Simply select your Brand, Size, Part # of the filter you are replacing, or the part number of your unit below. We will take care of the rest!
Author: Michelle Wan | Reviewer: David Clark, Licensed HVAC Technician | Updated: September 4, 2026
Three different filters ship under the size 16x25x5, and finding yours takes about a minute. Honeywell, Carrier, Bryant and Lennox cabinets take 15.75 × 24.75 × 4.38 inches; Trion Air Bear, GeneralAire and Skuttle take 15.63 × 24.13 × 4.88; Amana, Goodman, York and Nordyne take 15.38 × 25.5 × 5.25. Filterbuy cuts, pleats and frames all three to order in our own US plants. Find your cabinet below and we’ll show you the exact filter in MERV 8, 11 or 13, the three filtration levels we make.
A 16x25x5 air filter is a five-inch-deep pleated filter for a media cabinet, the boxed housing on your return duct, with a 16 by 25 inch opening. It’s your furnace filter and your AC filter at once, because central HVAC runs heating and cooling through one blower and one slot. Filterbuy makes it in three actual sizes, and most homes replace one every 6 to 12 months.
Nominal size is what you order. Actual size is what fits. Three actual sizes ship under the number 16x25x5, and they aren’t interchangeable.
Match the cabinet, not the furnace. Filter size is set by the media cabinet on your return duct, often a different brand from the furnace.
A 16x25x5 lasts 6 to 12 months against 90 days for a 1-inch filter, because five inches of pleat depth holds much more dust.
Find the brand on your filter cabinet, not on your furnace, and read across. If it carries a model sticker, that part number is the most reliable identifier you’ve got.
Actual sizes are Filterbuy manufacturing specifications, current as of August 2026. Payne, Day & Night and BDP built cabinets in more than one of these sizes, so match the part number rather than the brand name. Measure your slot before ordering; if the filter you buy does not fit, we will exchange it free.
Filterbuy can publish this table because we make all three. Most sellers carry a single 16x25x5 and print a single actual size, which is how 15.5 × 24.5 × 4.75 came to circulate online as the answer when it matches none of the three in service. Cutting all three is also what lets us show the rows where the right filter isn’t ours.
Shop the Honeywell and Carrier 16x25x5, the Trion Air Bear, GeneralAire and Skuttle 16x25x5, or the Amana and Goodman 16x25x5.
“Will a Filterbuy filter work in place of the original brand filter? Yes. We cut ours to the same actual dimensions the cabinet was built for, so a 15.75 × 24.75 × 4.38 seats in a Honeywell or Carrier housing the way the original does. Filterbuy is an independent manufacturer, not affiliated with or endorsed by those brands, so what you're matching is the actual size and part number.”
— Filterbuy Customer Service
If your system has a boxed cabinet with a hinged door, you’re almost certainly on a 5-inch filter. Confirming takes a minute.
Turn the system off and open the filter door.
Read the size along the old filter’s frame, or measure the opening to the nearest eighth of an inch.
Roughly 16 by 25 by 5 inches? That is your size. Match the cabinet sticker in the table above to find which of the three.
Depth separates the three cleanly, so a tape measure is enough. Filterbuy’s cut dimensions:
Under 4½ in → 15.75 × 24.75 × 4.38 (Honeywell, Carrier, Bryant, Lennox)
About 4⅞ in → 15.63 × 24.13 × 4.88 (Trion Air Bear, GeneralAire, Skuttle)
Over 5 in → 15.38 × 25.5 × 5.25 (Amana, Goodman, York, Nordyne)
If depth is ambiguous, length breaks the tie at 24¾, 24⅛ and 25½ inches. Don’t judge by width. All three sit within four-tenths of an inch of each other, inside the margin most people measure to, which is what makes a wrong order look right.
The clearance Filterbuy cuts is deliberate: a filter has to slide into the slot and still seal against it. Other makers cut theirs differently, so check the frame or our air filter size chart before switching brands. If your slot lands on a size nobody makes, we cut a custom air filter instead.
MERV 8 suits most homes, MERV 11 is the pick for pets and allergies, MERV 13 for wildfire smoke. Filterbuy makes every 16x25x5 variant in all three tiers, so the rating is a straight choice about what you want captured. Check your HVAC manual for compatibility, the same quick check as confirming your size. The best 16x25x5 air filter is the one matched to your cabinet and the air in your home.
Filtration percentages are general Filterbuy marketing figures. MPR and FPR are third-party rating systems developed by other companies, not ours, shown for comparison only.
The EPA publishes the MERV scale in full. For the longer version, see our guide to MERV ratings.
