My brother called and asked for my help with his air conditioning unit.
He said he had an air filter caught in the air filter compartment, and he couldn’t get it out.
I jumped in the car and headed to his house. When I got there, he had a pair of vice grips trying to pull the air filter free. I couldn’t figure out how he got the air filter in there or how long it had been in there for it to be stuck. It took us almost fifteen minutes to get the air filter out without damaging the air conditioning unit. When I got a good look at the air filter, I had to ask. Why did he try to put a HEPA air filter in the AC unit when he knew it wouldn’t fit? He told me his wife had been yelling at him to use HEPA air filters because she had read they were safer than regular air filters. He bought just one HEPA air filter and tried to get into the AC unit. When it didn’t go right in, he shoved it in and then he couldn’t get it out. My brother and I were HVAC technicians, and we knew they did not build some AC units and furnaces to use HEPA air filters. I couldn’t believe he tried to use it, knowing it wouldn’t fit. I asked him how he was going to explain this to his wife, and he dropped his head in his hands. He asked me not to say anything to my wife or his. Hopefully, she would think he had the HEPA air filter in the AC unit, and she wouldn’t know the difference. I rolled my eyes and went back to my car.