2 Frequently Encountered Electronic Air Cleaner Problems

Those who want to ensure the cleanest possible air inside of their home often choose to add an electronic air cleaner to their HVAC system. Such air cleaners utilize electrically charged plates to capture irritants such as pet dander, dust, and pollen, thus keeping it from entering your home's air supply.

Of course, over time, such cleaners have a tendency to develop certain problems all their own. To keep your air quality as high as possible, it is necessary that you recognize and attend to such issues as quickly as you can. If you would like to learn more about the things that can go wrong with an electronic air cleaner, read on. This article will outline two common problems.

Basic Overview

To understand the sorts of problems that can beset an electronic air cleaner, it helps to have a basic understanding of how it works. As air flows into the appliance, so-called pre-filters remove larger bits of dirt and debris. The air then passes into the ionizer, which imbues each particle of debris with a positive charge. These positively charged particles are then naturally attracted to the series of negatively charged plates, which hold them fast and prevent them from entering your home.

Dirty Plates

As you can imagine, an electronic air cleaner is capable of capturing and retaining a huge amount of dust and debris--much more than your standard fiberglass air filter ever could. This also means that an electronic air cleaner will become impeded by all of that unwanted matter in a much shorter span of time. As the negative plates reach capacity, they will no longer be able to capture more debris. Thus it is necessary to clean the plates periodically, according to the instructions provided by the manufacturer of your particular appliance.

Damaged Plates

As you can infer from the above information, proper maintenance and cleaning is vital for the health of your electronic air cleaner. Yet you must be sure to undertake those cleanings as carefully as possible, taking pains to avoid damaging the delicate plates. This is especially important where the chagrin wires are concerned.

You see, in order to provide the collection plates with the necessary negative charge, a series of wires runs along their bottom sides. These wires can easily be disconnected, broken, or otherwise damaged during cleaning. Be on the lookout for such problems the next time you clean your air cleaner, as well as for plates that appear especially dented or scratched. 

Speak with a heating system maintenance service for more help.

Share