One thing no MERV rating does is remove a smell. MERV rates solid particles, and odor is a gas, so it passes straight through at any rating. The American Lung Association is blunt: filtration reduces the pollutants in your air but can’t eliminate them. Raising MERV to fix a smell is the upgrade we most often talk people out of. For pet odor, cooking or smoke, our Odor Eliminator carbon filters are the better change.
Check your HVAC manual for what your system takes, and the EPA’s Guide to Air Cleaners in the Home before a bigger change. For allergies or asthma, ask a professional.
Every 6 to 12 months in a typical home. A Filterbuy 16x25x5 holds far more dust than a 1-inch filter, so it runs several times as long. Shorten that interval when your home is harder on filters.
To judge it without a calendar, hold the filter to a light. If no light comes through, it’s past due. Write the date on the frame, or let auto-delivery do it.
The three Filterbuy 16x25x5 variants aren’t priced alike. The Honeywell-family filter starts at $39.99 and the other two nearer $60, a gap you only see if a seller carries all three. All drop sharply with quantity, and because we manufacture what we sell, that pricing holds all year.
MERV 8 pricing per filter, August 2026. MERV 11 and MERV 13 run higher. Auto-delivery takes a further 5% off any quantity.
Big-box stores stock 5-inch filters thinly, because shelf space goes to the common 1-inch sizes, and a store carrying a 16x25x5 usually stocks just one of the three. That is the trip where you drive home with a filter that won’t seat.
Filterbuy cuts, pleats and frames all three variants to order in our own US plants. Fast and free 2-day delivery to most US states. If you need one today, ask your local store for the actual dimensions, or browse every brand we make a 16x25x5 for.
The third number is depth, and depth determines how long a filter lasts. Your cabinet accepts exactly one.
A Filterbuy 16x25x1 measures 15.50 × 24.50 × 0.75, and a 16x25x4 measures 15.50 × 24.50 × 3.63. Only at five inches do makers diverge.
The EPA recommends a filter rated MERV 13, or as high a rating as your system fan and filter slot will accommodate.
MERV is the industry rating scale, defined by the engineering body ASHRAE.
Filterbuy makes all three 16x25x5 variants in MERV 8, 11 and 13.
Check your HVAC manual for compatibility, the same as confirming your size.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, What is a MERV rating? (updated January 14, 2026).
61.5 million Americans live in counties graded F for short-term spikes in particle pollution.
152.3 million people, 44% of the country, fail for ozone or particle pollution.
Short-term spikes are largely wildfire smoke.
Fine particulate is what the MERV 13 tier is rated to capture.
Filterbuy publishes a 3-month interval for smoke conditions.
Source: American Lung Association, State of the Air 2026 Key Findings.
Nearly half the energy used in a U.S. home goes to heating and cooling, and a dirty filter slows airflow, making the system work harder for the same result.
Depth buys time, but it isn’t immunity.
A 16x25x5 holds more dust before airflow suffers, but it still loads.
The cost of leaving it in hits your bill before it hits your air.
Source: ENERGY STAR, Heat & Cool Efficiently.
The 15.75 × 24.75 × 4.38 inch variant. The FC100A1029 is Honeywell’s 16x25x5 cabinet, and the same filter fits the FC200E1029, F100F, F150E and F200E. Filterbuy makes an exact-fit Honeywell 16x25x5 replacement filter in MERV 8, 11 and 13.
No. The missing inch leaves a gap around the media, so air travels around the filter and carries the dust it was bought to catch. And you can’t stack thinner filters to fill the depth.
Quantity is the discount. One Honeywell-family filter is $39.99, four or more $23.74 each, and auto-delivery takes a further 5% off, year-round.
Nominal size. The rounded measurement printed on the frame, and the number you order by.
Actual size. The filter’s true measured dimensions. Three ship under the nominal 16x25x5.
Media cabinet. The boxed housing holding a 4-, 5- or 6-inch filter on the return side of a forced-air system.
MERV. Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, the industry scale for how much airborne particulate a filter captures.
ASHRAE. The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the body that defines the MERV rating scale.
MPR and FPR. Micro-Particle Performance Rating and Filter Performance Rating, proprietary scales from other makers.
Author: Michelle Wan, Brand Manager and Air Quality Writer, Filterbuy
Technically reviewed by: David Clark, Licensed HVAC Technician and CEO of Filterbuy HVAC Solutions
Updated: September 4, 2026
Michelle Wan is Brand Manager and Air Quality Writer at Filterbuy. She works directly with our US manufacturing teams, so she writes from how filters are cut, pleated and used every day. More about Michelle .
Trademark notice. All brands named here are trademarks of their respective owners. Filterbuy is an independent manufacturer, not affiliated with or endorsed by these companies, and our filters are compatible replacements built to fit select systems from them.
