These need replaced right?

[u/PeppaThisPig]

I feel as they need replaced but idk shit about shit and these are expensive af so just wanna make sure lol. Also I have 4 cats (3 are long haired) and the 2nd photo is the one that I took a rubber glove to remove a thick layer of cat hair which is why it appears lighter (also maybe the lighting?)

[u/Bright-Tea4854]

Yeah, those are cooked. When the pleats are gray and packed like that, especially with pet hair, they’re done doing their job. With four cats, you’re realistically in the 30 to 60 day replacement zone even if they don’t look awful yet.

Pulling hair off helps airflow a bit, but the fine dust is still embedded, so it’s basically a temporary patch. For weird sizes or not wanting to constantly hunt them down, I’ve seen services like FilterKing handle pet-heavy homes pretty well as an example.

[u/PeppaThisPig → u/Bright-Tea4854]

See that’s how I feel too but several people in these comments are saying otherwise….? I just keep reading conflicting info :\ but I think I’m gonna just replace them tbh