Cyclone Filters

[Mike Goetzke]

I may be acquiring a Clear Vue CV1800 shortly. I need to buy filters for it. I know the Clear Vue site recommends the two stacked elements from Wynn (9L300BL) but Oneida has a filter (FCS183900) for 3-5HP cyclones that seems to have much different characteristics than the Wynn. The Wynn's have 600 sq.ft and the Oneida has 110. The Wynn is a blended filter and the Oneida is spun bound. They are about the same price so that makes the decision even harder.

My only thoughts/experience is that more area isn't necessarily better. Years ago I added a diesel truck air filter to my HF DC and it was almost impossible to clean due to the tightly packed pleats. I currently have a Jet canister DC and it has about half the area of the truck filter but is fairly easy to clean.

Just wondering if the experience will be the same for a cyclone or not - maybe it's a different animal?

Mike

[Greg Crawford]

Mike,

I got the CV1800 in Jan., along with the Wynn filters. I can't speak to the Oneida, since I've never used them. As for filtering, it's not scientific, but I'm not finding that fine dust settling in the shop after using my DC with any tool. It's much cleaner than my old DC that had a 1 micron bag from American Fabric Filters.

As for air flow, there's appears to be no restriction from the filters. I think I could literally suck my small dog through the 6" pipes if she got too close (there's nothing where she could get to, so it's safe. I'm a dog lover too). Cleaning the filters is a matter of blowing compressed air through them, which will damage some types of filters. I "cleaned" mine after about 4 months, and let everything settle. The cleanout had hardly anything in it from the cleaning.

I don't know if this will really help or not. I did get great service, very personalized, from both Wynn and Clear Vue.

Greg

[Larry Fox]

I use two Wynn 300sq/ft filters for my cyclone DC. Difference is that I built an enclosure for mine and filter from the outside of the filter in and discharge from the hole in the center. Makes cleaning very very easy. Take them out of the enclosure and stand them up in the driveway and blow them off with the leaf blower and pop them back in. Whole process takes 20 minutes and I do it about once a year.

I will post a picture of it if I cna find it.

I can't take credit for teh design, I grabbed it from Steve Cater's site. DAGS on Steve Cater Dust Collector. He also has plans for blast gates which I also made.

[Larry Fox]

Here are some pictures of it. It hangs from the ceiling and takes up 0 floor space.

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[Russ Massery]

Mike, I've have a Clearview cyclone for about 3yrs now. I when with the Wynn filters. The cyclone does such a good job on separating the dust. That cleaning the filters is a non issue. Meaning I have not had to clean them as of yet. The only thing to really watch for. Is the drum filling then the chips and dust will go though the filters. And that can be a real mess. It hasn't happen to me. But it did happen to a friend of mine.

[Bob Wingard]

If your cyclone setup is doing it's job of spinning the air clean (the CV1800 WILL), the filters do very little. They should not acquire much "cake" over time, and, being wood dust, that cake should be easy to blow off.

Some filters are meant to move air from the inside out .. others from the outside in .. some don't seem to matter. I used TORITs because I got some used ones from work for free. We used them in banks of 36 and they were setup in TORIT DOWNFLOW units to blow from the outside in. They are clearly marked on the boxes to NOT allow them to get wet. When I got these, they were so full of gooey chocolate dust that I had to soak each one for several days in warm water, then use a pressure washer on a low setting just to get them clean. I spoke with a TORIT rep and he said for "OPTIMUM" performance they should never get wet .. for what I was doing with them, and considering I was using a bank of 6, I should have no problem. If these should give me problems, I can get some more that won't be as dirty. The guy that pulled these for me just gave me the first available and they came from a system where chocolate was being sprayed onto a rotating bed of peanuts, hence all the chocolate dust.

In general, more surface & finer holes are better .. the small holes offer more resistance to airflow, and the increase in surface lowers it, so you can catch finer particles, and still move all the air a CV1800 can blow. In MOST cases, the direction of air movement IN/OUT vs. OUT/IN don't matter unless the mfg. says otherwise. Deep pleats may clog with fine dust, but there is plenty of surface on the sides to move the air. Just check them once in a while to determine how often you'll need to blow them down. At work, they had an internal blow-down cleaning system that fired 100PSI air through each pair of filters every time the differential pressure hit a pre-determined setpoint. It would keep puffing the air until the d.p. came down .. .. when they wouldn't self clean anymore, they were considered worn out, and that's when they began life in my shop.


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[Mike Goetzke]

Thanks for all the help. Here is more detailed info on the two filters I'm looking at:

Oneida Filter (http://store.oneida-air.com/18x39cartridgefilter.aspx) It's on sale for 20% off and free shipping = $210 to my door

Wynn Filter 9L300BL (http://www.wynnenv.com/cartridge_filters.htm) = $204 to my door

I talked to Wynn and Oneida by phone today.

Wynn was very nice and helpful. They even said the spunbond is probably a superior material to the blended and that it can handle higher air flows per sq/ft than blended. But, he said the cyclones are so efficient that only the finest dust particles hit the filter and it is easily blown off with compressed air with either design.

I talked to the technical rep at Oneida. First off he started to rip the Clear Vue design saying when you take it out of the box it looks like an 8th grade science project. He then tried to sell me on their V3000 design stating it was much better since it was a full cone design (seems to be less expensive to manufacture to me). He then gave me some feedback on the filters but constantly knocked Wynn. I don't know why this was. I was actually thinking of getting the Oneida filters but based on this phone call and the responses here I'm really thinking of getting the Wynn's.

Mike

[Andy Calenzo]

Mike,

This is Andy at Oneida. I sent you a private message this morning. Thank you.

[Mike Goetzke]

Mike,

This is Andy at Oneida. I sent you a private message this morning. Thank you.

To be fair to Andy - he was very anti-large area filter and clear cyclone design and may have not mentioned Wynn directly in our conversation.


Mike

[Bob Wingard]

Can anyone explain the logic behind "anti-large area filtration" ?? ?? ??

Unless you are looking for some specific back pressure, I would think the more, the merrier. You often see posts by guys who simply divert the output to the out doors, without ANY filtration !! YES/NO ?? ?? ?? The only objection I've ever heard to doing so was that if you have conditioned air in your shop, it will cost a fortune to heat/cool it.


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[John Petsche]

Interesting filter option, thanks for posting.