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Homeowners have a large selection of options for improving the smell of their environment. Candles, potpourri, air fresheners, and home solutions (like lemon and orange rinds over a stove) all provide positive results, but are often limited to one room or area of the home. Whole-home air fresheners offer a solution to create a more consistent smell in your home, but have been met with mixed opinions. Are they right for your home?

How Do They Work?

Whole-home air fresheners mainly come in one of two forms. The first is a scented air filter, which replaces your normal air filter and serves the same purpose with the added benefit of spreading its scent through your homes central air system. The second type of whole-home air freshener comes as a sheet you attach to your standard air filter. Both options are inexpensive, but have mixed user reviews.

Scented Air Filters

The scented air filters are a basic idea: As the air passes through your filter, make it smell better at the same time. However, there are a few issues with these filters in application. First, the selection of these filters is not as wide as standard filters. Air filter selection is very important to ensure that your home is both comfortable and healthy. By getting a scented filter, you may be sacrificing quality in terms of MERV ratings (the ability for filters to eliminate microscopic particles). If your home is zoned and uses multiple filters and/or an air purification system, then scented air filters may work. However, if your home only uses type of filter, scented air filters are not likely the best solution to keep your home air both fresh and safe to breath.

Attachable Sheets

The second type of whole-home air fresheners offers a large advantage over the scented filters: they work with any type of air filter. This means that you can attach these sheets to filters with the high or low MERV ratings, depending on the needs of your HVAC system. However, in application, these sheets have consistently gotten negative reviews. The reason is that in most cases, the scents that the sheets spread throughout your home do not last more than a day. For this reason, it is also not advisable to use this type of whole-home air freshener unless it is only needed for a short amount of time.

So What’s the Solution?

Even though these filters won’t work for most homes needs, there still are things you can do to give your whole home a pleasant smell. First, the most important and most obvious is to eliminate the unwanted odors in your home at their source. Second, think about the placement of your air freshening tools. If you light a candle, light it in a place where the scent will reach return vents. The scent will then be carried throughout your home. Another great way to introduce pleasant smells to your home is by having plants inside, especially mint. Just remember to plant in areas with a lot of morning sun.

Warner Service wants you to know that introducing nice smells to your home doesn’t have to mean sacrificing indoor air quality. For more advice about your personal HVAC setup and the right air-freshening solution for you, contact Warner Service today!