Diverter on a dust collector

[Tim Hoyt]

I recently purchased a 4 year old Onidea V5000 (5hp) dust collector. It looks like it will be a lot of work to install, so I want to install it right the first time.
My dilema is I want to install a ducting diverter after the cyclone (that's the fan/motor source, I can't see a way to avoid it), but before the the filter. This "diverter" duct could send air either outside or to the air filter located in the workshop. I have spent some time researching this and am more or less coming up empty handed. I intend on contacting Onidea soon, but do not know what to expect from them. So I would like to draw on everyones collective wisdom first.
My thoughts are that dumping dirty/dusty air outside is better than the best interior filter could ever be. Therfore I would use the interior filter during the heating and cooling seasons and dump outside during a good bit of the spring and fall.

My questions are:
1. Has anyone ever done this? Were you successful?
2. How difficult was it to find a reasonable priced manually operated duct diverter?
3. Is it even possible to install on the system I have?
4. Am I missing anything?

I thank you for your time.
Tim

[Lee Schierer]

If you use the little search feature in the upper right corner of the page and enter "exhausting dust collector outside" you will find quite a few discussions on this topic. Many list the pros and cons of doing this.

You don't show your location, but exhausting air outside can quickly remove the conditioned air (heat or cooling) outside. This may cause humidity problems in your shop. The exhaust may also be cause for complaints from your neighbors for noise and or dust on their freshly washed vehicles depending upon how close they are to your shop. I use simple sliding blast gates in my system to select which tool gets the suction and I've noticed no loss in performance or tendency to clog as a result of having blast gates in the system.

[John K Jordan]

I recently purchased a 4 year old Onidea V5000 (5hp) dust collector. It looks like it will be a lot of work to install, so I want to install it right the first time.
My dilema is I want to install a ducting diverter after the cyclone (that's the fan/motor source, I can't see a way to avoid it), but before the the filter. This "diverter" duct could send air either outside or to the air filter located in the workshop. I have spent some time researching this and am more or less coming up empty handed. I intend on contacting Onidea soon, but do not know what to expect from them. So I would like to draw on everyones collective wisdom first.
My thoughts are that dumping dirty/dusty air outside is better than the best interior filter could ever be. Therfore I would use the interior filter during the heating and cooling seasons and dump outside during a good bit of the spring and fall.

My questions are:
1. Has anyone ever done this? Were you successful?
2. How difficult was it to find a reasonable priced manually operated duct diverter?
3. Is it even possible to install on the system I have?
4. Am I missing anything?

I thank you for your time.
Tim

Tim, I'd love to have the same thing and thought about it a lot before I built my shop but never made one. I did draw up some designs but I didn't like my designs very much.

I did later see one on the ClearVue forum that someone built himself from sheet metal. It used a flat square blade rotated on a handle to divert the air to one duct or the other. I don't think the sealing would have to be perfect since some leakage either way would not make much difference. Maybe hunt there?

I think you could make one for any cyclone as long as you have enough space. The distance from the impeller enclosure to the filters can be long, lengthened sometimes to add a sound muffler. (Pentz says that's where a little effort in sound reduction has the most effect)

I simply exhaust through the filters and into my DC closet then return the air through a baffled duct and some additional filters (HVAC type). I check air quality with a Dylos monitor and this seems to be working OK, but exhausting to the outside would be far better.

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

Since this is on the back side of the system and "less sensitive" (and larger duct size), you could easily build a flat manifold that would allow you to select which direction to send the air flow. You could also use a short length of very large flex hose and just disconnect it from the filter and attach to the "outside" duct when you want to switch seasonally. (Be sure to accomodate sealing off the "outside" vent when it's not in use, such as during the winter)

[Tim Hoyt]

Well thanks for a couple of excellent responses! I had one of my "senior moments" and did a poor google search and also forgot about the search function here. I was searching for diverters on dc systems instead of exhausting dc outside. Some good information came up in past posts.
One of my concerns was if the distance between the cyclone and filter could be altered. Thanks John Jorden for clearing up that concern. I will check the Clear Vue forum.
Lee Schierer brings up some neighborhood issues which aren't an issue in my case, plenty of woods between me and the nearest neighbor. I will, of course have blast gates at all machines. But he did bring up one issue that I am baffled on; I live in western NC in the mountains, my shop is in the basement which is a walkout. So it is about 65% underground. I do not know how my scheme will affect humidty either upstairs or down in the shop.

Some folks in other older posts said always venting outside did not seem to really cause an increase in heating or cooling, so that has assuaged my fears somewhat. I suspect the dc would be on no more than 2 -4 hours per day (lots of thermal mass in the wallsand floor and the earth behind them.
What do folks think of installing a wye between between the filter and the cyclone? It would have a blast gate on the to the exterior ducting side to be able to somewhat well control the air direction. A diverter that flips between the two is looking less and less appealing.
Thanks again.
Tim

[David L Morse]

What do folks think of installing a wye between between the filter and the cyclone? It would have a blast gate on the to the exterior ducting side to be able to somewhat well control the air direction.

A blast gate would probably not be a good choice, it seals in the wrong direction. You would have some dust leakage back to the shop. Look at HVAC dampers. They don't completely block flow but should work well enough enough for what you're trying to do.
352391

[Darcy Warner]

Just use a short length of flex that you can easily switch back and forth between filters or dumping it outside.

[John K Jordan]

What do folks think of installing a wye between between the filter and the cyclone? It would have a blast gate on the to the exterior ducting side to be able to somewhat well control the air direction.

I had not thought of using blast gates on the exhaust side, if I had I might have designed that into my system when installing. I'd have to think about it more but I suspect making a good seal might be possible - I wonder what the actual air pressure is inside the exhaust manifold between the cyclone and the filters? It might be reasonable to design a gate that would seal well, especially since it didn't need to opened often.

Removing and reclamping the flex would be easier to implement, perhaps clamping on snug fittings that slide together instead of the flex itself (do they make rubber plumbing fittings that size?) . Could add sound reduction to the exhaust at the same time. http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/ducting.cfm#noise_control He has a page on building a muffler too.

[Darcy Warner]

Snap loc fittings are as quick an easy as it gets.

[Jim Andrew]

I put an 8" T on the cyclone exhaust, made a blast gate for it and headed outside with the pipe. Built a dump similar to a dryer vent with a flapper made of 1/4" plywood and a 4" door hinge. On the other end of the T ran pipe and an elbow to a filter. I closed the blast gate during the cold part of winter. When it was near zero, my heat could not keep up with the exhaust.

[Jim Becker]

One of my concerns was if the distance between the cyclone and filter could be altered. Thanks John Jorden for clearing up that concern. I will check the Clear Vue forum.

Just to reinforce this, I have the filter separated from my Oneida cyclone by an additional bit of duct work to get it out of the way so my compressor could live next to the cyclone in my sound-reducing closet. Theoretically, you can extent it quite a way as long as the run is non-restrictive...typically handled by using larger than required duct size if it's more than a few feet. I stuck with the 8" since mind is extended only about 4'.