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From today's post

The three filters from today's post.

Most filters age out 2 to 3× faster than people realize. These are the three I track in my own home — HVAC, air purifier, fridge water.

HVAC
Honeywell MERV 11 Pleated HVAC Filter
Every 90 days. Sooner with pets or wildfire smoke.

Captures dust, pollen, and most allergens. Good middle ground between basic fiberglass and high-MERV filters that strain your HVAC system. ~$15 for a 2-pack. Pick the size that matches what's printed on your current filter (16x20x1, 20x25x1, etc.).

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Air Purifier
Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Replacement Filter Pack
Every 6 months.

HEPA + activated carbon. Replacement for the Coway AP-1512HH Mighty air purifier — one of the most common consumer air purifiers, especially in apartments. ~$30 for a full filter pack. Comes with both the HEPA filter and the carbon pre-filter.

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Fridge Water
Whirlpool EveryDrop EDR1RXD1 Fridge Water Filter
Every 6 months. The light on your fridge nags you.

The most common fridge water filter — fits Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, and JennAir side-by-side fridges that take the EDR1RXD1 / Filter 1 cartridge. Certified to reduce lead, chlorine taste, and most common contaminants. ~$50 for a single cartridge.

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Why filters age out fast

Filter lifespan is rated against the cleanest possible air — light residential use in a low-pollution environment. Add a pet, a smoker, wildfire smoke, a baby crawling on the floor, or a household that opens the windows in pollen season, and the cadence shortens. Manufacturer-recommended timing is the floor, not the ceiling. If you can see grey on a white filter, it's been due for a while.

An easier way to remember

Marking your calendar works. But filters live on a quiet cycle that doesn't sync with any other rhythm in your life. Canary tracks all of these for you — you scan or add a filter once, set the cadence, and the app sends a quiet reminder when it's due. No alarm, no nagging.

The honest tradeoff: Filters are boring. You buy them, you put them in, you forget about them, you buy them again. None of this is glamorous. But running a clogged HVAC filter strains your system, an old fridge water filter starts pushing contaminants back through, and an aging air purifier filter does almost nothing. The math on staying current is genuinely about ~$100 a year saved on appliance lifespan and cleaner air. Worth it.

Want Canary to track this for you?

Canary scans the products and appliances in your home, remembers what's in each one, and quietly reminds you when filters and supplies are due. Calm, no alarms, free to start.

Try Canary →

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