repeater items

hello, i have quite a large database containing products, which are then attached to a page on my site. its hidden by default and then when a user searches for a model it filters on that request.
i have been debugging and it seems that all of my database items are being stored on the page in the repeaters then applied a filter to. This is creating a problem where the page becomes extended and the logs fill up with details on the repeaters getting filled up, with page performance fairly slow.

there must be a way so that the repeaters are only filled once a query has been run? otherwise it seems to be a waste of resources and time processing all these records for no need?

thanks

#repeater #collections #filters #corvid