Question: I am having problems with allergies in Florida. As I am replacing our A/C unit I am looking for a really good filter. The Trane cleaneffect unit looks promising, but would it be good enough. Is it worth the extra cost to get a UV filter. Any recommendations would be appreciated. The installers have all been recommending not to use a uv type and just go with the Trane.

In my opinion, it depends on how bad your allergies are. If your allergies are very bad and cost is not a factor, I would say the extra protection a duct mounted UV air cleaner provides is not a bad addition to enhance a media air filter. UV air cleaners  kill bacteria, mold spores and other organic contaminants. That is something  a media air filter can’t do.

It’s also important to point out that a uv air cleaner is only suitable for enhancing the filtration of a traditional air filter and should never be used as the only method of air treatment. UV air cleaners do not actually filter the air, they only purify it by killing organic compounds. You still have to filter out those contaminants with mechanical filtration.

The Trane CleanEffects air filter is very efficient and Trane rates it even  better than a HEPA filter. That’s very impressive. I do have some concerns  about the Trane CleanEffects filter. You can read my thoughts in this post Trane CleanEffects Review.

That article is only based on what I have read about the filter because I  don’t have any first hand experience with it. I am hoping to get some comments in that post from people who are using it.

Question: Have you had any feedback on the Trane CleanEffects Electronic Air Filter? We need a whole new AC system and they are really pushing this filter.  At nearly $1000.00 I’m not so sure it’s needed.  Any thoughts or words from others?

What some quick research revealed

I am not familiar with these filters so I did some quick research and found out that there have been some recalls on those units. I didn’t research the details of the recall.

From what I see they look like a combination of media air filter and electronic air cleaner. I have never been a fan of traditional electronic air cleaners because they allow larger dust particles to pass through the filter. I always recommend installing a pleated air filter as a pre-filter or post filter when using them. This may be their attempt to eliminate that flaw in the electronic air filter design.

They claim the filter is 99.98% effective. That’s better than a HEPA filter by .01%. If it is that efficient it may require constant maintenance to prevent it from having a negative impact on air flow. I also predict that the filter material will require replacement more often than a person would expect for a reusable air filter and that will probably not be cheap. I would recommend going with one of the more traditional filters.

Here’s a demo on the Trane site . It seams to load a bit slow but it works.