A better mousetrap ... er, filter
Written: Oct 01 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Washable, better filtration, better airflow
Cons: Initial cost (but remember that it's wash-and-reuse-able)
The Bottom Line: Anyone who uses a shop vacuum a lot will benefit from a high performance filter like this.
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| charlesj68's Full Review: Cleanstream HEPA Filter, Red Stripe 17830 |
Come on! This is a filter for a vacuum cleaner. How much can you talk about that?
Apparently, quite a bit!
I have a woodshop in my basement, and the processing of raw wood into … well, other things usually results in piles of sawdust. Or sanding dust. Or planer chips. Or … you get the picture. The more work I do, the more trash I create. I have a dust collector (Jet DC-1200) to get the biggest gobs of stuff, but you come to depend on your shop vacuum to grab the bits that the collector just does not cover.
To my mind, the filter is the Achilles heel of the shop vacuum. The ordinary ones are made of paper, which presents two problems for the user.
Problem one is that water is anathema to a paper filter. This would not be a problem except that a shop vacuum is a Wet/Dry tool. Because of the way that water is hazardous to the filter, you have to be certain that you remove the filter before beginning to suck up water. Unfortunately the times that I have need to suck up water are usually moments of great excitement where some device responsible for containing water elsewhere has become derelict in its duties and let the contents escape to some other location. When that sort of excitement occurs removing the filter is not something that is on the top of your mind! And, once you get some dampness on the filter, that’s all she wrote.
The second issue is performance. Paper filters clog up quickly, they have large pores that let fine dust pass through, and they are throwaway items, not designed for reuse.
Enter the Gore CleanStream vacuum filter. This thing is made of Gore-Tex, which as any buyer of outdoor equipment knows is a waterproof material. This means you no longer have to worry about water touching your filter! Even better, you can actually wash the filter. Really! Just run warm water over the surface and dust sloughs right off! Do not scrub though, or you will tear the fabric (which would be very bad). In addition, the Gore-Tex has very small pores, which means that it traps a lot more of the dust that your vacuum is working so hard to collect.
All of this is great theory, but how does it do in actually fact? Great! I replaced my latest paper filter with the new Gore-Tex filter and switched on the vacuum. The first thing you realize is that the vacuum is pulling much more air than before. These Gore-Tex filters are a greater diameter and bit longer than the original filters. This means more surface area of filter material. The Physics Majors among us will point out that more surface area will result in a greater volume of air flowing through the filter material given the same level of suction. In short, my vacuum sucks even more than it used to do! (Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound so good.)
After doing a quick cleaning of the workshop, the sewing room and our mini van I inspected the filter. Normally I would expect several things: sanding dust embedded in the filter paper and threads and string clinging by static electricity to the filter exterior. Instead, the material has only the finest film of dust clinging to it, and that fell off with a gentle tap.
This is a highly recommended item for me. I wish I had not waited so long to get it!
Paid: $35 at Amazon.com
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
charlesj68
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Member: Charles Jones
Location: Loveland, Colorado, USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 0 members
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