Need to clean your cabin air circulation filter?

How often should you clean it?

 

You can clean the filter any time by giving it a quick vacuum. I think the maintenance schedule calls for replacement at 15K miles, but I don't have the booklet in front of me.

Jack, you can set a reminder from the Maintenance screen on the MFD as a personal reminder, by miles or time.

 

I never understood the need for a cabin air filter. It seems like it just creates one more maintenance expense.

Most of the time I'm driving with my windows rolled down. I'm assuming that since the car doesn't have gigantic cabin air filters that cover all of the windows, I must be getting a real bad dose of open air.

 

You'll be amazed and perhaps disgusted if you clean it. Bugs and pollen seem to make up most of the filth, but there's a good bit of black from exhaust on mine too. And if you didn't have the filter, all that rich organic mulch would be in the bottom of your air conditioner, feeding all sorts of mold and mildew.

I really like having a cabin air filter. It's easy to clean and replace in the Prius, too. And you don't have to buy filter media from the Toyota dealer. No weird shape, just a square, easily cut from bulk filter media.

 

keeps bugs and diesel soot from coating the fins in the heater core and A/C evaporator. The thicker the coating on these components the less efficient they become and also become a breading ground for mold and mildew.

 

how was that for 1 minute of time. Spray the filter media with Fantastic or some other cleaner and rinse in hot water let dry and spray with Lysol and reinstall.

 

my husband took it out and cleaned it with an airhose. easy.

 

that just gets rid of the bugs and leaves but leaves the oily soot still there and that's what the washing gets rid of. The Lysol to kill bacteria. I blow it dry with compressed air after I wash it.

 

good point about the oily stuff.

however, i'm not too worked up about the bacteria. (and yes. i have taken microbiology classes.)

what :blink: you think they're going to do much to me while sitting on an air filter?

and heck, being outside, you'd breathe them in anyway. i have a good relationship with my immune system. i trust it

 

so you like mould spores living in the moist enviroment of your heater/cooling system. Me not.

 

we all breathe that stuff in anyways walking to the car, and even between the car and the building we work in... and between the car and the grocery store.

science has taught me to not be paranoid... which almost seems backwards. i guess it's hard to explain.

my last car had no such thing as a cabin air filter and i'm still alive and kicking.

 

B)

 

I don't know much about microbiology but I believe if we get too clean our immune system gets lazy. I too didn't ever have a filter system in my other cars and never got sick from it. In fact I've only been sick about 3 times in the last 5 years. Growing up, my parents kept the house so spotless and I would be sick at least once a year.

I do like that the filter helps block exhaust soot and I have an Ionic Breeze filter mostly for the smell. I will probably wash the filter every 3 months or so but I'm not going to loose sleep over it.

 

the most common form of mold in B.C. is Stachybotrys and it has been found in car and truck A/C units because of condensation in the heater housing and gets blown thru out the vehicle. This is a major problem here in poorly constructed hi-rise appartment buildings. But is so common that it is every where now. I worked in the scrap car industry for 6 years and if you could see what I've seen in heater housings you would probably wear a particle mask when you drive. Used to take out all the heater cores to salvage the lead solder that holds them together. They get bundled up in huge blocks and put in a furnace and then rotated to allow all the lead to run out. Most times the copper is thrown out as it's tinned with the lead and worthless in the metal markets. Mold isn't good for people and especially those with asthma. But enjoy your mold spores but I'm not.

 

frank, i'm not criticizing you by any means. i'm just saying i personally won't be going through all that effort to keep my air filter clean...

thing about mold spores is, they can cause allergies and exacerbate already-existing hypersensitivities (asthma) but it's not like they can grow in the body. i'm not that worried, really.