Cleaning Dust extractor filter.

[caskwith]

I have one of these kinds of filter on my dust extractor and while its much better than the filter bag that used to be on it, it's still not perfect and despite regular use of the paddles it still clogs up. How best to go about cleaning it? With the bag filter I used to wash it out from time to time, but I am not sure this can be washed. I contacted the seller and they said to blow it out with compressed air (they assumed I had a compressor and blow gun) outside. I have done this on smaller shopvac filters and it makes an unholy mess and I am pretty sure the neighbours won't be happy.

Any advice?

[mattinker]

Use another vacuum cleaner to clean it!

Regards, Matthew

[caskwith]

But then what do I use to clean the other vacuum? lol.

[mattinker]

The first one, rember, it's the finest dust that gets stuck in the bottom of the filter, if you use another vacume cleaner not all of the dust will get into the bottom of the filter! Either that or you buy yourself a compressor!

Regards, Matthew

[dsquire]

But then what do I use to clean the other vacuum? lol.

Caskwith

What I did with my central vac that I had in the shop was to buy another filter for it. When the canister became full I emptied it into a garbage bag and put in my clean filter. Now I used the central vac to vac up the dirty filter that I had just taken out so that it would be clean for the next time I had to empty the canister. Kept things nice and clean this way with not a lot of fine dust blowing around in the shop. 

Cheers 

Don

[tom osselton]

You could take it to the car wash they have vacums there

[Arbalist]

They used to blow them out with an airline where I worked. They also had cloth filter bags though so they caught the majority of the dust before it got to the cartridge. The bags were just taken outside and given a good shake whilst the operator faced the other way!

[caskwith]

Well I guess there isn't a clever solution out there

Looks like I will have to stick to my routine for the other filters, airline outside on a rainy day and hope the neighbours are out lol.

[dsquire]

Well I guess there isn't a clever solution out there

Looks like I will have to stick to my routine for the other filters, airline outside on a rainy day and hope the neighbours are out lol.

Caskwith

What is the material that the filter made out of?  If it's plastic and aluminum then it should be ok to wash it.  Please give us some more information and photo's of the filter and how it works.

  There has got to be a better solution than to blow it over to the neighbours. 

Cheers 

Don

[caskwith]

It's aluminum mesh to hold it all together and then I think it's plastic but it could be paper for the actual filter. It is an AWEDE2 from Axminster.

[philf]

Well I guess there isn't a clever solution out there

Looks like I will have to stick to my routine for the other filters, airline outside on a rainy day and hope the neighbours are out lol.

caskwith,

The filter looks very similar to the ones used in my Earlex vacuum cleaner.

I put a dirty filter in a large clear bin bag with a brush. I then tie off the top of the bag and use the brush (holding it through the bag) to remove as much crap as possible. When the dust has settled I take the filter (and brush) out of the bag and then bin the bag.

I then wash the filter out in my sink in the workshop and leave it to dry stood on top of the CH boiler. I have two filters so there's always a dry, clean one waiting to go back in.

My filters seems to stand up to the regular washing OK.

I don't like the idea of cleaning it outside with an air line - surely you used the extractor because you didn't want to be exposed to the dust!

 

Phil.