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THE RV AC FILTER REPLACEMENT THAT WILL NIP ENVIRONMENTAL ALLERGIES IN THE BUD…

…BEFORE THE SNIFFLES RUIN YOUR ROAD TRIP

Big Bend National Park was everything Eddie Rice pictured — and then more. Every sunset rivaled the next — a palette of watercolors bleeding together above the craggy Texas horizon. Roadrunners skittered across the road at random, and even in the arid climate, patches of waxy vegetation and thorny shrubs dotted the land; their flowering plants emitting a foreign fragrance.

And that’s where the “more” came in.

Only days into the Texas stretch of their four-month RV trip, Eddie’s wife, Rose, became unexpectedly sick. With each passing day of Big Bend fresh air, the illness grew until Rose finally paid a visit to a nearby doctor.

The diagnosis? Environmental allergies. According to the Texas doc, it’s an all-too-common condition that can plague travelers, especially when exposed to different regions. Likewise, an environmental allergy is simply the body’s adverse immune response to surroundings that are typically otherwise harmless.

In the end, the doctor suggested a simple fix — a good air filter for the Rice’s RV.

And sure enough, when Eddie checked the RV’s flimsy foam AC filter, it was filthy with grime, dust, dirt, and debris.

But finding the fix — a new and less flimsy filter — wasn’t that simple.

Eddie scoured Texas RV stores, only to be directed to the nearest Home Depot with the advice to cut a filter down to size, which only led to more problems — the build-up of mold in the paper filter.

“It turns out home filters aren’t designed for RVs, especially when all of that filter gunk gets locked up and stored away weeks at a time,” Eddie explains. “And we all know how hot a closed-up RV can get. In 200-degree conditions, mold loves to grow.”

With zero suitable RV AC air filter replacements for allergies to be found, Eddie took matters into his own hands. In 2014, the former engineer put his retired skills (and the skills of a friend) to work, and that’s when RV Air was born.

Now, four years and four designs later, Eddie’s patent-pending air filter is in more than 800 Walmart stores, and recently, RV Air landed a spot on the shelves of Camping World stores throughout the United States. His filters are also available online at Amazon.com and RVAir.com.

These filters far surpass the typical stock filter found in your RV’s AC. Unlike these standard filters that utilize a thin black polypropylene filter, similar to the filter found on a hairdryer, the RV Air filter features 40 layers of unwoven polyester, each sprayed with an anti-microbial tackifier to capture particles.

The result? An RV AC filter that delivers up to a MERV 6 rating (depending on the generation of filter) with the ability to block particles as small as 3-10 microns (particles invisible to the naked eye), including pollen, dust, mold spores, pet dander, and other allergens. (Simply put, less contaminants will pass through a filter with a higher MERV rating.)

And while a MERV rating can range from 1-16, super high ratings can restrict airflow, which in turn can be taxing on the air conditioner, which is why Eddie has always strived for a MERV 6 rating.)

In the end, it’s a number that helps Eddie and his wife breathe easier as they travel the country, and they’re ecstatic it’s something they can share with other RVers.

“Allergies can definitely take the fun out of camping. Kids and pets are notorious for bringing the outside in, and with retirees who full-time RV, there’s the risk of pneumonia, so we take great pride knowing we have helped hundreds of RVers breathe a little easier,” Eddie says. “It’s amazing what a good filter can do.”