Chain or cable? Air filtration mounting

[Steve Mathews]

I plan to install a couple of air filtration units tomorrow and haven't decided whether to use chains or steel cable for hanging. I was going to use 3/4" channel strut or angle iron suspended from 3/8" rod but decided that was overkill. Based on a previous discussion here I plan to install the units below some rafter ties that are about 10 ft. high. Apparently that would be better than to installing them higher toward the 30 ft. open peak. Since the units will be closer to one wall the drop from the rafters will be about 4 to 5 ft. Should I be concerned with the units moving around suspended that distance?

[Ole Anderson]

I suspended mine from some 5/16" (I think) turnbuckles to snug it as close to the bottom of my joists in the basement as possible so it wouldn't be a headbanger. Looks like you have the opposite problem. I would use cable as I have a swager, but that is me. I don't think sway will be a problem for you.

[William C Rogers]

Mine is on chain. No movement. Easier to level vs cable, for me.

[Steve Mathews]

Mine is on chain. No movement. Easier to level vs cable, for me.

How is the chain easier to level? Turnbuckles?

[Bruce Wrenn]

I use chain, with screw eyes on air filter and joists. The chain simply hooks over screw eyes.

[William C Rogers]

I used eye bolts in the ceiling and large "S" hooks st the unit. Once level, closed the "S" hooks.

[Charles Taylor]

I used chain to begin with. The unit wouldn't hang exactly level because the weight inside it isn't centered, and because the chains weren't vertical (16" joist spacing vs. about 24" spacing for the eyes on the air cleaner). The chains were about a foot long, which allowed the cleaner to move a little bit at its highest speed setting. Not that that affected the unit's effectiveness, but eventually I replaced the chain with this get-up:

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Yes. This is overkill. But I like it.

[lee cox]

I have a low ceiling so I mounted my Jet air filter to the ceiling with the Jet brackets. I helped my friend install his Jet air filter in a shop with high rafters. We used the Jet I bolts which screw into the unit and then hung it with chain. It balance fine for us. We did angle the chain to make it more stable.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I used eyebolts and chain. No movement.

[Charles P. Wright]

I have a low ceiling so I mounted my Jet air filter to the ceiling with the Jet brackets. I helped my friend install his Jet air filter in a shop with high rafters. We used the Jet I bolts which screw into the unit and then hung it with chain. It balance fine for us. We did angle the chain to make it more stable.
I did chain first, since it was easy. When I had some help, I did the Jet brackets. The brackets definitely help with head room, but the chain didn't transmit nearly as much vibration to the family room above.

[Wade Lippman]

I can't see why it would matter. For me (and apparently most people) chain is easier, but use cable if you like that.
I only have about 8" of chain, but my filter doesn't move a hair.

[Steve Mathews]

Working on installing the air filtration units now. I picked up the materials to do the job this morning. After pricing both cable and chains I decided to use chains about 3' long on the low side and 5' long on the high side. The cable itself was cheaper but the additional hardware made it a little more expensive overall. Hooks with lags will be used on the joists and hooks bolted to the units. I'll be doing the job myself so I plan to use a drywall lift to get the units in place. We'll see how it goes.

After reading through many of the suggestions on this forum I plan to place the 2 units 12" along the longest wall (60') at a height of 8'. The rafter ties are about 10' high as mentioned before. I also plan to place them both directing air in the same direction. One of the suggestions was to have the clean air directed where you're standing as opposed to drawing in bad air. That makes sense to me and wouldn't have considered it had it not been for this recommendation. Hope that makes sense.

[Dick Mahany]

I used chain for one reason......I have 10.5' ceilings in my garage and I couldn't safely lift it up there by myself. By using chains and a temporary S-hooks, I was able to walk it up a few links at a time alternating sides until I had it where I wanted it. I was going to change over to cables at that point for a cleaner look, however I thought that if I ever needed to drop it back down for servicing, that keeping the chains and reversing the process would be of value.

[Steve Mathews]

Got one installed but got lazy and used the front bucket of my tractor to lift the unit onto the drywall lift. After that everything went like a breeze. All I have to do now is level it better. I'll tackle the other unit tomorrow.

[Alan Lightstone]

Eyebolts and chain. This also gave me the ability to slowly move the unit up to the ceiling by moving up one link at a time on each side. Allowed me to deal with a heavy unit by myself.

Basically, the same process as Dick said above, but haven't found any need to change to cables.

[Ben Rivel]

Used eyebolts and a chain for mine, then turnbuckles on the heavier side to get it to have level since the Jet model has all the weight at one end.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

For some reason, I didn't have the "heavy side" problem with either of the two Jet air filtration machines in my shop. Maybe, I have the eyebolts far enough from each other that you don't experience the problem?

[William C Rogers]

I didn't have any problem with balance either.

[Wayne Cannon]

I hung mine from rubber bungee straps to avoid transmitting vibration into the joists & ceiling. The straps are backed up by slightly loose chains. It hang's about 1/4" out of level, but that doesn't really matter. It's quieter than when it was hanging solely by chains.

[Alan Lightstone]

Didn't have any balance problems with mine either.

[Jim Finn]

I hung mine just under my t-bar ceiling. I used all thread rod , attached to the wood above to support two 2/4's at the ceiling and screwed the unit to those.
I have hung many metal hoods with chain when I was working as a sheet metal worker and the trick to leveling while using chain is to twist the chain to shorten it. You can tweak it in to perfectly level this way.

[Steve Mathews]

Not sure I like the chain method anymore. Both units are now hung easy enough but when I tried to level them they would not stay even with the adjacent wall, which is only 12" away. After fiddlin' with it for awhile I can either get them level or even with the wall but not both. I'm stumped.

[Lee Schierer]

Mine came with chains and springs. I used both when I mounted it, made it level by eyeball and it works just fine. I get no noticeable noise transmission through the ceiling joists.

[Roger Feeley]

I'm curious. Other than appearance, is there any reason for these things to hang exactly level?

[Ben Rivel]

I'm curious. Other than appearance, is there any reason for these things to hang exactly level?Probably not, I just like the way it looks.

[William C Rogers]

Not sure I like the chain method anymore. Both units are now hung easy enough but when I tried to level them they would not stay even with the adjacent wall, which is only 12" away. After fiddlin' with it for awhile I can either get them level or even with the wall but not both. I'm stumped.

Post a picture. I just hung mine up.
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