Get a Cleaner, Healthier Home With Ductless (Podcast)

Upgrading to a ductless system can save you money on energy bills and improve the comfort in your home. However, the filters can also improve indoor air quality.

Jones Services · Get a Cleaner, Healthier Home with Ductless

John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher and I’m here today with Matt Torre and Tim Schofield of Jones Services, a service company in Goshen, New York with a focus on ductless heating and cooling systems. Today our topic is get a cleaner, healthier home with ductless. Matt and Tim, welcome.

Matt Torre: Hey, John. Thanks for having us.

John: Sure.

Tim Schofield: Hey, John. Thanks again.

Causes of Dust and Particles in a Home

John: Absolutely. So what are some of the causes of dust and particles in a home generally?

Matt: Well, John, it’s funny that you asked that, because what most people may or may not know is that a lot of what dust is made up of is actually dry, dead skin particles, which is kind of gross in its sense. But that’s the reality of it is that as your skin dries up, it flakes off. You may not even notice it, but dead skin is one of the number one things found in most dust around the home.

Some other things that would lead to a dustier home or particles that you may see while you’re sipping that cup of coffee in the morning and the sunlight’s coming in from the window, and you’ll see those little particles floating in the air. They could be pet dander or hair. Pets have a lot of dander or shedding that can attribute to those particles.

Pollen, seasonally. A lot of pollen will make its way in as you open up your windows and open up your doors, and you’ll find that little yellow coating on the top of your car. Well, that stuff is also getting into your home.

Another thing that really comes up, and when we talk about dust and particles, a lot of times what we’re really talking about is your indoor air quality. It’s the quality of air that you’re breathing, and Mitsubishi has a number of great solutions to help remove a lot of that stuff and make the air that you’re breathing more pure.

Other things we’ll hear about is food smells from cooking. So if you’re cooking certain types of foods, some of that can actually get into your air, as well as any smoking that you may do, whether it’s actually smoking or if you have a fireplace that you like to use from time to time. And even those traditional heating systems that work off of a combustion type of either fuel, oil, or gas. They create some burn off as well.

And then really the last thing that we hear about a lot is makeup and hairspray. So I don’t know if your wife is anything like mine, but as they’re getting ready to get ready in the morning, or go out at night, they’re putting on all their different makeups, and applications, and putting the hairspray in their hair. And everything that doesn’t necessarily get right to the hair or get applied to the face winds up in your air. So there’s a lot of different things that contribute to them. And what’s great about Mitsubishi is that we have a solution to improve that indoor air quality for all those types of things that contribute to it.

How Does a Ductless System Reduce Dust and Allergens?

John: Right. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about how a ductless heating and cooling system can help to cut down on dust and allergens in the home.

Tim: Yeah, John, the best way to kind of go over that is to pick one of the models. So the Mitsubishi ductless wall mount, the MXZ-FS model has some pretty cool features. So there’s going to be almost three levels of improving the air quality. The first one is a very simple screen that really captures the bigger particles before they get into the system, that is washable, which is pretty cool.

The next level has an electrostatic anti-allergy enzyme filter. And what that does is it catches dead mites and their droppings, pollen, and other allergens on the filter element. Then it decomposes them with artificial enzymes, and that one is also washable. And they recommend washing them about every three months.

Now the last one is a deodorizing filter, and what that one will do is it’s a catalyst coating that’s on a honeycomb, and it captures the foul smelling substances in the air. It then breaks them down and is the power of ozone generated in a plasma electrode unit. So all in all, what that does is that helps cut down on the odors in the house. And once again, that one is also washable. Lukewarm water, 15 minutes, rinse it well, let it dry and put it back in. So those are the three levels that the FS model has to help improve the indoor air quality inside of your home.

Do All Mitsubishi Ductless Units Offer Advanced Filtration?

John: So if you want to be focused on the air quality, that’s a great model to have. Other models of the indoor units from Mitsubishi don’t necessarily have all three of those levels of protection?

Tim: No, not every model, but the FS is the one that we most commonly use for a hyper heat application, and they have a lot of other cool features built in, but the filtration is one of the best.

Washing the Air Filters From a Ductless Unit

John: Okay. And like you said, those are all washable. So a homeowner can just take those filters out and wash them and put them in themselves.

Tim: Yeah, they recommend every three months, but it’s based on usage. So sometimes I tell my customers to inspect it after a month or two, see what it looks like, and then if it looks clean, you check it in a few weeks.

But you develop your own routine based on the conditions in your house. If you have pets, if you have carpet, if there’s a lot of people coming and going, those can affect how often you may need to clean.

Do You Need Additional Filters for Your Ductless System?

John: So do you need any other special filters in your ductless heating and cooling system to cut down on dust or allergens, or is what you just mentioned basically what, what’s available for the ductless units?

Matt: Yeah. No, I mean for the ductless units themselves, the three different filters that Tim described are really going to capture pretty much everything. One is focused on odors, the other one is focused on the big particles, which is really helping to protect the equipment as much as it is to really protect and purify the air. But that other filter that’s in there is able to catch those smaller particles, and really contribute to positive indoor air quality.

Now, if you’re not going to use a ductless system and you’re going to go the ducted route, there’s a number of other filters that we can apply to the system that are going to have a lot of the same great effects. One may be a media style filter, which is, it’s about four inches wide, and any of the air that’s running through the system is going to pass through that at one point or another. That four-inch filter is going to pull out pretty much all the same things that we just talked about, pet dander, dust, pollen, things of that nature.

Then you can also equip your ducted system with a UV light, which is going to actually help to kill any bacteria, kill any type of dust mites, or any other type of virus type things like the flu and help to again, improve your indoor air quality. So whether you’re choosing a ductless system or going with a ducted system, Mitsubishi offers a number of great solutions to help improve your indoor air quality, make your air cleaner, and ideally keep you healthier.

How Often Should You Change the Filters on a Ductless System?

John: Right. And how often should the filters be changed? I think you mentioned every three months you recommend.

Matt: Yeah. So the media filters may be able to go a little bit longer in the ducted system, but like we’ve talked so much about how each home is unique and each way people use the home is unique in that sense. So if you’re a house that has a lot of pets and maybe also has a smoker in the home, you may want to be closer to that three month mark, or perhaps even a little bit sooner if you have more pets and more people coming through.

If you’re not a smoker, don’t have any pets and don’t do a lot of cooking of strong smelling foods, you may be able to get away with every five to six months. But what we usually tell our customers is start with the target of about three months, and then move up, or go a little sooner, or a little later, depending on what the filters look like when you check them at that three month period.

And then of course, it’s always good to have your system maintained by a professional at least once a year. So having one of our technicians come out and walk through the process with you and help you change those filters or change them up for you also ensures that you’re taking the best care of your system and getting the cleanest air possible for your home.

Do Ductless Systems Need Additional Cleaning Besides Changing the Filter?

John: Do the ductless units need any additional cleaning at any point periodically in order to really give it a deep clean, or is just changing the filter enough?

Matt: Again, on the changing the filter a couple times a year, three to four times a year is going to be what most homeowners are going to really need to do. But having a service professional come out one time a year to do a little bit of a deeper clean and get into some of those nooks and crannies that we wouldn’t suggest a homeowner necessarily trying to explore themselves is always recommended.