Clean air and clean water are crucial to your health.
There is maybe nothing on earth less sexy than an air filter â except for, maybe, a water filter. They sit there nestled in our appliances, collecting scuzz and dirt and âimpurities,â and we (I) only really think about them when theyâre so gross they canât do their jobs anymore. Thatâs no way to live, argues senior reporter Allie Volpe; in her latest piece for [Even Better](, Voxâs section for service journalism, she [makes the case for checking your filters](, like, right now, and for getting on a regular schedule when it comes to cleaning and swapping them out. It might feel like a small thing, but itâs a guaranteed way to make your home a little bit cleaner, your life a little bit healthier, and â perhaps most crucially â yourself a little bit smugger. â[Alanna Okun]( senior editor It's probably time to clean your filters [illustration of person vaccumming home]( Denis Novikov/Getty Images John Ogden-McKee, a self-described âextremely clean person,â has a penchant for filtration. In his home in Dallas, Ogden-McKee, 39, uses five air purifiers with built-in HEPA (short for high-efficiency particulate air) filters â one in every room but the kitchen â drinks water from a filtered container, and fills his drinking glasses with cubes created in an ice maker with a filtration component. He replaces the MERV 13 filter in the air conditioner on the first of every month; as soon as the âchange filterâ light on the other devices illuminates, he swaps out the used filter for a new one. âWe just always have extra,â he says of his stash of assorted filters, which he keeps stored in a closet. âI canât stand any chaos.â Recently, Ogden-McKee discovered a crack in his highly filtered facade. While cleaning the water fountain for his kittens, Push Pin and Paperclip, Ogden-McKee accidentally discovered the device had a filter â one with four monthsâ worth of cat water grime. âIt was almost like this horror that was in my house that I had no idea about,â Ogden-McKee says. Over the course of a day, youâre likely to encounter any number of filters: furnace/air conditioning filters (theyâre the same filter if your home has central AC), vacuum filters, water filters, car cabin air filters, humidifier filters, dishwasher filters, cat fountain filters. The pandemic helped raise the status of air filters as public health officials touted the benefits of ventilation and air purifiers in clearing SARS-CoV-2 in the air. [Designed to remove contaminants like dust, pet hair, and chemicals from your air or water, filters need to be cleaned or replaced regularly or the devices they aid wonât function as necessary.]( Even more crucially, air filters help prevent all the gunk in the air in the home from getting into your body. âIndoor air can be more polluted than air outside,â says Kelsey Hei, a 3M Filtrete Brand application engineer. âWith our homes being built more airtight, there isnât as much air circulation to capture and remove particles from your homeâs air without the help of heating and cooling systems or air purifiers, aside from opening windows and doors.â However, most people donât regularly swap out or clean filters on their appliances, says Kelly Winslow, the director of engineering at EnviroHome, which specializes in environmental engineering and indoor air quality. âPeople abuse filters,â Winslow says, âbecause they just put it in, leave them in, and think the job is done. A filter is a temporary solution.â [Read the full story »]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( TikTok is great for spreading political messages â and conspiracy theories Democrats are trying to win TikTok with facts and nuance. Its algorithm rewards the opposite. [Read the full story »]( You donât need to look perfect to work out Donât focus on aesthetics â fitness is a feel-good ritual. [Read the full story »]( More good stuff to read today - [Is a payment plan for that new jacket a good idea?]( - [How Beyoncé turned herself into a pop god](
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