HERE’S YOUR GUIDE TO HVAC MAINTENANCE AND TIPS FOR PET OWNERS

Making the choice to bring a furry critter into your home is both an exciting choice, yet a daunting one. You have to really make sure you’re ready for the responsibilities involved with caring for your pet, both in terms of the time commitment and the financial costs. And when you do eventually make the choice to welcome pets at home, the one thing that you may often overlook is the strain your dog or cat may make on the quality of the air you breathe. Especially if your pet is one that is extra fluffy, simply knowing what you should do for proper HVAC maintenance is essential so that you can enjoy great air quality and potentially save some money.

Proper Pet Care

There will be a bit of pet-proofing that you might need to get into, but a big component that will drastically reduce the amount of strain your pet puts on your air quality will be focusing on proper pet care before focusing on HVAC maintenance as a whole. With that said, let’s talk all things puppies and kittens.

Tend To Your Pet’s Grooming Needs

The frequency of how often you may need to groom your pet will depend somewhat on your pet. If you own a Husky or Golden Retriever type of dog (you know, the type of breed that you hug once and then you’re covered in fur), then you should expect to be grooming your pet as often as you can. It also helps to know more about the breed of pet you have at home (or are thinking of bringing home). Knowing your pet’s needs, you should groom your pet so that shedding is not very noticeable. And if you groom regularly, your family at home, especially anyone with allergies, will notice a difference. Frequent grooming will minimize the time you need to take to clean AC air filters and will reduce air duct clogs.

Tend To Your Pet’s Bathing Needs

Bathe your dog to reduce dirt, grease, and more. Doing so will reduce the odors and allergens that grooming might not be able to tend to. And not only for your HVAC maintenance, simply bathing your pet often (again, depending on the grooming and bathing needs of your pet) supports the health of their skin and fur. Do Fido and yourself a favor. Bathe and groom regularly.

Home and HVAC Maintenance

These HVAC tips and tricks will go over some of the more basic HVAC maintenance activities you should do to ensure your air quality is ideal for when you have pets at home.

Clean Your Home

If you are regularly keeping your pet regularly groomed and bathed, proper home care should be easier for you. And even though you may groom your pet often, your pet is prone to slight shedding. Cleaning the carpet and space around you and mopping the floors can help catch the extraneous fur your pet leaves behind.

Get an Air Purifier

Air purifiers with HEPA filters are a great additional shield of defense against pollutants and other material your pet may leave behind (and let’s be real here, they leave a lot behind). There are a ton of different types of purifies, each with their own level of performance. You may need to do more research on what you want out of an air purifier.

Change the Air Filters

This is probably one of the bigger drivers of HVAC cost in your household. When you have pets at home, your filters will be dealing with everything that is found in a normal household PLUS everything your furry friends will bring in. Eventually, what happens is your HVAC unit demands more money to put in the extra workload but the air is not cooler.

You may also have to change your filters based on the quality of the filter you buy. Just remember: the higher the quality, the less frequently you may need to replace air filters. And just like air purifiers, you should look for HEPA air filters as the gold standard.

Clean And Seal Air Ducts and Air Vents

Another favorite hiding place of pet hair and pollutants, your air ducts and air vents may require that you keep a close eye on the cleanliness and condition of your air ducts and air vents. Especially because particles trapped in the ducts and vents may have a drastic impact on the overall quality of the air you breathe throughout your house, making sure that everything is clean optimizes your air quality for the better. And especially when cleaning your air ducts, make sure to turn off the AC before you get cleaning.

Pet Proofing Your HVAC System

A final general note on proper HVAC maintenance with pets at home: you need to pet-proof your HVAC system. Even though you may have taught Fido that they need to take their bathroom business outside, they may include your outdoor condenser unit to be fair game. This is a concern as you don’t want your pet to ‘mark’ the condenser unit and then see your unit deteriorate. You can prevent this by…

Training Your Pet. When training your pet, make sure to show them what is and what is not fair game. Obviously, your HVAC system should be included in the section ‘Not Fair Game’.

Fence Off Your HVAC system. You could create a DIY fence around your HVAC system so that even if your pet forgets that they’re not allowed to mark their territory on the HVAC system, that they have no way in doing so regardless. We recommend at least a 3 to 4-foot clearance around the unit if you opt for the fence option.