cabin airYour car’s cabin air filters play a significant role in making the internal environment of your car’s cabin safe for you and the passengers. With winter around the corner, many will have to rely on the heating of the car. This is why it is important to bring your vehicle in to be inspected.

Relying on the car’s internal cabin air system also means that you will be relying on the car’s cabin air filters to work efficiently. Thanks to the car’s cabin air filters, passengers inside the car can drive around in their safe bubble, without having to worry about contaminants and pollutants that infest the outside air. Below, the article will discuss how the modern cabin air filters became an integral part of automobiles by diving into their history.

History of Cabin Air Filters

Over the years, HVAC systems have undergone drastic changes. The basic concept of a cabin air filter came about first in the 1950s. Hans Freudenberg, who was an engineer noticed that his clothes were becoming very dirty when driving the car. When he found out that this was because of the dirty air coming into the car from outside, he thought of a solution of putting a non moving piece of fabric in front of the air vents to prevent this. This led to the creation of the very first automotive air filter.

It wasn’t until 1989 that a vehicle manufacturer incorporated this idea into their production line of vehicles. The 1989 Mercedes SL roadster was the first vehicle that came standard. This was equipped with an internal cabin air filter. After that, other famous car companies followed suit by introducing their own line with optional air filter integrations.

The first time a mass market car adopted the air filter as standard was the 1990 Oppel Astra. Nonetheless, this did not make the news, and very few people paid much attention to it. This was because air quality was not of the utmost importance in those times.

This is why you could find many more restaurants, and airplane cabins that allowed smoking. Throughout the 90s, cabin air filters started gradually becoming common. Some cars came with a compartment for an air filter inside the car, but the air filter was not installed from the factory. This is why in some 90s cars, when you check for a filter you will find that the place for it is empty.

Modern Day Air Filters

Car manufacturers today, have start developing more advanced air filtration systems, because the growing concerns of worsening air quality, and the rising carbon emissions of the environment. These systems advanced and help eradicate pollutants with efficiency. As you can see, cabin air filters have come a long way. At first, they were not as important, but the growing concerns over the increasing carbon emissions have made them a necessity.

If you happen to live at a location where the outside temperature is not the best, or you happen to be allergic to some sort of microbes, then you should definitely take a good look at your vehicle’s cabin air filters. Inspect them and check whether they have lived past their lifetime and be quick to replace them.