New Penn State DC?

[Derek Arita]

Does anyone have any info, besides what's on the website, about the new Penn State 14" Impeller cyclones? The 3HP looks like a great machine at a good price. I wonder how they stack up against Oneida on performance, reliability and customer service? I have a 2HP Cannister Jet and want to move up to something with a little more CFM and convenience. Any info would be appreciated.

[Bill Pentz]

Derek,

Had PSI not earned a poor track record with me I would be pretty excited about their new cyclones. In theory they are close to what most hobbyists should be using and seem to use many of the recommendations from my Dust Collection & Cyclone Research web pages (http://cnets.net/~eclectic/woodworking/cyclone/dc4dummies.html). In practice, I am worried that they are either going to burn up motors from too much airflow for those sized motors, or that they severely choked the airflow down. Neither case is good. As I said on my cyclone web page, I'll reserve judgement until I get a chance to measure one in person.

Unfortunately, their track record with me is not good. Their advertising claims and working performance did not match on the unit that was given to me as a gift. In fact nothing I could do made that unit perform anywhere close to the advertising claims.
I learned the hard way that they used exactly the same impeller on at least three different horsepower motors. Less than pleased, I called and spoke with someone who claimed to be their engineer. He told me that the bigger motors moved more air even with using the same impeller. After nearly a half hour arguing, I gave up on him and them. There is no way that adding more horsepower to a 3450 RPM motor that is not working at full capacity will move any more air when you are still turning at 3450 RPM. All that does is waste the extra motor capacity.
Although I have not done the testing myself, I will never recommend a PSI dust collector filter bag until they get them certified by a licensed independent lab that tells us what the real filtering is at a real 800 CFM. Sorry, but my shop continued to be covered in dust after adding their bags. When I upgraded to good bags with exactly the same claimed filtering level, that dust went away.
Have to do a wait and see on this one, or go with Oneida-Air 2 hp, WoodSucker, or a DustEliminator kit. I know those work, and work well.

bill