Air Filtering Question for my work space

[Charles Webber]

Hello All,
I have decided to put an air filtering system in my garage. My garage is 20x18x9= 3,240 sq ft. I am looking at the WEN because of pricing. My question is, they have two models. The cheaper model for $150 has a CFM 300/350/400. The model for $250 has a CFM 556/702/1044. According to the calculation, the smaller model would be enough for my garage. But would it be better to buy the bigger one to clean the air faster? I don't know if this is relevant, or a waste of money? I normally work with my garage doors open as well. But there are times the weather is too cold for this. I appreciate the feedback!
Thanks,
Chuck

[George Bokros]

I would buy the larger one. IMO larger is better on air cleaning, health is too important. If the price difference was bigger then I would consider the smaller one. For health $100 is cheap.

[Peter Kelly]

My garage is 20x18x9= 3,240 sq ft.

Did you mean cubic feet? The larger Wen filter states that it will circulate the air in a 1,000 square foot space up to 7.5 times per hour.

I'd be more inclined to improve dust collection where possible and look for a HEPA type air cleaner if you're not into wearing a mask. Sylvane has a range of choices and prices.

[Bill Dufour]

I would look at noise levels. I assume the bigger unit is quieter on low then the small unit on high to get equal airflows.
Bil lD

[Dave Cav]

I have two of the "basic" (smaller) models in my shop. The shop is about 24 x 48 with a 10 foot ceiling, 11,520 cubic feet. I haven't done any scientific calculations, but with both of them running, they will clear the air of visible dust after an heavy ROS sanding session in about ten or fifteen minutes. I normally run them when I'm doing ROS sanding, running the edge sander or the widebelt and only run them on high. (I use Dynabrade air ROS and they really blow the dust around, and I normally wear a mask or respirator when I'm sanding.) They are not particularly noisy and I haven't had any problems with them so far. I take the pre filters outdoors and blow them off when they have a heavy coating of dust, and haven't had to do anything with the interior filters yet.

I don't think the bigger models were available when I got my units, otherwise I might have considered them. I'm also going to look into building a downdraft table when I get a few other things out of the way.

[Alan Lightstone]

I noticed that Jet now has a more powerful unit than the AFS-1000 (1000 cfm) model than I have. It's the AFS-2000, and is rated at 1700 cfm.

Interestingly, it's rated at 59 - 73db (800-1700cfm). The AFS-1000 smaller unit is rated at 62 - 69 db (556 - 1044 cfm), so the new unit is louder at its highest fan speed, but quieter at it's medium speed (1200cfm than the smaller unit is at its highest speed, with lower cfm). Likely a larger impeller, I would think. So, for a larger shop, a quieter unit.

Does anyone here own this unit? If so, what are your thoughts.

[Lee Schierer]

If you divide the size of your shop (3,240) by the CFM of the unit it will tell you how many minutes it takes to run all the air in the room through the filter in one minute (not counting dead spaces behind equipment and in room corners. Dave's shop at 11,520 running two units at 400 CFM each takes almost 15 minutes to run all the air in his shop through the cleaner once. Shape of your shop and filter location will also affect the efficiency of any filtering system.

[Carlos Alvarez]

The larger one will probably be quieter when running on the low or middle setting, so depending on your noise preferences that alone may be worth it. I have the Jet air cleaner, and run it on low to avoid noise.

[Tom Bender]

A lot depends on how much dust you create in a week. If you are mostly in the shop only on Sunday afternoon it may be a waste to do anything more than wear the dust mask.