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Understanding the MERV Ratings for Commercial Filters

If your business is involved in manufacturing, industrial or commercial projects, then you’re probably familiar with the term MERV. MERV or MERV ratings stands for “Minimum Efficiency Ratings Value.” It’s a standard measurement for residential and commercial filters so that no matter what brand you’re buying, you know the expected performance of the filter. Not all filters are created equal, and the MERV rating helps you understand the differences among various filters, and whether or not two filters made by different manufacturers will perform similarly.

MERV ratings are on a scale of 1 to 16. Filters with a MERV value of 1 to 4 capture things like pollen, dust, and carpet fibers that are airborne, but do little or nothing to filter out molds or bacteria. Busy commercial settings like shopping malls (typically MERV 10-11), public facilities (typically MERV 10-11), or hospitals (typically MERV 10-16, depending on the area of operation); these filters can remove thousands of particulates in thousands of commercial settings.

You shouldn’t choose a filter solely on its MERV rating, however. You have to take into account factors such as those we talked about in the industrial air filters article You may need to strike a happy medium between MERV rating, efficiency, capacity and resistance; you may need to forgo one or the other depending on the commercial application and its requirements.

Talk to Twin City Filter about finding commercial filters for your needs. With over 70 years of experience behind us, we can help you find the right filter for the task at hand. We serve customers coast to coast, and offer next-day delivery to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota. Twin City Filter may be reached at (612) 721-4000.

About Us

For over 70 years Twin City Filter has been a family business providing both filter service and filter sales. We began serving the Greater Twin Cities Metro Area and grew into a coast to coast, border to border business.

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We provide filters, custom filters and service to contractors, office complexes, condos, business parks, colleges, and other industrial, commercial and residential developments.