Aprilaire 1213 Media Upgrade Kit for Model 2120 and Model 2200 Air Cleaner

I recently moved into a house with the old style Aprilaire 2200 air cleaner. Much to my shock, I found the previous owner hadn’t replaced the filter in 5 years. Upon further inspection, I found that nearly all the combs in the old unit were broken. As such, I was faced with a choice — buy new filter media and new combs or try out this upgrade item. As such, I decided on this item.

The first thing I noticed was that it was packed quite well. If you’ve got a newer 2200 than I do, or a newer 2120, make sure not to discard the piece of Styrofoam included with the upgrade kit — it needs to be placed in the door. However, with the old style unit, there is no need. The kit itself went together very easily — no tools are necessary, and it snaps into place quite well. It seems very well built, though the edges are a bit sharp on the frame.

Installation is easy enough — once you’ve assembled the frame, simply remove the old filter (and the plastic box that contains it), and slide this on the same rail that the old one rode on. Bend the appropriate tabs to lock it into place (the older units and newer units use different ones), and you’re done. The only thing you need to do after that is expand the new filter media and slide it into place, then replace the door.

The media itself is rather different than that for the original 2200. It seems like a higher quality item at first glance. It certainly is easier to install than the other type — those combs are such a pain. The only thing to watch out for, is that the media itself is a bit tricky to slip into place — you can miss the rails it goes onto if you’re not careful. However, it’s miles better than the old one — simply expand, and slide it in. The new filter media is not as wide as the older one, but appears to work just fine.

I can’t speak to the airflow this sort provides compared to the older type of media, as the filter it replaced was really, really, really clogged. However, it doesn’t seem to have caused any problems on this end — the air flow is certainly better than it was with the clogged filter. If I were to go by appearance alone, I’d say that this probably will be a greater obstruction than the original spec, but not to such a degree that it’ll cause a problem.

Pros: Easy install, easier to replace new type of filter than the original, decent price, no annoying combs, simple to put together, greater filtration ability, sticker included with new filter part number and date of install line.

Cons: May be a bit more restrictive than the original, easy to cut yourself on the metal frame while assembling it.

All in all? Great item. I’m quite happy with my purchase.

Works for 2200 Space-Gard and Aprilaire newer than 1985 mounted either vertically or horizontally.
Older 2200s with fiberglass mat on door back do not use include styrofoam spacer.
Metal frame assembly and installation is nearly idiot-proof,
media installation is far less tedious than before,
but aligning plastic grooves on bottom of media with frame metal must be done blind,
needs feeling about with fingers.
New media is thicker, with fewer and shallower pleats,
so must have considerably less surface area and higher resistance;
HVAC systems which were marginal with a single 2200 may be problematic for this upgrade
without installing a second 2200 in parallel (e.g. feeding into both sides of up-flow air mover).

As a 65 year old grandmother, I had no problem installing the upgrade for the Aprilaire.Make sure you don’t discard the flat, rectangular piece of styrofoam that lines the door. It comes packaged in the bottom of the box but could be mistaken for packing material.

This worked perfectly with my old style Aprilaire 2200. This is a massive improvement over the filter combs required by the old style filters. Took minutes to install and will save a ton of time going foward when replacing filters.

Took less than 10 minutes to put the frame together. My 17 year old grandson installed the frame and filter. The filter was a little difficult to get on the bottom track but, patience won out. The instructions were truly written for dummies. Installed, up and running in less than 30 minutes.Aprilaire 1213 Media Upgrade Kit for Model 2120 and Model 2200 Air Cleaner At last I can throw the old pleat separators in the trash. Good product, great price.

This product will be a time saver in the future. Previous replacement filters based on the plastic comb separator were very time consuming during installation. This entire configuration was installed in less time than the old models. The filters also look to be better quality

Relatively easy to put metal frame together, needed some tapping from a rubber mallet. When inserting in cleaner housing , needed alternate tapping from rubber mallet top and bottom so it would slide all the way back. Insertion of #213 media onto rails was tricky,top and bottom hard to align at the same time to slide in properly, but it finally went in.
I’m happy with it and expect to get 2 years out of the filter before changing the media.

I am so glad I found this! I recently purchased an older house, which had the old-style Aprilaire Model 2200 filter in the air cleaner. I was mortified when I slid that big old plastic box out, and found not only a filthy filter that hadn’t been cleaned for two years, but an incredibly complex task to hook that old filter in there, and thread the pleats through those 6 plastic comb-type things!

I was dreading replacing that filter, when I found this upgrade on Amazon. I also searched for this filter name and upgrade kit on YouTube, and found a very helpful 2 minute video on how to install this.

Let me say, it was just as easy as it showed in the YouTube video. The metal frame snaps together in about 5 minutes, and slips right into your air cleaner housing between the intake duct and the furnace. The actual filter element slips right onto guide tracks that are built into that metal frame.

All in all, it took me about 15 minutes to get rid of that absurb old Aprilaire 2200 plastic box and comb doo-hickeys, and install an easy-to-change, modern filter and housing.

I highly recommend this product if you are looking to make your Aprilaire 2200 air cleaner easier to change and more functional.

Fast delivery. Easy to assemble and install per the instructions provided. Product was well made and fit perfectly as advertised.

I HATED changing my filters because I had that fan system with the combs. I installed this all by myself. I’m a 24 year old girl and I’m not too handy. It works great. It uses better filters. AND It’s SO much easier.