Cabin air filters improve the health of drivers by trapping contaminants, such as dust and pollen, providing clean cabin air to you and all those who ride in your car. Air cabin filters also help keep the HVAC working properly to both stop odors and to keep the air pumping freely and quickly through your heater and air conditioner. All of this is expected from an air filter, but things get better: enter activated charcoal.
Advantages of Activated Charcoal Cabin Air Filters
Particulate filters are very successful at cleaning cabin air, but activated charcoal filters take things to the next level. Not only do they trap dust and debris but they also stop odors and fumes--all of those harmful things that are small enough to pass through a particulate filter but which are so very bad for your lungs.
What is activated charcoal? It’s different from what you’d have in a barbeque pit. It’s treated with heat and chemicals (activated) to allow for gasses to be absorbed into the charcoal surface. As charcoal is very porous, it can absorb a lot.
And we’re talking more than just bad odors coming through the filter. Activated charcoal absorbs carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide, which are both pumping out of the exhaust pipe of the car in front of you, and very harmful.
Some activated charcoal filters can even have an anti-bacterial coating, which prevents harmful germs from entering the cabin.
Activated Charcoal Filter Maintenance
Because it’s doing more work and absorbing more bad things, you’ll want to change your charcoal car cabin air filter more often than a standard particulate car cabin air filter. An activated charcoal cabin air filter should be changed every year, or every 15,000 miles. (Particulate air cabin filters can be changed every 30,000 miles, because they’re primarily picking up dust and debris, not chemicals and gasses.)
Like all cabin air filters for cars, activated charcoal filters are very easy to replace and can be done in less than ten minutes in most cases. In most vehicles, the cabin air filter is positioned behind the glove box. Simply push the glove box tabs inward (check your owners’ manual if you have questions) and you’ll be able to access the panel in which your air filter fits. A few more tabs pushed out of the way and you’ll have the cabin air filter removed and replaced in moments. (Some vehicles have the car cabin air filter located at the base of the windshield cowl area. In this case a plastic panel must be removed to access and replace the cabin filter.)
There’s no difference in installing an activated charcoal filter than in installing a regular cabin air filter--they’re the same size and both fit snugly into the same spot.
The activated charcoal filter does cost a little more, because it’s doing more work, but if you’re spending much time in traffic and your car vent is sucking up much pollution from the roadway, your lungs are going to thank you for the extra protection.
Breathe Easy with the Best
An activated charcoal car cabin air filter’s performance depends on the quality of the filter. Pureflow air cabin filters trap up to 99% of airborne contaminants. But it’s worth it for the peace of mind you’ll get knowing all the things that you won’t be breathing in. Equip your home-on-wheels with the best--a high-quality activated charcoal cabin air filter from Pureflow.
Keep reading the other articles in our blog to stay up to date with the latest of filtering technology.
