Thread: Cleaning filter bags

Don't wash them, infact avoid contact with any water what so ever.

Give them a good shake regularly, preferably every use and should be good to go.

All i do with mine is when i've just switched it off give it a good shake whilst the bags are deflating and should be good for next time round.

Originally Posted by tonzeyd

Don't wash them, infact avoid contact with any water what so ever.

Why? Not trying to be smart, just an enquiring mind etc.

Get a rag and coat it in dust, wet it and leave it to dry and see what happens.

you'll either get shrinkage, or caked on mess especially if you don't dry it properly.

Plus the bags are more efficient (in filtering) when they have a fine layer of dust inside of them so whats the point of trying to restore them to factory?

You can wash needlefelt bags on Wool cycle with a mild (wool wash) detergent.
If a heavier wash cycle and hard detergent are used the needlfelt will matt further than necessary and thus become even more restrictive.
On most machines the wool cycle is quite short so you can run it through twice if you think it necessary.

However.
You must remove the bulk of the dust beforehand by shaking and whacking - this is a messy business best done outside on a breezy day.
of course make sure the filters are dry before re-installation on the DC,
If your DC is outside your shed this does not matter, but if not then you should recondition the bags.
Put the DC outside and place a bucket full of sawdust in the collection bag and run the DC for about 20 minutes if the needlefelt is of the thicker type and about a hour or so if it of the thinner type.

The benefit of extra flow from a washed needlefelt bag is minimal - it only lasts for as long as the bag take to recondition.

The only reason I can think of for really washing filter bags was if something greasy or oily was sucked up or split on them.
This happened to me when I spilled about 2L of oil in my shed and I dumped a bucket of saw dust onto the oil. Some time later, without thinking about it I used the DC to suck up the oil soaked sawdust. The sawdust really sucked up the oil and could barely tell that it had any oil in it. I did not notice any change in flow, but I washed them anyway.

I agree with Tonzeyd in that they really just need a good shake every now and then to removed the caked on layer .
One benefit of plastic collection bags is that you can see the amount of dust falling off the filter bags above.

I used to work at a go-kart track and on the odd occasion a kart will leak oil and end up coating the entire track with oil, the amount of oil on the track is about <1L but enough to cover the entire track and every kid will end up on the barriers. the adults loved it as you'll just end up drifting around the entire track.

The standard method for cleaning would be to get out the spill kit which looks very similar to wood dust and get someone (me) to take a kart for spin to spread the mixture around. To all the customers that are waiting for their turn, looks like I'm having a blast (I was ) but it was the fastest way to get the track back up to spec, the alternative was to have someone with a broom pushing the dust around which would take hours.

Some people get all the fun jobs!!!!

Thanks for your comments folks. For reference, my dusty is housed in its own unit outside the garage so no need to recondition. In fact I reckon the coarser the filter the better as all I'm trying to so is restrict what gets blown into the air.


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