AprilAire 5000 Air Cleaner Repair Help

Hi, I'm Jay, and this is the AprilAire 5000 air cleaner.

This one has a problem. You'll notice that the front on this particular model, there's a little blue light that's supposed to be right here. Some of the older models have a little green light that's supposed to be around here, now that indicator light should be lit, when the air cleaner is turned on, and plugged in. so, first thing you want to do is make sure the switch is turned on, go to the plug, unplug it, then plug something else into that outlet. That exact outlet. Just to make sure that outlet is live, so you can plug a radio or a lamp into it, and if it comes on OK, you've confirmed that there is power coming to that outlet. Then you can plug the air cleaner back in, turn the switch on, wait a couple of minutes, nothing happens, no lights lit, ok there's a problem. Now the problem could be the door, or more than likely, the problem is the air filter is shorted out and needs to be replaced, or the filter frame has problems. So, what we're going to do is figure out what's wrong with this one. So we're going to turn this off, unplug it. Now that it's unplugged, and turned off, we're going to take the door off, and slide the filter out. Ok, so we've removed the filter, we'll set this filter and filter frame on the side. Now we're going to put the door back on, turn the switch on, and plug it back in. Ok, the air cleaner is plugged back in, the switch is on, and the light is lit. A-HA. So, this door seems to be working properly, but it wasn't working properly with this filter and filter frame installed. So, first thing we're going to do with this filter frame is replace the filter, and in the process of replacing the filter we're going to wipe everything up, all the dust and the dirt off of this thing. Put a new filter in it, put it all back together, and put it in there.

Alright, we're going to set it down with the pleat spacers up. There's little clips here, we're going to push these buttons in, and hinge the doors down. There's two tabs on each door. Ok. Now, next thing we want to do is remove the pleat spacers. These are a little bit tricky, but basically what you do is twist the edge right here and it comes out. So, we're going to twist each one, and then move the other side. Ok, all the pleat spacers are out. Now there is a plastic strip here that we're just going to lift up, and it has little snaps on it. Same on the other side. Alright, the filter itself is hung on two little hooks, there's one here, one here, one here, and one here. Two on each side. We'll set it off to the side. Set it into place. And if you look real close you'll see these little tabs here stick up, and on the cardboard edge of the filter there's a little slot here. for those four tabs. So we're going to slide that on there. Ok, so now we have all 4 on, and we're going to center this filter, that's about right. And we're going to snap this back down. Ok, that's in place. And we'll center the filter. Snap this back down. Ok, now, take out the ends, and they snap in. Two snaps on each side. There's two. And there's the other two. Ok, now the tricky part. Time to reinstall the pleat spacers. The pleat spacers, what you want to do is start with just one, in the center. You want to get one of these fingers, in between each of the pleats. So we're going to start here. I like to start on like an angle, and work my way in. So we're going to do one at a time here. Just so we can get these properly sorted. It's a little tricky the first time you do this. Ok, so there we go. So we have, one finger in between each pleat. So we're going to just kind of even out the filter a little bit. We're going to set this off to the side here. Now we didn't snap that in yet, we're going to take another one, and we're going to go right next to it, since we've taken the effort to get the spacing right, we're going to get that one right next to it. Bring it over here. Again just drop this one in right next to it. Since it's already lined up nice and pretty. There we go, now. Next thing we have to do is snap them in place. Just put them down gently and you'll hear a snapping sound. And the other side. There we go, now, everything is pretty good. Ok so now we're going to flip this thing over. Alright. The control electrodes are right here, we'll slide this off, and set it here. We'll move this to the side. Ok. The control electrode can either be vacuumed, with a brush head on a vacuum cleaner, or wiped down. We're going to wipe this one off. Ok. This one is rather clean because it's our demo unit. Ok, we'll set this on the side. Now, this is the ionizing wire frame. You're going to want to take a damp rag, and carefully wipe the dust from this assembly. You want to be careful, there are little piano like wires, these are called ionizing wires. They look like piano strings. They are very fine, and brittle so you don't want to push down on them, you'll break them. They are replaceable of course, but you want to try not to damage them while you're in here. Now you're going to wipe this down. Alright that's good. Now we're going to reinstall this one. Alright now when it gets to here it has to make contact with this metal piece. this is a ground clip so we want to push down on it carefully.

