How much dust is in your cyclone filters?

[Phil Thien]

Just kinda curious. I've seen everything from "look at this picture with a thimble full of dust I found in my clean-out" to "nothing makes it to the filters at all."

Do you ever clean them out? Like blow them out with an air compressor or something? Or is this pretty much unnecessary?

Please note that I don't care what kind of cyclone you have and I don't want this to turn into brand A vs. brand B. So please don't even mention the brand of cyclone you have.

[Cody Colston]

When my cyclone was new, I would check the cartridge filter pan every time I emptied the chip barrel and there was little to nothing in it. However, after the filter got coated on the inside I started seeing more fine dust make it to the pan. I blow back through the filter with compressed air every third time I empty the drum and now there will be three or four inches of dust in it.

The filter is some sort of spun nylon or something so a while back I took it out in the yard and washed it with a garden hose. With the hose nozzle set on "Jet" I was able to wash away nearly all of the dust caked in the pleats. After dryng in the sun, it was like new and made an obvious difference on the cyclone's performance.

[Dick Latshaw]

Just kinda curious. I've seen everything from "look at this picture with a thimble full of dust I found in my clean-out" to "nothing makes it to the filters at all."

Do you ever clean them out? Like blow them out with an air compressor or something? Or is this pretty much unnecessary?


If I remember and the compressor is on, I try to use compressed air on the filter every time I empty the barrel. Just a quick blow from the outside to loosen any dust. About every three months, I take off the collector at the bottom of the filter and remove maybe half a cup of very fine dust. I take the filter off twice a year and really clean it with compressed air - definitely an outside job. It looks like a lot of dust coming out, but I suspect it really is not much.