Grizzly Dust Collection

[Paul Zonneveld]

Anyone have any first hand expierience with the Grizzly G0443 1-1/2 HP Cyclone Dust Collector? I am looking to include a dust collector into my small garage shop and was looking at the standard offerings that included the bag or canister on top and collection bag below. I know these are cheaper, but they dont seem very friendly as far as mounting collection pipes up on ceilings and walls? Comments? Anyway the Grizzly cyclone collection is priced just a little higher than the upgraded Jet vertical style collection without the cyclone. Is the Grizzly worth the extra?

[Paul Dwight]

I'm not familiar with the Griz 1.5HP cyclone, but I have been running the Griz 2HP cyclone for a couple of years now. I'm very happy with it. It provides very strong suction. Rather noisy, but I think that's common in all cyclones. I'm going to buy the $40 muffler next time I place an order with Grizzly.

The big advantage of a cyclone over a single-stage system, IMHO, is that putting a cyclone ahead of the filter keeps the filter functioning near its optimum efficiency for MUCH longer. In single-stage systems, dust gets packed into the filter and chokes off air flow. A cyclone keeps the vast majority of that dust away from the filter, so the filter functions better over a much longer period of time.

A cyclone also lets you use a cartridge filter that can keep the finest dust out of the air and out of your lungs. You can buy a single-stage DC that uses a cartridge filter, but in my experience this is a poor approach. On a single-stage system, the internal filter pleats become packed with dust and cannot be effectively cleaned without removing the filter. The packed dust quickly reduces air flow and the performance of the DC suffers. This was my experience, although to be fair others here at the Creek report much better luck with their single-stage cartridge DCs.

In the long run, I think most everyone would agree that a cyclone is a better investment than a single-stage DC.

Hope this helps. -- Paul