Alright, so now that we have a nice clean filter in here, and we've cleaned it up, we're going to put this back in. So, we'll turn off the door. Slide this back in. Aha. Ok, now with a new filter, and we've cleaned the filter frame, the light is back on. So what the problem was with this thing was a shorted out filter. Everything is working great. Now, if we put this back in here and the light still did not come on, but it came on with the filter out. Then there is still a problem, and the problem would have to be with the brand new filter, which is highly unlikely, or the filter frame has an issue. If that's the case, you'll want to turn the power off to your air cleaner, pull the frame back out, and look real closely at all of the electrical connections on it, and find out if they're is something happening where the ionizing wires are being shorted out. Now, if no matter what you do the light does not come on, and you know you have a live outlet, the filter is sitting here on the side, and the light just does not come on, 99 times out of 100, there is a problem with this door. And what you can do is either buy a new door, or we have a diagnostic testing service, where you can ship us a door, and we will bench test the door for you. to determine if it is good or bad. And that's it, that's how you diagnose an AprilAire 5000.

Thank you for watching, for this and other products, visit us at AirQualityParts.com

Hi, I'm Jay, and this is the AprilAire 501 Pleated Filter Media, designed for the model 5000 electronic air cleaner.

Detailed installation instructions are located on the back of the box. This filter is installed inside the plastic housing, within the air cleaner. The media cleans the air as it passes through the air cleaner. Removing the harmful particles that circulate through your home. New filter media is crucial for maintaining air quality and reducing the negative effects of allergens, such as pollen, dust, and pet dander. The filter media is not cleanable and must be replaced a minimum of twice per year. Once in the heating season, and again in the cooling season. If your home only has heating, the filter must be replaced annually. Please not, if you have shedding pets, or live in a dusty environment, you will need to replace the filter media more often. Failure to replace your filter can result in reduced heating and cooling efficiency, high energy bills. Expensive repairs, or total equipment failure.

Replacement is simple, here's how.

This is the AprilAire 5000 Air cleaner, and we're going to change the air filter in it. First thing you want to do, is make sure the power is turned off to everything. Now let's take the door off. This happens to be a newer model. So the door comes off easily. Some of the older models are hinged to the side, and they have little locking pins on them. This one, again, is a newer model, and clips on the top. so, we'll set this off to the side, now we're going to slide off the filter frame.

Ok, we're going to set it down with the pleat spacers up. There's little clips here, we're going to push these buttons in, and hinge the doors down. There's two tabs on each door. Ok, now, next thing we want to do is remove the pleat spacers. These are a little bit tricky. But basically you twist the edge right here, and it comes up. So, we're going to twist each one, then move the other side. Ok, there's one out. Ok, all the pleat spacers are out.

Ok, there's a plastic strip here and we're just going to lift it up. It has little snaps on it. We'll do the other side. Alright, now the filter itself is hung on two little hooks, there's one here and one here. Two on each side. Ok, now we have our old air filter out, we're going to set it off to the side. Ok, here's the new filter. Let's set it in place. And, if you look real close you'll see these little tabs here, they stick up and on the cardboard edge of the filter, there's a little slot here so there's 4 of those and 4 tabs so we're going to slide that on there. Ok, so now we have all four on, and we're going to center this filter, that's about right, and we're going to snap this back down. Ok, that's in place, we're going to center the filter, snap this back down, ok.

Now, take out the ends, and they snap in. Two snaps on each side. There's two, and there's the other two. Ok. Now the tricky part. Time to reinstall the pleat spacers. The pleat spacers... what you want to do is start with just one in the center. You want to get one of these fingers in between each of the pleats. So we're going to start here. I like to start like, at an angle, and work my way in. So we're going to do one at a time here. Just so we can get these properly sorted. It's a little tricky the first time you do this. Ok, so there we go. So we have one finger in between each pleat. So we're going to just even out the filters a little bit. We're going to set this off to the side here. Now we didn't snap that in yet, we're going to take another one and we're going to go right next to it and we've taken the effort to get the spacing right, we're going to slide that one next to it, bring it up over here. Again just drop that one in right next to it. Since it's already lined up nice and pretty. Ok. There we go.

Now. Next thing you need to do is snap them into place. Just push them down gently, and you'll hear them make a snap sound. And the other side. There we go. Now, ok everything is pretty good. Now if you have an occasion where you accidentally, in the process of popping one of these out, snap the ends off, you can buy replacement pleat spacers. If you open yours up and find that your pleat spacers have ends broken on some of them. That's because you waited too long to change your filter, the filter got plugged, and the furnace was drawing against this filter so the air could not get through it so it popped the pleat spacer. It'll snap the end right off if you wait too long. This one doesn't have that problem, so all these pleat spacers are in good shape. Ok, so now we're going to flip this thing over.

