charging filters... how do they work? I saw the same and it looked pretty slick, but I don't understand how they can hold such a charge.

Duke wrote: It's far better to buy a half price filter and change it twice as often.

Same principle I use when buying air filters for cars.