How often do you turn your DC on and off

[Martin Wasner]

As a homeowner, power factor issues are no concern.

Our main dust collector is a 20hp unit with a 36" impeller. You can hear the meter scream when it starts. Not really, but when you throw an amperage meter on it, it's pulling over 100 amps of 480 briefly.

There's four of us in the shop, the general rule is to take a quick poll by looking around and see if anyone else looks like they need it, or if they'll need it soon. There's no reason to shut it down if it's just going to be cranked up again I a few minutes. Some days it doesn't hardly get turned on, others it runs almost all day continuously.

The router has it's own 7.5hp cyclone. That kills me. There's no point in shutting it down between sheets, but it stinks leaving it on when unloading, cleaning the table and loading another sheet. It's doing what it needs to only half the time.

[Chris Parks]

Leaving it on and having blast gates open is useful for cleaning the air of the floating small micron sized dust particles. I installed a Cleavue in a Mens Shed and it runs all day and is never turned off, turning the machines on opens & closes the blast gates as needed. They have one blast gate open permanently I believe.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I have a sensor in the power panel that controls DC. Any outlet, whose leads pass the sensor, cuts DC on. After machine is turned off, DC runs for 10 seconds to clear pipes. At each location, I have two 110's and a single 220 outlets. The left 110 outlet. is connected thru sensor, along with the 220 outlet

[Ed Pollock]

I turn my 3hp Oneida on and off as needed. Sometimes that means more than 6 times in an hour but usually not. If I know I am jumping right into another cut, I will leave it on. I like to have the TV or Radio on in the shop so I tend to turn it off so that I can hear it between operations. Sometimes it will be on as little as a minute or two, sometimes it will be on for an hour.


If that leads to premature failure 10 years from now, instead of 15 years from now.... I guess I can live with that.

[Jim Kirkpatrick]

I've had a Grizzly G1029 2 hp (220v) dust collector since 1990. It's 28 years old. I turn it off and on as needed, I've never thought about the 6 times/ hr. rule. I turn it on and off sometimes just for 1 cut. It's seen thousands upon thousands of hours and still running strong. The only thing I've had to do maintenance-wise is tighten the impeller blades twice. Perhaps the smaller motor doesn't have the same heat issues as others have mentioned. I'm going to be upgrading to a 3hp cyclone presently so perhaps I'll have to think about this in the future.

[Frank Pratt]

The bigger the motor, the more important it is to observe the start/hr. specification. A 5 HP motor will be damaged more easily than a 1 HP motor.

[Terry Wawro]

OK, I'll fess up. I turn my dust collector on and off all the time. I have a remote in my shop apron so it makes it easy. My dust collector is not in a separate sound proof room. It makes a lot of noise so I don't leave it on any longer than I have to. Will it shorten the life? Probably.

[Rod Sheridan]

I tend to leave mine running if I am actively machining wood. Since I don't have an air filter, I figure it might help a little to clean the air in the shop.

This is what I do, I leave the cyclone running, unless it's more than 15 to 30 minutes between machine uses.

My cyclone uses 10 to 20 cents per hour in electricity depending upon the time of day, so energy costs aren't an issue, clean air is.

regards, Rod.

[Martin Wasner]

My cyclone uses 10 to 20 cents per hour in electricity depending upon the time of day, so energy costs aren't an issue, clean air is.

At four cents a minute, your attitude adjusts quickly.

[Rod Sheridan]

At four cents a minute, your attitude adjusts quickly.

That's true, however I have no revenue to offset the costs.

I understand you run a business Martin.

Where I work we spend about $1,500 per day on electricity, it's not an issue as we have the revenue to pay for it, obviously we monitor our energy usage however we wouldn't shut equipment off to start it up again in 15 minutes.

Most motors where I work are only shut off once per month for inspection and annual maintenance. The other equipment is only shut down for annual maintenance.......Rod.

[Bill Carey]

OK, I'll fess up. I turn my dust collector on and off all the time. I have a remote in my shop apron so it makes it easy. My dust collector is not in a separate sound proof room. It makes a lot of noise so I don't leave it on any longer than I have to. Will it shorten the life? Probably.

2nd to that . Remote on the apron and I need to move the hose from machine to machine. So on and off it goes.

[Ben Rivel]

3HP V-3000 here and once its up and running I only shut it off if I know Im not going to be making a cut for another 20-30 minutes or more. I try to plan all my cuts before the dust collector even comes on to minimize switching it on and off. Hasnt been an issue so far and noise isnt a problem for me as my hearing protection has bluetooth connected speakers in them so I just keep jammin right though it all

[Russell Yokley]

I turn mine on and work from station to station leaving it on. If there is ever a choice to turn it off for a minute for setup at another station I tend to choose leave it on. It helps that my Motor/cyclone are in a hall outside of my shop but inside my basement.