Alright the control electrodes are right here, we're going to slide this off, and we'll just set this here. And move this to the side. Ok, the control electrode can either be vacuumed with a brush head on a vacuum cleaner, or wiped down. We're going to wipe this one off. This one is rather clean because it's our demo unit. Ok, we'll set this on the side. Now, this is the ionizing wire frame. You're going to want to take a damp rag, and carefully wipe the dust from this assembly. You want to be careful, there are little piano like wires, these are called ionizing wires. They look like piano strings. They are very fine, and brittle so you don't want to push down on them, you'll break them. They are replaceable of course, but you want to try not to damage them while you're in here. Now you're going to wipe this down. Alright that's good. Now we're going to reinstall this one. Alright now when it gets to here it has to make contact with this metal piece. this is a ground clip so we want to push down on it carefully. There we go.

Now it's back in place. Now all we have to do is reinstall it. Now, on this furnace set up, you'll see the air cleaner is here, the furnace is here, the air is coming from your home, down here, makes a turn, goes through the air cleaner, into the furnace to get heated or cooled, and blown back into your home. So the direction of air flow is this way, ok, headed that way. The control electrode is the first thing the air goes through when it's coming through the air cleaner. It goes through the control electrode, then through the ionizing frame, then into the filter media, now the air is clean, and it will leave the air cleaner and go into the furnace. so, that's it. Now you'll notice a little arrow here that says air flow, again, it's headed that way. So, this is in. Let's put the door back on, and then we'll turn the power on, turn the furnace back on and check it. If it's working properly, this particular model, has a light behind here. Some of the older models have a little green light on them. When it's working properly, the green light, or blue light in this case, will be lit when the furnace blower is on, the light will stay on. If your light does not come on, or the light is blinking, there is a problem with your air cleaner.

Thank you for watching, for this and other products, visit us at AirQualityParts.com

Hi, I'm Jay, and this is our demo unit. We often get questions asking what the individual components are, so we thought we'd talk about that today. So, on this demo unit, this is the return air duct work, so this would be the duct work that brings the air from your home into the furnace to get heated or cooled. So, on the side here we happened to have a return air grill, like you typically find on the wall or ceiling of a home. The air would come down here, through the return air grill, down this duct.

This happens to be a humidistat. This can be mounted on the return air duct, which is the most common location you'll find these humidistats. This one is a digital one, there are mechanical ones as well. They are, again, most often mounted on the return air duct. Although sometimes they can be mounted, certain models at least, inside the home. And when they're done that way, they are often very closely mounted to the thermostat. so, like within a foot or two of the thermostat.

So anyways the air from your home would be sucked into the return air grill, come down this duct, go this way, turn, go through the air cleaner, into the furnace, there's a blower down here in this furnace, inside here is the heating chamber, so it goes through the heat exchanger, the air goes up through the heat exchanger, this happens to be a cooling coil, so if you have air conditioning, you'll have one of these directly above your furnace. So, inside of this is a radiator looking device, so the air that goes through this would be cooled in the summertime, and it goes up into the supply plenum, and gets discharged into your home. So, in the wintertime, the supply plenum would be hot air into this, and it would blow up into the duct work, and come out of the registers in your house.

This is the flu pipe, for the furnace, we don't happen to have a gas line attached to this demo unit, but if we did, the gas would go up through this and outside the home.

The air cleaner here, this happens to be the AprilAire 5000 air cleaner, and if you look closely at the front, you'll see it mentions the model number here, so the air comes from your home, through the return air grill, down the return air duct, happens to pass the humidistat, goes down, goes through the air cleaner, gets cleaned, goes into the furnace, gets heated in the wintertime, or, cooled in the summertime, comes out into the supply plenum, and gets blown back into your home.

Our demo unit has a humidifier, this is a 600 model AprilAire, mounted on the side of it, you'll see that there's a model number here, and there's also a sticker over here on the side. That gives you the model and serial number. This one being a 600, it's a bypass style humidifier. So there's a 6 inch around bypass duct that's attached here, it comes around, and it's attached to the return air duct work, which we discussed earlier. There is also a drain line on this humidifier, so whenever the humidifier is running, water will trickle down the drain. Here's the water line. And this is the low voltage control wiring, for the humidifier. That drain comes down here, then gets attached to the air conditioner drain here. They go down, this particular model happens to be set up with a condensate pump, for our demonstration room here.

This is the cooling coil, supply plenum, so in the wintertime, the furnace would heat the air, it would then blow it through the cooling coil which would not be functional in the winter time, the air would then go into the supply plenum here, go up, and then come out and get blown into your home.

Thank you for watching, for this and other products, visit us at AirQualityParts.com