Hey Folks,
I usually get a new FRAM Fresh Breeze cabin air filter for my car every year or two when I can remember to change it. Mostly because it's the only one I can commonly find here at Canadian Tire or Walmart. (We just don't get all the selection in products here in Canada that you do in the United States.)
I recently changed it out again and I noticed that it looked quite a bit different than all the times before. The older one was made in China (or Thailand, I can't remember exactly and I threw it out without taking a picture, sorry). The newer one actually said Made in the USA, which I thought was nice, and surprising, but it seemed to be of much lower quality.
Firstly, you could barely even read the side-markings on the new one, the printing was so bad (dot matrix!), and the the airflow direction arrow was so small and faded you couldn't even make out the proper direction.
There was also a soft grey foam on one edge that wasn't there on the old one, which I didn't know if it was supposed to go inside or door side.
So given the above two points, I don't actually know if I've installed it properly or possibly backwards and/or upside down.
The number of pleats went down from 26 to 23 for my model number.
The amount of carbon seemed much less, and the filter media appeared to be thinner as well.
The sides were not flush with each other at the corners, and it seemed a little bit too large to shove in the hole gracefully without bending the whole thing out of shape.
Overall, the impression I got was that it appeared to be much more cheaply made than than before (while also being a bit more expensive than before).
Of course, I say appearance because I don't really know if the performance is better or worse.
Has anyone else noticed this about the FRAM Fresh Breeze cabin air filters they have purchased recently?
P.S. So sorry I didn't grab any pictures.
I usually get a new FRAM Fresh Breeze cabin air filter for my car every year or two when I can remember to change it. Mostly because it's the only one I can commonly find here at Canadian Tire or Walmart. (We just don't get all the selection in products here in Canada that you do in the United States.)
I recently changed it out again and I noticed that it looked quite a bit different than all the times before. The older one was made in China (or Thailand, I can't remember exactly and I threw it out without taking a picture, sorry). The newer one actually said Made in the USA, which I thought was nice, and surprising, but it seemed to be of much lower quality.
Firstly, you could barely even read the side-markings on the new one, the printing was so bad (dot matrix!), and the the airflow direction arrow was so small and faded you couldn't even make out the proper direction.
There was also a soft grey foam on one edge that wasn't there on the old one, which I didn't know if it was supposed to go inside or door side.
So given the above two points, I don't actually know if I've installed it properly or possibly backwards and/or upside down.
The number of pleats went down from 26 to 23 for my model number.
The amount of carbon seemed much less, and the filter media appeared to be thinner as well.
The sides were not flush with each other at the corners, and it seemed a little bit too large to shove in the hole gracefully without bending the whole thing out of shape.
Overall, the impression I got was that it appeared to be much more cheaply made than than before (while also being a bit more expensive than before).
Of course, I say appearance because I don't really know if the performance is better or worse.
Has anyone else noticed this about the FRAM Fresh Breeze cabin air filters they have purchased recently?
P.S. So sorry I didn't grab any pictures.
